Preparing for Your Marriage
And
Wedding Ceremony
Doctrinal Stance at Trinity Bible Church
We want to be upfront with you about our beliefs regarding the sanctity of marriage and the duty we feel to allow only wedding ceremonies that will be honoring to the Lord to be held at Trinity Bible Church. Please take a moment to look over the following statements established by our Elder Board.
- A believer and an unbeliever should not marry (1 Cor. 7:39, 2 Cor. 6:14-15). We will not sanction a marriage where both partners are not confessing and practicing believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
- God intends for marriage to be entered into as a permanent, one-flesh covenant relationship between one man and one woman for a lifetime (Gen. 2:18, 24, Eph. 5:22-31). We will do everything possible to promote, preserve, and protect this relationship against all perversions and pressures.
- Training for marriage is more important than the preparation for a wedding; therefore, we are committed to laying a foundation of premarital, biblical counseling, and especially scriptural counseling for your first year of life together. (Deut. 24:5).
- In order to honor the sanctity of marriage and to encourage couples to “keep the marriage bed pure” (Heb. 13:5), we believe in and strongly promote abstinence in the pre-marital relationship. This includes not living together before the marriage covenant is established.
- Any request for marriage or remarriage will be brought before the TBC Elder Board for approval, to enter into the process of premarital counseling and preparation for the wedding and life together. The TBC pastor still has final voice in deciding whether or not he will bring the marriage ceremony to completion.
- We will not perform and celebrate weddings with couples who will not submit themselves to at least six premarital counseling sessions over a period prior to the proposed wedding day, and at least another follow-up session, as needed, over the first year of marriage. (An exception may be, the attendance of a marriage conference or wedding preparation class by the engaged couple. This would reduce the number of necessary counseling sessions.)
- On the use of our facilities for wedding by officials other than Elders, Staff, and others among our membership qualified to perform marriage, we ask that there be a commitment to our Doctrinal Stance, and that the officiating pastor contact TBC's pastor at the earliest convenience.