Church Voices

Two blog entries by Paul McCain interested me. This one is about the role fathers play in their children’s spiritual growth (its huge) and this one is about how men are pretty much dropping out of church left and right due to the church environment reflecting values that women find important (ie stablity, safety etc.) rather than values men find important (reaching a goal, risk taking etc). Pastor McCain links over to this website on which is found this article which claims the feminization of the church began in the 1800s when men left home to find jobs in the cities and women took over church leadership functions.

If this is true (I don’t doubt the statistics, and the historical explanation sounds reasonable) then the solution to the problem would be to return the church to what it once was. So what was the church prior to the 1800s? What attracted men to the church at that point in time that has been changed or lost? Up until that point in time the church underwent constant change. From the early church which grew under persecution and battled with heretics, to the newly legalized church under Constantine which dispatched missionaries and developed the hierarchy now found in the Catholic Church (not to mentioned grew in size, scope and political power), to the Reformation which saw a battle of ideas that resulted in whole countries breaking from the Catholic Church to Christianity making landfall in the Americas and different denominations formed and grew. Not to mention the whole Second Great Awakening which saw a huge expansion of churches throughout America. While all of this was going on, art developed from within the church as a direct result of her teachings, and science grew out of a genuine desire to understand the creator by studying the creation. Innovation in areas such as art and science (not to mention academia) was directly linked with the church.

Since approximately the 1800s there hasn’t been the kind of change, and development of the church seen prior to the 1800s (well in the west anyway, Asia and Africa are different stories). If we concede that men are generally drawn to risk taking, and the achievement of goals, as well as to trail breaking new endeavors then the history of the church prior to 1800s is well suited to masculine traits. How do we translate that to today?

Not to brag, but being a manly man myself I was attracted to the church for a number of reasons. The first was an emphasis put on philosophy/apologetics. While this isn’t normally a subject equated with large biceps and hairy chests it does lend itself to masculinity as it was an area of study born out of conflict. There’s a certain amount of risk that comes from putting up your intellectual kung fu against someone else’s in a public area. Unfortunately this is an area that many churches neglect, which is sad for a large number of reasons.

Leadership is another area that lends itself well to the nature of masculinity, especially in new endeavors. This brings with it not just risk taking, but also acheiving a particular goal. Giving men (well anyone really, but men are more likely to benefit from this paradigm) a free reign over a particular area of ministry and laying out clearly defined goals you expect them to meet will not only appeal to men, but it will also tap into the human resources of the church as people are allowed to apply their natural talents and creativity.

So far I haven’t found any really good ideas on this problem. Sure, there are some ideas for men’s ministries but nothing I’ve seen has addressed how the church as a whole can appeal to men.

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Find a need and fill is the stock advice given to any budding entrepeneur. That’s because it may be the only way to build a business. Its also the only way to start a new ministry. The vast majority of the growth going on in the Restoration movement is found in megachurches and church plants, both are places designed to fill an unmet need. Megachurches have the membership and resources to create specialized ministries while church plants are positioned to take advantage of a dearth of churches. Both are filling unmet needs and experience growth because of it.

Obstacles
Finding an unmet need and filling it sounds easy enough, but like many things the devil is in the details. The US is a nation in which Christianity has experienced huge amounts of growth, and has maintained a vibrance that hasn’t lasted in other places (*cough* western europe *cough*). What this means is that if it appears there is an unmet need there may be obstacles that aren’t readily apparent. If a church doesn’t exist in a particular locale it may not be because of negligence on the part of the church, it may be a church simply hasn’t survived there for very real reasons. If it were easy to start a church or specialized ministry from scratch there’d be a whole lot more ministers, ministries and churches around.

Instead of simply looking for a need that hasn’t been met and charging off to fill it ask yourself “why hasn’t this need been met yet”? It may be its a new need created by shifting demographics. If that’s the case then proceed at full speed ahead. But perhaps an area without a church isn’t interested in having a church, or doesn’t have the fiscal resources to maintain a minister and building. Such a situation doesn’t mean its time to scratch the idea completely, but it does make you aware of the problems that will have to be overcome. Develop specific steps that will overcome these problems and maximize the possiblity of success. We’re charged with expanding the kingdom of heaven and using our resources in the best way possible. Preparing for potential problems doesn’t display a lack of faith in God, but discharges our duty to act in a Godly way.

Competency
So now you’ve identified a need, you know why that need hasn’t yet been filled by a church yet, and now you’re ready to charge off and expand the kingdom of God, right? Wrong. First, you must evaluate whether or not you have the necesary talent and resources to fill that need. It may be that there is a great need for post-abortion counseling, and there are no significant obstacles blocking that ministry, but I have absolutely no competency in that area. If I were to try to fill that need I would fail spectacularly because I have never experienced and overcome the pain and guilt that comes with an abortion, nor have I received any sort of training in this type of counseling. The need is there, the obstacles are not, but I’m woefully unqualified to do something about this on my own.

Identify the core (ie the minimum level) talent and resources that will be necessary to successfully start the new church or ministry. Explicitly list them and then evaluate the resources and talent that are available to pour into a new church or ministry. If you don’t have the resources, you don’t have the resources. Pray about it, come up with the resources somehow, or shelve the plan until you do, but there’s no reason to go into a new situation without the gas to go all the way.

Agility Is Power
Once the decision has been made to plant a church or start a specialized ministry it is important to remove as much redtape as possible. Free your newly budding ministry to act as quickly as possible to react to changing conditions or to correct practices that aren’t conducive to the ministry. Waiting for the next Elder’s meeting or staff consultation to make changes could be the difference between success and failure. But at the same time recognize that quick reactions can lead to overcompensation. Coming up with new decision making processes may be necessary to provide but agility and wisdom in making decisions.

There’s a couple of Christian blogs I read on a regular basis. They are explicitly non-evangelical. In addition to that they are rather contemptuous of the “church growth” movement. Of course, what they despise about the church growth movement is not really the heart of church growth. Unfortunately, many churches and church planters looking to grow miss the actual cause of church growth as well.
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