I think it is subtle, but real. If you have been in the church for all your life, you probably don't notice it. If you are an outside tuning your radio to a Contemporary Christian Channel you will definately notice it.

There is no doubt that the demographics say most churches are 60-40 women. Men drop the ball and abandon, use and abuse women, and they run to God for comfort.

I do see it in my church when I look for it. If I don't look for it, I don't notice it, because I am immune.

When i hear the discussion about he "feminization" of the church, my mind jumps to two things.
1. The topics discussed are usually focused on emotional "girly" actions in church. Some guys don't love singing, or find really sentimental prayer times or speaking really "weak" or "feminine." I think the problem isn't the "feminization" of the church, the real issue people have is with the "emotional" church vs. a church service with attitude, motorcycles, and grunting.
2. The real issue comes down to sexuality and understanding of gender. Those that claim men should be "manly" and girls are just "girly" seem to be the ones who are heading this discussion (correct me if I'm wrong).

There's a good book on this topic:
http://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-...

Read the book WHY MEN HATE GOING TO CHURCH. It contains lots of stats that do show the trend of the feminization of the American church.

I don't think so.

Though this post does remind me of one a few weeks ago with Matt Redman talking about how some "Blokey Blokes" not feeling comfortable singing love songs to Jesus or Micheal Frosts chapter in his book "Exiles" entitled "Jesus Ain't My Boyfriend".

Other than that I can't think of anything.

One of my college professors wrote a book that might be worth checking out on this subject...

"Where are All the Brothers?"

http://ericredmond.wordpress.c...

I have a variety of thoughts on the issue but the most basic (and easily discussed) is that I don't see the mythic 'manly' original ethos that people like to point to. I find the manly origins in the church a myth, read into the gospels my contemporary men who want to see themselves (their culture one could say) into the text.

When I read the gospel I don't see a rough talking, rabble rousing Jesus. Sure he critiques the pharisees, and throws jabs at the existing upper social strata but I don't think Jesus comes across as that manly (turning the other cheek, tending to the neglected, the poor and the widow, not confronting authority, etc..). Not to mention anything about the later church fathers and ascetics who few of them (if not none altogether) give off an overly masculine tone.

Additionally, isn't in inherently problematic to cast 21st century categories of gender onto a 1st century person? Maybe that's just me...

I'd say yes and no. Our society is slowly feminzating men and a little bit of that has rubbed off onto the church. But some churches are reaching out to men and their issues now more than ever. So it depends. God can make good out of even the worst situations.

As Jesus said, the church is for the sick who need a doctor. For sinners who need forgiveness. Men are typically raised to see themselves as strong, independent and self-reliant. As Jesus said, the prostitutes and tax collectors are getting into the kingdom ahead of those who won’t admit weakness. The problem is not “Feminization”, the problem is pride. Men typically will only submit when they see someone stronger than themselves. The church has failed to show us a powerful, active God. One who intervenes in the affairs of men today, who heals, speaks, changes history. One who calls us into a mission and gives us supernatural weapons to conquer. Instead we have lectures (oops, sermons), on becoming a better person, child-raising, affecting our culture or having a successful marriage.

These are not male or female issues. These are theological issues. After all, 95% of our senior pastors are males who pepper their sermons with football, baseball and golf anecdotes. Our church even built a beautiful basketball gym (and it’s not for dance recitals). Sociologists are writing about the contemporary phenomenon of delayed adolescence in males. 20 and 30 year old guys want to play video games, watch sports, shoot hoops, drink beer and put off marriage and career. Church is not feminized...it has becoming an unwitting enabler of loutish behavior. What Jonathan Swift called Yahoos. Yes, some men are missing but feminization is not the issue. And by the way, I resent that pejorative, stereotypical, misogynistic word.

While I applaud their candor about the sexual issues of men, I don't think we need more male stereotyping books, comedians, GodMen initiatives or injecting more testosterone into the gospel. We need the real power of the Holy Spirit. That is what men (and women) will rally to.

The church has ALWAYS been feminine in nature: it is a community of believers joining together, sharing their lives. It builds connections between those people and teaches through sermonizing--i.e., words, talking to people. Gee, which gender is better at that, on average? For an entity that is to be the BRIDE of Christ, this shouldn't be entirely shocking.

The problem in the last half-century, however, is that this natural bias towards connection and communication has been elevated beyond the (admittedly already bias) balance it should be striking with performance and analysis. How many churches do you know that sink their metaphorical teeth into theology and leadership on a level outside of some small group--again, a small community of people "connecting" with each other--ministry?

There is nothing demanding about the modern Christian life for a male to strive towards, and that hurts. It is without question connected to the seeker sensitivity movement: bring them in, hold them, don't be threatening. The life of the modern Christian is a "relationship" with God, not a religion. Bit of trivia: in the ESV translation of the Bible, the word "relationship" appears once, and only once--in a footnote in Genesis! In the NIV, it is only used once in the New Testament--when Paul informs Jews to stop bragging about their "special relationship" with God!

The "missional" mindset has done a little in addressing the issue, trying to bring the church back into perspective: working out your salvation with action, rather than words and tea-and-crumpets Bible studies. But it's not enough. Frankly, there's just not enough "frontier" left: no tribe unreached, no nation ignorant, no tongue silent. Where do we ask our men to step up?

llawhsoj: He also made a whip and chased moneychangers out of the Temple, was a carpenter who walked everywhere, was crucified...yeah, nothing manly or upright about that. And it took cojones to call out the phraisees and social elites. Meanwhile, Stephen was martyred (or, in the words of Rufus from "Dogma": was bludgeoned to death by big #!*@ing rocks), Peter was crucified--upside down, no less!--and Paul himself died at the hands of the Romans. Nothing whatsoever manly about the early church. What bunch of feel-good sissies. The problem is, again, the lack of frontiers in our modern world: where are we going to ask our men to stand up and be strong, brave and forthright? There is a failure, however slight you may think it is, to shape our men for godliness AT HOME or abroad. And that is not solved with sermonizing, potlucks or anything else.

rick: Yes, "the church has failed to show us a powerful, active God." And we're going to say there's no problem with that? The problem IS feminization because God is powerful, active--and it should be thrown through His church. Modern worship music pretty much sums it up. Name a song that celebrates Christ and His Church Militant or Christ victorious. "Shout to the Lord" says "my comfort, my shelter." "Above All" says "you thought of me above all." These impressions of God--the theology we get from our singing--color how we know Him. And we don't know Him as a victorious, strong leader in the assault against Hell. We know Him as our comfort, shelter, savior who just loves us so very, very much. He is that, but the Church fails when it does not call to mind Jesus as the Everlasting MAN.

The church should be bias towards femininity--it is the bride, and this is its natural, right place. But as such, it submits and follows the bridegroom, Christ. And Christ calls us to mission, to action--to some very "manly" virtues and challenges. Somewhere, the modern church forgot that and only remembered that the bridegroom loves it. THAT is a problem.