SINGLE WOMEN: CHALLENGE TO THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

Kirstin Aune
I picked this up on Spring Harvest (one of the only 3 books relating to singleness in the book store). This book is a survey done on single women in the Church, written mainly to Evangelical Church leaders. The main aim of the book is to highlight the numbers of single women in the church, to show what issues they face, what support they have received from the church and to offer suggested action for the church to take based on the results and at the same time produce a theology of singleness.

A lot of facts and figures in this, both about society and the church. The main are as follows:
65% of the evangelical congregation are Female
35% of the evangelical congregations are single
68% of the SINGLE evangelical congregation are Female

In relation to the Church and it’s teaching on singleness the author found:
In Church:
40% had never heard a sermon on singleness
40% had heard very little on singleness
20% had heard a limited amount
Out of Church:
20% had been given teaching, in small group context or Christian unions at Uni
Overall:
1/3 had never had any teaching on singleness. (Shocking, yes)


The author divides her survey into sections: Society, the Church, Relationships, Husband hunting (issues relating to men, sex and romance) and Attitudes (of society, and from within the church). In general the book, shows the research of both positive and negative experiences of single women in these areas, often citing their comments from the survey to give real insight into the minds and hearts and experiences (many rather sad) of the women in our pews.

This book does make shocking reading, it shows that there really are very mixed views across the evangelical churches on how women look at singleness and its related issues. Also highlighted is a perceived duality, where women can see singleness in a positive light but due to experience and pressures (of society, biological and within the Church) regard singleness as an inferior state to marriage.

Chapter 5 in the book the writer forms her theology on singleness. This is a concise and excellent piece of writing. First she discusses the Old Testament theology of marriage, family and salvation. Then she explains how the coming of Jesus radically changes that. That we now belong to a spiritual family, that salvation and expanding that spiritual family comes through evangelism (spiritual reproduction not biological). She also shows that now marriage within the new testament is secondary to heaven and all believers should pursue heaven first. She also looks at Jesus’ teaching and also the 1 Corinthians passage. I recommend this chapter to all people no mater their marital status! The writer also looks at female sexuality and how to express it as a single Christian, well I’m a guy and I didn’t really get much of this, I agree that we are commanded to remain celibate (as does the author) yet we are not called to repress our sexuality (though how this works out for women I cannot comment)

Also in the book is the issue of where are all the men? She highlights the need for more outreach to men, NOT for the sake of providing men for al the single women, BUT because all people need the gospel and this is an area where the church is not reaching.

The last chapter of the book is her recommendations for the Church. Most of all more teaching on singleness by people who understand, more care/awareness in the church for singles and what the gift of singleness means. And the urgent need for more women’s ministry.

The book is a survey and does highlight areas of struggle for single women within the Church, the issues relating to attitudes of the Church to singles also impact single men as well. I do feel the book gets a bit het up on the issue of female-leadership, and takes opportunity to use the book as a platform to put forward her own opinion on the subject. I think that it is matter for church leadership and members should respect the stance of their church, yet the ideas and opinions of single women need to be considered within the Church.

Overall this book is a wake up call to the church, a call to examine its views on and attitudes to singleness and whether they are shaped by the bible or culture! The chapter on theology is concrete and worth reading.? The book as a whole is especially useful to church leaders and those who have roles in ministry of any kind. A book that certainly requires a response. Times have changed yet has the Church?