Leader Resources for Single Parent Family Ministry

Disclaimer: Links are provided for your information and research. Sites and resources are not necessarily endorsed.

AMFM Single Parent Ministry Team Member Resources

AMFM Single Parents Facebook Page: Join our group for information, networking, and discussions for both leaders and single parents.

Arise Ministries/Pam Kanaly (http://www.ariseministries.net) is an outreach to all women with a special interest for single mothers. It offers a statewide single mothers’ conference Oklahoma and through The Firm Foundation Fund helps single moms with education expenses, professional development, car or home repairs, camps for children, and medical expenses. 

Bethel Foundation/Lynda Powell (www.bethelfoundationusa.com/) is a non profit organization in Oklahoma that provides parenting services, resources for single moms, temporary housing, etc.

Blending A Family Ministry/Moe and Paige Becnel (www.blendingafamily.com), authors of God Breathes on Blended Families, met in 1987 and married in 1989, blending a family of five children. The Becnels are Singles Pastors at Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, (leading singles, single parent, divorce recovery and Blended Family ministries) and speak to groups on singles, single parent, and blended families.

Changing Families (www.changingfamilies.com), headquartered in Charleston, SC, provides services to help families facing changing dynamics. Directors Tom and Helen Wheeler are national speakers and pioneers in working with the local court system to help families find a “new normal.”

Esla Kok Colopy www.Elsakokcolopy.com, a former editor at Focus on the Family, is a writer and speaker on topics such as The Single Mom’s Guide to Finding Joy in the Chaos and 99 Ways to Fight Worry and Stress.

Single-Parent FamilyLife/Robert and Carrie Green (www.singleparentfamilylife.com) offers ongoing support to single parent families and those wanting to help meet their needs. This site provides current information and practical assistance, while enabling a way to connect. Their Facebook page is available as a place where anyone can go to connect to family topics.

Linda Ranson Jacobs’ site, www.hlp4.com provides help for creating “Healthy Loving Partnerships” for the kids in our world. It features articles for single parents, those working with children from single parent families, military families, grandparents parenting again, adult children of divorce, and working with children with challenging behaviors. Linda is a child-development expert, national speaker, and developer of DC4K.

Mercy Tree Ministries/Brenda Armstrong www.mercytree.org/ trains and consults with churches to start or grow ministries, refers single parents, and provides opportunities for leaders to serve single parents. Brenda is a national speaker and author of several resources, including Financial Relief for Single Parents. Mercy Tree Ministries carries the “Single Parent Ministry Training” series Brenda created with Larry Burkett to show churches how to meet the practical needs of single parents.

The Big D: Divorce Thru the Eyes of a Teen/Krista Smith www.thebigdinfo.com/ provides a program for teens that are experiencing the divorce of their parents. Resources and materials include instruction for a weekend lock-in or a twelve-week curriculum to be used in local churches.

SMORE for Women/Gail Showalter http://www.smoreforwomen.org/ provides the guidelines and instructions necessary to host Single Mom Saturday Day of Blessings offering treats and encouragement for deserving single mothers. A booklet, called Seed Packets, containing stories, articles, and information about the theme of the Day of Blessings is also provided for the moms.

Parenting Resources

Crosswalk.com Single Parent Resources http://www.crosswalk.com/parenting/singleparents/, member of the Salem Web Network, a subsidiary of Salem Communications Corporation, the site offers single parent related articles, devotionals, and newsletters for Christian living.

National Center for Biblical Parenting (www.biblicalparenting.org) provides good resources for single parent families, a forum and phone coaching for single parents and for church leaders that serve them. A free e-newsletter with parenting tips available by registration.

Teaching Resources

Casey Life Skills www.caseylifeskills.org provides materials and online tools for teaching life skills to teens and others.

Help 4 Teachers http://help4teachers.com/ is a website for teachers, parents, or leaders who work with children. Free newsletter is available to those who register. 

Ministries and Ministry Resources

Center for Single Parent Family Ministry, http://www.spfm.org/, is the site for the ministry headed by Gary Sprague author of Kids Hope, a program for children of divorce. The center is based in a retreat lodge, which hosts getaways for single parent families and leadership retreats.

