Wednesday, June 15, 2005
I really don't know why more people don't understand this and why so many churches consistently focus their primary evangelistic efforts on reaching children. As David Murrow points out:—
It's time to face the truth: if we're going to pass a lifelong faith to our children, we must re-engage men. No amount of Sunday school, VBS, or youth group will do the trick. We might as well fold up our flannelgraphs and go home. In fact, we might reach more kids by canceling the entire children's ministry and focusing our efforts on men. This strategy would, in the long run, produce more lifelong followers of Jesus.I suspect churches fail to target men because they know that the anaemic religion that they peddle is not strong enough to address the concerns of leaders. I have already posted the following quote from Ann Douglas' book The Feminization of American Culture, where she examines the emasculation of the clergy in the 19th century, but it bears repeating:—
The clergyman’s chance, like the woman’s, was now coincidental with the weakest moment of his parishioners. No longer confident that he could meet his congregation at their strongest or impress its ablest representatives — the men of intellect and talent in their stores, counting-houses, and courtrooms — the minister increasingly fell back upon an inner parish of women and those men who had been reduced to playing the woman’s role; his congregation consisted of those who were feeling rather than thinking.Unfortunately, the same is true in many churches today.
