Real Men

Look around your church and I bet you will see with your own eyes what groups like The Barna Group and the Nehemiah Institute are say is true; we are loosing 75 to 88% of our young people after their freshman year of college. Those ages 19 to 25 are absent from our churches. But I find myself asking a serious question. Where do our young people learn it from? The reality is that a parent has 100 times more influence than a Pastor, Youth Pastor or Sunday School teacher. At best a church leader will spend a few hours a week with a teen but a parent has much more time than that.

In addition to absent teens we have absent men in our churches. According to Barna, "Without women, Christianity would have nearly 60% fewer adherents." His research shows that women are 100% more likely than men to be involved i discipleship. They are 57% more likely to participate in Sunday School. Women are 56% more likely to hold a leadership position in a church (don't' believe that one just go and look at who is serving on the committees in your church). There is an absence of real, spiritual men in our churches. No wonder churches are so weak!

Some have offered help in this area. Various books and studies have been written to try to engage men and get them back in church. But to be honest these studies are trying to put band aids over a gaping wound. Most of these books and teachings focus more on being macho and hard core than they do on being biblical. A real man doesn't have to kill things with his bare hands and then eat it. A real man loves his wife and disciples his children.

I could go on and on for days on this issue but I wont. I simply want to ask a question. Where are the real man; the saved men; the biblical men? Where are the guys that are willing to step up and be spiritual leaders? Until these men show up our churches will be doing a doggy paddle in the middle of a vast ocean, dodging as many waves as they can.