Why Men Hate Going to Church

Over the years alot of women have fallen victim to the feminist movement and have stopped being ladies and want to take over men's roles in the church. (female pastors, deacons, teachers.etc) And we as men of the church are letting them get away with it.
Also I think alot of men are too lazy to get up Sun. morn for church and also see it as a way to get their wife and kids out of the house for a couple of hours and have some time to themselves.
Some men resent the fact of their wives using their pastor as a standard as to how they expect their husbands to be. "Some of you wimpy men in this congregation need to put the pants on blah, blah.........,"
I know a church in Pensacola Fla., Bible Baptist Church, Pastor Peter S. Ruckman, who has a predominintly male congragation, as well as the Bible college there. The emphasis is Bible teaching and nothing but the Bible.

 

In the Church I attended up north, (not too far from you Deacon, Fairless Hills Pa.) we had a men's retreat every year and would have a speaker that would speak to us in the morn and evening to pump us up. We also did alot of "manly" things like shoot our guns, play basketball, fish, etc. It was a real blessing to get up in the morning and look around the beautiful upstate Pa landscape and see all the men having their quiet time alone with God. I looked forward to this every year.
But we still had our share of women coming to church w/o their husbands. Husbands that supposedlt accepted Christ as their Savior as well as women with unsaved husbands. We also had saved man with unsaved wives but that was much rarer.
Peter Ruckman is definitely a "man's preacher". He is in his 80's and still plays ice hockey on a regular basis.

(btw, I think this post has much potential and should be moved to another forum.)

 

Interestingly enough Ruckman is almost uniformly denounced on this board as a lunatic. Considering the bits and pieces I've read of his work I can't blame the boardmembers for doing so, but I'm a woman.

Reading the summary of Murrow's book I'm strongly reminded of an observation a prominent feminist once made. I think it was Simone de Beauvoir.
There is a tendency that if the % of women working in a repected male dominated profession get's larger the profession becomes less respected and if the % of women keeps growing men will start to avoid joining that profession untill it's a far less respected female dominated profession. The same principle may very well apply to churches.

 

Our deacons have approached this problem with success by scheduling some very male-activities. Instead of retreats being just another sermon and song time, retreats include hunting, fishing, auto-repair, etc.

 

Could the answer to the problem be more simple. The reason most Men hate Church is because they are lost? An unregenerate person always will hate Church.

 

Here's an example of a local men-only retreat that I've seen promoted around Minnesota:

http://troutlakecamp.org/Files_MP/Tool_File_61_01.pdf

Notice that in addition to the numerous chapel sessions there are many sports activities- and a big steak fry on Saturday evening.

Of course, "masculine Christianity" was the basic idea between John Eldredge's recent bestseller Wild at Heart. Any men here read it?

 

lazy to get up Id think- Up until recently i did not attend church regularly either- Once the holy spirit revives you you feel excited to go to church...i dunno just my 2C

 

Kiffen,

It would be inaccurate to assume that every saved Christian male enjoys attending church, and it would be inaccurate to assume the cause is the man. I've known many men who read their bibles, pray, even witness to others who view church as a duty that is as "enjoyable" as teeth pulling; when it SHOULD be a joyful fellowship for them.

 

Sometimes, but not always. I'm don't agree with the direction my church is taking which is making it more difficult to serve with enthusiasm.

 

I agree with you BUT I am primarily referring not to Men like you describe but those who refuse to come to Church. This usually shows a deeper spiritual problem that will not be solved by adding programs.

Like I said to Texas Sky, I am referring primarily to men who don't attend Church. Men who are negligent on being spiritual leaders to their wife and children in their home by refusing to come to Church have spiritual problems.

 

I firmly believe that if ANY church did this, every other activity would be a far second in influence to drawing people to this church!!!!!

Yes! Good book.

One of the biggest problems with men today is the emasculation/feminizing/dumbing down of the male species by society as a whole.

Watch TV and find just one ad during a month that does not make the Dad some sort of comical buffoon at best; usually he's portrayed as simply stupid & Mom has to solve all the problems! No difference in the idiotic programs so prevalent either.

Of course this all goes 180 degrees to the standard in God's Word, so you can see why satan has managed to get this type of idea to predominate.

MARANATHA!!!!

 

I agree that we need not to feminize men. Men need to be men and women need to be women. But if we're adding programs such as sports programs etc, are they really coming to church? We had a softball team at one church I was on. We recruited several friends to come and play. Of all the men who showed up to play, only a handful showed up for services. Then after the season was over, we never saw them again.

I don't think adding programs is going to make men come to church.

Additionally, a lot of the 'men focused' groups I've seen have had very little in them to even indicate that it was a church group. They are support groups to encourage men to be the best X they can be and have typically had little biblical support.

 

I don't think it could have been said any better, Nate!

 

I think that there is a general problem with men and church, and part of it is summed up in what Kiffen says.

Aren't the percentages also skewed somewhat by the fact that women outnumber men in the overall population? I think that is correct, though I'm not sure by how much.

 

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And Murrow discourages women from nagging their lazy husbands to go to church each week.
Men will go to a church that meets their needs.

Im sure am glad my wife never stoped nagging