MEN V. WOMEN

I went to a lunch today for men at our church. There was a speaker, Dr. Wes Black, from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a member of our church. He talked about differences between men and women and why men don't come to church as much as women. He said it in an indirect fashion, but his conclusion was that the church is too feminine.

Dr. Black showed clips from several movies men like. One was Air Force One, where Harrison Ford fights the bad guy and knocks him out of the plane. When he did, about 10 guys said in unison with Ford, "get off of my plane". He also showed the clip of Rooster Cogburn shooting the bad guys with both hands, although he blipped out the money quote. There was also a clip from Remember the Titans, and another football movie, where a kid crawls and carries another kid on his back for 100 yards. There were some others. It was funny, because you could hear the men either cheering or saying "alright" at the pivotal moments.

I think there are lots of feminine things the church does that men don't like, unless they have become feminized, which many have. One is "boyfriend songs". We sing "I love you, I need you, I can't live without you" as a worship song. (We did that.)

Another is, and our pastor has done this, saying you need to "fall in love with Jesus". That grosses out a lot of men with a sort of latent homosexual tinge.

Another one is holding hands across the aisle. (I don't think even women like that one, and it freaks the kids totally. Who's idea was that, anyway?)

Men need to go to church and lead in the church and serve in the church. But, they still need to be men.