This was written for a Quaker audience, but I suspect it’s applicable to many other communities of faith. Translate it to your own spiritual circle (or beyond) and let me know how it fits.
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Maybe today we would see it as the “extended meeting,” along the lines of an extended family. In earlier times, a few large families could fill a typical meetinghouse. The idea of being part of a Quaker Meeting without one’s spouse – much less grandparents, aunts and uncles, or an array of cousins – was as unthinkable as, well, divorce.
Today, however, Friends who come to worship as couples or families are the exception, rather than the norm, at least in our end of the Quaker spectrum. And that doesn’t begin to take into account the prevalence of singles in American society.
This points to a number of shortcomings among Friends. Foremost, the admission that our form of open worship – contrary to what the original Friends envisioned – does not speak to everyone. (In fairness, we might admit that our “unprogrammed worship” emerged as the “retired meeting,” for those who had received the Truth in those big public preaching sessions where all the quaking and weeping broke out.) Then there’s the recognition that the People of God concept, where faith would be handed down within families, has simply broken down, not that it was ever all that stable. Maybe we’re not even as friendly, welcoming, or fun to be with as we’d like to think.
I’m not proposing that we drag everyone, however reluctantly, into Meeting for Worship or for business. But I do think we need to recognize ways the rest of our families are, however indirectly, part of the Meeting. There may be means to more meaningfully engage them, apart from our worship. What would they find inviting? What would they find nurturing or challenging? What would they find relevant?
I’m open to suggestion – and reflection.
Jnana's Red Barn 
A very interesting post and question!
This is not a problem unique to the Friends; it is one I see in the church where I minister. Many – especially of the younger generation – worship without their spouses, and family seems never more fractured than on Sunday morning.
Part of the answer seems to be creating social events, without any overt spiritual import, to which families can come; dinners or barbecues, that sort of thing. We often see our “extended family”
in those informal social settings.
But your post has reminded me that that on its own is not a complete answer, and that the question of how we recognise these people and their valued connection to us is one that deserves more reflection from me too.
Yes, it is a problem many (if not all of us) face, and whatever we find working needs to be shared — not just for ourselves, but for the wider world we are to serve and transform.
My reflections keep circling back to a mention I came across that said at the time of Jesus, the synagogues — especially those in the Hellenic world — were more social centers and places of learning than houses of worship. That is, they served a wider community and welcomed the participation of Gentiles. Is there a model for us in that precedent?
Perhaps, the way many churches now run play groups and things like that?