The Bretheren are MIA

In the March/April Today's Christian magazine article about their book, Camerin Courtney and Todd Hertz address a disturbing statistic. " O Brothers, Where Art Thou?" says that there's a whole lot more women in church than men. And for single women, that makes finding a good Christian to date a real problem.

That resonates with an old maxim -- "Your organization is ideally designed for the results you are getting". If we don't like the results we are seeing, we must make a change. That goes for all aspects, not just the number of single men in our churches.

Our Sunday Schools have mostly women; our pews have more women than men. The number of single women outnumber the single men. Men are basically missing in action (MIA). A March 2000 Barna Research survey found that 60 percent of practicing Christians are women. So why do men, many of whom profess to believe, not show up at church? Todd and Camerin agree -- something is broken.

Todd lists as some negative factors that may dampen of single men's enthusiasm in attending church:

• Church offers rules and judgement
• Church offers hymns (I assume he meant old or stodgy or "high church" hymns or maybe hymns vs. contemporary music)
• Focus on families, not singles
• A feminine, touchy-feely approach
• Pressure to become something they are not -- married
• Few other men their age with whom they can relate