I am a single adult and I believe that the Church is falling down in meeting single adults' needs. It is true that we want to keep marriages together and most people that go to any church are married. But some of the reasons some singles don't go to church at all is because they have not received the care and love that a church body should give. They find they can receive more friendships from people at work or at secular things, like even a bar. Does the Church really want to be known that they can't be as friendly as secular people?
I have been to several different churches and right now am involved with one church quite a bit and have seen it in all but one of the churches, the lack of ministering to singles. There is no ministering to the single's needs per se. If someone in church finds out I am single, they immediately start talking about their husband or wife or the wife comes over or the husband moves away...
We have a single's group but at first it was all about how to avoid sin, now it brings married people into the group. We have small groups during the week which has singles and marrieds in them and that's fine, but why mess up the single's group with married people?And the emphasis is on outreach.
It is good for singles to reach out to others but sometimes people need healing within themselves first. Some singles are really hurting inside and need people that understand how they feel and can minister Jesus' love to them. As single we can feel very lonely at times and need just a phone call or a "come go with me to such and such..." or even, heaven forbid, "Would you like to come over for dinner?" We don't need to be treated as second class Christians.
I have written a book to encourage single people that God is still there even when you can't feel or see Him,(The Light in our Darkness) and have written several articles or blogs or whatever you want to call them, to share encouragement and have let the head of the Single's group -first one, then the other, know about them that I could even share with the group and I have gotten nowhere. There is an article just this month in the "Pentacostal Evangel"(pe@ag.org)about this very thing. This happens in all denominations, I am not just picking on AG churchs but we, as the Body of Christ, need to change things.
