{"id":10862,"date":"2026-07-02T14:02:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T14:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/?p=10862"},"modified":"2026-07-02T14:02:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T14:02:23","slug":"jimmy-evans-warns-how-church-silence-in-destroying-marriages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/07\/jimmy-evans-warns-how-church-silence-in-destroying-marriages.html","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Evans Warns How Church Silence in Destroying Marriages"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jimmy Evans, the founder of the Dallas, Texas-based ministry XO Marriage, is offering up some hard truths about the Church\u2019s failures in supporting marriages. In an interview with The Christian Post<\/em><\/a>, Evans noted how Americans still have an interest in marriage, yet are frightened by the commitment. \u201cPart of the problem is a lot of the Church just simply isn’t interested in marriage. Many pastors don’t speak on the subject of marriage, or if they do, they don’t speak with authority from the scriptures in a manner that really equips people to be married.\u201d According to a statistic cited by Evans, 85% of churches do not have a budget for marriage ministry.<\/p>\n

Evans noted the many challenges churches face in a society growing increasingly dependent on technology. That is why his ministry is offering digital marriage courses free online to encourage churches to use their resources. While technology has offered his ministry an opportunity to spread its resources, he also noted the negative impact it has had on many couples. \u201cYou’ve certainly got all the technology, cell phones. How many times have you gone into a restaurant and you look around at other couples, and everybody’s just sitting there together with their phones in front of them?\u201d he said. An even greater problem brought on by technology is the easy access to pornography. One study in 2019<\/a> found that 87% of men aged 18 to 35 accessed porn weekly.<\/p>\n

One issue Evans admitted was that many churches don\u2019t address marriage because their own leaders are struggling in their marriages. “If you’re struggling in your own marriage, you’re not going to get up and preach on it,” he said. A 2025 Barna study found that pastors struggled with relational flourishing<\/a>, with many not even realizing it. He recalled preaching a sermon at his friend\u2019s church only to have the church\u2019s pastor admit to him that he had to work on his own marriage.<\/p>\n

One of the most damaging concepts to successful marriages, according to Evans, is the idea of \u201csoul-mates\u201d or finding the right person rather than being the right person to marry. \u201cSoulmates are forged, they’re not found. \u2026 One of the myths about marriage is you have this honeymoon phase and it gets worse. The truth is, when you’re married correctly, it gets better and better and better and better,\u201d he said. He also noted that more churches are focused on so-called \u201cdivorce recovery\u201d rather than intervening before the divorce becomes a reality. Evans\u2019s friend, Jimmy Witcher, a longtime board member of the ministry that is preparing to take over, found himself very nearly divorcing his own wife 30 years ago. He credited the Lord for saving his marriage. He said the resources of XO Marriage would have greatly helped he and his wife. \u201cI wish we knew we needed to be working on our marriage,\u201d he said. \u201cI wish we had the resources that XO Marriage is presenting and producing now. We could have used that 32 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jimmy Evans, the founder of the Dallas, Texas-based ministry XO Marriage, is offering up some hard truths about the Church\u2019s failures in supporting marriages. In an interview with The Christian Post, Evans noted how Americans still have an interest in marriage, yet are frightened by the commitment. \u201cPart of the problem is a lot of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":10865,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nJimmy Evans Warns How Church Silence in Destroying Marriages<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jimmy Evans warns many churches neglect marriage ministry as couples face rising challenges from technology, porn, and weak support.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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