National team convenes, plans regional
conferences
(June 17, 2001)
In their first national team meeting,
14 men and women from around the country recently convened in Springfield,
Mo., to pray, plan and strategize for the cause of singles in the nation.
Dennis
Franck
"We discussed how we could
help our churches and districts understand the numbers and needs of
the 79 million single and single-again people in this country,"
says Dennis Franck, director of the Single Adult Ministries Agency.
"We want to educate our senior pastors and A/G people on the need
for single and single-again ministries."
The team is planning eight regional
training conferences next year to bring singles together and serve single
adult ministry leaders, most of whom are laypeople. The conferences
will begin with a day of leadership training followed by a time of ministry
and fellowship for all singles.
Regional representatives are also
promoting singles ministry and providing districts and churches with
resources.
The Single Adult Ministries Agency
formed last July. About 20 percent of local A/G churches have a ministry
that targets single adults. Single-adult ministry is geared to people
who have never married, or are divorced, widowed or separated.
Carolyn Heuer, single adult pastor
at Christian Outreach Center in West Columbia, S.C., serves on the national
team. "I’m thankful that the A/G has started the Single Adult
Ministries Agency," she says. "Now in Pentecostal circles
we can reach and teach our singles how they can be single and Pentecostal."
Heuer is coordinating her state’s first
singles conference to be held later this year.
