To date, The Life of a Single Mom® Ministries has worked with thousands of churches throughout the United States to help launch, grow, or troubleshoot their single moms’ discipleship and evangelism outreach efforts, including single mom’s Bible study implementation, single moms’ events, and much more. We specialize in single moms’ curriculum, event planning, program development, and are considered a one-stop shop for all things single moms’ ministry related. And…we are often asked, “What about single dads’ ministries? Where do all the single dads go to get help?”
We have a number of responses for that. First, we want you to know that we honor single fathers who are actively engaged in raising their children well. We honor men and believe that God’s design is for the man to be the priest of the home, deeply desiring that single mothers will one day be in a healthy, joy-filled, God-centric marriage.
However, we want to stay in the lane that the Lord has specifically called us to. When a ministry is focused on cancer research, for example, they are not asked, “What about heart disease? That’s important, too!” In other words, yes, ministry to single dads is important, but we are called to serve single mothers. Many of the resources on our website are applicable to single dads, as well, and we refer out to a number of partner agencies who do great dad-centric work!
With approximately 80% of all domiciliary custody in the United States being held by women, we recognize that the biggest need in single parenting is in the single mother’s home. This is what we see as the biggest ministry opportunity.
That said, we do recognize that single dads exist and want to address some things that we think will be effective in ministering to the needs of single dads.
We believe that single dads’ ministries are important and can be launched in a church very similarly to a single mothers’ ministry. They can co-exist quite nicely, the same way that singles ministries, divorce recovery programs, grief ministries, and widows ministries can all co-exist in the same church. In other words, there are many opportunities to meet the needs of many within our congregations. Single dads may not be as large of a demographic, statistically, but launching a program can be a great way to find those single dads in the community who are overwhelmed, exhausted, and alone. A great way to start is with a small single dad’s Bible study launching in someone’s home (with the church’s approval).
Co-ed single parent’s ministries can work, but we suggest gender-exclusive ministries that co-mingle on a regular basis. Single parents can often be devastated by divorce, a failed relationship, or death of a spouse and need ample time to heal. Co-ed environments can create a level of discomfort among those who have not yet healed from such an event, while others are there to potentially find a future mate. We suggest separate single moms’ ministries and single dads’ ministries that get together for fun events regularly, such as barbecues, family fun nights, and the like.
(Please note: All churches we work with have the complete autonomy to make the decisions that work best for their church, congregation, and long-term vision. We are a consulting service for single moms’ ministries. We highlight what we see as national trends and industry standards that work best, but there is no right or wrong. As ministry evolves, we also recognize that needs change, too. We recommend praying and seeing how God would lead in this area.)
Some of our favorite single dads’ ministries and programs are as follows:
SINGLE DADS RESOURCES: While a variety of our TLSM Resources can be (and are) used by both single moms and single dads, we also want to refer you to other friends we’ve found serve single dads exclusively.
For additional encouragement, check out:
A Father’s Walk for additional encouragement.
Fatherhood.org (Please note this is not an exclusively Christian organization.)
The Life of a Single Mom’s National Resource Guide can help to find resources for education, housing, financial assistance, and more encouragement. Ck it out HERE.
CHURCH OPPORTUNITIES FOR MINISTRY TO SINGLE DADS: There are ways that the church can get involved in ministering to single fathers and the opportunities are only limited by your imagination, but here are a few things we suggest:
4 Ways the Church Can Minister to Single Dads
Start a Single Dads Ministry using our Launch a Group Instructions.
MENTORING SERVICES: Mentoring is a great way for single dads to get involved in mentoring fatherless youth. We know you are busy, but you also bring great value to the body of Christ when you can invest in children who don’t have a positive male role model. It will also give you a sense of purpose as you serve others. There are a number of great mentoring services available in different areas of the United States. While listing below does not constitute any formal partnership, we like these two groups:
New Commandment Men’s Ministries allows men in the church to serve single mothers and widows in an organized way. To institute a men’s ministry team in your church, check their website out. This is also a great way for single dads to be busy on the weekend, allowing them a chance to fellowship with other dads.
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 hundreds of churches to start a single mom’s support group in cities throughout the U.S. and beyond, as well as having served hundreds of thousands of 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 www.thelifeofasinglemom.com.
