BEING SINGLE: CULTURE VS. CHURCH
How Singleness Looks Today.
How is singleness playing out in our culture?
This week, we’ve been studying singleness. Specifically, we looked at Paul’s instruction to the unmarried Christians in the Corinthian church, found in 1 Cor. 7.
As I described the immoral culture of Corinth in yesterday’s post, maybe some of you thought, “That sounds a lot like our culture!“
I must admit, as I’ve studied the book of 1 Corinthians, it’s crossed my mind more than once. As pleasure and sexuality becomes more and more valued, Western culture seems to be trending toward a Corinthian-style culture.
And much like the culture of Corinth, any and all relationships are at risk.
Singleness On the Rise
With that cultural shift, singleness is on the rise. Outreach Magazine reports that 48% of female adults and 42% of male adults are single. And these rates have increased over the past 10 to 15 years.
Clearly there are a lot of single out there and the culture is showing us that there will be more in the future. Caveat: This is not always by choice.
Many of our singles desire marriage but our culture has created an environment where marital-commitment seems unattainable or even undesired.
What Can the Church Do?
Before we get too downhearted, let’s remember what Paul said to the Corinthian church. Maybe our culture’s increased singleness is an incredible ministry opportunity?
This week, I’ve discovered that God is using singles in amazing ways! Let’s take a quick look at what they’re doing for the Gospel.
The Mission Field
According to Mission Network News, “Two thirds of active missionaries are married couples. Another third are single women. The rest are single men.“
This is actually a joke that is often quoted throughout the mission field and at mission’s conferences, highlighting the number of single woman who choose mission work. (Sorry, that was mean fellas.)
The real statistic is: “For AIM (African Inland Missions) and other similar organizations, somewhere between 80 and 85 percent of all single missionaries are women. For every 10 singles sent, only 2 are men.” (MNNonline.org/News/New-Statistics-On-Single-Men-In-Missions)
Clearly, our single woman winning in the mission field! For whatever reason, single Christian women are willing to travel all over the world to serve people and share the Gospel. It’s amazing!
That being said there is a massive need for single men in the mission field. I found one great example of this with AIM ministers in Lesotho, Africa. They’re currently reaching our to a wilderness shepherd community.
AIM has an opportunity for a group of men to live and work with these shepherds, and share the Gospel with them. In that culture it would inappropriate and potentially dangerous for women to serve in that role. Single men are needed in the mission field!
That’s the mission field, but what about here in the Western church?
Singles In Ministry
Singles are winning at home as well!
The trend is that singles are becoming more mission-oriented, abroad and locally. Churches are capitalizing on the time and devotion of singles, that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 7.
Singles are moving past social events and finding community with each other through service and evangelism opportunities. Singles have become key to growing the local church.
Young Adults Pastor Jarrett Stephens reported that, “Single adults are available for mission projects…Serving the community together builds community with each other. There’s something about working for one common goal.“
“Stephens notes that service projects have been catalysts to seeing single adults at the church become more evangelistic…We’ve seen more of our core group reaching out to unchurched singles to bring them into the ministry.”
Engaging Singles
In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul states that marriage isn’t sinful, but he clearly promotes singleness as the better option. How should we process that?
Has the church idolized marriage in past few decades? Do we unknowingly look down at singleness?
I think too often, we celebrate marriage as the better option. We get excited about couples and families, which are good things, (don’t get me wrong). But there needs to be balance in our conversation.
How are we celebrating singleness in our church? How are we engaging singles? Clearly singles are a major asset to the church!
Let’s thank God for our singles. Prayerfully, let’s ask the Lord, “Am I valuing our singles? Do I appreciate them? Do I celebrate them? Am I spending time with them? Am I learning from them?“
May God bring the church into a place that we engage the season of singleness.
