Gairney Bridge

Here are a couple of web articles at World Magazine’s blogsite. They seek to deal with the issues surrounding the “feminization” of the church, specifically why the modern church does not appeal to men. Granted, even the Scriptures sometimes refer to the church in feminine language (e.g., The Bride of Christ), but I scarcely doubt our Lord wished us to devolve into a glorified 21st century chick flick.

Why Guys Leave the Church, Part I

Why Guys Leave the Church, Part II

Of course, this really is not a “new” thing, although the current cultural influences have only added to the problem. One could point to the rise of women’s societies (specifically, the rise of the Sunday School and Temperance movements, among others) in the 19th and 20th centuries as doing the same thing. The influence of liberalism (e.g., the specific rejection of authoritative passages such as 1 Timothy 2-3 and the lauding of an a-contextual interpretation of Galatians 3:28) certainly hasn’t helped either. But the root of the problem (and the responsibility to deal with it) ultimately lies with the male gender (another influence of the culture is that we seek to blame our problems on others, but men have been doing this since the Fall — see Genesis 3:12 , for example).

This is one of the things I want to change, and quickly, at Midlane Park (where our women — many of whom are either widows or are caring for aging husbands who can no longer attend — outnumber our men; we’ve had to reduce the number of elders on the Session due the lack of qualified men). I’m considering starting up a men’s group (I want to call it “Marrow Men“) to begin addressing this obvious lack at our church.

My question: What are some of the the things the readers of this blog are doing at your own churches? And is this a problem in your own congregations?