The Salvation Army’s man problem

  • Salvation Army TubaDid you realize the Salvation Army is a church? It’s a denomination, just like Baptist or Methodist or Presbyterian. Salvationists hold weekly worship services. They have singing. Sermons. Socializing.

    What they don’t have is many men.

    The Salvation Army is, in my estimation, the world’s most effective church. As I wrote in a previous post, this small denomination of just 600,000 members does more charitable work in the world than all the other denominations combined. It’s able to “do the most good” because of its structure – taken not from the seminary but from the battlefield.

    But this church, built on a very masculine model, is having trouble attracting men to its weekly worship services.

    I recently spoke at the Salvation Army Southern Territory Men’s Conference in Atlanta. Many officers told me that their weekend services suffer from enormous gender gaps – two or three women for every man in most cases. At least three officers claimed a 10-to-1 gender ratio in their Sunday worship services. I was dumbfounded.

    Naturally I asked them why they thought so few men were participating. They offered a number of reasons, including:

    • Worldwide, the Salvation Army assists tens of thousands of needy single mothers every month. These women get invited to church, and in gratitude they come. They make friends, become Christians and join the church. Their children get plugged into the kids ministry. But there’s no man of the house to come along.
    • The Salvation Army also assists single men, but many of these fellows are dealing with poverty or substance abuse. They are not the most reliable churchgoers.
    • People don’t think of the Salvation Army as a church; they think of it as a benevolence organization. So when families are “church shopping” they don’t even consider the Salvation Army.
    • The Salvation Army has always been egalitarian, allowing women to lead in every capacity since its inception. Female-led churches often have a harder time engaging men.
    • The Army operates one of the largest women’s ministry programs in the world. Founded in 1907 as the Ladies’ Home League, it remains one of the most influential branches of the Army (one you dare not cross, confided one officer who asked to remain anonymous).
    • Like many churches, the Salvation Army has been slow to modernize its services. Because the Army focuses so heavily on helping others, it has devoted less energy to cutting edge worship technologies such as computer controlled lighting, set design, video production and projection systems that are now ubiquitous in fast-growing megachurches.
    • Salvationists have never promoted the “celebrity pastor” model that is driving the growth of many congregations. The Army command moves its officers around at will, so congregations have little say about who their leader is.

    Army Corps worship services suffer the same feminizing as other small churches: poor quality music, too much sentimentality, lengthy personal testimonies, handholding and hugging, etc. The quality of preaching can be inconsistent, since officers may not have received extensive training in Biblical exegesis and public speaking.

    So what say you? Have you attended a Salvation Army church service? What was it like? What could be done to attract more men to the Salvation Army’s worship services? Comments are open.

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    July 31st, 2012 | David Murrow | 23 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.

  • Mikec

    I never knew they were an official church.  They have the basics a man is looking for which is get ‘er done action oriented.

  • TonyH

    Thanks to the love and kindness I found in the S.A. if been a active Christian for 18 years, God bless the Army  

  • Andrew

    I was born and raised in The Salvation Army, and my family has been associated with it for over 50 years.  I agree with what you’ve written about Army worship services.

    I’m wondering if the answer isn’t to draw more men to the worship services as currently constituted.  If we start with the premise that men need to express their commitments (faith or otherwise) actively, then spending an hour+ every Sunday in a largely spectator event isn’t going to resonate.  Thinking out loud here, I believe that the military structure and terminology the Army uses resonates a lot with military men and possibly other men who are used to highly disciplined environments such as football programs.  I think the Army could do a better job of leveraging it’s “brand” as a militarily-structured organization to engage men.  It won’t necessarily look like getting more men into conventional worship services.  But it may look like a lot of active engagement, such as groups of men going out to repair houses every week and having short, on-the-fly “faith debriefing” sessions that fill the same role as a small group.  In general, there is at some level a disconnect between “church” (meaning worship services, small groups, etc.) and the social services the Army provides.  Forging tighter links between the two might help engage more men.

    Back to your original question….  As for drawing more men to worship services, I’m at a loss.  Most things that come to mind have to do with larger issues than simply those present in the current worship service format.  The first thought that came to mind:  how can we make every man that walks into a worship service feel known, received, and valued?

  • JamielCotman

    I think its money!

    When Dave said that the denomination only has about 600,000 members that’s what came to mind.

    I mean, lets say they turned all of that number to guys [600,000 men], and then compare it to a group like the Charismatics who have a high ratio of women, but simply because they have more people…by default would have more guys. Even though thier percentage is worse. Denominations like the Salvationists need to focus on growth, whether or not they are winning men. 

    Men are more likely to be victims of substance abuse.

    Men are more likely to be incancerated 

    Men are more likely to have not completed school

    Compare those problems to Susy who is believing for ‘emotional’ healing and you get my drift. The war for the hearts of men cost money. The Salvationists brand-business model-culture is flawless! But since they have lagged for so long in executing it, they should forget gender-specific ministry and focus on overall growth for now. 

    Build a strong male following later.

  • http://www.facebook.com/danny.bell.184 Danny Bell

    Wow Dave, your gonna get your head knocked off mate – challenging the army? Same old same old. You can have a shop front that says we are an army but if the shelves stock women’s items then the retail outlet is a ladies store.

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

    Actually I’m not challenging the Army – they asked me to come and speak because they realize the problem. Major Bratcher of the Southern Territory and I are going to be talking about ways to address this gender gap, as well as the possibility of developing a curriculum based on my book, “The Map” which would lead men through submission, strength and sacrifice.

  • Davelroderick

    I’m surprised too, knowing what I have read in your newsletter before and and seeing it first hand.  But, on the other hand, who they reach out makes it hard to reach out to men.  If there was a Salvation Army church in my town, I would have made a visit when I moved here two years ago.

