Professional Dissertations DMin
Date of Award
1994
Document Type
Project Report
Degree Name
Doctor of Ministry
College
Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary
Program
Doctor of Ministry DMin
First Advisor
James J. North, Jr.
Second Advisor
Norman K. Miles
Third Advisor
Walter B. T. Douglas
Abstract
Statement of Project
Every pastor is involved in performing marriages. Pastors are also spending a considerable amount of time in post-marital counseling. This project sought to design and implement a Premarital Education program to help prepare couples for marriage and to reduce the number of hours pastors spend with post-marital care. The sessions in the model may prepare couples for life's challenges as they learn to develop communication and coping skills. It is hoped the sessions will aid the couple in handling marital adjustment and in dealing with conflict.
Method
This project report explores a brief history of Premarital Education in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and then examines the current status. Ten metropolitan Toronto church pastors helped in gathering this data. With the aid of biblical resources and the Spirit of Prophecy, a theological base is set forth in the context of Premarital Education. At the conclusion of the project, a model is presented as a program for the Toronto Perth Avenue Seventh-day Adventist Church. It is hoped that pastors will use this model as a springboard for developing their own models.
Conclusion
Preparation is an obvious theme in Scripture. The pastor/shepherd must follow this motif as he/she prepares couples for a lifelong covenant. The results of the evaluation confirm the theory that pastors must use a proven and tried premarital program before marrying a couple. The evaluation also suggests that a premarital program may be a contributing factor in resolving some of the problems in dysfunctional marriages. The couples of the Perth Avenue Seventh-day Adventist Church who received premarital education have benefitted enormously from this project.
Subject Area
Marriage counseling; Marriage compatibility tests; Marriage--Religious aspects--Seventh-day Adventists
Recommended Citation
Cassimy, Steve David, "Premarital Education: A Model for the Toronto Perth Avenue Seventh-day Adventist Church" (1994). Professional Dissertations DMin. 158.
https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dmin/158
https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/dmin/158
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
DOI
https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dmin/158
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