How Married Adults Can Minister to Single Adults

A great divide exists between married adults and single adults in the church today. Many single adults feel like a fifth wheel in our family-oriented churches. Announcements, such as, “ladies, talk to your husbands about your attending the upcoming women’s retreat,” exclude up to 45 percent of women in the church. Married women sometimes feel guarded and suspicious of single women who befriend them and their husbands. Many times church staff look to married adults before single adults when filling key leadership positions. Ironically, this is the opposite of Paul’s perspective. Paul indicated that single adults have more time and flexibility of schedule to minister and are not encumbered with the potential challenges and stresses of marriage and caring for a spouse (1 Corinthians 7:32–35).

Many single adults are not attending church because of the perception, (whether intended or not) that church ministries are directed mostly toward married adults and families. The common practice of befriending like people (married to married, and single to single) prevails in most churches, despite the emphasis of reaching out to each other.