Church nixes girly tunes and men return

  • Getting more men to attend your church may be as simple as changing your music.

    Attendance at Strathcona Baptist Church in Edmonton, Alberta was running 60% female. The church’s female elders set a goal to attract 50% male worshippers.

    Lord You're BeautifulAfter reading and discussing “Why Men Hate Going to Church,” these women decided to eliminate the feminine songs and see what would happen. They developed a numeric scale and evaluated each song according to how masculine or feminine it was. For example, the song, “Lord You are More Precious than Silver” scored 8 on the feminine scale, and was excluded.

    Please note that the elders didn’t eliminate every feminine song – the goal was balance. But any song that scored a 6 or above on the “femininity scale” was dropped.

    Without changing anything other than the music, the church’s gender gap quickly evaporated. Men participated more, including a marked increase in the number of men who spoke their praises aloud to God. And overall attendance grew.

    Please note – this change was initiated and driven by the women of the church.

    Read the article in Christianity.ca.

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    October 17th, 2012 | David Murrow | 4 Comments |

About The Author

David Murrow

David Murrow is the director of Church for Men, an organization that helps congregations reach more men and boys. In his day job, David works as a television producer and writer. He's the author of three books. He lives in Alaska with his wife, three children, two grandchildren and a dachshund named Pepper.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jason.hunt.96 Jason Hunt

    Two objects of mass cannot simultaneously occupy the same point in time and space.

    In order to get more testosterone in a given church, one must make room for it.

  • http://www.churchformen.com David Murrow

    well said!

  • bryan

    I often hear people say, “well God is love” or “we are the bride of Christ” or “we should desire to know Him better”. Well that’s fine and good, and also one-sided. Sure, God is love and all that, but He is also Power, and Mighty, and King. Jesus is not only the Lamb of God, but He is also the Lion of Judah. The book of Revelations depicts Jesus as a Mighty Warrior Prince with fire in His eyes and a sword proceeding from His mouth as He leads His army of Christians into battle, storming the friggin’ gates of hell. Anyway, can we at least have a little balance instead of just the one-sided “falling into the arms of Jesus” stuff?

  • will

    A song I recommend that is not girly:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1x3wmbsZDU