Welcoming Single Parents

This guest post by Wendy Alsup explores how the local church can welcome, include, and minister to single parents. It is part of my “Welcoming…” series, which features first-person articles on how to welcome various demographics into our lives and church communities. Previous installations include “Welcoming the Hearing Loss Community” and “Welcoming the Eating Disorder Community.” 

My little church plant in the Lowcountry of South Carolina has many single parents. On a given Sunday with 40 in attendance, at least 15 regular attenders are single parents and their children. Most are single mothers with primary custody of their children. Continue reading “Welcoming Single Parents”

Recommended: “Becoming a Church That Cares Well for the Abused”

Over the past two weeks, I completed the “Becoming a Church That Cares Well for the Abused” curriculum (and other free abuse training material available through Ministry Grid).
 
I recommend that every church leader, ministry worker, and church member complete it. Having everyone in the church view this material and understand the basics of how to address abuse will go along ways toward having a unified and helpful approach to abuse prevention, response, and care.
 
There are 12 video lessons (~20 minutes each), which are word-for-word what is in the accompanying book (available as a free PDF download).
 
Please carve out some time to benefit from this resource. It doesn’t take much time to complete. You could complete it in 4 hours—a couple evenings or a Saturday morning.
 

BIG NEWS on My Fiction Writing

It’s 2:30 am. I can’t sleep, but I’m too tired to do real work, so I thought I’d share some BIG NEWS about my fiction writing!

I wrote a novel several years ago.

I would have NEVER dreamed back then what God—in his infinite kindness and unending faithfulness—would be doing with it today.

I. AM. SO. #BLESSED.

I thought it might encourage some of you to hear about it. Continue reading “BIG NEWS on My Fiction Writing”

Textbooks for Seminary Sisters

Do you know a woman who could use $150 in seminary textbooks?

I just realized I have $140 in gift cards for the Westminster Theological Seminary Book Store (a great place to find good books).

I pondered a bit on what to buy with them. But, honestly, I have a lot of books. More than I’ve read. Maybe more than I need! (Nah…) My church is gracious to provide me with needed books. Publishers supply me with books to review. In short, there was nothing I needed right now.

So, I decided that I want to use these to buy textbooks for a woman receiving academic theological education. Women enrolled in a seminary course for credit this fall can enter here. The winner will be picked on July 31.

There are a host of reasons that seminary education is a good thing for sisters to enroll in (and many more reasons why it can be difficult for them to receive)—more reasons than I can outline here. I’m hoping this is one small way I can help make this happen for one woman.

If you know of a woman attending seminary this fall, please share this with her.