Why don't men go to church?

In the Church of England, the Diocese of Oxford wants to deal in a substantive way the decline in the percentage of men who attend church.

The Church Times reports:

The diocese of Oxford hopes to tackle the shortage of men who attend church. The diocese has joined Men and the Church (MATCH) to host a one-day conference on 5 February, “offering resources and ideas for churches wanting to reach unchurched men with the gospel, exploring why so many men leave the Church, and [encouraging] new strategies for evangelism to men”, a statement from MATCH said.

The Church of England’s head of research and statistics, the Revd Lynda Barley, said that about two-thirds of regular worshippers were women. The Revd Paul Eddy, founder of MATCH, said that, in many churches, the ratio was one man to every four women.

Clergy across the diocese, both male and female, were “very con­cerned” about the shortage of men in their congregations, he said, and had asked for “resources and support” to help attract them.

Mr Eddy complained that the present C of E mission strategy “re­volves around ‘belonging’ to a congregation, and then ‘believing’, and then a change in ‘behaviour’ after conversion.

“With evangelism to men, I would suggest, the strategy should be the re­verse: recognising they will first need to consider behaviour, then belief, and then finally belonging to a local church — if its worship, preach­ing, and discipleship is relevant to men.”

The Revd Ben Norton, a Fresh Expressions pioneer minister, runs XY, which describes itself as a “lads church”, in Bridlington, Yorkshire, which meets in a pub.

Superficial changes to church services, such as changing the hymns or reducing the number of flowers, amounted to “rearranging the furn­iture on the Titanic”, he said. Many men needed “a safe forum to work out what they think” in an environment in which “they are able to swear” or express controversial views.

UPDATE: A suggestion for engaging boys.

Posted by Andrew Gerns on January 15, 2011 3:00 PM | |
Comments (5)

The last paragraph above hits the nail on the head. But finding that "safe forum" can be difficult, especially if you call it a "safe forum."

We do a thing called Football w. Father Matt; I meet up at a local dive with whoever wants to come - it's usually mostly men - and just watch football and have a beer. Swearing and controversial views start up around 5 minutes into the 2nd quarter.

Also, taking a look at the type of men Jesus called to be His disciples can shed some light on how men react to Jesus. "Let us go and die with Him" comes to mind. Gutsy, tough fishermen and the like made up the first twelve. Watching "Deadliest Catch" must be like watching Peter and his friends.

Posted by Father Matt Tucker [TypeKey Profile Page] | January 15, 2011 7:30 PM

Just my 2c: we live in a time of raging (!) empiricism, and men seem especially susceptible to that. [The hypocrisy and triviality of so many people-of-faith, esp. Christians, doesn't help.]

JC Fisher

Posted by tgflux [TypeKey Profile Page] | January 15, 2011 11:38 PM

I strongly doubt that reversing the approach is a good idea. Belonging is much easier as a first step, than changing, for anyone.

I like Fr. Matt's idea. I've also seen other non-threatening social groups work. The biggest problem is how the church really is women-oriented. Sure, the misogynistic language still has to go, and yes I recognize the Bible's over-focus on men. But the things that are common like spiritual retreats, meditations and prayer groups are geared toward women's spirituality much more than men's.

If the church wants to attract men, maybe some focus on men would be helpful.

Posted by Matthew Buterbaugh+ [TypeKey Profile Page] | January 16, 2011 6:45 AM

This TED talk adds to the discussion. http://www.ted.com/talks/ali_carr_chellman_gaming_to_re_engage_boys_in_learning.html

The speaker points out how schools are disenfranchising boys by the second grade and suggests gaming as one recourse to build educational bridges to them.

Posted by Michael Russell [TypeKey Profile Page] | January 16, 2011 10:03 AM

Mike: then there is this finding about depression and social isolation among video gamers.

Posted by Ann Fontaine [TypeKey Profile Page] | January 20, 2011 1:26 PM

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