Church and Men

From Crosswalk.com...

David Murrow paints a vivid picture of why men don't attend church:

"Few churches model men's values-risk, reward, accomplishment, heroic sacrifice, action and adventure. Men find church boring because their values are not modeled and no one reflects their masculine heart. They have no desire to fall in love with a wonderful man, even one named Jesus."

Murrow also challenges commonly accepted church terminology as "man-repellent." "In addition to stripping masculine pronouns out of hymns and even Scripture, terms like 'saved' are objectionable to men. Men hate to be lost. If you tell a man he is lost, he will instinctively resist you. Although Jesus used the term saved, He called many to follow Him. Hear the difference? Follow gives a man something to do. It suggests activity instead of passivity. But being saved is something that happens to damsels in distress."

Worse yet, Murrow says he has been exhorted to have a love affair with Jesus. "Conservative churches oppose homosexuality, but their imagery sends an entirely different message. The more we describe Christianity in bedroom vocabulary, the more nervous men become."

I happen to agree with Murrow's logic. Spirituality in the church has become, "sugared down". Is the church in trouble of losing it's men? Murrow believes so.

"I'm not calling men back to church," says Murrow. "I'm calling the church back to men.

"It's nor about male dominance: it's about male resurgence. If we don't turn things around, we're going to lose a generation of boys. This is going to be a disaster for society and eventually result in the death of the church," Murrow says.

"There are churches targeted at every conceivable minority - seekers, young couples, older people - yet men are the largest unreached people group. They are the largest minority in Christendom today, yet we do absolutely nothing to make church attractive to them. I'm simply trying to do what the church has always done and reach out to unchurched people."

Men, in the pews, have become more like kittens than lions. They don't seem to have the boldness or courage as years ago. Even as the deacons are male dominated, they too don't seem very active in church or present in the community.

What can the church do to reach men before we lose them?