If you are a regular reader of my blog, you probably read (or, at least, skimmed) this post about the dearth of men in the pews at church. The statistics are clear, women are considerably more likely to attend church than men. But, could someone tell me, where all the female voices are? A hop over to the alternativeworship blogroll simply reinforces my question.
Why is it that women make up 60% of the church-attending population, but Christian leadership and Christian academia are still an old boys' club? I value these men's voices, as can be clearly seen by taking a quick look at my blogroll, but it would be nice to hear some female voices taking the lead in important conversations.
My involvement in RevGalBlogPals has given me a taste, but I pray that God will raise up many women of powerful intellect willing to wade into the male-dominated pool of scholarship. Please don't mistake me, I don't think most men have intentionally excluded women. In fact, I'm sure many of them are just as anxious to get women involved and up front as I am. It's time for the womenfolk to step up.
(Don't worry, I know that one finger is pointing at someone else, there are three pointing right back at me.)
18 comments:
I am not prepared to respond to your gender related posts yet but they are very interesting. May I steer the conversation a little? Keith Drury has an interesting post here. Please disregard the Comic Sans title font.
Is there a connection between the predominant cultural impression that sins enslave men and their attendance in churches?
I was recently sent an invitation to a WillowCreek conference this October, for "progressive" church leadership. After noticing that only one person out of the 18 featured speakers and conference contributers, only ONE is female, and she's speaking alongside of her HUSBAND, I kindly placed it into my recycling bin.
nope, not for me, thanks.
Erik, I read Keith's article, but I am dubious of his "research." He is polling predominantly WASPy young adults. Ask this same question in a different context, you would probably get a completely different result. It's dangerous to say there is a "predominant cultural impression that sins enslave men" more than women without a wider sample. Perhaps this is an issue in a smaller context, but I don't believe it can be assigned to the church at large.
As an aside, I was completely surprised to see that Internet porn was one of the four sins that people listed. It wouldn't have even crossed my mind. Also, I wonder when people decided that lacking self esteem was a sin. Hating yourself, sure, you're hating God's creation, but not being as confident as you could be...let's be serious. Also, I know many women who struggle with pride, lust, greed, gossip and backbiting, etc.
Rebecca, I'm glad you stood strong. The question is, where is the conference that gives equal stage time to qualified women? Maybe we should start one!
Don't know which way you swing denominationally, but the UMC (particularly in New England!) has acheived remarkable gender equality when it comes to church leadership (pastoral and lay).
I've also noticed the emergent village banner on the side of your blog; from what I understand, they recently had a gathering for female emerging church leaders. I think that because the emerging church is coming largely out of conservative/evangelical denominations, women in leadership is something very foreign to them (hence, there are very, very few female voices being heard in this movement). There's an article I found off of there and might blog about soon: http://www.emergentvillage.us/weblog/being-emergent-woman.
Suffice it to say, I don't necessarily agree with all of her ideas about women and the emergent phenomenon, but it's interesting nonetheless seeing how people who have that viewpoint are trying to reconcile women in ministry and their traditional notions about gender roles.
Melissa, thanks for your thoughts. I've been in a lot of different denominations, currently Epicopalian. I know it's going to take some time, but I would really like to see some conferences that aren't just for female emergent leaders, but just emergent leaders. It is my desire to see the day when a leader's gender is a moot point. It hurts my heart that I have to look so hard to find women to listen to.
There's a post that Andrew Jones (TallSkinnyKiwi) did recently about this issue. I really need to find it and link to it.
By the way, the web address brought me to a 404 page.
Perhaps among "thinking" persons it is not fair to say that the first sins that come to mind would be typically masculine - or even that they would be associated with a gender at all. It is also the case that the church needs more women in leadership. Funny, huh? I think you mentioned this before: Women are aplenty in the pews but not behind the pulpit.
I think part of this phenomenon has its roots in the cause explored in a film we saw at Houghton. It was called "Tough Guise" and explored the ways popular culture wants to polarize the expression of masculinity, just as our culture has experienced the polarization of female phenotypes. Women must be Barbies and men must not be only Kens - they must be super Kens - The Rock is closer to the image. Maybe this doesn't make sense to the women who will read this post, but I have also tried my best to grasp why some would starve themselves to death for an image. They are both unhealthy and unnatural.
If church is deemed "feminine" and the current trend among men is to become "super" I can see why we would be having difficulty retaining men in churches.
I think both sides need to meet in the middle. Our society needs to stop valuing people on a gender polarized scale AND we need to do our best in churches to reach out to those who are trapped in those stereotypes. Men can be super masucline AND be kingdom builders at the same time. I was enraged, like others who frequent this blog, that Mr. Eldridge in "Wild at Heart" would lump all men into this super masculine category or exclude them if they don't fit. Not all of us fit here. But he does have a point - even a person who is naturally stereotypically masculine can still be a good Christian.
We need to start seeing God as a gender neutral being. If we are created in His image and we are created male and female, we need to do a better job seeing all of God. I don't know any better way than to promote women in the clergy.
This is what my mom says in response..."This is what I think. Male or female, one should focus on what God calls them to do, and if that is a problem for someone else, then that is their problem." I have other thoughts, but I wanted her to respond (it's less verbose than my usual).
