Conference yukon::christian_v7

No experience or useful suggestions here, but I'd like to wish you every 
blessing in this commitment, Tom.  My church has had a similar group for 
many years, but it hasn't been a very significant spiritual force in the 
church yet, and the naming has frequently been a sore - or amusing - point....

I suppose the balance of activities it supports depends upon the 
predominant standing of those in the targetted age range.  If there is a 
significant core of deeply committed people, there will be a good bonding, 
and most / all activities will take on a spiritual depth, or support an 
evangelistic effort.

My church has been established for 100 years, and there has been a lot of
'second generation' Christians in the 20-30 age range.  For them,
conversion didn't imply a traumatic spiritual step, breaking with a former
way of life, neither have they had a depth of teaching or experience of the 
LORD personally, to separate them from the world's appetites.  Hence the 
'group' has been loosely bound and tended to have a large proportion of 
purely 'social' activities.  Of course, this is a rather subjective
perspective, and doesn't apply to 'everyone' by any means.  Just that the
younger ones who *are* committed tend to be involved in service, rather 
than the group amusements, yet might well be the core at the Bible study /
prayer focussed activities for that age. I know that Fergus, my second lad,
has particularly found a contrast between the 20/30 group at home, and the
more committed group in Liverpool where he studies. 


And after saying I'd nothing to say, I take 20+ lines not to say it... ;-)

								Andrew

Hi Tom,

I am actively involved in the leadership of the Singles' ministry in my church.
Our ministry to Singles' consists of Sunday Bible study (part of our Sunday
School programme) led by the Pastor's wife, and a Friday evening fellowship.
In addition to the Sunday and Friday activities, this summer we have had
a programme (sometimes irregular) of sports activities on Saturday afternoons,
this has provided a good opportunity for some outreach work too.

The key to a successful Singles' ministry is to find out what the singles
would like to do.  Our Friday evening fellowship has evolved a lot from when it
first started.  It started as primarily a prayer fellowship, a time of sharing
with no structured Bible study.  This year we changed the focus of our Friday
fellowship to include a structured Bible study, a typical Friday fellowship
starts with 20-30 minutes of praising the Lord through song. We follow this
with a time of sharing prayer needs and an open prayer time, after the prayer
time we have the Bible study (this year so far we have studied Nehemiah,
had a short study on Eschatology, Amos, and are currently doing a study on the
Glory of God).  When I'm leading the Bible study I try to keep it fairly short
typically 20 to 30 minutes (ok, sometimes I get carried away and go a bit
longer).  After the study, we have an open house, people can stay and chat,
have a drink (usually a cup of tea) and some biscuits (cookies). I should
have said earlier that we hold this fellowship in my appartment.  Fellowship
is very important for Singles.

I would suggest starting your Singles' ministry with a social evening
(definitely have something to eat together).  Also remember that there 
are different categories of single adults that have different needs.
Never-married, divorced/separated, widows/widowers, and do not forget Single
parents (you may need to arrange some form of child-care if you are ministering
to Single parents).  These categories can span a wide range of ages.  The
singles in my church are predominately in the 25-35 age group.  

The most important thing to provide in any singles' ministry is a loving, 
caring atmosphere, a place where people are accepted for who they are.  
Singular living is an acceptable lifestyle.  Singles can achieve wholeness
in Christ.  Another thing is that a singles' ministry has an important
place in the overall ministry of the church. Singles should be encouraged
to get involved in other ministries of your church.

An active singles' ministry needs to be both involved in inreach (reaching
the singles already in the church) and in outreach, reaching out to other
singles in your community.  Outreach needs to be planned carefully, there
are some people that would feel threatened being invited to a Bible study,
but would love to participate in some sporting or cultural activity.                                              
I could write more on this, but I think I've hit the main points.  Feel free
to contact me via mail for more information or with any questions.

In Him,

Graham

Hi,

I've not been a single for 4+ years now, but I hope you'll let me 
advance an opinion.

I think that a singles group should be somewhat like what I think all
groups for any particular subset of people within a church should be - 
an eclectic mixture of education, service to the church and service to 
your community, fun and "fellowship", and worship.  The purpose should 
be to integrate people into the life of the church and into a giving, 
serving, obedient, trusting, faithful and joyous relationship with God.

Fun activities like hikes, picnics, concerts, barbecues, dinners, volley
ball or other sports.  Meetings for prayer, praise, and study.  Service 
activities like serving as a group in soup kitchens, visiting the elderly 
in nursing homes, putting together events for the whole church, taking
responsibility for the coffee hour after services once a month or so, 
supporting missions, periodically doing something for and with the youth
in the church - like a big brother, big sister type activity.  Finally,
bringing in people or having a session devoted to speaking about a concern
that is particular to that specific group - maybe a session on finding and
living with roomates, or something about how to be an integrated part of 
the church which often seems to be geared to families rather than singles, 
or maybe about relationships with parents who perhaps don't regard their 
unmarried offspring as being fully grown-up until they are married.

Leslie

    
    Thanks folks for your contributions, which have been extremely helpful.
    
    yours,
    
    Tom.