wfn.org | Leaders "race" toward single adult ministry ideas

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

July 24, 2002	News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.     10-71B{322}

NOTE: Photographs are available with this story.

By Linda Green*

INDIANAPOLIS (UMNS)--When leaders of United Methodist single adult
ministries started their engines and saw the checkered flag come down, they
were off and running on a four-day "track" to discover new ideas in singles
ministries.

"Race to Indy," was a July 18-21 national conference for leaders of single
adult ministries to learn about new ideas and resources and meet colleagues
in ministry. The biennial event is related to the churchwide Board of
Discipleship and United Methodist Single Adult Leaders. Single adult
ministries serve people who have never married or are divorced or widowed.

The "Race to Indy" event was the first single adult conference sponsored by
the United Methodist Single Adult Leaders' (UMSAL) organization. The singles
ministries of St. Luke's United Methodist Church, Indianapolis hosted the
four-day single adult networking, training and celebration experience.

Since they were meeting in the home of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway --
the 2.5-mile track that is home to the Indianapolis 500 race -- conference
participants seized upon the racing theme during their work together.   

One of the pacesetters for the conference was Harold Ivan Smith, who
presented information related to the future of singles ministry. 

One great frustration in single adult ministry, he said, is seeing the
potential for leadership in a person who moves to another place, adding that
single adults move from place to place to get their needs met. "One of the
great difficulties is how do you meet all the needs," he said.

Within the next 12 months, 17 percent or one in five Americans will move to
new locations, said Smith, who is based in Kansas City, Mo. and is one of
the founding members of the Network of Single Adult Leaders and a renowned
speaker on grief and single issues.

In the church, a person may be in the congregation one Sunday, "but will you
have them the next Sunday, especially those single adults without children?
They may be down the street [at] 'What's Happening Central' next week," he
said.

Smith highlighted several issues affecting churches' ministries with single
adults today.   The first is the "doughnuting" of cities.  The center of the
doughnut used to be the core of the city-the heart and workplace of society.
Today, the core is the place where people come downtown to work and then
return home to suburbs. In this instance, the potential for single adult
ministry for a downtown church is different that that of a suburban church. 

Urban sprawl and congestion are symptomatic of the second trend impacting
single adult ministry.  Programming in many areas must be scheduled to
accommodate commuting time, he said, adding that some churches schedule
evening singles events as late as 8 p.m. to allow participants time to get
home from work and then to church.   

Finding ways to reach people beyond their physical and emotional "gates" is
another challenge for singles ministries, Smith contended. He used the image
of people living in gated communities as an example. People leave their
homes to go out and complete a task, return and "draw the bridge up. I pull
into my world," he said. The people inside must decide for themselves "when
they will lower the bridge so that you can cross into their lives," Smith
said. 

The fourth issue affecting ministry to single adults is the stressed pace in
which people live their lives.  People live with a level of stress that is
so ungodly and so unhealthy that they will not be able to keep up, he said.
Ministry today is to highly stressed people where temper flair-ups or
emotional outbursts become part of a group's dynamic.  Smith said the
outbursts have nothing to do with a group issue but "are merely the last
straw in a long day." 

A fifth challenge facing single adult ministry is helping people overcome
the fear they have of others.  Smith contended that since Sept. 11 that fear
has been enhanced and will become more intense. As he talked of diversity,
he pointed to the United Methodist Church's commitment to others and said
the denomination's greatest power in these times is dissembling fear.

Lyn St. James, one of the first women to win national recognition as a race
car driver, used the speedway theme in her address to participants titled,
"The Ride of Your Life."  She stressed the need for determination and
persistence, both in offering ministries with singles adults and in living
as a single person.

Terry Hershey of Vashon, Wash., the founder of Christian Focus, an
organization that offers seminars on building healthy relationships,
stressed the seven habits of people who love life. Such people, he said:  

7	Know that life is sacred and are intoxicated and astonished with the
world; 
7	Know that life/growth is a journey and success does not require
arrival; 
7	Want what they already have; 
7	Give no heed to public opinion; 
7	Practice the art of doing nothing; 
7	Delight in their friends; and 
7	Give the children in themselves "the wide sky" and "understand that
laughter is a type of prayer."

UMSAL, established in 1994, is an association created to network, facilitate
and advocate for single adult ministries at all levels of the United
Methodist Church.  The denomination's Social Principles affirm the integrity
of single people and call on the church to "reject all social practices that
discriminate or social attitudes that are prejudicial against persons
because they are single."

# # #
*Green is news director of the Nashville, Tenn.-based office of United
Methodist News Service.

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United Methodist News Service
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