They say it takes a village to raise a family, but after a high-conflict divorce involving abuse, many women lose both financial and social support. Sadly, even many pastors and church leaders do not know how to respond to divorce and abuse, inadvertently leaving single Christian mothers to parent alone and propelling us down the path to poverty. Many of these women will leave the faith community altogether. As Christ-followers, I believe we can do better.

Church is designed for and centers around families. This is a beautiful thing . . . until you aren’t a family anymore. Many divorced people will leave the church due to a lack of support because the church does not know how to support us. This is a fixable problem. I’m here to offer guidance to church leaders that can help them support and encourage their “suddenly singles” without “singling” them out and making them feel more awkward, or worse, ashamed. Take some time to go through the following chapters and thoughtfully answer the questions that follow.