Your wedding day is very
important to us, but
your marriage
experience afterwards is even more so.
We believe that the marriage of one man
to one woman is a sacred covenant
because it was created by God. In order
to have the strongest possible foundation
for your future marriage, we observe the
following principles for all ceremonies
conducted at New Covenant and by New
Covenant pastoral staff.
Making your Marriage Great
The Principles
Shared Faith in Jesus
Because our desire is that all couples experience
the joy of a God-designed marriage and avoid
the pain of dysfunction and divorce, we will
gladly perform a wedding when both the man
and the woman have a personal relationship with
Jesus Christ. We believe that the best
foundation of a marriage is one based on Jesus
and the teachings in God’s Word, the Bible.
Because of this, we only do weddings for those
who can give a clear testimony of their faith. If
you have questions about what a personal
relationship with Jesus is, we’d love to talk with
you!
Personal Preparation
As with any major life event, it is important to be
personally prepared for the new stage that you
will enter. The Prepare Class, designed for
engaged or seriously dating couples, is 6 weeks
long and held three times each year. Because of
the effectiveness of the Prepare Class, we
require all couples being married at New
Covenant to attend this class. More information
can be found in the Prepare brochure.
In addition to the Prepare Class, we also require
couples to go through premarital counseling with
a pastor or qualified counselor. The Prepare
Class does an excellent job of bringing up
important topics, and private premarital
counseling allows the couple to discuss these
issues even deeper. Most premarital counseling
lasts 3-6 weeks.
Sexual Purity
We believe that men and women were created
by God as sexual beings. We believe that the
enjoyment of sex inside of marriage is one of
God’s wonderful blessings to married couples.
God created sex to be incredibly powerful,
able to bring blessing or destruction to a
relationship. We believe that allowing God’s
Word to shape how we think and act, in this
area and in all others, is the surest way to lay a
solid foundation for the marriage relationship,
prevent the relational destruction that comes
from ignoring God’s instructions, and bring
glory to God.
With this in mind, we ask couples who are
considering being married by a New Covenant
pastor to commit to two things: first, to sexual
abstinence from this point until their wedding
day, and second, to not live together until after
they are married. If you do choose to live
together before your wedding, please know
that we will not be able to host your wedding.
However, our Prepare Class and Sunday
worship services are open to you and we would
still love to have you be part of our church
family. If you are currently living with your
fiancé and do choose to move out, we will
gladly celebrate your decision, and be willing
to celebrate your wedding in our building!
Divorce and Remarriage
We, too, have felt the pain of divorce.
Whether it is a family member or even our own
personal experience, we know that divorce hurts, and that divorced people long to
experience a healthy marriage. The Bible is
clear that divorce is not what God intends for
marriage, and it gives guidelines for those
divorced individuals who can remarry with a
clear conscience. We understand these to be
when a spouse committed adultery or when a
non-Christian spouse deserted the marriage.
Please request a copy of our Marriage policy
from the church office for more details. If you
feel that your situation falls within scriptural
guidelines allowing you to remarry with God’s
full blessing, then we encourage you to submit a
Wedding Application explaining your story.
Our heart
We deeply desire to see you
experience a wonderful
marriage as God designed
it to be. To achieve that, we hold to these
principles that we feel are biblical. Yes, there
are churches that disagree with our position on
these things, and it is not our desire to quibble
with them over these issues. Our mission is to
be a church family of growing disciples, and
establishing healthy marriages and families is a
high priority.
A copy of our Marriage policy is available by
request. We would welcome the opportunity
to discuss any of these principles with you if you
have any questions.