Christ Our Shepherd Ministries www.cosministries.org in Charlotte, NC, is a model child care ministry designed to help single parent families and is featured in More Than Baby-Sitting, Ministering through Child Care. The center features a library that has the largest collection of resources for single parents and offers an annual single parent conference. 

Common Steps www.commonsteps.org in Austin, TX, provides education and support to people struggling with life events, such as death, separation, divorce, remarriage, and career changes. The organization is developing a prototype of pooling resources in their local community around Austin DivorceCare to provide families with a hub of information and resources.

Dealing with Divorce, Christianity Today www.christianbiblestudies.com provides a Bible study called “Dealing with Divorce” that can be used to help educate church leaders about the need of reaching out to the child of divorce.

DC4K (DivorceCare for Kids) www.dc4k.org is a hugely popular curriculum that is used by churches worldwide to minister to children experiencing the divorce of their parents. Visit the ParentZone at http://www.dc4k.org/parentzone/library for articles on single parenting.

FamilyLife http://www.familylife.com/Single_parenting.htm – Created by Dennis and Barbara Rainey on the principle that the family provides the foundation for society, the ministry offers a wide range of tools to help families become stronger. The link is to resources, articles and features for single parent families.

DivorceCare www.divorcecare.org is one of the most utilized programs for churches to minister to people experiencing divorce. It is the parental companion for DC4K used in churches worldwide. One year of free daily devotions emails are available by registering at www.divorcecare.org/dailyemails/.

Hope and Help for the Single Mom; 21 Principles of a Healthy Single Mom http://www.hope4singlemoms.com/ is a Bible Study / small group video series designed to raise single moms to a new level and encourage them to flourish spiritually in every aspect of their life, leading single moms to live a life of purpose and meaning, focus and order, balance and harmony. Developed by Lori Little, with John Trent, Stormie Omartian, Brenda Armstrong & more.

New Start 4 Moms http://www.newstart4moms.org/, a curriculum created by Diane Strack, helps single parents build courage for the future from the pain of the past, grow fresh with hope and God-given confidence, and gain freedom from fear with Christ-centered relationships and mentors.

Single Parent Family Resources, Canada, www.singleparentfamilyresources.com, features Just Me & the Kids curriculum and provides links and information useful to Single Parent Family Ministries leaders.

Slippery Slope http://www.sonsetpointministries.com  – Is a board game available in three formats, one for kids, one for teens, and one for adults, designed to help people of all ages open up and deal with their feelings and emotions associated with separation and/or divorce.  Kids jump from lily pad to lily pad, teens ride a roller coaster and adults experience the journey. 

Research and Informational Links

A Woman’s Guide to Divorce/Claudia Broome claudiabroome.com, is a site by a motivational speaker and author that provides articles, links, and blogs to encourage women going through divorce.

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry http://www.aacap.org/cs/forFamilies features a “Facts for Families” section with reproducible pages.

American Values Institute www.americanvalues.org features articles and documentaries with Elizabeth Marquardt on children of divorce, what churches need to do, and how children of divorce fare as adults.

Barna Group, www.barna.org, does research on a number of issues and is a highly reputable site for research information. Please note permissions policies for all sites and links for quoting.

Board Game Central http://www.boardgamecentral.com/ is a resource for board game information, rules, software, and links for traditional family board games as well as new games that you might want to introduce to families or use for game night activities.

Brain Development is important to anyone working with children. These sites provide useful information, research and articles:

·  http://www.childtraumaacademy.com/;

·  http://www.ncwiseowl.org/kscope/TeacherHut/Teachley/index.html;

·  http://www.brains.org/articles.htm; 

·  www.consciousdiscipline.com (Dr. Becky Bailey has up to date research on the brain and how to apply it to various discipline situations. Site features practical and free advice for teachers and parents).

·  http://schillereducationalresources.com is a resource site for teachers of early childhood programs, early childhood church programs, and parents of young children. Free handouts available on the site

Connect for Kids www.connectforkids.org is a child advocacy group with numerous informational links and articles relating to child welfare. 

