Holly Pivec in the Spring 2006 issue of the Biola Connections magazine pens an outstanding article entitled The Feminization of the Church: Why Its Music, Messages and Ministries Are Driving Men Away. She cites numerous Christian leaders, like Patrick Johnstone (Operation World) and David Murrow (author of Why Men Hate Going to Church). Nancy Pearcey is another who touches on these themes in Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity.
Some excerpts:
“93 percent of senior pastors in America are men, according to evangelical pollster George Barna. But, the majority of attendees in a typical church are women. Barna goes so far as to refer to women as ‘the backbone of the Christian congregations in America.'”
“In America, among evangelical churches, 57 percent of members are women and, among mainline Protestant churches, 66 percent are women, according to a 1998 book American Evangelicalism (University of Chicago Press).”
“The imbalance is greatest in rural churches, small churches, older churches, traditionally black denominations, and in liberal churches, Murrow said, citing research from the 1998 National Congregations Study. It’s smallest in non-denominational and Baptist churches, he said.”
Johnstone believes the feminist movement in mainline churches has contributed to the decline in male membership.
(Comment: I agree with Johnstone; manliness has less of a home in egalitarian churches. These churches tend to, eventually, become accepting of homosexuality, resulting in further shrinking numbers. In church history, I’m told that the resulting smaller denominations later merge, and the cycle repeats itself.)
Pivec’s article goes on to discuss “love songs to Jesus” and “feminine spirituality” as well as “touchy-feely sermons.”
Last excerpt: “When a mother comes to faith in Christ, her family follows 34 percent of the time, but when a father comes to faith his family follows 93 percent of the time.”
Lesson: Preach the whole counsel of God. God is unambiguously revealed in masculine traits throughout the Bible. The emasculation of God is rampant in many churches today. Build up the men, and you’ll get women and children too. Aim primarily for women, and the men will scram. Going back to Mansfield’s point (from my last post) — men need to have their sense of masculinity validated. This is not chauvinism but a God-given pointer to the role God intends men to play in the family, the church, and (to some degree) in society at large.