Monday, May 23, 2005

Singleness and Mission

Tomika and I went to Bible College of Victoria last Monday to represent World Team, and she gave a fantastic talk about singleness and mission, which really got me thinking!

I just found a photocopy article called "For Single Men & Women" from a book called "Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood", which is very interesting. It talks about 8 important theses on singleness when we tune in to Jesus and His contemporary single followers:

(1) Marriage, as we know it in this age, is not the final destiny of any human.
(2) Jesus Christ, the most fully human person who ever lived, was not married.
(3) The Bible celebrates celibacy because it gives extraordinary opportunity for single-minded investment in ministry for Christ.
(4) The Apostle Paul and a lot of great missionaries after him have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of God.
(5) The Apostle Paul calls singleness a gift from God.
(6) Jesus promises that forsaking family for the sake of the kingdom will be repaid with a new family, the church.
(7) God is sovereign over who gets married and who doesn't. And He can be trusted to do what is good for those who hope in Him.
(8) Mature manhood and womanhood are not dependent on being married.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good ideas. A friend of mine, Kristen Aune, has a book called Single Women: Challenge to the Church? (Paternoster, 2002). It has lots of interview material as a theological discussion.

Kitty Cheng said...

Thanks fernando for that. I'll try to get my hands on your friend's book. The title sounds interesting!

Tab said...

Thats very interesting. As a part of the time I'm trainging @ Cornerstone, one of the things we are asked to do if we are single is to make a commitment to intentional singleness (that is no relationships) for the next 2 years. I have found it to be a rewarding challange - I made this commitment late last year when I decided to do the course, and it has been such a blessing! The freedom that it brings, to serve God and not have other distractions is great! At the same time, unless God directs me other wise, I won't want to pursue this all my life :)