"I could go on, but additional data would only reveal the same truth yet from more directions. There is no hiding the fact that men are not as spiritually engaged as women; that they are turned off by church and its related activities
What is facinating about men and church in recent years is that while their church attendance has waned, their involvement in small groups has actually increased. It's as if men have left church and found other ways to seek out Jesus. Author, artist, and documentarian David Murrow has reported a finding of Gorge Barna that 'between 1994 and 2004, men's church attendance was flat, but men's participation in in small spiritual groups doubled! During that decade about nine million additional men joined a small group that meets during the week for the purpose of prayer, Bible Study, or spiritual fellowship, apart from Sunday school or other church classes.' (italics his) 3
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What do men find in a faternity house in college or a faternity-like environment after college that they do not find in church? The same thing that C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and their colleagues, The Inklings, found when they met together at Eagle and Child pub in Oxford, England, for a pipe and a pint: collegiality, stimulation, acceptance, camaraderie, and good humor. Fortunately, many churches have discovered that men respond to settings like these far more then the Sunday morning hour.
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The 'endless repetitions' of warm and fuzzy choruses so popular in churches today is something that is not going to draw men to the church. For the most part, men don't do 'warm and fuzzy' yet that is what characterizes most church services" 1
1 Stephen Aterburn, The Secrets Men Keep (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2006), 111-114.
3 David Murrow, Why Men Hate Going to Church (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005), 228.
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