  • Reynoldsn

    As an ex-SA member, I found the arrogant leadership and dictatortal leadership and management hard to take. They accept or deny advancement on THEIR assessment, rather than the talents and abilities of the member.
    They lock the doors to keep the Holy Spirit out of the church!
    NevR

  • Th3octagon

    Really? Then maybe they should do more to not run the ones they do have off…….

  • Doyle Daniels

    I spent most of my life in the Army and enjoyed it for many years.  However, there has been a change in the Army, and not for the better.  Many of the officers I have met and had dealings with over the past three decades seem to think they are CEOs of a corporation and that they are in charge.  They seem to forget who is really in charge…GOD…and they let the “business” of the Army become more important than the Christ centered church.  You want more men, take the Army back to the basics of the founder and allow the Army to be first, and foremost a church.  God will handle the rest.

  • http://www.facebook.com/amber.imhoff.7 Amber Imhoff

    Salvation Army Officer here.  We have more men attending our corps than women currently on Sundays.  No we aren’t near an ARC.  However I would say the women are there during the week more than the men.  We plan on starting a Men’s Group up like our Women’s Group.  There is a need for a place for men to fellowship as well that doesn’t invovle drinking.  I will say the men we have in our congregation though are great and love to help fix things around the building:0)

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

    Great to hear from you. Share this blog post with some of your fellow officers…I’d like to get their feedback

  • Ian Hutson

    I mostly agree. However the comment about the place of Women’s leadership seems questionable. Although women are given leadership roles the Army seems largely male dominated in top leadership positions and there is a need to include women much more in leadership than is currently the case not less. At the Corps/Church level because the congregational level women outnumber men and so end up overrepresented in lay leadership roles.
    I think the dominance of Home League is over estimated as, at least in our country (New Zealand), many Corps don’t have Home League’s as such because they have become more of an older women’s group and are failing to reach the younger women. NZ Officer.

  • http://twitter.com/rreardondc Rob Reardon

    And just why is the mega-church the desired model for you?

  • http://www.facebook.com/danny.bell.184 Danny Bell

    You know, the more I go along in this mens thing the more I am starting to realise its not the women but the men – core church men – they are the biggest barrier. And yet this is the very group we are to minister to and church mens ministries are set up to reach/support. No wonder it doesnt go well in many churches. This group is by far one of the hardest types of men to reach with our particular message. They resist and bitch and bawk like a bunch of nanny’s. Out of all men, I hate working for them the most. Sigh.

  • http://www.facebook.com/danny.bell.184 Danny Bell

    Dave, I write for our own church publications and receive mixed reactions as you probably do too. At first exposing the problem was my burden but the church is now calling me out and saying, “you dont provide any solutions” – which I do in our WAAMM days where we meet congregations but writing about solutions is probably the next step. Even though I feel the church has largely not acknowledged the problem, which to me is the first step they need to take before looking at ways to fix it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/danny.bell.184 Danny Bell

    I think the largest issue for my church at least is acknowledging the problem – there is a sense of denial around this with core church men.

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

    I’m glad they’re reaching for solutions. Many people dismiss me without even believing there’s a problem.

  • Jason C. Piecuch

    After cleaning up from drugs on my own, the death of my mother, and moved to a new city at the age of 39…I found The Salvation Army. A year and a half later, I enrolled as a soldier. The best decision I have ever made. I was attracted to the Salvation Army’s hope for the world, and myself. I didn’t join to find a wife, or date. I Enrolled to serve Christ. My Citadel has a lot more single men than women. If you are joining a church to find a wife or a husband…perhaps you are joining for the wrong reasons.

  • Jason C. Piecuch

    We have that already. It’s called “Soldier Class.” Mr. Murrow you seem with all your posts the only solution for churches today is to: make big, huge mega-churches. add only modern christian music, a light show, and basically make church into a WWF “Monday Night Raw” event.

    Have you studied the history of the founder of The Salvation Army? How we have soldiered on through the decades? How The Salvation Army was BUILT by former drug addicts, thieves, prostitutes, the lost. People who needed the Gospel of Jesus Christ and The Good News the most. These men and women built The Salvation Army. People like me. People who were not “accepted” in large mega-churches. People like me who were told to “sit over there” and after a church service were told: “Yeah…great. Bring your friends next week.”

    I din’t have friends to bring.

    A desire to find Christ, and seeing first hand what Jesus looks like is what brought me to enroll in the Salvation Army. Not flashing lights. Not doing typical “guy” things, or what is deemed as such by you as guy things.

    The Bible motivates me.

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

    I think you are misrepresenting my views, brother. I’d ask you to re-read the blog post and pay close attention to what I’m actually saying.

  • http://twitter.com/ymmarta Teresa Rincon

    “many of these fellows are dealing with poverty or substance abuse. They are not the most reliable churchgoers.” You are talking about a very significant demographic here, and writing them off. I hear all this rhetoric about reaching men, yet the desired man is a “respectable” type who lives a middle class lifestyle with a wife and children at home.

    Where is the concern for discipling the marginalized men, the divorced men, the men out of jail, the men with disabilities? Even if they are welcomed into a church, you will seldom see such men allowed into leadership positions, certainly not in the pulpit. Men aren’t coming into church because so many don’t see themselves represented in the pulpit, which favors Mitt Romney types.

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

    Teresa, I’m not writing them off. If a man is in jail or strung out on drugs you’re not likely to find him in church.
    The Apostle Paul specified the kind of men who are allowed to lead in the church. They are the Mitt Romney types (1 Tim 3:1-7):
    3 Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. 2 Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full[a] respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.
    Having said that, I know of churches with ex-cons for pastors. I know some divorced men who are in the pulpit. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop, left his wife and children for another man.