How can pastors help couples make a solid beginning as they launch out into the rocky waters of marriage? How can the pastor speak briefly but effectively to them when they approach the altar?

John M. Braaten provides 21 well-crafted homilies for marriage in a Christian context. A wide variety of scripture and circumstances are represented in this choice collection. This single-volume library will serve the busy parish pastor well as he or she ministers to couples coming to make their wedding promises.

Things I like about these sermons include... the up-beat spirit of them... the emphasis on the embrace of the community of faith... the mellow realism...

Gerhard Frost, Professor Emeritus

Luther-Northwestern Seminary

I like this little book. In a day when wedding homilies have become incidental to the marriage service and are sometimes omitted altogether, Pastor Braaten gives us short, warm, and practical sermons that would enhance any wedding.

Alvin Rogness

Author, pastor, President Emeritus

Luther-Northwestern Seminary

These sermons include an astouding variety of material and text, yet they all present the gospel to those who are beginning their life together.

William A. Poovey

Emeritus Professor of Preaching

Wartburg Theological Seminary

John M. Braaten is pastor of Administration at Bethel Lutheran Church, Rochester, Minnesota. He is an ordained clergyman in the American Lutheran Church.