Where Have all the Fathers Gone? is Tim Bayly's take at Resurgence on pastoral strategies to get men back in churches.
I share the concern. I'm not sure I buy into all the strategies Bayly lists, but the practical mix of pastoral and attractional is probably good..
1 comment:
With all due respect to Tim, his solutions won't make a difference. They've all been tried and they don't have a lasting effect.
What will? The presence of God in power.
Women would come to church even if God wasn't showing up in power. Church can be very relational. That will hold women. But it won't hold men.
Acting all gruff and rough may appeal for a few months, but in the end men will see that it's a facade for what's really missing. Men have a far more sensitive BS meter. They'll drop out of anything loaded full of BS or talk that doesn't line up with walk. Charisma only holds them for so long. Tough words snare them, but can't hold them.
You fill a place with people seeking God and God showing up in power? Men will be dying to be a part of that. That will hold them. It's like a burning building. Men will gather just to watch it burn. It holds their attention. Now imagine a church filled with spiritual fire. Imagine a place that rocks because God shows up in power. I guarantee you that men will stream to a place like that.
Too many churches--for numerous reasons--fail to go there, though. So they substitute. And the BS meter kicks in with men and they leave.
It's that simple.
It's the getting to that place of spiritual power that's far harder. We've got to want that anointing. And when we get to a point that we feel like we'll die without it, God will send it. We're just not at that point here in the States. Until we are, the slow erosion in statistics about men and church will continue.
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