“Would you pray for my husband? He doesn’t like coming to church with me.”
In my twenty-three years of being a Christian, I’ve heard the above statement made by wives (or girlfriends) hundreds of times. Why? Most men don’t like going to churches. They find it boring.
In fact, a recent study revealed that only one in three men attend church on any given Sunday in our nation. And of those men that do attend, a majority do so only to placate a wife or family.
Pretty sad, right?
Actually, not really.
What?
I believe the Lord has called Christian men to leave the traditional church system and start something new. Home churches. Churches in businesses. Churches in Starbucks. Churches outside the four walls of the traditional church. Churches where men can be apostolic pioneers rather than gelded pew sitters.
And what most critics have labeled as apathy by men is not really true at all. But instead, it is a divine dissatisfaction sowed into the hearts of men by the Holy Spirit.
This dissatisfaction will be used by the Lord to bring about reformation in just a matter of years, rather than over a long period of decades and decades.
So, Lord, bring forth dissatisfied men who are hungry for You and Your kingdom. Amen.
Swimming Upstream appears at this blog site on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It’s a little of this and a little of that, all written to encourage and exhort believers in their Christian jouneys.
Larry Who 
I’ve been watching your blog for a while, Larry, and you think along the same lines as I do!
I agree that most men find church boring (so do some of us women!) but I think there’s more than just boredom keeping them away.
Have you noticed that the church seems more female orientated than male orientated? Most people probably don’t realise it.
For example: surely men must find it a bit disconcerting that so many songs and choruses are love songs to Jesus. To be honest, even as a woman I find some of them too sugary sweet and unreal. But for a man to sing love songs to, well, another man, cannot feel comfortable.
I understand that some of the songs do express love without being awkward for a man to sing. However, I have wondered whether some men stay away because they feel out of place and can’t quite work out why.
Also, I have always imagined men to be more ‘action’ orientated and women to be more ‘words/talk’ orientated. Please don’t throw things at me – this is just a generalisation! Today’s church is more talk than action, for sure.
I so agree with you about men starting something new, like churches in business, or home, or coffee shops, or wherever. Let me tell you, the women would rejoice over this too. At least, I would!!
My husband and I are both outside church, and love the Lord with all our hearts. It saddens us that the church has become so firmly entrenched in idolatry and worldliness – and doesn’t even realise it (and worse, don’t want to hear the truth). We long for reality instead of religion.
“So, Lord, bring forth dissatisfied men who are hungry for You and Your kingdom.”
Amen, amen, amen!
Country Lass
Country Lass,
I totally agree with you. The traditional church has been feminized. It has probably been a gradual change over the years so that most people don’t see it. But church leaders do recognize this as a major problem. One that has no quick fix.
What I did not write is something that I know is also true. Women will have no problem in following their husbands out of the traditional church system if their husbands are on fire for the Lord. Men being on fire for the Lord is the key that would turn a trickle into a flood. Last person out turn off the lights!