Do men hate going to Church?
This is a question I’ve been wrestling with a lot lately. At Freedom Cardiff we have seen an influx of awesome women who are finding faith in Christ for the first time, along with others who are re-discovering their faith and having their passion for God re-ignited. But when it comes to men, it’s a different story. On the whole, the men that I’ve met and invited to Church have been very resistant to the idea.
The men that we do have at Freedom Cardiff are just phenomenal and the way God is transforming their lives is incredible. My complaint is that we don’t have enough of them. Compared to the majority of Churches in the UK Freedom Church as a whole is bucking the trend with regards to the amount, and type of men that we attract. This is because we are consciously committed to creating a church environment that appeals to men – a place where men can thrive. In fact we think it’s so important that we made it part of our DNA (See Wildfire).
I don’t believe for a second that our difficulty with reaching men lies - as the book above suggests – in having an overly feminine church culture. Our problem so far has been getting men to come and experience our incredible Wildfire Church in the first place. The problem we are encountering is with the already ingrained perceptions that church and following Christ is not for men.
How do we overcome that perception? As soon as we find out, I’ll let you know.
