Podcasts
May 03, 2022
By Stephanie Bent, Karen Hice Guzmán, Melodie Marske, Lisa Sung and Kaitlyn Schiess

Singleness: A Roundtable Conversation

"Only Jesus completes us. Only Jesus can meet us in the deepest places and in the ways that we most need and want and long for in terms of intimacy and wholeness and hope." — Dr. Lisa Sung

Listen in on a remarkable roundtable conversation where we hear four thoughtful, faithful women respond to questions about living a full Christian life as a single woman.

Let me invite you into a special episode where we have the opportunity to listen into a roundtable conversation on the topic of Singleness. The conversation is hosted by Karen Guzmán, our director at Women in the Academy and Professions, and I’ll let her introduce our four esteemed guests and some of the important questions they’ll delve into, including issues around work, family, friendship, and the church. The collective wisdom revealed in this conversation is remarkable, and I felt continually impressed and grateful for the honestly, vulnerability, and faithfulness of these women as we asked them to share deeply about a pretty personal topic. This conversation is well worth listening to whether or not you are single yourself. It’s exactly the kind of thing that everyone — single, married, widowed, or divorced — can benefit from as we seek to build a worldwide church that honors all people and their callings, without regard to their marital status.

So have a listen! We're so glad you're here.

— Ann Boyd

You can listen on iTunes or at All Shall Be Well: Conversations with Women in the Academy and Beyond. We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did.
 

Further resources for this interview:

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on StockSnap

Tags:
singleness
About the Author
Stephanie Bent

Stephanie Bent is a PhD candidate in the Higher Education, Student Affairs and International Education Policy program with a concentration in student affairs at the University of Maryland. She holds a EdM in Anthropology and Education from Teachers College - Columbia University, a MS in Higher Education-Student Affairs from Florida State University, and a BS in Applied Mathematics from Georgia Tech. She has worked in student affairs in the United States with experiences in various functional areas: residential life, leadership development, first year programs, sophomore programs, living-learning communities, student conduct, and academic advising. In her research, she considers questions about student affairs practice in the Caribbean, identity and leadership development of Caribbean tertiary students living in and outside the Caribbean, Caribbean tertiary education contributions to national development, decolonizing research methods, and decolonizing higher education.

See other contributions by this author
Karen Hice Guzmán

Karen Hice Guzmán is the Director of Women Scholars and Professionals. Except for some years taken off to raise children, Karen has spent her adult life in and around InterVarsity. She loves to use her gifts of hospitality and teaching to create a welcome place to connect with God and one another. Karen has a BS in Horticulture from Michigan State University and lives in Marietta, Georgia. She and her husband have three adult sons and a daughter-in-law. She loves dark chocolate, good coffee, and British TV. 

See other contributions by this author
Melodie Marske

Melodie Marske has served on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship since 1988, beginning as a part-time administrator and part-time Campus Staff Minister. After serving undergrad students at the University of Michigan for several years, she began working with graduate students at the University of Michigan. She received her MA in Biblical Studies at Trinity School for Ministry in Pittsburgh in 2003. Melodie became a Team Leader for Graduate & Faculty Ministries in 2005, then an Area Ministry Director in 2007. In July 2014, she began serving as the GFM Midwest Regional Director. 

Melodie is an avid runner, usually running half marathons each spring and fall. She enjoys time outdoors, visiting campus coffee shops, and reading both fiction and theology. Legolas & Gimli, her two cats, keep her entertained at home and are always glad to welcome guests.

See other contributions by this author
Lisa Sung

Recently named Visiting Associate Professor of Theology at Regent College(link is external) (Vancouver, BC, Canada), Elizabeth (Lisa) Sung, PhD, is a systematic theologian and a spiritual director. As Theologian-in-Residence at The InterVarsity Institute, she ministers at-large, offering resources to strengthen and equip theological schools, ministry organizations, and churches far and near. She teaches theology courses for seminaries and universities in North America, Asia, and East Asia. She also is Affiliate Scholar at the James Houston Centre for Humanity and the Common Good (Vancouver, Canada). In both academic and ministry contexts, she teaches theology to foster the lived reality of personal integrity and flourishing in Christ as the catalyst for missional living, in a framework explicitly reconnecting systematic theology to spiritual formation, moral transformation, and world service.​

See other contributions by this author
Kaitlyn Schiess

Kaitlyn Schiess (ThM, Dallas Theological Seminary) is a writer, speaker, and theologian. She is the author of The Liturgy of Politics: Spiritual Formation for the Sake of Our Neighbor and is a regular cohost on the Holy Post podcast with Skye Jethani and Phil Vischer. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Christianity Today, Christ and Pop Culture, Relevant, and Sojourners. Schiess is currently a doctoral student in political theology at Duke Divinity School. She lives in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo Credit: Kendra Sharrard)

See other contributions by this author
Comment via Facebook

Columns

Related Articles
Blog
March 17, 2015
By Christena Cleveland
Social Justice for Single People

I’ve been a social justice warrior since midway through the first grade. The “new girl” in my class, who also happened to be blind, was unable to participate in our lunchtime kickball game...

Blog
May 05, 2014
By Christine Wagoner
Re-Imagining Motherhood

I was at the grocery store the other day perusing the cheese cases and was excited to see they were giving away samples of gourmet cheeses. The woman handing out the samples engaged me in small talk, chatting about the delicious cheeses . . .

Reflections
January 29, 2011
By Heidi Metcalf Little
You Are Not Alone

Whether single or married, the experience of loneliness occurs, but that does not mean we are alone.

Blog
February 12, 2015
By Christine Wagoner
The Power of Girlfriends

There I was in the dark ultrasound room, a lab technician trying to detect what was causing so much pain and dysfunction in my body. I felt scared and vulnerable. But there was...