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Established on June 24, 1999
Serving Bellevue, Bothell, Kirkland, Medina,
Redmond, Sammamish, and Woodinville
We affirm that marriage is a holy union.
We believe that:
- God has established marriage for the welfare
and happiness of the human family
and that marriage works best when God is at the center of
our
lives and our relationships.
- Marriage is intended to be the outward and visible sign
of a life-long commitment between a man and a woman.
- It is our responsibility as Christian congregations to
foster lasting and joyful marital unions and strong, healthy
families.
- Couples who share a common faith in Jesus Christ and who
seek to follow God's Word in their marriage will be better
prepared
for the challenge to excel in their life-long
relationship.
We commit ourselves to work toward strong
and joyful marriages.
As pastors and congregations we join together in a commitment
to do all we can to prepare, encourage, teach, promote, counsel,
and support all couples who come to us to be married, so that
they excel in a durable and joyful relationship. We ask all
couples to invest themselves in the work of deeply knowing
and accepting one another and to enter into partnership with
us in the following values and commitments.
- Completion of a course of premarital
classes and/or counseling – This course
includes a relationship inventory and such topics
as communication skills, conflict
resolution, financial management, the
practice of shared faith, sexual relationships,
exploration of families of origin issues
and life goals and expectations. Ordinarily
this requires that couples contact the church
at least six months before the wedding.
- Reverence for God’s design for the gift of
human sexuality - We believe that the gift of human
sexuality is so good and
so powerful that it can only be fully
expressed within the bonds of a marital commitment.
- Post-wedding follow up – Pastors and couples
will arrange for ongoing marital support through
such resources as marriage
mentoring and follow-up appointments
at six month and one year anniversaries.
- Quality relational education – Our congregations
will seek to provide constant training and nurturing
for children,
teens, and adults that enables all of
us to build a strong relational foundation for successful
marriages and healthy
families.
- The gospel of high standards and abundant grace – The
gospel holds high standards for Christians
in marriage and family life. Along with our teaching
of those standards, we
also want to affirm that the gospel brings
all of us the good news of God's forgiving and restoring
grace when we fail to
live up to those standards. We commit
ourselves to teach God's standards and proclaim God's
forgiving love so that we are
faithful to the whole gospel.
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