So, here is my real comment. I personally have been struggling with the disportionate relationship between the laity and the "leadership" in most of the churches that I have been involved with. I am very fortunate that, although the official policy is limiting on women at my church, the reality is much more liberating. Anyway, BIOLA's alumni magazine, "Connections", recently featured a very pink and purple cover. I assume this was to annoy women, because I really don't think BIOLA grads really like pink (my sister isn't...she is why we get the magazine, oh, but I am off topic). So the article is called "The Feminization of the Church:Why its music, messages and ministries are driving men away". My male housemate (who is rather unchurched) read the article and agreed with it's general viewpoint. Their are a lot of reasons stated as to why men are not in church, but generally, I would say that they are the same reasons that I do not enjoy church often: theology-lite, music for middle-aged women (my mom likes better music than that), touchy-feely pastors, etc. It just reinforced stereotypes about men and women! One of the other reasons stated is that the churches are engaging emotionally and men are not attracted to that...amd they are to some extent...but many times the truly hurting are not healed, often becoming more traumatized in the church environment, so it just doesn't make sense-is that positively engaging the emotions? The article calles for stronger male leadership, which I heartily agree with, but we need to develop both men and women as leaders, according to their giftings. The article makes a call to atract the man's full heart, soul, mind and strength, but I think that these same people do not want the same for women. It's a shame, because the male leaders will feel justified in continuing to ignore the teaching and pastoral gifts of women in their congregation, which deprives the whole body of believers. I am hopeful though....and I think that we might be the feminine voice in the emergent church...it just might
Erik, I don't think that intellect is the only context that would change the response to Keith's questions. Ask people in a church of a different ehtnicity or age group or denomination, and you will get a different response.
Also, from what I've read, this is not a recent trend. Apparently, the numbers of men in church have been consistently lower than women in church for at least the past 200 years.
I've never read Wild at Heart, though I'm pretty sure I would probably have some significant points of contention with Eldredge. I do love his book The Sacred Romance, though.
In my thinking on this topic (and this may contradict some of my very recent writing...I can't remember and I'm too tired to check right now :), I'm beginning to wonder: do we really need to see God as gender neutral? To me, gender neutrality suggests that gender is absent or cancelled out in some way. Perhaps we should rather be embracing a God who wholly encompasses the best qualities of both genders.
I'm not saying that men should embrace the masculine traits and women should embrace the feminine traits, I'm saying that we should all embrace and emulate both the masculine and feminine traits.
I really need to write a new post on this...
Sarah, thanks for your thoughts. First, let me say that I was very excited to have a new person engaging with me and just as disappointed to discover that I couldn't see your blog. :(
That aside, I definitely agree with you and your mom that people should be doing what God calls them to do regardless of gender. It seems to me that many people are trapped in culturally defined gender roles and are thus prevented from following their call because they would be less "feminine" or "masculine." Whether this means a man chooses not to be a kindergarten teacher or a women chooses not to be an investment banker, I'm sure you would agree that gender stereotypes still have a huge impact on the vocations that people choose.
I also blogged about "The Feminization of Church recently here and here
. Honestly, a lot of the reasons that have been presented for why men don't go to church seem irrational or (dare I say it) petty to me. Like you, I find that many of the excuses (there I go again) apply to me, too, but I still haven't abandoned the church.
Hmm, so I have to start a blog and I thought that I was doing so well with this new fangled technology...and downloading music on my iPod. :) Well, I will start one after my contemplative retreat this weekend. Not sure what to expect there, but I hope that sleep is part of it...do you think that there will be more women there or men?
The BIOLA article connected industrialization (and men "going" to work) as part of the reason for the lower numbers of men in church. They also contrasted the Christian trend vs. other world religions, which have higher percentages of men. That being said, since I think the natural/sinful state of the world is for men to want to have power over women and if my religion told me that it was better to be a man...yeah, there might be more men participating in that religion. Of course, Christ turns all that upside down, which is why the witness of the church should be counter-cultural and transformational, liberating women and men to be who they are...seeking to become like Christ and our true selves!
This is just a quick comment, but as I haven't read all of the literature involved, I just wanted to ask this...what were some of the factors/reasons stated for the men who didn't want to attend church? My father only attended on holidays or special occasions up until he retired, but now he goes almost every Sunday. (except during the summer because he has to get the hay crop in) But the reason he didn't go was because he had to milk the cows and our church only had the one serviced at nine am--when they came to pick up the milk. So, granted this is only one family's experience, so its obviously not representative of men as a gender, but there are some valid reasons for not attending Sunday worship.
~Marlene
Hey Marlene,
The "gender issues
" posts I've done in the past few days were mostly spurred by the discussion over at Jason Clark's blog. The "reasons" David Murrow believes men hate going to church are listed there. Each reason given is troubling to me in its own way. None of them are the same as your dad needing to be home in order to support his family. Also, the discussion includes far more than just Sunday attendance.
Hope this helps!
There is a tread on www.emergingleadersnetwork.org that I started about this same topic. Yeah...I saw a list of emerging church blogs and out of 200, 8 were women...ahem...what the fu**????
I'm with ya sista'
Hey Nadia! Always glad to find more people of like mind about this issue. I tried to find the thread you mentioned, but was unable. Could you point it out more specifically? Thanks!
This lack of women in the "upper echelons of church (emergent or not) seems especially strange in the blogosphere, where women are plentiful. Is it that we women don't write about deep topics? I don't think so. I'm still trying to formulate a post about the reasons women aren't "linked" by major organizations...anyone want to offer some help?
Our emergent friend Brian McLaren in his book "More Ready Than You Realize: Evangelism as Dance in the Postmodern Maxtrix," puts the divine gender dichotomy well. "...God's true essence both comprises and transcends the virtues we associate with both maleness and femaleness."
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