My attendance at church has plummeted. I once went every Sunday. Then I became an every other week guy. Now I've become a once a month guy, content with just listening to Matt Chandler* sermons on Itunes. This trend needs to stop before I become an Easter and Christmas Eve only guy. I'm not satisfied with this spiritual stagnation, and I blame myself. However, at the same time, a lot of guys out there are struggling with the same woes. It's becoming a crisis with twice as many women attending church than men. Good thing WhyJustinWhy is a think tank for deciding how to increase the number of male churchgoers. After spending thirty minutes in meditation, I frantically scribbled down my thoughts, pet my dogs, and sat down to blog.
It's no secret that men and women are wired differently. The modern day church appeals more to a woman's spiritual and evolutionary needs than it does a man's. It's time for the church pendulum to swing back to a more masculine way of doing things to increase the number of men at church. Below are my four masculinizing theses for church, the penalty for which will surely be excommunication.
1) No more sappy praise and worship music. The chances of me spontaneously turning into a woman increase significantly every time I sing "This is the Air I Breathe" or "God of Wonders." And it's not just me who feels this way. Look at the men in the church during praise and worship (especially compared to the women). It's uncomfortable for us. Let's stick with awesome hymns such as "Come thou Fount" or "It is Well with my Soul" that don't blatantly try to appeal to tingly emotion. Some praise and worship is okay, as long as it rocks (i.e. "Blessed be the Name").
2) I was eating with some friends at Cuba Libre**, my favorite restaurant in Dallas. Two of the guys at the table began discussing the 2008 election. One guy sided with Obama, while the other was a Giuliani fan. The discussion became animated and intense, and I learned a lot from both sides of the debate. However, I noticed the girls at the table had become uncomfortable with the discussion. I asked one of them what was wrong, and she said, "If I was in a conversation like this with a girl, we would definitely consider it a fight." But the two guys left dinner that night as good of friends as ever. They weren't mad at each other for the argument. Yes, some things in life aren't worth arguing about, but what could be more important than debating the future of this country??? Or, how about religion? What happened to old-school debates where a theologian would publicly debate a secular progressive of the time? The church should bring back public debates, and we can invite the secular world in to see it! We can even debate certain topics within the church (Calvinism/Arminianism, Catholicism/Protestantism, etc.). The pastors can debate themselves or invite speakers in for the debate, and the crowd would witness all sides of the issues. Or, what about debating with people from other religions? It's important as Christians to, at the very least, understand the framework of other religions. I would pay anything to have seen a G.K. Chesterton debate from the early 1900s. Bringing back these public debates would be a tremendous way to engage the whole community, both secular and Christian.
3) Let's get rid of the "stand up and greet your neighbor" moment in church. Sorry. I don't know these people, nor do I have anything to say to them. And there's no chance of me remembering thier names. Instead, the church could have sign-ups for sports teams, Bible studies, service projects, book clubs, and investment clubs. There, we could have real-life interaction instead of contrived small-talk. We could invite non-Christian friends to join these clubs as well, thus getting the entire community involved.
4) Because pastors are male, they speak far more often on how a man can improve than how a woman can improve (good strategy considering it's a female audience). And this is a good thing. Men need to step up and be Christian leaders. But, occasionally when a woman hears all the ways men can improve, it causes them to see all of men's imperfections as well, thus fostering unforgiving relationships. To fix this, the church should give the "how to be a Godly man" and "how to be a Godly woman" sermons to only male audiences and only female audiences respectively. That way, when a man does the right thing, the woman thinks it's super hot, instead of merely having her expectations met.
* You absolutely must check out Matt Chandler (the greatest pastor ever). Look him up on Itunes and get started with "Hope for Here and There" and his 19th sermon on Hebrews.
** If you try out Cuba Libre, treat yourself to the greatest main course in Dallas, the crab crusted tilapia, and ask to sit on the porch.
half moon console table
3 years ago
7 comments:
I agree to your general statement that the church lacks masculinity and needs to correct this. I do not agree your specific points.
