Meet Chris and Preeta Riggs

Passion. Purpose. Place. Over the last three years, God brought these themes to the forefront of our marriage, showing us a way to plug in and serve others at Faith Bible Church.
Our story started just over twenty years ago. While dating and drawing closer, we each sensed, “this is the one,” but we still faced big challenges. Different backgrounds and upbringings meant wrestling with fears, insecurities, and expectations about marriage. While the world around us was devaluing the role of marriage, we wanted our relationship to truly matter and be different. But, somehow love alone didn’t seem to be enough.

In turning it over to God, He led us to grow in unexpected ways. Healthy relationships needed more than effort, they also needed real skills… how to talk and how to listen, how to resolve conflict and how to keep the peace, how to understand the other and how to understand ourselves. God built within us a healthy passion for maintaining our marriage relationship and blessed us in so many ways over the years.

Through it all, we have attempted to pursue God’s grand purpose for marriage. The beauty of learning to know and love your spouse is it teaches us about pursuing God. Commit to me, walk with me, share everything with me, get to know me as much as I want to know you. In the same way your spouse asks these things of you, so does God. Likewise, God’s fullness is expressed through marriage. The same love, grace, and forgiveness we receive from God is the same love, grace, and forgiveness we owe to our spouse.

Three years ago, God showed us a place for our passion. When approached about helping to lead Merge – a care and support ministry designed for newly and nearly married couples – we jumped at the opportunity.

Couples enrolled in Merge receive a biblical view of marriage through a twelve-week course. The goal is to expand their view of marriage as well as teach valuable marriage skills. We benefitted from a similar course before our marriage and hope to be a blessing to others in the same way.

For us, it’s been amazing at just how much God uses us and our past life experiences to support the couples we now mentor. What was once challenging (and maybe even painful) parts of our past has now become invaluable for reaching and encouraging these couples.
Our constant prayer is for couples to build their marriage on God’s deep and lasting foundation – one that reflect God’s love to the world around them and to generations to come.