You Need To Raise The Testosterone Level Of Your Church
“All organizations are perfectly designed to get the results they are now getting.” Tom Northrup
60% of the North American church is female. If the quote above is correct then the church is currently designed to be a woman’s club with male officers. It is a tragedy that so many men dismiss church and sinful that church leaders do so little to try to fix it.
There are many reasons so many men do not attend church but one of them is that Christian leaders have allowed the faith to become so effeminate. Preachers too often rely on sob stories, the majority of congregational volunteer opportunities focus on women and don’t even get me started on the music! If you can take a worship song and replace “Jesus” with a girl’s name, you need to ditch it! Try a hymn like “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.”
When preaching, keep men in mind. Men like visuals. You should show as much as tell. So, use props and film clips. Don’t be afraid to be creative. I’ve preached in my pajamas, smashed fruit with a sledgehammer from the pulpit, etc. It all helped drive home important Biblical truths.
Don’t shy away from challenging men and let men be men! Our church is sponsoring a gun and archery shoot complete with an attack dog demonstration. I often get together with my friends from church to go in on UFC pay-per-view events.
We also need to change the way we portray Jesus when He walked the lands of Palestine two thousand years ago. If your church has one of those portraits of Jesus with flowing locks, blue eyes and rose tinted cheeks, introduce it to the dumpster! The Bible says Jesus looked ordinary (Isaiah 53:2). The average Palestinian man had short curly hair, a rough beard, dark skin and dark eyes. Also, because Jesus walked nearly everywhere, swung a hammer for years and subsisted on almonds and fish, he would have looked like a committed crossfit athlete, not a skinny vegan barista!
Finally, establish volunteer opportunities for men. We have a security team at our church and you should too. Just do a quick search of the registered sex offenders within a five mile radius of your church and you will see why! Charge the men in your congregation to keeping all of us, especially your children, safe. Also, recruit them to help teach in your children’s ministry. When and why did children’s ministry become solely a thing for women? Men largely want to feel needed. Do they feel so at your church?
I’m not saying we should give up on evangelizing and discipling women. I’m not saying the church doesn't need women. I am saying that it is shameful that the percentage is 60-40 instead of 50-50. Besides, women in general are more than happy to do “guy stuff” but most men hate doing “chick stuff.” Want proof? Ask a woman to grab a hammer. They usually don’t mind but ask a dude to hold a purse…different story.
If the church is going to truly impact our largely depraved culture, we have to win men to serve King Jesus. As one pastor said, if you get the men, you get it all, if you don’t, you won’t. He went so far as to say no church should have a men’s ministry, but the church as a whole should be a men’s ministry. Amen! It’s time to raise the testosterone level of your church.
For more, see the great book Why Men Hate Going to Church (revised ed.) by David Murrow.