In The Faith - A Chronicle of the Christian Faith

A pro-marriage pastor urging live-ins at his church to marry has had an over 70% success rate.

bq.. Week after week, as LeRoy Sullivan looked out from the pulpit of his church, the 200-member Bread of Life Outreach Ministry in Kansas City, Kan., the number of unmarried co-habiting couples, some with children, troubled him. Unable to remain silent, he began preaching about the value of marriage. He also invited couples to attend classes that would prepare them for married life.

_”I challenged them,” says Pastor Sullivan. “I told them to look at what’s best: Change your lifestyle for your children’s sake and also for the betterment of your own life.”_

Today, five years later, the view from the pulpit in his largely black, working-class church includes the flash of wedding rings. Among Sullivan’s initial group of seven cohabiting couples, five have married.

Sullivan’s challenge to churchgoers could become more common in the wake of a growing national effort to strengthen marriage. Last week, leaders of nearly 50 million evangelicals sent a letter to President Bush, asking him to set a national goal to cut the nation’s divorce rate in half over the next decade.

p. [ Full Story @ CSMonitor.com ]

p(small). Source: Christian Science Monitor© 2004 The Christian Science Monitor

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