www.singlescenter.com

  SAM'S Lambs
Singles Ministry

Singles in the Church:
Is There Seating For One
 In The Church?

Risso Therapy -
(healing thru humour)

The Rev Toons

More Rev Fun from
 www.reverendfun.com 
Copyright Gospel Communications International, Inc

Why God Will Never Get Tenure at Any University

1. Only published one book.
2. It was in Hebrew.
3. It had no references.
4. He did not publish it in referenced journals.
5. Some doubt He even wrote it Himself.
6. He is not known for his cooperative work.
7. Sure. He created the world, but what has He done lately?
8. He did not get permission from any review board to work on human subjects.
9. When one of His experiments went awry, He tried to cover it up by drowning all the subjects.
10. When sample subjects do not behave as predicted, He deletes the whole sample.
11. He rarely comes to class. He just tells His students to read the Book.
12. It is rumored that He sometimes lets His Son teach the class.
13. Although He only has 10 requirements, His students often fail His tests.
14. He expelled His first two students for learning.
15. His office hours were infrequent and usually held on a mountain top.

(From faculty members at Kansas State University and instructors at Allen County Community College)

Religion and Spirituality:
Soaring To Wider Perspectives with Solo Flight

In 2002 I attended my first Solo Flight  Labor Day weekend conference and the theme ‘Soaring to Wider Perspectives’  was more than compatible with
The Singles Center’s mission of ‘Making The Most of Singlehood’ and one that I have shared with other singles, in my own church’s new SAM's Lambs Singles Ministry as well as on The Singles Center web site.

I had often lamented the lack of singles-friendly activities and attitudes in churches I attended but I didn’t know quite what to do about it. Struggling against established traditions and behaviors is a daunting challenge that would discourage anyone from attempting it, - alone. I persisted in attending church and fellowship functions for my family’s sake, even though I did not always feel particularly welcome or included as a single parent.  Besides our minister of my current church, my family and/or I have been invited by only 1 family, to do anything with another family. This kind of exclusion is part of what causes singles, the other 50% of the population, to be church drop-outs. It makes you wonder just what is ‘Christian fellowship’ anyway.  Until I joined my current church - the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Webster NY, I received more Christian fellowship and love in the secular singles organizations I attended or founded than I ever received from the church I was attending.

Changing the prevailing attitudes from singles-excluding to singles-including may be a challenging, slow process, but if a religion can move on to having not only women priests, but women bishops, as the Episcopal church has, then it can move on to an awareness of the exclusion of singles, and be able turn that situation around as well.

With all Churches’ concern over declining attendance and declining budgets, that 50% of the population, with its disposable income, should not be something that the Church hierarchy would want to ignore.

During my years of facilitating single support groups it was apparent that there were many singles who needed and wanted to be part of their church but had detached because they did not feel that they had value as a single person without a family, or they were not included because they were a divorced single whose intentions toward spouses was not trusted, or they were a single parent whose "supervisory" skills were in question just because they were divorced.

Armed with information and support from the Solo Flight conference, I am working with my pastor, the Rev. Lance Robbins, at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Webster NY, to learn how to open our doors and arms to like minded singles who want to nurture their spirituality and participate wholly in church life, from worship, to education, to fellowship. We will also be working on making our church community aware of the excluding practices, unintentional and unknowingly may they be, so that we may change those behaviors to inclusive behavior. The ultimate goal would be to achieve results that would make a "Singles" Ministry unnecessary, because all individuals were allowed to develop their full potential in Christ’s love.

God Bless and God Speed -
‘with gladness and singleness of heart’

Betty Van Volkenburg
SAM's Lambs 'volunteer shepherdess'
http://www.samslambs.org
Publisher, The Singles Center - A Healthy resource for Singles
http://www.singlescenter.com

Browse through some past articles from our magazine:
 Singles, The Magazine for Today's Single:
More Articles on Singles and Stats

© 1996 - 2008   BV Ventures. All rights reserved. Send comments to the site's webmaster.
Site developed and maintained by BV Ventures.