Thursday, April 16, 2009

Interseasonal Serving

Since I don't think interseasonal is a word (and if it is, I doubt I used it right), let me define.

Interseasonal Serving: serving those in a different season than your own.

I was going to write a post to preface why I'm asking the following, but that will have to come later (I want to go to bed :)) Plus, I'm about due for a short(er) post. Ha.

Married Couples: How can singles best serve you (or even more specifically, how can I serve you)? When you were single, how did married couples/families reach out to you that you particularly liked? What are you doing now to reach out to singles?

Singles: How can married couple/families best serve you? What are some ways in which married couples/families HAVE served you that you really appreciated? What are you doing now to reach out to married couples/families?

Please comment with your answers :)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Interseasonal serving." I like the term!

AND, I'd love to know how married folks can serve the singles, so please share!!

As for me, being married, I guess one of the biggest areas of service would be with kids. Babysitting, helping take kids to the Dr. (for me with two I really need someone else to go with me), etc. I try to always have family do it first, because they're always wanting to be included in this, but sometimes they can't.

McKenzie T. has been babysitting for us for Care Groups and it's been really great to get to know her.

When I was single I didn't feel reached out to by couples/family much at all. I attributed this to the Care Group structures at the time, which didn't allow much interaction. I really missed having friends that were families, though, because that was what I had in my old church, which I'd been part of since I was 14. I invited 2 couples plus some singles over for dinner once, and that was fun to do, but no lasting friendship came from it or anything.

I LOVE having singles as part of the Care Group now and this makes interaction much easier because it's just part of life. So I mostly focus on getting to know those in my group. Kristin S. has also been very purposeful, which has been good. She's helped me take the boys to the Dr. once and we watched a movie one evening. I'm friends with Emily C. too, so I try to have her over, although not often enough.

Is any of that helpful?? I'd love to hear from you too . . .

your mom said...

I don't consider myself having been "single" very long (got married at 21) though from age 18-21 it FELT horribly long. I was living on campus five hours from home. I didn't attend church for the first 2 years and rarely left campus, so I didn't really even SEE families, let alone think about serving them. It's weird to think about that "fake" environment where everyone is in the same 4-year age range!

When I moved back to Md, I got my own apartment and started attending a church where "older women" mentored the younger. It was weird at first because it was so anti-feminist, pro-Jesus in nature. Their example was foreign to my upbringing and college life. My world smacked of the "I don't need nobody" type.

Anyway, when I started feeling loved and cared for by young moms (there was no one in the little church older than 30) I realized what I had been missing and starting wanting it again (wanted it from childhood, but squelched it in college).

I don't do much to serve singles, sorry to say. I feel I hardly you kids enough, let alone your friends here. I guess I still feel I don't "need" anyone else younger in my life, but rather still long to be cared for by older women. There is one single woman who tracked me down and asked me to call her. Other than that, maybe older women see me as "not needy" or maybe they don't see me at all? I think the key to forming relationships is to diligently ask God to make it happen rather than force the issue.

I have not because I ask not. Simply as that.

your mom said...

Okay, to be clear: I grew up in pro-Jesus home with a feminist mom:).