02/06/2026
Church Life _Single parent friendly?
Many church programmes are not 'user friendly ' towards single parents. Parenting is often exclusively connected with marriage in a way that makes single parents feel alienated , and evening meetings are often very difficult for single parents to attend if they have young children, because of the cost of baby_ sitting. Single parents, because of their background, may expect to be let down and may seem over-sensitive in their reactions to what they mistakenly take for rejection. It is vitally important then that attention is paid to removing any practical obstacles to involvement in the life of the fellowship. if there are mid week meetings, perhaps it would be possible to arrange babysitting rotas amongst parents , to enable people to attend. Would it be possible for someone living nearby to give the family a lift to church meetings?
The church can hold on to it's tradition of teaching on marriage based family life as an ideal both within the church and in public life. But it also needs to develop because parenting has become separated from marriage. Some of the consequences of this have been analysed in the section on personal issues. Many single parents have been through very painful experiences and need deep and sustained ministry from the church, as well as reliable long term friendships.
In the same ' way' it is important that a welcoming attitude is cultivated among members of the congregation, and this is likely to happen when it is effectively modelled by those in leadership.
It is difficult, but quite possible, with a little thought and a lot of encouragement, to integrate single parents into the life of a church and for them to grow into fruitful members of the Body of Christ. In the long run, the most valuable thing that a church could do would be to help single parents to an extent that they themselves were able to minister God's love and help both to other single parents and indeed to the rest of the ch