Date of Award

3-14-2025

Document Type

Project Portfolio

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

Department

Seminary

First Advisor

Jason Wellman, DMin

Second Advisor

Linda Sommerville, DMin

Third Advisor

Ken Van Vliet, DMin

Abstract

Through the preaching of marriage normativity, pastors inadvertently dismiss the lived experience of single women and, consequently, prevent their faith life from flourishing.

The platform for my campaign of awareness regarding marriage normativity in the Church begins with a website, www.blessedarethesingleladies.com. This eighteen-page website rationalizes and illustrates how preaching a message that marriage is expected harms single women by creating a culture of shame, insecurity, and jealousy. I have included theological and scriptural best practices, six first-person stories from women, and next steps for church transformation. To extend the campaign into spaces my audience may use, the BATSL project also includes associated profiles on Instagram, YouTube, Substack, and Spotify (@blessedarethesingleladies across all platforms.)

My hope in bringing this issue to light for clergy and congregants is that the Church would ultimately react in the same way a justice on the US Supreme Court defined obscenity in 1964, "I know it when I see it." Research within and removed from the Church shows that women feel the shame of being told repeatedly—in word and deed—that marriage is expected and more blessed than having a single and fulfilling life. Because of this normalization, single women have trouble naming it; the shame (formed at a young age) spirals into jealousy and insecurity.

Blessed Are The Single Ladies attempts to reclaim the language of the preacher so every person in their context knows their belovedness as children of God.

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