The Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America is set to launch a series of marriage seminars across the United States and Canada in response to what one church leader calls an “erosion of Biblical family values in our postmodern society.”

“The pervasive secular trend in our society challenges anything that is conventional, traditional, and normal,” explains Willie Oliver, family ministries director for the Adventist Church in North America. “With these stresses on American families, we must teach and equip people with skills to maintain their relationships and effectively communicate in their marriages.”

Oliver points to statistics from the 2000 U.S. Census which show that the rate of divorce in 2000 was 8.4 percent higher than that of 1960. “Forty to fifty percent of the marriages contracted today will end in divorce—and this is unacceptable,” says Oliver. “As a community of faith, we need to do something to help change these statistics.”

“From This Day Forward,” a marriage-enhancement seminar, teaches couples to detect danger signs in their marriage; increase fun, friendship, and intimacy; understand the secrets to a strong and loving marriage; experience spiritual intimacy; and implement new skills in communication and problem solving. The family ministries department of the North American Adventist Church first hosted a “From This Day Forward” seminar in October 2000 at the Adventist world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, and the conference has become an annual event.

According to Oliver, it’s now time to expand the reach of the program, with a series of seminars to be held in cities across the United States and Canada. “In addition to the yearly seminar, our goal is to host a ‘From This Day Forward’ marriage conference in at least one city of every one of the union conferences, or administrative regions, in the Church’s North America Division,” says Oliver. “By visiting every union conference, we intend to make the seminar as accessible as possible to those in our communities who need this kind of support.”

This Division-wide push began January 26 when 50 couples from Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas attended a “From This Day Forward” seminar held in Houston, Texas.