Major Mistakes
Major Mistakes the Church the
is Making with
Church is Making
Single Parents by Robert Beeson with Single Parents
I hated Sundays. That was the day I was reminded I didn’ t fit in anymore... anywhere. Once a vibrant part of the church community, I had loved joining my people, worshiping, taking in God’ s Word, and recharging spiritually. But after my divorce, that familiar experience disappeared. Vanished. Now different, I fell from inclusion into seclusion.
My three young daughters and I walked into church alone. I felt their eyes on me, sometimes stares. I imagined their questions: Where’ s the mom? What’ s his deal? Who failed whom? Maybe some were thinking or whispering those words, and maybe they weren’ t. Regardless, one thing I knew for sure was that my people had become those people. I was the odd one out in the
20 • Solutions pew. I didn’ t fit, didn’ t belong. Nobody actually said that; they didn’ t have to. I just felt it. It was a horribly real experience of being treated like an outsider where I once was very much an insider.
One out of every three families in the U. S. is a solo-parented family. Sixty-seven percent of those families don’ t attend church because 1) they feel judged and 2) they feel as if they don’ t belong. They are now cast off, sometimes unknowingly and unintentionally, to search for healing alone.
My words here are not intended to convey contempt but rather sadness. I personally walked this solo road, and I have become close to many solo-parent