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Men-Only Church Times Sermons, Meets in Gym

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by

mwkruse
in ,

The Christian Post: Men-Only Church Times Sermons, Meets in Gym

A BEACH, Fla. (AP) – No hymnals. No pews. No steeple. No stained glass windows. And no women.

This ain't your grandma's church.

Organizers of the Church For Men say that guys are "bored stiff" in many churches today.

"We try to make it interesting for them. We meet in a gym and we talk about issues that mess men up," said Mike Ellis, 46, the church's founder.

The Church For Men meets one Saturday evening per month, drawing about 70 guys dressed in everything but straight-laced shirts and neckties. The service features a rock band, a shot clock to time the preacher's message and a one-hour in-and-out guarantee….

This all strikes me as a bit bizarre. Worship is about God and not about us. When we come together in the full diversity of our community and worship God, we symbolize that Christ has made us one. The issue is not about whether we had a worshipful experience or were "fed." This issue is whether God has had a worshipful experience and did he enjoy our sacrifice of praise. I have no problem with sub-groups getting together for special worship times, but corporate worship is to be exactly that, "corporate," representing the whole body.

I think this movement misses the mark. I think men do not connect with Church primarily because of their obsession with Sunday morning worship. The Church is irrelevant to the one core piece of men and their identities. Men tend to define themselves by their work. In my estimation, the Church is an abysmal failure at helping men integrate their work with the larger vision of the Kingdom of God. It has not helped men find their identity in Christ and thus be able to infuse their work with the healthy meaning and purpose it should have. It has not helped them place their work in a proper context so that they can value the importance of other aspects of their lives, not the least of which is solid relationships with others.

It sounds like this movement is obsessed with generating numbers for corporate worship. How about investing in these men with true discipleship that connects the pieces of their lives into a coherent call from God? Do that, and I suspect you won't be having many problems with men coming to worship.

 

Comments

15 responses to “Men-Only Church Times Sermons, Meets in Gym”

  1. Light M. Avatar
    Light M.

    Michael, I also see this phenomenon as an outgrowth of the “church has become ‘feminized’” nonsense that is taking hold in some circles. (Funny how the people who make that claim overlook the fact that the church is, in fact the Bride of Christ. Or that for the most part, churches are still led primarily by men, not women.)
    “Worship is about God and not about us.” Spot on, Michael. We would all do very well to remember this.

    Reply
  2. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    Thanks Light. I also find it interesting that this is coming from Evangelical circles. Of all the various Christian groupings, Evangelicals are the ones who are closest to parity with men and women in attendance. Where is this perceived crisis of missing men coming from?

    Reply
  3. Dana Ames Avatar
    Dana Ames

    I’d better not pull out my soapbox- I could be here all afternoon-
    If the god one worships is ONLY interested in a legal transaction to remove one’s sin and eventually snatch one out of this world because god is going to toss a flaming earth into the cosmic dustbin-
    If the god one worships is SO wholly other that he is not present and involved, but must intervene from afar-
    If god’s ONLY concern is “brand identification” (“Christian” morality trumps every other morality)-
    If today’s USAChristians can be totally separate from Christians elsewhere in the world, and isolated from history-
    -then this makes the utmost sense.
    The system is perfectly designed to produce the results it’s getting.
    Dana

    Reply
  4. Todd Bensel Avatar
    Todd Bensel

    Aw, come on! I like these guys – haven’t you ever been to a “diverse” church where prayers were offered to Allah, Buddah, the Mother Goddess, Sophia, the Queen of Heaven and the like? No wonder these guys are leaving! And that old saw about parity between the sexes, look around. In my neck of the woods, women outnumber men 2 or 3 to one at every point of service in the church.

    Reply
  5. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    But I like your soapbox, Dana. 🙂 Thanks!

