Josephine County Marriage and Family Agreement
January 2003

We the undersigned Christian leaders of Josephine County, have the opportunity and an obligation to help strengthen marriages in our community, recognizing that each faith leader has the freedom and responsibility before God to make conscientious choices about how this agreement should be applied in a particular case. With this agreement, we establish communitywide standards for premarital counseling and marriage enrichment resources which will benefit all marriages and families.

Recognizing that our faith community is a vital resource, our common mission is to increase cooperation among faiths to strengthen families and significantly decrease the level of divorce in traditional marriages.

We Believe:

• That God has established, and Jesus Christ has affirmed in Scripture, the sanctity of marriage;
• That a marriage created by God is a life-long and unique covenant between one man and one woman;
• That we have a responsibility to provide for the best available premarital preparation to every engaged couple;
• That we have a responsibility to provide ongoing support to strengthen and nourish existing marriages;
• That we can better accomplish these goals by working together rather than working separately.

Therefore we will endeavor to:

• Promote sexual purity and abstinence outside of marriage.
• Teach faithfulness within marriage.
• Encourage a courtship of at least one year.
• Encourage at least four months of marriage preparation.
• Provide four or more pre-marital counseling /mentoring sessions, utilizing both Scripture and a premarital inventory.
• Train mature, married couples to serve as mentors to work with seriously dating arid engaged couples, newlyweds, blended families, and those experiencing marital difficulties.
• Schedule two post-marital counseling / mentoring sessions within the first year of marriage.
• Provide marriage enrichment opportunities, such as classes, small groups and/or retreats, to build and strengthen marriages.
• Cooperate with the Church of the Valley Marriage and Family Task Force and other faith organizations to promote marriage and family building resources and events.

We trust that:

• Within two years of initial signing, each congregation will fully implement all elements of this agreement.
• During the first three years of this community agreement, more than 90% of all Josephine County churches will have signed the agreement.
• Divorce crates in Josephine County will substantially decrease when we, as a community of faith congregations, have fully implemented all elements of this agreement.

Agreement

I commit to seek the endorsement of these standards by my congregation and to encourage others to do so, for the glory of God and the good of our whole community.