More guys are blaming the girls for the decline of men in the church. (See previous post by The CRIB.)
In BIOLA University's increasingly relevant monthy magazine Connections, managing editor Holly Pivec gives us "The Feminization of the Church." Pivec, and the others, seem to be convinced it's the estrogenization of the "Music, Messages and Ministries" that are driving men away.
In BIOLA University's increasingly relevant monthy magazine Connections, managing editor Holly Pivec gives us "The Feminization of the Church." Pivec, and the others, seem to be convinced it's the estrogenization of the "Music, Messages and Ministries" that are driving men away.
The leaders of a new, Christian movement think they've solved a centuries-old mystery: why men are absent from church. But their answer isn't politically correct. They believe Christianity has become feminized.Most would agree the traditional explanation that women are more spiritual than men is unacceptable, implying as it does several theological problems.
The result of this feminization is that many men, even Christian men, view churches as "ladies clubs" and don't go - or they often go to please their wives. [One author's] solution is to restore a masculine ethos. Many men's ministers, including some Biolans, agree.But isn't it common knowledge that men control all our churces?
True, 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."The most provocative and popular contemporary work on this subject is by David Murrow, "Why Men Hate Going to Church" (Nelson Books).
The same claim was made by an earlier, more academic book, The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity (Spence Publishing Company), by Leon J. Podles, a senior editor of Touchstone Magazine.
... Murrow said he addressed his book mainly to women, including married women who have been disappointed over their husbands' lack of involvement and to single women who have bemoaned the lack of single, churchgoing men. He said women - who have felt powerless getting men to attend church - actually have the most influence in the churches and, thus, the most power to reverse the feminization.Read the rest of the story here >>>; then go read the Biola Connections interview with David Murrow.
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