Congratulations on this exciting time of preparation for your upcoming wedding ceremony and marriage! If you wish to have a Redemption City Church pastor officiate your wedding, please review the guidelines below and complete and submit the pre-marriage questionnaire to our ministry office as soon as possible.
Guidelines To Help You Plan For A Wedding With A Redemption City Church Pastor
- Complete The Pre-Marriage Questionnaire: Please fill out the form here and submit it.
- Review Of Your Questionnaire: A pastor will receive your completed questionnaire for review and we will contact you for any questions and next steps. Before a pastor can confirm that he can perform the wedding he will request an initial meeting with the couple. In this session, you can expect the pastor to ask you about information supplied in your questionnaire including:
- The Spiritual Climate Of Your Relationship:
- When did you become a Christian?
- What does it mean to be a Christian?
- What is the place that Christian faith has in your life?
- Are you both actively involved as members in a local church?
- The Nature Of Your Relationship:
- What is the history of your relationship?
- How do your friends and family feel about it?
- What do you perceive to be the greatest strengths and weaknesses of the relationship?
- Are you living together?
- Have you maintained sexual purity?
- Have there been relationships in the past that are unreconciled (i.e. if you’ve been married before)?
- The Spiritual Climate Of Your Relationship:
- Preparation With The RCC Pastor: Once a RCC pastor has been confirmed to preside over your wedding, you should coordinate schedules as early as possible to ensure that he is available for your wedding date and to allow adequate time to complete the premarital counseling process.
- Premarital Book: The couple must complete The Meaning of Marriage By Timothy Keller & Preparing for Marriage By Dennis Rainey. These books will be used also as a discussion point for your premarital counseling. In this book, it will discuss the meaning and purpose of marriage, the qualities necessary to have a healthy marriage, the true nature of love and how to effectively express it, communication and conflict resolution, role relationships and sexuality in marriage.
- Premarital Counseling: Depending on the couple’s background and level of readiness, a pastor will provide three-to-five counseling sessions with the couple. There is a fee for pre-marital counseling.
- If you are getting married in another church, be mindful that certain churches have restrictions concerning officiating pastors so make sure to verify their policies.
- Wedding Licenses: Redemption City Church pastors are not responsible for the processing of wedding licenses. You are responsible for ensuring the proper processing of necessary wedding documents.
- Out-Of-Town Weddings: Some pastors will perform out-of-town ceremonies and others will not. You must contact the pastor to see if he is available for such a wedding. Whether the ceremony is in town or not, you should plan to pay for any necessary travel expenses and accommodations, and provide clear directions and the precise address to the wedding facility. (Please understand that an out-of-town wedding is a significant commitment on the part of the pastor!)
- Honorarium: The suggested honorarium for the pastor performing your ceremony is $500-$1,000, depending on the number of counseling sessions that he provides. This is paid directly to the pastor. If additional counseling is required, the pastor may suggest additional sessions or refer you to The AYPB Center where coaching and counseling services are provided. If there is a financial hardship involved in the cost of these sessions, please discuss this with your pastor.
- Wedding Rehearsal and Reception: The pastor will generally conduct the wedding rehearsal at the agreed upon rehearsal time for in town weddings. Regretfully, pastors are not always available to attend rehearsal dinners and receptions. It is our sincere hope that such inability is not taken as an offense.
- The Wedding: Usually a meeting will be required to discuss the actual details of the wedding service. On the day of the wedding, plan to have the entire wedding party at the church at least one hour before the ceremony. IF you wish to have live photography or have your wedding filmed, please discuss appropriate parameters with the pastor before the wedding day. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you on this special occasion!