Wesleyan Church Begins 'True Love Waited Too Long' for Singles

GRAND RAPIDS-- Faced with a dwindling membership base in North America, The Wesleyan Church has begun a bold new program focused on getting Wesleyan singles married.

"Frankly, our churches are shrinking, and we need some of our young people to start cranking out babies" says Robert Young, Pastor of Singles and Young Adults at New Day Wesleyan Church in Grand Rapids, MI.

"For decades we've been telling our young people to 'wait' and find 'the one that God has for you.' To be honest, it's just not working. Way too many are finding vocations and callings where singlesness is a very real and useful option. Well, we're here to stem the tide."

For many Wesleyan singles, finding dates has been few and far between. Just ask Julie Rennard, member of New Day.

"I haven't had a date in over five years," says the 32 year old single. "Years ago the church decided that it didn't want the singles' group to be a dating service. Thanks to them, I can't meet anybody."

The church is trying to remedy this situation by implementing a dating service not unlike eharmony.com. Older married church members have been asked to play an integral role within the new program.

"We really have a wonderful base from which to draw. There are many women within our church who are more than willing to play the matchmaker," Young says with a grin.

In other parts of the country, similar programs have met with overwhelming success. Boston Wesleyan used to have a thriving singles' ministry. However, thanks to the True Love Waited Too Long program, it is now a smaller, tight-knit group of singles who are simply socially undateable. Mike Logan, the Singles' Minister, credits the program for bringing the ministry to where it is today.

"We used to have over 200 singles in this church. However, thanks to this program, only 35 singles remain. The rest are married or in meaningful, fulfilling relationships. Some look at the dwindling numbers and see failure. I look at them and can go home and be proud of a good days' work."

Unbeknownst to many, the True Love Waited Too Long program has been in place for decades, but has simply gone 'under the radar' for all those years. Bob Mahon, Director of Spiritual Life at Oklahoma Wesleyan University, explains:

"This program has really just come out of its incubationary stages to be fully matured within local churches. In all reality, we have been making use of this program at all of our universities for years. Although we strive for excellence in education, what we are really known for is 'hooking the kids up.' We as a university are pleased to have the highest per-capita engagement rate of all Wesleyan-approved universities. We have students meeting and getting married within 3 months. That gives you a feeling of success that advanced degrees just can't give you."

"This is really a long-term vision," Mahon concludes. "In 20 years, we will start to see the fruits of our efforts- membership directories swelling, increased giving, more butts in the seats. It's true, this program may not work for all of our singles, but we will always need missionaries to send out, and it's so much cheaper when they're single. We see this truly as a win-win situation."