Huweliksvoorbereiding en -verryking in gemeentes van die Apostoliese Geloof Sending in die Wes-Kaap

Abstract

This dissertation is a study about the faith action called "care" and covers the area of premarital pastoral work and marital pastoral work (marriage enrichment). Much has been written about the issue that marriage pastoral care and counselling is more than just dealing with troubled marriages or marital problems. The fact can't be ignored that pastoral care and counselling when it comes to married life have an important role to play in the sense of prevention and equipping. Premarital pastoral work in the form of marriage preparation and marital pastoral work in die form of marriage enrichment, focus on the prevention and equipping approach.

The focus of this dissertation is prevention and equipping. In an effort to achieve this, this study looks at how pastors are doing premarital pastoral work with prospective marital couples, and marriage enrichment with married couples. This is done according to a twofold process. The first step focuses on the content of the programmes that the pastors present to prospective marital couples when they do premarital pastoral work. The second step in the study focuses on the needs of prospective marital couples. In this regard the focus is on the themes for marriage preparation that prospective marriage couples would like to see the pastor address when doing premarital pastoral work with them. Further this research deals with the preferences of prospective couples as to the timing, duration and presentation process with regard to marriage preparation sessions.

In this study empirical research was undertaken to determine how pastors of the Apostolic Faith Mission in the Western Cape are doing premarital pastoral work and marriage enrichment, and how this is related to the needs of prospective marriage couples. The research problem was to determine whether pastors are addressing the needs of prospective couples when they are doing premarital pastoral work. The purpose of this study is to provide some guidelines which pastors can utilize when they are doing premarital pastoral work and marriage enrichment.