Masculine Faith

The demographics of churches in America seem problematic, and the problem is that churches are attended predominantly by women. Don't get me wrong--it's not that I see women's attendance as a negative. It's just that I see men's avoidance of worship as troubling and I want to know why this lack of masculine appeal exists.

I have been in pursuit of what I call "masculine Christianity." Masculine Christianity is one that is strong, bold, persevering, and that captures the vision and allegiance of men. I don't want to create a new or distorted form of Christianity, molded to the itching ears of chauvinists. I'm talking about true and traditional faith in the God of Moses, David, Elijah, Peter, and Saul of Tarsus, about faith in Jesus who faced opposition head on, who preached radical commitment, and who endured God's wrath on our behalf. I'm in pursuit of the Christianity of William Tyndale, John Bunyan, John Paton, Charles Spurgeon, William Wilberforce, and Martin Luther. When I survey history I see at least two era's when a masculine Christianity ruled the day, those of the Puritans and the Reformers, and I've asked myself what distinguished their faith from contemporary evangelicalism. Among other things, theirs was a doctrinally-based Christianity. It's not that ours has eradicated theology entirely, although the doctrinal illiteracy of our time is no secret. It's that theirs focused upon fact and truth as the avenue to the heart, and produced strength, zeal, and a passion for Jesus Christ.

Christianity that reaches men speaks to them at the level of intellect and reason. The resultant faith is not lacking emotion or passion. Rather, it is a faith informed by sound, strong doctrine that inspires courage and godliness among men. So informed, men rise to the challenges of their times. They lead their families, churches, and societies. Their minds are consumed with great themes such as atonement, justification, God's covenants, human depravity, and Christ's Glory. The Puritans and Reformers possessed such a faith. They new the Scriptures and they knew sound doctrine. Yet, contrary to modern expectation, that did not produce a dry and distant relationship with God, nor a harshness of culture. Even a cursory reading of the things they wrote reveal a love for Christ that it seldom imitated today. While their faith affected their culture and daily living, it engaged their mind and warmed their heart. It captured their whole being.

Men must be inspired, but they need to be inspired by the weight and promise of great ideas. They want a cause to uphold, but they must be reached through the mind. Women (speaking stereotypically and generally) are inspired through emotions. They can be satisfied with better feelings and so their worship emphasizes God's love, Jesus' kindness, and their own happiness and hope created by the acceptance they have found in relationship to God. Men, on the other hand, grab hold of truth and respond with vigor. They are dissatisfied with worship that addresses felt needs and feelings. They want something solid.

Many churches have focused upon the former--a feminine, emotionally driven Christianity--without consideration to either the needs of men nor the value of doctrinally-rich, content-laden worship. When exactly this shift occurred I do not know, though it was strengthened by the rise of Neo-Pentecostalism (or Charismatic Christianity) in the 1960's and early 70's. Churches abandoned hymns in favor of choruses--an improvement in terms of musical relevance but pathetically lacking in content. Sermons began to address felt needs for self-improvement and personal well-being. These things connected with women. Some will obviously object that I have painted too narrow a perspective, and I don't mean to imply that these things are true for all members of a gender. My contention is that they are mostly true for a high percentage of each gender. To the degree that worship abandoned men, men abandoned worship.

A very popular chorus comes to mind that demonstrates what I have been saying:

AS THE DEER

As the deer panteth for the water,
So my soul longeth after you.
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship you.

You alone are my strength, my shield.
To you alone may my spirit yield.
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship you.

You're my friend, and You are my brother
Even though You are a King.
and I love You more than any other
So much more than anything.

This song, taken very loosely (the first two lines) from Psalm 42, notes very little of God's quality and attributes, and nothing of his greatest work in Christ and in salvation. If one needs a point of comparison, consider Luther's A Mighty Fortress is Our God. As The Deer is a symbol, and perhaps one of the most well known, of a new genre of emotive music. It focuses almost entirely upon how I feel, what I want, and what would make me satisfied (lest anyone think I am simply opposed to modern music, I would counter that I am encouraged by a new wave of doctrinally-rich contemporary hymns/choruses being written by men like Keith Getty). When David penned the Psalm, it was put in the context of suffering, opposition, and the need for God's salvation--powerful, thought-provoking truth. For a generation, however, people have contented themselves with the chorus as here presented. It elicited an emotional response only. Meanwhile, men became increasingly disinterested in the mission and message of churches so oriented.

Churches can influence society once again when they give men access to a masculine relationship with their God, one that affects both heart and mind. They need to return to their foundational, truth-expounding, world-changing mission. They must abandon the idea of a doctrinally-minimal Christianity and imitate the efforts of men like John MacArthur, John Piper, Alistair Begg, and Albert Mohler to impact a new generation of men through exposition and doctrinal clarity. We should applaud the efforts of musicians who seek to help us with the same. When men are again inspired by great truth that elicits zeal, courage, and passion, even the women who follow them will find their faith enriched.