This ministry focus paper provides a premarital counseling manual based on partnership in tnarriage for pastors who counsel bicultural couples. Bicultural is defined as couples that include a traditional Chinese Christian and Chinese American Christian. The paper\u27s thesis is that a pastoral pretnarital counseling manual can be developed for couples that include a traditional Chinese Christian and a Chinese American Christian in a bi-cultural relationship.
Traditional Chinese Christians are influenced deeply by traditional Chinese culture, and their behavior and cultural patterns are relatively unaffected by Atnerican culture. Chinese American Christians are raised in America and embrace American culture, behavior, and cultural patterns. When individuals from these differing backgrounds tnarry, many difficulties tnay etnerge in their tnarriages. This manual addresses the importance of pastoral premarital counseling and provides guidelines for pastors. The tnanual uses the theological concepts of partnership in marriage, support, and tnutual subtnission.
The paper addresses the problem of bi-cultural marriage and the varying assutnptions and expectations of the traditional Chinese and Chinese American cultures. It also looks at other proposed solutions and analyzes thetn from a biblical perspective. The author presents the thesis and its scriptural support. He incorporates and explains Adam and Eve\u27s pre-fall partnership, Jesus\u27 views on marriage and divorce, and Paul\u27s concept of tnutual submission. The paper includes the manual as a practical solution to the pastoral pre-marital counseling challenge