1) In my mind "Sappy Praise & Worship" stems from a lack of depth in lyrics and musicality in the initial "revolt" against traditionaly hymns. It seems that in many of the initial attempts to contemporize worship the songs were stripped of all depth and relied more on emotion to propel them. Thus lending itself to more emotionally driven personalities, not necessarily just women.
2)As far as the public debates: they were effective in the 20th century but I'm not sure they would be as successful today. Perhaps b/c we have many more leisure/mind numbing activities to choose from (movies,tv,putt putt. . ). I agree that we, as believers, should know both what we believe and what other religions do.
3) "Stand up and greet your neighbor": This is rather pointless in our current culture. Real relationships are rarely started in those 10 seconds. Usually this time is awkward b/c you have little to say to guests anyway. That's why one of my favorite things to do when I lead worship and have to do the "meet and greet" I give people a specific question to ask people (usually fairly light hearted) and ask to engaged that one individual instead of hopping about the room.
4)Segregated "How to be Godly ____'s" sermons: I don't believe that segregating would do anything other than provide a legistical nightmare. If a husband or wife begin to harbor frustration toward their spouse there usually is a deeper cause then hearing the same sermon over and over. Perhaps these roots could be found in the lack of the fruit of the spirit, Galations 5:22-23(love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, & self-control)
Those are just some thoughts. that was way long. Maybe I should start my own blog in response to whyJustinwhy. . .
1. I enjoy sappy christian music. Its like the Mexican radio stations. Every song sounds the same, and clearly people in Mexico don't like it, but thats what you listen to in Mexico.
2. Bring on the debates.
3. Stand up and greet your neighbor is my own personal favorite part of church. We are technically supposed to be living as a church and what a better way to live with someone than by knowing their name and thoughts on the weather?
4. I think we should be talking less about the husband/wife thing and more about how to be a good neighbor/co-worker/student/feiend. The husband and wife thing can get old to those of us who aren't married.
These are my thoughts. I am concerned in the lack of comments. ARE THE READERS OF THIS BLOG NOT CHRISTIANS!?!
Haha... Kellen's post made me laugh out loud in Blue Baker. Which, as you know, is not a laugh-friendly place. My comments, of course, will be reserved for our next phone conversation.
Seth! (I'm assuming this is the Reverend Seate Jones, not Seth Jones?) Thanks for your reply. If you agree that the church needs to up its masculinity, how would you change it?
Kellen, I agreed with your 4th point so much that I changed my post: Every time it said "husband", I typed "man" instead... to make it more general.
you guys are more than welcome to join the whyjustinwhy think tank.
Even though I am a woman I have to agree with this. We used to go every week and taught the youth Sunday School. Now we are lucky to make it once a month. Jeffery struggles with the same issues you do. Oh, and the people that go Christmas and Easter, they are called Chreasters.
I to HATE the stand and greet. It's very uncomfortable...
Love your blogs...You crack me up.
this is good stuff. i don't have a lot of time to respond and i plan on commenting more later. but yes.
Justin, How to? I'm not sure. I think a part of the problem with the american church is that we have taken the "edge" off of the gospel to make it more appealing and less demanding of us. We tend to preach a gospel that doesn't require sacrifice, that doesn't talk about how broken and screwed up we all are, and that seperates spiritual("church stuff")and secular("day to day stuff"). This is not the gospel of the bible.
The scripture tells us quite the opposite. We are told that loving and following Jesus will cost us everything, that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God", and that every part of our life is spiritual, from the changing of a baby's diaper, to decisions at your job, to sex with your spouse(yay!!).
I believe that if the uncensored gospel is preached that people have to make a choice and stand firm either way. This could be a beginning of bringing masculinity back.
OR we could all just lift weights more and talk about sports.
Post a Comment