Single & Parenting: New Church-Based Solution for Effective Single-Parent Ministry

Single & Parenting: New Church-Based Solution for Effective Single-Parent Ministry
Churches are reaching out to single parents with the innovative curriculum Single & Parenting. The results? Care, outreach and evangelism in the community. Single & Parenting was developed by Church Initiative, the creator of DivorceCare and GriefShare.
WAKE FOREST, N.C., June 21, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- Churches worldwide are now launching Single & Parenting, the innovative curriculum for ministry to single parents. The all-new 13-week, video-based curriculum is designed to be a lay-led ministry for single parents from all backgrounds, including divorced, widowed and never married.

This excellent outreach tool equips local churches to minister to the exploding single-parent population. According to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Pew Research Center, 26 percent of all children currently live in single-parent homes, and 41 percent of all children born this year will be to single mothers.

"In ever-increasing numbers, single parents are seeking the help of local churches. Single & Parenting equips churches with a powerful strategy for offering hope to these parents and, by extension, their children," said Steve Grissom, founder of Church Initiative.

The Single & Parenting curriculum is designed with three primary components: video, group discussion and between-session workbook exercises (to help group members apply the material in the days between sessions). The videos are produced in an interesting-to-watch television magazine format with dramatizations and single-parenting technique demonstrations. They also feature more than 35 leading single-parent experts, including Dr. Paul David Tripp, H. Norman Wright, Elyse Fitzpatrick, Rev. Dwight McKissic Sr., Dr. Ed Welch, Dave Ramsey, Stephen Viars, Sandra Aldrich, Dr. Larry Mercer, Dr. Thelma Wells and Eduardo Salazar.

Single & Parenting can assist churches in ministering to single parents within the church, but is also designed to serve as an outreach tool to minister to single parents throughout a church's community.

"Make sure the leaders of [your] church are aware of this opportunity because it's a great outreach for ... any churches in the community or any city, it doesn't matter how big or how small," said Brad Goad, Singles Minister at Second Baptist Church in Houston, Texas.

For more information about Single & Parenting, visit www.SingleandParenting.org/ministry.

Single & Parenting is offered by Church Initiative, the ministry that created DivorceCare, DivorceCare for Kids and GriefShare

Christmas Gift

Reality Check Repost: Christmas Gift

She stands beside the sidewalk; hair disheveled, clothes dirty, hands shaking. She hasn’t had a drag all day, let alone a high. Her hands move seemingly of their own volition; she’s scratching her head and then her arm, as she looks up and down the road and into each car that passes. She walks to the corner, hands tugging up the threadbare shirt, settling into her stance as she looks for a paying customer. A mere twenty bucks will get her a short high. All she needs is one customer.

He walks into work, the first one there as usual. He thinks of what he might do if he didn’t have the bills to pay. Get a different job, for one thing. Tell his boss and everyone else where they can go. Then he could afford the fancy motorcycle and the extra car. And his wife was always asking for money. But that wouldn’t be happening now anyway because he was moving out. The kids don’t need him any more. And he certainly doesn’t need to hear her nagging. A new job and an extra twenty thousand a year would be perfect. All he needs is a little more money.

She walks into church alone again. She smiles and the greeters return her smile, doing their job to the best of their ability. The pastor walks by but he’s too busy to greet anyone, he’s got too many important things to do. She slowly walks through the foyer into the sanctuary, watching people gather with their families, talking to friends, greeting each other with hugs. It’s like she’s invisible, but by this time in her life, she’s used to that. She sits down in her pew and waits for the service to begin. If just one person came to sit near her, perhaps she could have a real conversation. All she needs is a one kind word.

They struggle down the road, which leads through desert land and harsh, unforgiving terrain. He walks the hundred miles, sandals torn and feet bleeding, while he leads the donkey. She’s expecting, and the donkey’s spine is a hard and uncomfortable seat as the wind whips the dirt and sand into her eyes. They have little money but it needs to be enough to pay Caesar and for some lodging in the town once they arrive. The baby’s birth is immanent. Darkness falls and they finally arrive in Bethlehem. If they could only find a room, something clean with sheets for the new baby. All they need is a room.

In the midst of the darkness, suddenly a star breaks through and the light finds it’s way into the small stable. The cave that was dark and dirty now brightens as a baby’s cry echoes among the animals. The shepherds, drawn here by a vision they almost can’t believe, fall to their knees on the hard ground. This Child is special and the air fills with His holy presence. And suddenly, it’s there. What they all needed. They didn’t know it, they had forgotten or pushed it aside in trying to survive the day. But it’s there, and it’s undeniable.

Hope.

It came into that stable and into the world, to touch every life and every need.

A Christmas gift to share.

Why don’t we?

By Lorraine Walker
Originally published by www.sgmradio.com in Reality Check, December 2007