Starting Out as a New Singles Minister
Starting as a new Single Adult Minister, I have learned so many wonderful things through the Lord. Still, these three are probably the most important I have learned:
We live in a world that pushes fleshly desires and what society thinks is important.
If you watch television or scroll through social media, you see a lot of selfishness and flesh desires. You know, a lot of sex propaganda, marriage prioritization, and finding what’s “true for you.” We live in a “nuclear family” society that pushes marriage and children as the goal of an adult’s life when that cannot be further from the truth. We live in a society that tells you to find out what’s “true for you” and how you can help yourself with self-help books. We live in a society that pushes marriage and that if you are not married, people act as if something is wrong with you. They immediately try to list people they know that they could set you up with, trying to push marriage and/or dating relationships on you.
Single Adults in the church can often fall through the cracks.
As unintentional as it may be, the local church can also subliminally push the same things as society does regarding marriage. As a local church, we love marriage retreats or conferences, marriage Sunday school classes (or small groups), focusing on outreach to families, and sermons based around marriage. All these things are beautiful things that the church should do, but we also need the flip side. As a local church, we need conferences or retreats for single adults. Single adults Sunday school classes (or small groups), a focus on reaching out to the single adults in our community.
Lastly, we need sermon illustrations that do not put someone who is not married. When we do not focus on reaching single adults, we often find ourselves putting single adults in a state of limbo where they are cast aside or forgotten. We unintentionally leave them out of events promoted at the church, ultimately making them feel unwelcome. It is crucial to building a community of believers where single adults can feel welcome and not feel alone in the body of Christ.
The Lord is Sovereign.
As a single adult minister, I have learned that despite what the world and society portray and fail as followers of Christ, the Lord is Sovereign and is who we must lean on Him. Despite the world, we have hope and joy in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Three verses that come to mind in The Word that talks about what the Lord has done for us are these three:
- Ephesians 2:4-5 “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.”
- Colossians 1:13-14 “For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
- Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.”
Our life and purpose is found in Jesus Christ and in Him alone. Once we have salvation through Him, we have a mission given to us by Him called the Great Commission which can be found in Matthew 28:19-20. It says, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” We know that our life will not be fulfilled by marriage, fleshly desires, self-help, and anything else we try to tell ourselves would complete us. Instead, we know that we are fulfilled through the Lord and salvation in Him and how we are then to go and spread this excellent news to others.
As a single adult minister, I have learned that no matter where we are in life or what is going on in our life, our life has no meaning without Christ. But, in Christ, our life is full of hope and joy as we worship Him daily.
