Plan for: Thanksgiving | Advent | Christmas

Sermon Illustrations

WHERE ARE THE MEN?

Churches in America are needing more than just a few good men. Here are the statistics from God Facts:

*** The typical U.S. Congregation draws an adult crowd that’s 61% female, 39% male.

*** On any given Sunday, there are 13 million more adult women than men in America’s churches.

*** The majority of church employees are women (except for ordained clergy, who are overwhelmingly male).

*** As many as 90% of the boys being raised in church will abandon it by their 20th birthday. Many will never return.

*** More than 90 percent of American men believe in God, and 5 out of 6 call themselves Christians. But only 2 out of 6 attend church on a given Sunday. The average man accepts the reality of Jesus Christ, but fails to see any value in going to church.

*** Relatively few churches are able to establish or maintain a vibrant men’s ministry.

***This gender gap is not just a U.S. phenomenon; churches around the world are short on men. No other major religion suffers such a large, chronic shortage of males. In the Islamic world men are publicly and unashamedly religious-often more so than women. Of the world’s great religions, only Christianity has a consistent, nagging shortage of male practitioners. Jesus had no trouble captivating men. Fishermen dropped nets full of fish tofollow Him, but today’s church is struggling to convince men to drop their TV remote controls for a couple of hours a week.

Related Sermon Illustrations

  • Adrian Dieleman Tells The Story Of One Man's ...

    Contributed by Rodney Buchanan on Jan 28, 2007
     | 2,116 views

    Adrian Dieleman tells the story of one man’s transformation: “Oscar Cervantes is a dramatic example of the Spirit’s power to transform lives. As a child, Oscar began to get into trouble. Then as he got older, he was jailed 17 times for brutal crimes. Prison psychiatrists said he was beyond ...read more

Related Sermons