Introduction
Well it’s time to start a new series and that will be about sexuality for Christian singles. This draws upon our earlier writings a this site, but we aim to present the materials in a new way, possibly with some new content also. This is actually the second publishing of this article because I wanted to re-present it with new content
Singleness is an aspect of our relational / sexual journey that we all go through. For some of us it can just be a phase at the beginning of this journey. For others there can be multiple phases due to circumstances, whilst for a proportion it can be a lifelong experience. Singleness is important to the development of relational and sexual aspects of personal development in preparation for marriage if a single person chooses to marry. However we believe there is no automatic compulsion on any Christian man or woman to marry and for some Christians, they experience fulfillment in remaining celibate and single throughout life, but provision also needs to be made for those who find it necessary to remain single through their particular circumstances rather than by choice.
The biggest issue to date has been the failure of the Church at large to recognise singleness as a valid lifestyle choice for Christian believers and to properly provide for the spiritual wellbeing of single adult members in particular. Singleness is an issue that affects female church members more than males because there are generally a higher proportion of church members who are female than male, and because older female church members who experience some form of relationship termination are less likely to be interested in forming a new relationship.
Singleness coupled with celibacy is particularly important as a spiritual discipline for evangelical Christians for whom sexual purity is especially significant and that is a part of the backdrop to this series of articles. The other important consideration is that, as sexuality is something to be celebrated, that as we have emphasised in some of our previous communications, the fact that such celebration is not just for married people, but it’s also for single people, is an important backdrop to these articles.
Well that’s our introduction to this series. Part B will be published tomorrow and it will look at the beginning of our sexual development, at adolescence, and how much that can contribute to sexual and relational development during that period of singleness.