I recently read Why Men Hate Going to Church as part of Thomas Nelson’s Book Sneeze program.
The author, David Murrow is not clergy but lay, which makes for an interesting book as it is very pragmatic. However, he still grounds several of his larger ideas in the Bible, which I appreciated.
As I read this book, there were several ideas I initially disagreed with. At first I wanted to ignore them. After all I’m a guy and I’m in church, so they must not be accurate. But the more I read, the more I realized that was a bad impulse. I grew up in the church. Church is comfortable to me. And sometimes I think “But that’s how we’ve always done it” about things that aren’t sacred and could change. So I’m grateful to this book for opening my eyes to some of my blind spots.
Having church be accessible to men is a good thing, but I’m wary of making it the “silver bullet” that will turn a church around. Worship should be accessible to everyone, regardless of gender, age, race, or anything else. Worship is about God and God is not picky about who worships. So should we remove barriers to men? Absolutely. And we should remove barriers to women, kids, young people, old people, etc.
Bottom line: Do I think this book overstates its case? Maybe a bit. But Murrow has seen these ideas work. And so if he gets excited about the possibilities of church renewal, then I want to get excited right along with him.
Coal Burned Lips 