Church Ministry to Men - How are we doing?
H.B. London writes in the Pastor's Weekly Briefing (4/21/2006) that he believes that the church is not doing a very good job of reaching men. He lists 5 reasons why he believes that men are having a difficult time identifying with the church. He writes:
"To be honest with you, I think the church as a whole has done a very poor job of seeking out "men on the fringe" and recruiting them for the work of Christ. There are several reasons for that.1. We have feminized the church to a degree. Men are warriors and we have them singing love songs.
2. Most men have a "sitcom" attention span. They grow weary at long sermons, extended standing and messages that do not challenge.
3. Many clergy are intimidated by strong men and so we focus on those that do not threaten us. Men want their pastors to be "men of great faith and courage." They really want to look to us as an example.
4. It takes time to serve men. If you fail to make the males in your congregation your priority of time, interest and message, your commitment to them will simply appear ordinary.
5. A men's ministry is only as strong as the pastor and leadership are willing to fund and promote it. What works for women will not work for men."
H.B. London goes on to say that this needs to be a long term commitment, not just an occasional event and that most churches are not willing to do that.
What is your church doing to reach men, even those on the fringe? Men, what are your suggestions for effectiveness of the church to serve you? Please leave your comments and suggestions!
posted by Dan Pritchett @ 8:15 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
to be honest, these kinds of articles (london's, not yours) scare me. the seem much more pragmatically driven than Biblically driven.
1. feminized the church? what does that look like? while i will give you that men like a mission (though many men despise war), isn't the great commission the highest mission of all? if our churches are not attractive to the "adventure side" of men, could it be that they are not being presented with the ultimate mission and reminded of the urgency of our spiritual battle?
2. what are we to do about other's attention spans? (and frankly, i don't know that men's attention spans being shorter than women's can even be supported). do we shorting the length of quality preaching of text so attention spans can be fed? --however--i think biblical preaching that is not challenging must be a misuse of the text.
3. this may be accurate. many pastors are not strong men of faith committed to the message of Christ, but theological politicians checking the popularity polls to make decisions...
4. just who are the pastors serving, if not men? are male pastors spending most of their time discipling and ministering to women? How? how can that not be a breach of wisdom? the majority of a pastor's personal interaction and attention should be directed at men...and older women should be directing their attention to younger women (seems i've heard that concept somewhere).
5. fund and promote? obviously, i don't think a program fixes anything. i think that focusing on the gospel, which paul says the introduction to Christ does not consider male nor female, is a message that will appeal to all of His elect regardless of gender.
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