God's Plan For Marriage
Policy Statement by United Marriage Encounter®
Adopted by the UME Board of Directors, 25 July 2004
United Marriage Encounter (UME) is an international Christian ministry, working to strengthen and build marriages in accordance with God’s plan for marriage as revealed in His holy Bible. We believe marriage is ordained by God as a union of one man and one woman, with lifelong commitment to each other and to God.
Therefore, United Marriage Encounter strongly reaffirms this policy:
- United Marriage Encounter provides Marriage Encounter Weekends and other activities for married couples. “Married couple” or “married couples” means and is limited to one man and one woman lawfully married to each other.
- "Lawfully married" includes a common-law marriage of one man and one woman if it is recognized as a lawful marriage by the couple's state or country of residence.
- Persons other than a married couple as defined in paragraph 1, whether or not living together, are not eligible to participate in UME’s Marriage Encounter Weekends or other activities. However, family members of a married couple and a surviving spouse of a married couple may be included in appropriate kinds of UME activities.
- Persons who are not married couples as defined in paragraph 1 will not be permitted to attend a UME Weekend or other activity, whether or not they are registered for it. However, family members of a married couple and a surviving spouse of a married couple may be included in appropriate kinds of UME activities.
This policy is essential because of:
- Our Christian faith, given to us by Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and revealed in God’s holy Bible, including but not limited to these Scriptures:
Genesis 2:24-25 (NIV): “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.”
Exodus 20:14 (NIV): “You shall not commit adultery.”
Matthew 19:4-6 (NRSV): (Jesus said:) “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
Mark 10:6-9 (NRSV): (Jesus said:) “But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
Matthew 15:19-20 (NRSV): (Jesus said:) “For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.” (The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 2, page 321, states: “In the New Testament the words for ‘fornication,’ ‘to practice fornication,’ etc., refer to every kind of sexual intercourse outside marriage.”)
Mark 7:21-23 (NRSV): (Jesus said:) “For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit,licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (For meaning of “fornication,” see preceding paragraph.)
Romans 1:26-27 (NRSV): “For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.”
2 Timothy 3:16 (NRSV): “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”
- Our Vision and Mission Statement:
United Marriage Encounter® An International Christian Ministry
- Our Vision: Offering Christ’s love to strengthen and build marriages.
- Our Mission: We are an international ministry, serving by the grace of the one God who exists eternally in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In response to the call of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we:
- Offer a 48-hour Marriage Encounter Weekend experience and continuing support activities.
- Present practical, ongoing communication tools for couples seeking to strengthen their marriage.
- Help a husband and wife, one man and one woman lawfully married, to grow in their relationship with each other, God, family, church, and community.
- Exercise wise and effective use and stewardship of resources.
- Our charter as a nonprofit corporation:
United Marriage Encounter’s Articles of Incorporation as an Iowa nonprofit corporation (adopted in 1988) state:
Article 3, Section 3.01: “The Corporation is organized and shall be operated exclusively for religious, educational, and charitable purposes ...”
Article 3, Section 3.02: “The Corporation=s purposes stated in Section 3.01 include but are not limited to these specific purposes: to provide a Christian ministry and Christian instruction to married couples and their families; to provide Marriage Encounter weekend programs, support groups, and other activities to help couples strengthen their marriages and their Christian faith; to help married couples improve communication between husband and wife and grow in their relationship with each other and with God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit); to help couples who have a good marriage to build a better marriage; to aid and encourage Christ-centered marriages, families, and individual lives; to encourage married couples to participate in and help renew the Christian church; and to provide these programs and services for married couples of all ages and all faiths, anywhere in the world ...@
UME’s By-laws (adopted in 1989) state:
Article 1, Section 1.01: “All acts, activities, and operations of the Corporation shall be consistent with its purposes stated in the Articles of Incorporation.”
- Our membership in the Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability and our subscription to the ECFA’s Statement of Faith:
The UME Board of Directors in 1993 subscribed to, and in 2002 reaffirmed agreement with, the Statement of Faith of the ECFA.
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