From Fathom Magazine - Today, more Christian young adults are postponing marriage or considering never marrying than ever before, and the church at large fears plummeting marriage percentages and the declining birth rates that follow. As those numbers soften, their refrain booms louder: “If abstinent singleness isn’t easy for you, don’t worry. Just get married.” Armed with 1 Corinthians 7:9, they plead with the under-thirty crowd, “PLEASE. Get married.”

While vocational singleness is most often a call to give up romance, marriage, sex, and children to do other kingdom work with undivided attention, it's still a call to intimacy in family.

Watch this video seminar from Valentine's Day when I joined the Boston Fellows to explore how God's call to vocational singleness challenges the idol of romance in our cities and churches.

From Nashotah House Theological Seminary - Read this devotional for the Second Tuesday of Lent (featured in their Lent + Eastertide Daily Reflections).

What is the most impactful thing straight Christians can do for gay people? My answer: Give God a chance to call you to vocational singleness.

Why does God call some people to vocational singleness? Answer: To give hope for a time without the need for romance or exclusivity!

Listen to this podcast where we ask, "Why should a Christian pause and ask God if He has a preference between vocational singleness and Christian marriage?”The answer: GIFT

Watch this recording of St. Bartholomew Episcopal Church’s Theology on Tap where I led a discussion about discernment and vocational singleness.

From Christianity Today - How can our churches raise up more kingdom workers to heal our communities with undivided attention? Our churches need to become places where young adults genuinely discern whether God is calling them to vocational singleness or Christian marriage.

Watch this recording of a toast I gave for my brother and sister-in-law, praying that their marriage embodies and displays God’s mysterious love in ways that makes it easier for them and the people around them to know God’s love.

Watch this video to deepen your vision for how God wants to use singleness, whether temporary or lifetime. What is vocational singleness? Why does God call people to vocational singleness?

Listen to this interview about the Nashville Family of Brothers on the Hole in My Heart Podcast. We explore why NFOB started, what Jesus teaches about lifelong singleness, and why permanent lived-in family makes all of the difference.

Watch this panel discussion about finding community during and after the pandemic, titled “After Social Distancing (After the plague): A discussion now about doing life differently in the future”.

Our necessary social distancing and church cancelations have eliminated the primary ways widows, single parents, divorcees, and those called to singleness for the Lord experience family in the body of Christ. Single Christians rely on community groups and worship services to meet most of their needs for human connection in healthy ways. Coronavirus has left single Christians feeling even more alone and empty than usual. But our churches can do something about it.

What happens when single people don’t have family to turn to? A 2017 study found that single people were less likely to rebound from doubt and more likely to lose their faith. While 65% of Christians have doubted for some period of time, the most common response is for Christians to seek comfort from their families. Yet without this safety and solidarity in the home, single adults are twice as likely to lose their faith in the face of serious doubt.

The Church needs to see more Christians faithfully walking out lifetime singleness for the sake of the kingdom (AKA “celibacy”). That witness helps the Church grasp the hope of the gospel and begin living into the reality of the kingdom today. No witness to this hope is more moving than that of Christ himself.