Atchison, Kansas, March 12, 2025 — Benedictine College is set to host its 14th Annual Symposium on Transforming Culture in America March 21-22, 2025. This year’s symposium, themed “Marriage at the Peripheries,” aims to address the critical challenges facing marriage and family life in contemporary society.
The annual event will feature a keynote address by J.P. De Gance, founder and president of Communio, a nonprofit organization dedicated to equipping churches to evangelize through the renewal of healthy relationships, marriages and families.
In his keynote address Friday, March 21, J.P. De Gance will discuss the themes of his essay, The Family Crisis Caused the Faith Crisis: Why Marriage is the Most Urgent Ministry Gap in the Church Today. He argues that the alarming decline in faith practice is “intrinsically linked to the collapse of family structures, particularly marriage.”
Citing research from The Marriage and Religion Research Initiative, De Gance notes that most adults under 35 today were not raised in households with married parents. This shift has contributed to a host of social issues including shorter life spans, generational poverty, increased mental illness and an epidemic of loneliness.
De Gance emphasizes that the church’s neglect of marriage ministry has exacerbated these problems. A survey by Barna Research, commissioned by Communio, found that 72% of American churches lack a substantive marriage ministry, 74% have no support for newlyweds and 93% offer no ministries for singles.
De Gance believes addressing this gap is crucial for reversing the decline in faith, stating, “Marriage is the most urgent ministry gap in the church today.”
Central to De Gance’s message is the call for a “metanoia,” a transformative change of heart and mind, within church ministries concerning marriage. He advocates for a shift from current, ineffective evangelism efforts to a focus on transforming marriage and relationship ministries.
De Gance said, “that by nurturing strong marriages, churches can strengthen families and create a ripple effect of faith that impacts future generations.”
He envisions, “every gospel-centered church becoming an evangelizing hub where people desire to form healthy, God-honoring relationships.”
The symposium will also feature Timothy P. Carney, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and senior columnist at the Washington Examiner. Carney is set to discuss the societal and cultural factors that have made family formation and child-rearing increasingly difficult. His forthcoming book, Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be, examines the economic, social and institutional barriers that families face today.
The symposium will conclude with a closing keynote by Dr. Brad Wilcox, Melville Foundation Jefferson Scholars Foundation University Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia and director of the National Marriage Project. Wilcox is also the author of the popular book, Get Married: Why Americans Should Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families and Save Civilization, in which he argues for the importance of marriage in revitalizing American communities.
For more information, visit benedictine.edu/events/symposium.
About CommunioCommunio is a nonprofit organization that trains and equips churches to evangelize through the renewal of healthy relationships, marriages and the family. Founded by J.P. De Gance, Communio works closely with churches across the nation to address the root causes of the decline in faith by strengthening marriage and family life. For more information, visit communio.org.
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