The Man Blog

Hey Guys, thank you for a great 6-week study on "Why Men Hate Going to Church." We had a total of 35 guys stop by for at least one week. We had some very fruitful discussions not only on the challenges the Christian Church faces today with men but also some solutions and even how you might be part of those. We heard a lot of good suggestions from you all which we will digest further with our men's committee (a.k.a. The Guy Squad). Here are my final reflections and as always, I welcome your comments below.     "What About Women" addresses the misnomer that if we do things to specifically attract men it will turn off women.  Murrow says it's the opposite.  Women will stay in fact they will probably like church more, especially the young women. He points to women who easily cross over into men's roles and do so with delight saying women who conquer traditionally male roles are held up as models. As one o...

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...