David Murrow
Nelson Books
ISBN 0-7852-6038-2
Almost any church you walk into, any Sunday service, any church committee, you will notice the gender gap. There are more women than men. Is this just the way of things? Are women just naturally more religious than men? If you think that's unlikely, but don't understand why and want to know mote, then this is the book for you. David starts by looking at Masculinity, and then at some more detailed categories of people who are not attending church. Did you know that the church is also lacking young women? Then he uses lots of statistics to prove the point. All of these are American, but look at the numbers and think of the churches you know. It begins to make sense. Now you're hooked. You have to read on to find out what can be done about this situation. Having explained his background, he move on to make some suggestions as to what might need to change. If you can remember back before the feminist movement, and see how things are different now, you'll get the idea, or part of it at least. If not you'll have to read the book and see how the church 'thermostat' as he calls it can be set in a more comfortable way for men.
I read this book while preparing for a training course I will be running shortly on reaching men. These ideas are not so much about reaching, as about keeping. There's no point in reaching men, having them commit their lives to Christ, only to leave the church in six months. So I will cover both – to some extent anyway.
