“Celebrating Marriage” prepares students for life together.

Love was thick in the air on Wednesday, September 21 as Celebrating Marriage, a premarital workshop hosted by the Student Care Office, began among the blooming relationships of Liberty students.

Celebrating Marriage was hosted by Pastor Dane Emerick who has been leading couples for the past six years. The premarital sessions are designed to educate couples who are dating, engaged to be married, or who are preparing their hearts to be in a committed relationship in the future.

The workshop educates couples on how to communicate, how to handle conflict and how to manage conflict resolution properly during the course of marriage. A solid understanding of these principles is crucial because “All young people should know about the responsibility of marriage and how to lay the foundation for marriage in their lives,” Emerick said.

At the first session, the workshop allowed couples to discuss their relationships. Couples giggled as they shared stories about how they met. Others beamed when discussing how their fiancés proposed and then enthusiastically expressed the qualities they found to be most endearing in their partner.

After hearing about the workshop in Campus Church, Stephen Fisher and Bethany Wingert, both sophomores at Liberty, decided to sign-up for the workshop and learn how to better their relationship. Fisher and Wingert have been dating for the past 5 months. Wednesday was their first premarital session together and they both expressed the importance of attending. “It’s just a good idea for future reference,” Fisher said.

Wingert felt that it was an important step in their relationship also because “we are hoping to learn how to communicate better and see what premarital counseling really entails,” Wingert said.

During each session Emerick will incorporate his personal experience with marriage. “I will be discussing stories about what my wife and I have gone through during our marriage and what we’ve learned,” Emerick said. He will also be facilitating group discussion and integrating the importance of marriage and how it should be viewed through a Biblical perspective.

Because the workshop is taught from a Biblical worldview, throughout the sessions Emerick will take an in-depth look at the art of intimacy, romance, commitment and communication as dictated from the Bible. There will also be teaching about divorce and the Bible’s clear parameters against it.

“The class also includes doing away with myths, such as when we get married she should automatically submit,” Emerick said.

The workshop will have seven sessions over the course of the semester and at the conclusion of the series, engaged couples will be presented certificates stating their successful completion of the workshop.

The material Emerick will be speaking on is a self-written book with contribution from Tommy Nelson. The sessions will be taking place in Liberty Christian Academy’s room 168 and begins on Wednesdays from 6:15-7:15.

Workshops are offered during both fall and spring semesters. For more information about the upcoming premarital sessions contact the Student Care Office at studentcare@liberty.edu or call 582-2651. If you would like to sign up for the workshop you can do so at TRBC 239-9281.