About Northwest Marriage Institute

About the Institute Director

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Dr. Bob Whiddon, Jr. serves as the director of the Northwest Marriage Institute. Below are the qualifications for Dr. Whiddon.

Ph.D. in Biblical Counseling, Trinity Theological Seminary, Indiana, 1996
D.Min. in Pastoral Ministry, Northwest Graduate School, Seattle, 2001
Licensed Clinical Pastoral Counselor, National Christian Counselors Association
Certified Temperament Counselor, National Christian Counselors Association
Founder and director of Northwest Marriage Institute, Vancouver WA
Licensed Minister of Pastoral Counseling, National Conservative Christian Church
Twenty-five years experience in ministry and counseling

History

The Northwest Marriage Institute was born of necessity to help address one of the greatest problems in our society - marriages that are falling apart. The statistics are staggering: Half of all first marriages will end in divorce, 75% of all second marriages will end in divorce, and one-third of all third marriages will end in divorce. This means, when you spend thousands of dollars to see your child walk down the aisle during a marital ceremony, you may actually be sending them towards THE most stressful event in life - divorce. The problem is great, but solutions are few. Some churches have marriage and family experts on staff and provide marriage workshops of their own. But here's the real problem - 65% of all who live in Oregon and 67% of all who live in Washington have no connection to any church. The great need, then, was to take marriage education and marriage counseling to the communities. With this in mind, the Northwest Marriage Institute was loosely organized in June of 2004.

During the first few months of operation, the director relied upon private donations. But with the steady donations there was a need for the Northwest Marriage Institute to be able to receive and account for tax-deductible donations. So, on February 1, 2005, the Northwest Marriage Institute became a non-profit organization in the State of Washington. It was also the day that the initial filing was made with the Internal Revenue Service for federal recognition of our non-profit status. After an eight-month process, on September 13, 2005, the Northwest Marriage Institute received notice that the IRS had officially recognized the organization as a tax-exempt, public charity according to section 501(c)(3) of the IRS Code.

Organization

The Northwest Marriage Institute is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization doing business in the State of Washington. It is being managed by a group of directors with much experience with non-profit organizations. The Board of Directors is as follows:

President: Diana Cochran
Vice President: Bryndl Rohan
Treasurer: Gene Hinds

Logo

We consider ourselves in the life-saving business. Our logo not only announces our firm belief that every marriage can be saved, it also promotes true healing solutions to hurting lives.

Workshop Mission

In addition to the mission statement covering the philosophy and work of the Northwest Marriage Institute, we also have a mission statement dealing specifically with the workshops that we have developed.

Our mission is to provide the most educational and most entertaining marriage and pre-marriage workshops in the Northwest. Our goal is to be well-known throughout the region, so much so that our name is equated with premier workshop presentations. To this end, we will not only strive to keep our statistics up to date, our stories fresh, and our lessons practical, we will also open ourselves for critique from every person that attends our workshops. Every strength will be increased and every weakness will be transformed.