While America is the most religious Western nation, it also has the world's highest divorce rate. Strengthen all existing marriages. Save more than 80 percent of troubled marriages. Let's take a look at seven proven steps that you or your church can take to be a Marriage Saver, rather than a blessing machine. That's more than a sixfold increase since 1970, when only 8 percent cohabited prior to marriage.
Cohabitation is the worst possible step a couple can take.
The National Survey of Families and Households found in 1989 that 40 percent of live-in relationships broke up short of marriage. Add to this the fact that marriages that are preceded by living together have a 50 percent higher rate of divorce or separation than marriages without premarital cohabitation. Sadly, few learn the lesson that cohabitation doesn't work. After breaking up with Partner A, many move in with Partner B and then C, and they end up in their 30s wondering why they aren't married. No wonder fewer young people are getting married at all.