Before You Give Them the Chance to Say "I do"
Though I’ve never been a senior pastor, there have been seasons in my ministry when I was conducting several weddings each year. But that amount of officiating wasn’t enough for me to remember all that’s involved each time in officiating a wedding. Things like, how to prepare a couple for marriage and how to perform a God-honoring wedding ceremony.
While the minister’s task list isn’t as long as the wedding coordinator’s, as the minister, I was responsible for each of these areas:
• Details of the ceremony;
• Concise list of the couple’s must-dos;
• And my non-negotiable counseling topics.
As in my church now, my previous church provided pre-marital counseling (a great resource, Countdown to Marriage). But even if a couple attended the classes, I still wanted to cover certain topics face-to-face with them.
After continually starting from scratch in my preparation for each pre-marital counseling meeting, I decided to develop a check list of things I wanted to discuss and accomplish in each one .
As a minister, you need a framework for your role in weddings. You need to determine conversation and decision points with each couple. You need to be protective of your time (and wedding ceremonies can be a time-killer).
Here’s my wedding checklist– it might provide a baseline as you develop your own.
Happy marrying.