This post is part of a series entitled, “A Comprehensive Church-Based Ministry to Single Moms“.
In my continuing series on ministering to single moms, I want to recommend existing parachurch and church-based single moms ministries that we can study and utilize. Sadly, though single mom households make up a large percentage of households in America, there is a dearth of ministries to single moms, both on the national and local level. Below are some of those available. (If you know of others, please leave a comment below.)
National and Regional Parachurch Single Moms Ministries
Here are three excellent national single moms ministries and one regional single moms ministry for your consideration.
The Life of a Single Mom – Founded by Jennifer Maggio, The Life of a Single Mom sponsors support groups in churches across America, and provides an online “Single Mom University,” that covers a multitude of topics relevant to single moms.
Single and Parenting – A ministry of Church Initiative, which is also known for its DivorceCare and GriefShare ministries, Single and Parenting, like The Life of a Single Mom, sponsors support groups in churches for single moms. But unlike TLSM, these groups also include single dads.
New Commandment Men’s Ministries – As described in more detail above, New Commandment Men’s Ministries has helped 1,000 churches recruit teams of 3-4 men who permanently adopt single moms and their children. (New Commandment also forms teams to serve widows and others with long term needs.)
Each team serves their single mom by doing projects around their residence for two hours, one Saturday morning each month, returning to the same single mom for years long ministry.
Single Mom KC – A mostly regional ministry serving the Kansas City area, Single Mom KC holds weekly, monthly, and yearly meetings, conferences, and events. Their goal is to connect families and communities to single mothers.
Agape Moms – Agape Moms provides online resources for single moms such as a blog, a podcast, a private Facebook group, and other resources.
Church-Based Single Moms Ministries
Here are specific examples of churches with single moms ministries.
Lake Avenue Church – Lake Avenue’s Single Moms Support Group is one of the best church-based single moms ministries I’ve seen. Their support groups are for single moms who are in all stages of relationships. They provide a safe, caring, Christian environment to enjoy fellowship & share their experiences, fears and challenges with others. Through the Lake Avenue Church Family they provide lay and professional connections, education and encouragement to their group members to help them heal and grow spiritually and emotionally and to help them improve their parenting skills.
They meet once a month for two hours. The meeting includes 30 minutes of social time, 45 minutes of share and prayer time, and 45 minutes of speaker time (Christian professionals addressing topics that are pertinent to single moms such as Therapists; Financial Advisers; Family Law Attorneys; Parenting Skills Trainers, etc.)
Lake Avenue Church makes it clear that all ages and all kinds of single moms are welcome: divorced, unmarried, custodial/non-custodial, widow, adoption and foster parent single moms, grandparent raising grandchildren, and married but separated.
Children are welcome at these meetings. Members of the group volunteer to watch the children during the sharing and speaker time.
Healing Place Church – Healing Place Church holds a Bible study just for single moms so that they can connect with other women who are raising their children alone. They focus on issues that single moms face (parenting, finances, emotional stability, etc.) in a relaxed and comfortable environment. They provide child care for children 6 weeks through age 16.
Calvary Chapel of Fort Lauderdale – Calvary’s Single and Parenting group features video seminars that deal with issues relevant to single moms.
Again, let us know if you are aware of additional successful single moms ministries.
Since 2003 New Commandment Men’s Ministries has helped hundreds of churches throughout North America and around the world recruit teams of men who permanently adopt widows, single moms and fatherless children in their congregations for the purpose of donating two hours of service to them one Saturday morning each month. We accomplish this with a free training site called New Commandment Men’s Ministry Learn how to mobilize your men’s ministry to meet every pressing need in your church at newcommandment.org.
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Learn how to form teams of men for every widow, single mom
and fatherless child in your church at NewCommandment.org.
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