This is Felicia Ferguson with Christian Mix 106, helping you build faith for the journey.
As a single woman, it can be hard finding my place in a church because I don’t fit in the categories found in most of their ministries. I’m not married. I don’t have kids. I’ve not even been divorced. So, the typical programs offered (couples’ groups, parenting and children’s ministries, or Divorce Care) don’t fit me. Now, most of the larger churches I’ve been affiliated with do have a singles’ group. But unfortunately, those haven’t been much different from an online dating app.
As I tried church after church, I came to loathe the well-meaning conversations with members as they tried to make me fit into one of their pre-established ministry categories. Kind women would ask, “So, you’re new here … tell me, are you married? Do you have children?” And when I had to answer no to both, well, let’s just say the conversations pretty much stalled. They began scrambling for another topic, and I started looking for the exit.
However, when I moved to Colorado and started attending my new church, I was stunned. None of the welcoming conversations I had with members even hinted at my marital or parenting status. They wanted to know me. Not me as someone’s wife, someone’s parent, someone’s ex, or someone looking for a date. Who was I? What did I enjoy doing? What brought me to the area? It was incredibly refreshing and a welcome unlike any other.
I joined a life group a few weeks later and have enjoyed doing life with four couples who continue to see and value me as just me.
And then, few Sundays ago, one of the life group members welcomed me to church with a big hug and said, “There’s a seat for you.” Now, she saves me a seat with her husband and family every week that they are there. But this time, those simple words of welcome, acceptance, and love hit me right in the gut.
There is a seat for me here. Just me. As I am.
And I as pondered her words and their impact on me, I remembered. There’s a seat for everyone at God’s table. We are accepted as we are. Single or married. Parent or childless. Sinful, messed up, making wrong choices, even thinking we’re too far gone to save. There’s a seat for us.
So come as you are. Seek him, choose his will for your life, and follow him. And watch him change your titles from rejected to accepted. From lost to found. From unloved to loved as you grow in your relationship with him.
This is Felicia Ferguson. Thanks for listening to Christian Mix 106
