Single Parents - A Missing Part of the Church Growth Jigsaw?

This is the second post in a series examining issues around church growth. In this post I want to explore one of the blind spots and areas of invisibility which I believe the research from the Church Growth Research Project and others is failing to address but which I believe are relevant in contemporary society. It is the first of two posts on this topic and is going to concentrate upon single parenthood as a social characteristic.

Reading through the research seems to touch upon parenthood, although issues of marital status appear to be avoided in most cases.

However, I want to argue that in the discussions of church growth and questions of how the church is succeeding or failing to engage with contemporary society the experiences of single parents in churches become important. I argue this particularly as the growth of Messy Church as one form of popular Fresh Expression is so important. I also point to the references made within the Cathedrals research to the services being designed or targeted at families with young children.

A question I posed in my research into the Experiences ofSingle Parents in Evangelical Churches regarding the religiosity of single parents was "can they, as has been suggested, be said to be less religious, or are there other factors which might make them less successful in the religious socialisation of their children? The question is then whether the lower likelihood of their children to attend church as adults results from them, or the children’s experience of church?"

I want to raise that question again in light of the recently published research but phrase it slightly differently, this time asking if single parents are amongst those contributing to church growth? And are changes in the church helping to make them more successful in the religious socialisation of their children?  

I understand these questions may be difficult to answer for a range of reasons but I think they are important to pose. Single parents now account for just over 20% of all families with children in England and Wales. Their growth as a proportion of the population has coincided with the steepest period of secularisation (although there is not a direct link between the two). In seeking to identify whether churches are becoming more successful in engaging with contemporary society this would be a relevant group to look at.

However, there are problems in doing this including the fact we don't actually know how under-represented single parents are in the church. The data provided to calculate this is at best incomplete and often completely missing. We also don't know how represented they are within the churches which are growing. This question has not been asked within research and it remains an area where we have to rely on anecdotal evidence. Secondly, we can't be clear exactly what the distribution is between white majority and black majority congregations and groups is. This needs to be explored because of the disproportionate level of single parenthood amongst some groups. It may be that the participation of single parents is growing, but primarily through the growth of black majority churches. Thirdly, we don't have adequate data to use to measure exactly what impact single parenthood has on a child's subsequent religiosity. Researchers such as Voas and Crockett have concentrated on samples of married couples within their research in this area.

It would also be interesting to look, amongst the lay leaders particularly, if they are more likely to contain single parents or former single parents amongst their numbers.

The reasons  I think it might be the case that these groups are more highly represented within Fresh Expressions particularly are that within my research it was found that the significant factors impacting the experience of single parents and the level of their involvement included the way that success was judged. Where the focus was on qualitative growth rather than on quantitative they were more likely to flourish. For these parents small groups were transformational spaces where they were able to grow. Whilst a number of Fresh Expressions didn't have small groups attached to them I wonder if Fresh Expressions by their very nature may have the similar conditions required for growth.

Growth involves change and this is something recognised by all the data available on the subject. My research suggested congregations which had gone through periods of change themselves were more able to support single parents by being able to identify with transition and loss as motifs in their lives.

Another important factor was attitudes to women in leadership. As the majority of single parents with care for their children are female environments which allow women to flourish and exercise their gifts will be more likely to utilise the skills of single parents. My very limited research suggested that single parents may already be in more positions of leadership than one might think and I would be interested to know if this is the case in relation to Fresh Expressions particularly, in light of the data on lay female leadership.

I would also be interested to know within the Fresh Expressions whether they are utilising the biblical material which tends to be missing from use within white majority inherited churches, due to its exclusion from the lectionary. Particularly here I am thinking of the narrative of Hagar and Ishmael including their relationship with Abraham and Sarah which provides rich material for use with single parents with and without care of their children.

So as I end this post I want to tentatively suggest that an addition to the areas for further research is the place of single parents within church growth and particularly within Fresh Expressions.