Divorce Info www.divorceinfo.com features articles on divorce, children and parenting written by a divorce lawyer.

Extension Services, such as the North Carolina Extension Family and Consumer Sciences http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/fcs/ and University of Minnesota Extension http://www.extension.umn.edu/parentsforever/ features resources for helping parents and child-care staff. Most college and state Extension offices are good resources for this type of information.

GriefShare www.griefshare.org/ features a curriculum for churches to use with people who have lost a loved one to death. Many widowed single parents find comfort in this program. One year of free daily emails available by registering at www.griefshare.org/dailyemails/.

Heritage Foundation http://www.heritage.org/ provides articles and research on various topics; type in any subject, such as “divorce,” for extensive results.

Kids Count Data Center www.aecf.org, the Annie E Casey Foundation provides statistics on children in every state in the US.

Kids Health http://kidshealth.org is one of the most visited sites on children’s health issues. It features sections for parents, kids, and teens and has hundreds of fact pages on many different kid issues including children of divorce and grief issues. 

Ohioline, the Ohio State University Family Life site http://ohioline.osu.edu/lines/fami.html provides links and information on topics such as parents, teens, single parents, and child care.

Parents Without Partners Resource List http://parentswithoutpartners.org/resources.html. Links are provided for reference and not endorsed by PWP.

The Colorado Lawyer features two articles, Identifying Cases of Parent Alienation Syndrome—Part I (http://fact.on.ca/Info/pas/kopet98a.htm), and Indentifying Cases of Parent Alienation Syndrome—Part II (http://fact.on.ca/Info/pas/kopet98b.htm), may be useful to families and leaders that help families going through divorce or custody disputes.

Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority Single Parent Resources www.uheaa.org/singlemom/  features non-education resources available in Utah that may helpful to single parents or their children who are in college. Links are provided for reference and not endorsed by UHEAA.

Suggested Reading for Leaders Serving Single Parents

• Baker Handbook of Single Parent Ministry edited by Bobbie Reed (Baker Books)
• Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce by Elizabeth Marquardt (Crown Publishing)
• Boundaries with Kids by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend (Zondervan)
• Children & Divorce by Dr. Archibald D. Hart (Word Publishing)
• Children of Divorce by Debbie Barr (Zondervan Publishing House)
• Children, Divorce, and the Church, Creative Leadership Series by Lyle E. Schaller and Douglas E. Adams (Abingdon Press)
• Divorce Hurts Even at Church by Dianne Swaim (Turning Point Communications)
• Divorced Kids by Laurene Johnson and Georglyn Rosenfeld (Thomas Nelson Publishers)
• Financial Relief for Single Parents, Brenda Armstrong (Moody Publishing
• Generation EX by Jen Abbas (WaterBrook Press)
• Growing Up Divorced by Dr. Archibald D. Hart (Servant Publications)
• Helping Children Cope with Separation and Loss by Claudia Jewett (Harvard Common Press)
• Second Chances by Judith S. Wallerstein and Sandra Blakeslee (Houghton Mifflin)
• Single Parenting by Robert G. Barnes, Jr. (Tyndale House Publishing)
• Stress and Your Child by Dr. Archibald D. Hart (Thomas Nelson Publishers)
• Surviving the Breakup by Judith S. Wallerstein and Joan Berlin Kelly (Basic Books)
• The Divorce Culture by Barbara Dafoe Whitehead (Vintage Books, a Division of Random House, Inc.)
• The Hidden Mission Field by Theresa McKenna (Winepress Publishing)
• The Single Dad’s Survival Guide by Mike Klumpp (Waterbrook Press)
• The Switching Hour: Kids of Divorce Say Good-bye Again  by Evon O Flesberg (Abbingdon Press)
• The Unexpected Legacy of DIVORCE by Judith Wallerstein, Julia M. Lewis and Sandra Blakeslee (Hyperion)
• There’s Got to Be a Better Way: Discipline That Works by Dr. Becky Bailey (Loving Guidance, Inc.)
• What about the Kids? by Judith S. Wallerstein and Sandra Blakeslee (Hyperion)