Published: September 8, 2023
Single parents can live dizzying lives. They may be reeling from seasons of change and new beginnings. Trying to exist on only a few hours’ sleep; dealing with upset children; and managing a once two-parent home on a one-parent income is almost more than any one person can handle.
When you understand life in a single-parent home, when you can empathize with those families, when you truly welcome them, then God can work through you and his church to minister to this huge segment of population in your community. Here are three practical tips on how to welcome and encourage single parents in your children’s ministry.
1. Intentionally connect with single parents.
Connect with and encourage single parents. Provide resources or brief articles about parenting alone. Text or email uplifting Scriptures that apply to their particular situation. Text encouraging messages, especially on the weekends their children aren’t home. Introduce them to other single parents and help them find much needed community support in your church.
2. Encourage single parents by ministering to their kids.
Intentionally minister and mentor the kids in their relationships with God. Model an everyday walk with God, and model what God’s grace, care, and kindness look like.
You may match kids with a volunteer mentor from your church who is willing to connect with the parent and spend a little extra time with the child at church or throughout the week.
3. Become an advocate for these families in your ministry.
Spend time in prayer for individual children and their single parents. Be encouraged that you have the chance to offer them God’s love and your church’s support.
Rejoice when each and every child shows up in your Sunday school ministry, ready to learn about Jesus. Get excited when these children’s faces light up as they understand something new about God!
This excerpt comes from Sunday School That Works! This resource is full of practical solutions to help you strengthen and enrich your Sunday school ministry. Looking for more family ministry resources? Check out these posts.
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