DON'T WRITE OFF THE MEN'S GROUP
Lyle E. Schaller
January 1, 1986
"You do have some good ideas occasionally, Charlie, but this isn't one of them," declared Jack Spencer. "I've been a member for more than twenty years, and we've never been able to have a men's group. About fifteen years ago we had a minister who really pushed it, but it didn't go. That may work with some other churches, but not here."
"Television has killed the whole idea," agreed Stanley Winter. "In the church where my wife and I were married, we used to meet on the second Monday evening of every month for dinner, Bible study, a program, and fellowship. Sometimes we would have thirty-five or forty men turn out, and we must have averaged between twenty and twenty-five. Television has made that a relic of the past."
"But it's also the quality of the alternatives," observed Bill Edwards. "Why would anyone come to church to hear a layman stumble through a devotional lesson when you can stay home and watch a religious program that's professionally done?"
"It's not just television and Monday night football that killed the men's club," argued Ned Vernon. "It's the competition for people's time. People have too many things to do. Half the mothers have a job outside the home. A lot of men work a full day and moonlight on a second job at night. There are dozens of civic, professional, social, political, and hobby clubs that want a chunk of your time. The men's club belonged to an era when it helped fill up what otherwise could have been empty evenings for a lot of lonesome men. It's like your appendix-obsolete. Times have changed."
Do these comments help explain the demise of the men's fellowship in so many congregations? Is the men's club a relic?
A turnaround?
There is only one thing wrong with these comments and reactions. They represent ...
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