"Marriage Lists Are Keeping Many Young People from Marrying": Pastor Agble Warns Parents

• Pastor John Wesley Amenuku Agble went viral after criticising families who place heavy financial demands on young men seeking to marry their daughters
• The pastor argued that elaborate marriage lists were pushing couples to have children outside of formal marriage rather than going through the process
• Pastor Agble called on both families and churches to reconsider their approach and reflect on the economic realities facing young graduates

A Ghanaian pastor has sparked widespread conversation online after a church sermon in which he took aim at the culture of imposing lengthy and expensive marriage lists on young men, arguing the practice is driving couples into informal unions.

Pastor John Wesley Amenuku Agble delivered the remarks during a church service that has since gone viral, warning that excessive financial demands on prospective husbands are quietly eroding the institution of marriage among Ghana's younger generation.

Pastor Agble on marriage lists and young couples

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According to the pastor, the first meeting between two families should be an occasion for warmth and relationship-building, not a forum for cataloguing expensive demands.

He questioned why families feel the need to draw up itemised lists when both parties are in the early stages of building their lives.

"Do we have to make a list for you? Two graduates, they all completed school. You expect the guy who completed school with your daughter, after three years, to be able to make that list?" he asked the congregation.

Pastor Agble's position is that a young man who genuinely wishes to honour his prospective in-laws should be given the freedom to give according to his means, rather than being held to a standard that may be financially out of reach.

The Instagram post is below:

Pastor Agble talks about sleeping together before marriage

The pastor did not stop at criticising families. He turned his attention to what he described as a troubling pattern of hypocrisy within Christian communities, where couples cohabit and raise children without ever formalising their union, all while those around them remain silent.

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"Because of marriage list, a lot of youth are not married and they have children with their girls. Is that what is happening? Let's be honest. The church is aware," he said.

He went further, describing the situation as one where both sets of parents and the church itself are fully aware that couples are living together without the blessing of either family or the church, yet no one intervenes.

"Both parents are aware and we say we are Christians. So what they're doing is committing They are living perpetually by this because they don't have the blessings of both parents. They don't have the blessings of the church, and they are living comfortably. They have children," he continued.

Pastor Agble called on churches to take a more active role in guiding families and young people towards practices that make formal marriage accessible rather than financially punishing. His central message was that marriage should unite two families, not drain one of them.

The Instagram video is below:

Pastor Agble blasts McDan over religious comments

Earlier, YEN.com.gh wrote about Businessman Daniel McKorley who came under fire from Apostolic Recovery Movement Pastor John Wesley Amenuku Agble for his recent remarks.

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Pastor Agble claimed that Mr. McKorley's remarks were ignorant and wrong.

The pastor maintained that the church has significantly aided Ghana's development, especially in the areas of agriculture, healthcare, and education.

Source: YEN.com.gh