With a growing number of churches within the body of Christ embracing ministry to single parents, many questions have arisen regarding the topic of single moms’ ministry best practices and even misinformation or misunderstandings regarding. The Life of a Single Mom® wants to take some time today to answer the most frequently-asked questions we receive as a ministry about single moms’ support groups, their existence within churches, and more. Take some time to read on about debunking single parent ministry myths.
Does single mom’s ministry support divorce, sex outside marriage, or other behavior contradictory to the Bible? No. As the body of Christ, we should continue to teach sexual purity and forever-marriages, but the reality is more than 20 million single parents exist in the U.S. today and their arrival journey varies widely. Whether by death, adoption, foster care, divorce, or unwed pregnancy, millions of mothers and children within the U.S. need the love of Christ. While some single mothers exist through no fault of their own, e.g. death of a spouse or adoption, for example, other moms may have indeed made some mistakes along the way. Regardless of their arrival to the single motherhood journey, the Lord’s desire is that every person come into intimacy with Him. And we cannot ignore the need to minister and encourage these families. Drug addiction programs certainly do not support drug use, as single moms’ program do not advocate for more single mothers. We simply meet a need that exists.
Why are you only promoting single moms versus single dads’ ministry? The Life of a Single Mom recognizes that both single moms and single dads exist, either as co-parents or sole custodians. And we have great respect and compassion for both moms and dads who are parenting alone. However, statistics continue to support that approximately 80% of single parents in our country with domiciliary custody are women. This is where we have identified the greatest need, and the mandate we believe God has given us – to minister to the single mother and her children. We do want to note that we work with many churches who have opted to do co-ed single parent ministries or who launch a separate single moms’ and single dads’ ministry. We further partner with and refer out to a number of dad-centric agencies. Dads simply isn’t our primary focus, but we believe in those ministries that empower fathers, teach boys to become good husbands, strengthen marriage, and the like.
Single moms’ ministries just create division and further separate single moms, don’t they? No. Ladies nights or women’s ministries or youth ministry or widow’s ministry isn’t about separating the body of Christ. They are simply meeting the needs that are unique to a people group. Single Moms Ministries aren’t about drawing shame or embarrassment to a single mom or ostracizing and drawing attention to her, in any way. They are about showing her she has a place to fit in, a group that is designed just for her to fellowship and grow. We want single moms to be part of various other groups at the church, too — singles, women’s ministry, volunteer opportunities, etc. But whether a single mom has been parenting alone for a few months or for years, the journey is different than dual parenting, and the journey can be lonely. Single moms support groups allow for deep fellowship, the sharing of ideas, and encouragement, along with Bible application.
For more information on how to start a single moms’ group in your church, visit HERE.
The Life of a Single Mom® is a national, faith-based, nonprofit that exists to see that no single mom walks alone. To date, the organization has worked with thousands of churches to start a single mom’s support group in cities throughout the U.S. and beyond, as well as having served more than one million single mothers with a variety of programs. Offering a large array of books, curriculum, training materials, online instructional videos, podcasts, newsletters, life skills education, and more, TLSM is one of the largest single mom organizations in the U.S. The robust selection of single mom programs focus on empowering single moms to grow spiritually, emotionally, financially, and parentally through Single Mom University®, Single Moms Across America, the National TLSM Single Moms Conference, boot camps, and a variety of other programs. For more information, visit thelifeofasinglemom.com.
