WHAT DO MEN WANT?
The secrets of vital men's ministry
Mark Galli
January 1, 1991
Granted, it was an unusual morning, but it suggests the magnitude of the problem: during one Sunday service in my last church, I led worship for fifty-some people, but only five of them were men.
Normally our service gathered twenty-five to thirty men out of seventy total. That's about average. A recent LEADERSHIP survey conducted by the research department of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, INC. (see "The Church's Sexual Demographics," page 16) shows that men usually make up about 40 percent of a Sunday morning adult congregation, although Lyle Schaller reports that this figure drops to 35 percent in many churches. So 10 percent may have been a low Sunday, but even normal men's attendance is nothing to write the denominational board about.
It hasn't always been this way. In the fifties the ratio of males to females in worship was much closer, 47:53, according to Schaller. Since the general population at the time was similarly balanced, that ratio in church was appropriate. By 1986, however, although the population ratio had remained the same, male worship attendance had dropped significantly.
It's more than a matter of statistics, however. Pastors feel the effects of the gender gap week in and week out. They empathize with women who faithfully attend worship and Bible studies and who daily pray and hope their husbands will, someday, join them. They wonder how to bring more balance to the singles ministry, which tends to attract more women than men.
They also feel frustrated in their efforts to minister to men, because men are reluctant to talk about things spiritual. And, as they plan programs and outreach for men, they find themselves slamming into a preconception that won't budge: religion is a woman's thing.
Combine statistics, pastoral ...
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