by Rebecca Barnes, editor 07 May 2007

"Motherhood brings as much joy as ever, but it still brings boredom, exhaustion, and sorrow too. Nothing else ever will make you as happy or as sad, as proud or as tired, for nothing is quite as hard as helping a person develop his own individuality especially while you struggle to keep your own." -- Marguerite Kelly and Elia Parsons, authors of The Mother’s Almanac.

To help church leaders prepare for Mother’s Day this weekend I’ve collected some interesting findings about American moms. First, according to a new Barna Group study, women who are raising children are among the most faith-minded and spiritually active segments of the American population. You knew that rise in church attendance on Mother’s Day wasn’t just an anomaly. Barna’s study shows that a majority of mothers strongly agree that their faith is very important in their life.

Currently, there are an estimated 45 million moms of young children in the nation. Double that number and you’ll be counting moms of all-age children, according to the census bureau. Most of them say they value faith, so how can you connect them to your church? By keeping the following in mind:

Most mothers are in the labor force. According to the Census Bureau, only 5.6 million of 80.5 million moms were stay-at-home moms in 2006. Even most new mothers (55 percent of mothers of infants) work in the labor force. This is important for scheduling groups and events at your church around typical working hours.

And, according to a 1997 Families and Work Institute study, the average weekly hours worked by women with children under 18 in their household is 41.4 hours. Add to that 25 average weekly hours devoted to childcare, housework or shopping by mothers in dual-earner couples, according to the 1997 book, "Time for Life."

Mothers are busy people. So are fathers. This is important to consider when considering the ministry activities at your church. "Simple Church" co-author Eric Geiger suggests church leaders give people more time to deepen rather than broaden spiritually.

"If there’s not enough hours in the day for you to do what you’re asking your people to do, it’s too complicated," Geiger says.

A final concern for church leaders intent on reaching out to mothers is the growing number of unmarried mothers. Some 10.4 million women are single mothers living with children younger than 18. That number is up from 3.4 million in 1970. Of interest to churches in particular is the fact that, according to the Barna study, the younger the mother, the less likely she is to be married and the less likely she is committed to Christianity. This drop in faith should turn your outreach strategy into a more missional, needs-based approach to connecting with single moms. They may not be as interested in free Bible study as they may be in free babysitting.