effects of divorce in the church

Abstract

The church is expected to contribute to the stable marriage and the church needs to ensure it has placed measures in place that will reduce the rate of divorce as much as possible. The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of divorce in the selected churches of CITAM in Kenya. The research was guided by the following research questions: To what extent is divorce prevalent in Christ Is The Answer Ministries? To what extent do Biblical teachings influence the decisions for divorce for the members of Christ Is The Answer Ministries? What role does Christ Is The Answer Ministries play in the reduction of divorce in the church? What are the possible causes of divorce in Christ is the Answer Ministries? What are some of the ways to prevent divorce at Christ is the Answer ministries? The study adopted qualitative research methods to obtain in-depth information on the situation. The study used a descriptive research design and the target population of the research was 100 church members who have undergone the divorce, from which the researcher was able to obtain a sample of 27 participants through the Saturated sampling technique. The data was collected using interviews. The data was analysed using QDA miner lite 2.0.7. The data was presented using tables and charts. The recommendations: 1. The church needs to diversify means in which its members are empowered on how to embrace God’s teaching much more than their tradition or culture so that it doesn’t determine their day to day lives, to an extent of breaking the marital vows as the vows are more binding than the tradition. 2. The church members are aware of the biblical teaching that discourages them from divorce, the church needs to diversify means by which they live according to God’s word which is the pillar for every marriage. 3. The church needs to improve its premarital counseling as this is the building block of marriage and more importantly improve and provide support for the existing marriages. This can be done by coming up with structures to support troubled marriages, preaching on how to cultivate the existing marriages and families, and also recognizing the existence of divorcees in the congregation and intentionally walking with them without pointing fingers at them. Divorcees should also be allowed to serve in church since some of them are gifted and have a passion for ministry. The church should also intentionally have professional counselors who have experience in marital issues and who will not mislead those who come for help in the church. 4. The church needs to develop programs that can support the church members who find themselves in troubled marriages by coming up with counseling programs to be able to identify with the affected church members.