The Man Blog

Hey Guys, this Thursday is our last night!  Please stop by 7:30 p.m. this Thursday at Parlor City even if you haven't seen us in a while. I have a fun send-off planned!  Here's a recap from our last meeting and a look ahead. Thursday we talked about "The Battle to Reengage Men" which details how men came back from WWII and populated our mainline protestant churches (like Lutheran) and did things culturally to reach and retain active boys such as building on gyms to our churches, building YMCAs, starting the outdoor Godly adventures of the Boy Scouts, and the active Salvation Army.  Our church attendance mirrored society: 53% female and 47% male.  But like the orthodontist on page 131 says, "Ignore your teeth and they will go away." It's the same with men.  However, my main takeaway was this - show men just a little attention, and they respond and the church grows!  We have a ...

Guys thanks for another night of energizing discussion and to our six guys who turned in a survey of "How Guy Friendly is Your Church?" First Lutheran scored a composite score of 251.  Murrow says while a score of 50 would indicate a serious problem reaching men, a score of 450 would not be desirable either.  It would be too masculine.  He says 300-350 is about right and our 251 is pretty darn good.  That's a good sign! Another good sign is the great turn-out each week we get from guys of all ages to this study.  This past Thursday we talked about "The Stars vs. the Scrubs," "Check Your Testosterone at the Door," "How Churches Feminize Over Time," and "How Churches Drive Boys Away from the Faith."  Let's look briefly at each. The main point of "The Stars vs. the Scrubs" is when it comes to churchgoing most women are potential stars and most men are likely to warm the bench because we don't posses the natural ...

Good news! This Thursday we turn our attention from the problems of “Why Men Hate Going to Church.” to the solutions.   Hope you can all join us at 7:30 at Parlor City!   Our discussion will focus on the chapters 11-14 including my favorite one so far “How Churches Drive Boys Away from the Faith” because it shows how important male mentors are and how easy it is for all of us to make a difference! Here are my thoughts from our last gathering.   First of all, sorry fellas, the first chapter on “Victoria’s Secret…When We Lost the Men,” is not about the store in the mall but the Victorian age. Essentially the Industrial Revolution took the men away from the homestead and the family farm to work long hours at the mines, mills, and factories including more travel and more weekends which took men further away from the family parish.   We’ve had an uphill battle with men and faith seemingly ever since.     The Christian-Industrial Complex includes a gre...

We had another fun night.   Several guys told me they really enjoyed the first night, had a conflict this week, but will be back for the rest of the study.   That said, we still had more than 20 guys participate and the discussion was once again lively!   Our three chapters were “Who Are the Missing Men?,” “The Masculinity Bank,” and “The Two Jesuses.”   I will give my brief overview of all three and then welcome your comments below.   “Who Are the Missing Men?” refers to the guys we are not seeing in church.   They tend to be young single men (no surprise here, the church struggles attracting young women too), guys in society’s leadership roles are fed up with the ineffectiveness of the church, and guys that are “high testosterone” men.   Check out a great pair of charts on page 181 & 182.   Flip back and forth and tell me what you think. They seem to be in direct inverse relationship to each other. As a boy becomes a man and his testo...

Hey Guys, This is Pastor Craig with First Lutheran Church in Cedar Rapids. Each week beginning today I’ll write up a summary of my teaching on the last week’s reading as a way to move our discussion forward  It will also allow guys who are traveling to stay connected, keep up to speed, and even be able to comment at the bottom of my blog.  So here goes with week one! This book “Why Men Hate Going to Church” hooked me right from the get-go when it uncovered the stark reality that less than 40% of all adults in Christian Churches today are male.  I’m further intrigued by author David Murrow’s main supposition that our churches are run by females with the exception of a few male figure heads (me) who know how to cater to women because they of course keep the ship going! Our worship committees, outreach teams, and programs are designed largely by women with feminine tastes in mind that “play in Peoria” better with women.  Guys walk into today’s churches (especially you...