    Reply
  6. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    Todd, I don’t know what church environment you are in but may parity statement was about Evangelical churches. If you are in a mainline church like I am 2-3 is fairly good. 1-3 is more common.
    I am not disagreeing with the fact the church doesn’t appeal to many men. The issues is why. I would never invite most men I know who don’t go to church to such a service. It would be seen as a freak show or gimmicky sales pitch. The issue is about God being irrelevant to their daily living. Intense discipleship not gimmicks over comes that.
    As to diversity … ahem … I think you probably know the diversity I am referring to. 🙂 Jesus’ prayer was that we might be one and in doing so exhibit his kingdom to the world. That “one” is the uniting of gentile and Jew, slave and free, male and female, old and young, wealthy and poor, differing temperaments, differing ethnicity, etc. The uniting of diverse humanity in Christ, worshiping as one, was Jesus’ prayer. You want to have a men’s group that does some of this on the side, fine by me. But to have this as the organizing principle of worship seems counterproductive to Christ’s call.

    Reply
  7. Barb Avatar
    Barb

    “Worship is about God and not us”
    YES! and I truly believe half (if not more) of the church has lost sight of this. In our small congregation it is all about ME, am I being entertained, fed, does it meet my needs. And the truth is it’s not about ME, YOU, US. Let’s get back to what it is about!
    Although I do see a place for this all-male setting, just don’t make it a church. Talk about divisive!

    Reply
  8. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    Thanks Barb!

    Reply
  9. will spotts Avatar
    will spotts

    I too share the view that this is not the right way to go. (I find targeting and marketing to specific subgroups like race, class, age, or gender to be about as far from Christian as possible – though this is politically correct in many cases. I am convinced that attempts to regard some groups as desirable are misplaced at best.)
    Still, one has to admit that in the mainlines particularly church is not male friendly. This is true in evangelical circles to a somewhat lesser degree.
    I think you are partly right that the disconnect between work and church is part of the problem. Though I don’t like the idea that men find core identity through their jobs. I do think that a state in which church has little relevance to the rest of one’s life is a state that generates a ‘who cares’ reaction.
    Another issue is the fact that the life of the Christian is presented in terms of virtues – some of which have picked and chosen, not based on the Bible, but on our own instincts. Those virtues that appeal to men in general are selected against these days. Courage, for example, or strength, or self control are rarely emphasized – though they are clearly emphasized in the New Testament. Instead, things like nurturing and emotional sharing are being emphasized. Or, to be more generous, fruits of the Spirit like peace, longsuffering, and gentleness are emphasized to the exclusion of other Christian character traits.

    Reply
  10. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    Thanks Will.
    “Though I don’t like the idea that men find core identity through their jobs.”
    And I hope I was clear that I am not advocating that we should but rather we begin with where people are at. Work and satisfaction from it is a gift from God that, like every other gift, can become an idol. Generally speaking, my experience is that men need more help in disentangling their identity from their work and finding it in God than women generally do. But the also need to see their work as a gift from God and a gift back to God.
    I think you are Spott on (*grin*) about some of the trappings and emphasized themes. There is tweaking needed in many churches. But this article simply suggests replacing one mess for another IMO.

    Reply
  11. will spotts Avatar
    will spotts

    I like your description of work – I think you’re on to something here.
    I think I react to the notion that people find their value in things like work, careers – or money or intellect or appearance or status. I default to the view that people have inherent worth in themselves. (I know this seems to conflict with my belief in human depravity, but it is a logical outgrowth of creation. If what God created had no value in itself, then creation is not much to write home about.)

    Reply
  12. will spotts Avatar
    will spotts

    I have to admit, though, that when your website keeps asking me to enter letters and numbers to prove that I’m human . . . I find that a little disconcerting.

    Reply
  13. Michael Kruse Avatar
    Michael Kruse

    “I default to the view that people have inherent worth in themselves.”
    I agree. We have great worth because God created us in his image. Because we are of great worth to God we have great worth.

    Reply
  14. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    “I have to admit, though, that when your website keeps asking me to enter letters and numbers to prove that I’m human . . . I find that a little disconcerting.”
    LOL. And somewhere around the third or fourth time of unsuccessfully trying to enter those letters and numbers don’t you begin to wonder?

    Reply
  15. will spotts Avatar
    will spotts

    I start to contemplate notions like sub-human . . .

    Reply

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