Study shows just 35 percent of men have best friend in church; from 'spectator' to 'partaker'
A new monthly e-newsletter is linking Seventh-day Adventist men in Western Australia, church leaders there report.
The Western Australian Conference Men’s E-News (WACMEN) is expected to encourage men to be “partakers” rather than “spectators” in the pews, says Danny Bell, e-newsletter editor.
WACMEN is the first initiative of a men’s ministry network in Western Australia that began meeting last month to address the challenge of interesting and involving men in church activities.
Adventist Church statistics estimate that the 16 million-strong worldwide membership is approximately 70 percent women. Protestant church leaders and researchers have suggested that because churches often promote a nurturing and often emotion-focused environment, services and activities likely appeal to fewer men than women.
“Average guys on the street are getting a very strong message that church is for sissies,” Bell says. “Whether we believe this or not isn’t the point. If we cannot meet [men] where they are than we will never reach them.”
Gender-based differences in response to religious questions are more pronounced than those between any other demographic categories, including age, education level and geographic region, a series of Gallup polls conducted over the past several years reveals. The study, “Religion and Gender: A Congregation Divided,” indicates that 51 percent of women compared to 35 percent of men surveyed have a “best friend” in their congregation.
The poll also reports that men were less likely to be engaged in their congregation, but that the difference in involvement evaporates when men are given opportunities to use their strengths in the church and when church activities catered to their interests are available.
“Today’s church culture favors, even expects, participation in intimate, nurturing behavior such as singing, hand-holding, sitting in circles and sharing feelings,” Christian author David Murrow writes in Why Men Hate Going to Church (Thomas Nelson, 2004). Murrow adds that because many men feel uncomfortable in such environments, they eschew church attendance.
Because WACMEN is email-based it creates a non-threatening environment in which many men are more likely to open up, Bell says. “Guys have told me that they appreciate just being heard without the raised eyebrows they get at church when talking about things that bother them.”
Response to the e-newsletter has so far been positive, Bell says. “We’ve got around 100 subscribers but that’s growing rapidly.”
Right now WACMEN is localized, but Bell hopes the idea catches on globally. He says men’s groups can run parallel rather than compete with the often well-established women’s groups at local churches.
“The church cannot continue to have a mentality that says, ‘If [men] don’t like church, then that’s their problem.’ We need to look at ourselves and see if we’re doing anything to scare them off,” he says.