I've been reading a book Why Men Hate Going to Church by David Murrow and for me it really hit home. Here is a summary of some of the key points I found helpful in the book and I hope you will consider them as you think about men's programs in your church and how men react to church in general. Murrow also has a website churchformen.com and there are sections specifically for churches which may be of interest to you.
It seems that men have always been under-represented in the church (except in the clergy). On any given Sunday the audience in most churches is about 60 percent female (up from 53% in the 50's). Nationally, that’s well over 13 million men AWOL from church. But there are other troubling statistics as well. About 25% of married women worship without their husbands. Less than 10 percent of churches are able to maintain a thriving men's ministry. About 90 percent of the boys raised in church abandon it during their teens and 20s never to return. In a Men in Balance survey (http://meninbalance.org) of churchgoing males, only 56% say their family sees them as a strong spiritual leader.
On the positive side, when a mother attends church, the chances of the rest of the family attending are about 17%. When the father attends, the chance that the entire family will attend jumps to 93%. There's good reason to get men more involved in the church.
David Murrow suggests a number of reasons why men do not attend church in larger numbers. While I am aware that many of the reasons men give for not attending church seem flimsy, there are a lot of things which we can do in churches to make them more "male friendly."
The full article is at http://meninbalance.org/articles/menhatechurch.htm
What do you think??? I'd really love to start a dialog about this.
Jerry Hancock, Executive Director
Men in Balance
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This raises some interesting questions. I need to think more about it.
ReplyDeleteIt might be that the rumors of the demise of men's church attendance are a bit exaggerated.
ReplyDeleteThe most recent, broad reaching study on church attendance (and many other topics) found that male/female church attendance was 46%/54% in mainline churches and catholic churches, and 47%/53% in evangelical churches. Here's the link: http://religions.pewforum.org/comparisons#
The only place where the breakdown is 40/60 among Protestants is in Historically Black Churches.
I think if you look at this in comparison to actual population, you will find it's pretty close.
There are, however, 113 million men in America (ages 15+), and 69 million of them make no profession of faith in Jesus Christ. Based on some statistical extrapolation, only 6-7 million of all men are involved in intentional, ongoing spiritual growth.
Man in the Mirror has a report which compiles a number of these statistics. Send me an email at brettclemmer@maninthemirror.org and I'll forward you a copy.
Thanks, Brett for that clarifiaction. The figures cited are from the book and from a Promise Keepers publication. I did not attempt to verify the numbers independently--perhaps I should have.
ReplyDeleteJerry Hancock
I have been fighting a losing battle with “church” my whole life… I think you will like what I had to say… another thing the author doesn’t say is the age old attach that the church and society seem to have on “business”… I remember a series of sermons one of my preachers preached and the title was “can a businessman be successful and be a christian’?... makes me sick! The question should be can anyone be successful and be a Christian?... there are just as many dishonest preachers, teachers, charity workers as there are businessmen! But they always pick on corporate America and businessMEN…
ReplyDelete"We walk in faith, not in sight." How strong is my faith? How important is my faith to me? What is my commitment to my faith? Interestingly, I was raise by a father who was very committed to his faith. For 17 years he coached a traveling ice hockey team. We would spend the 9 months out of the year traveling the east coast. No matter where we were, or how early we had to awake, the team always went to mass on Sunday. Not all of the players were catholic, but it was about family and the importance of faith. How do think parents would react today to this behavior?
ReplyDeleteThrough these life lessons, I try to just keep it basic; trust God, practice my faith, be disiplined and make a commitment.