Where are the Men?

The proposed Young Men's Fellowship happened only twice since I suggested to form such a group early in the year. Yesterday on Mothers' Day, it was an eye opener although we had talked about it for a while. There could be 40 mothers who went up as I invited them to come forward to be prayed for but there were hardly ten men seated in the hall. That meant at least 30 women attended church without their husbands. Where are the men? I know it has been a trend among churches that we are losing men. Even young men, only seven of them took part in our Young Men's fellowship while there are easily 20 plus young women who will attend the Youth gathering. It looks like the percentage of women over men is getting ever larger, last time it was two-thirds female to one-third guys but now out of the four women, there is only one man. Where are the men? I need to take time to pray and wait on the Lord for answers.

Why is the church not attracting men? Is it the church's fault? Is it that the ministry does not cater to men? I do not think so. I had a series of sermons on David and Daniel and almost all my sermons focus on men, with male heroes writ large. But why such lack of men? For sure, there are a few men who come without their wives, either their wives had passed away, divorced as they remain unbelievers. But the imbalance is strongly felt, much so yesterday on Mothers' Day. Where are the fathers? 

But with such challenges, I saw the many things the Lord is doing in the church. Yesterday as I sat down in church at 8.05am as I was early for the 9am service, I felt the Lord said to me, "There will be over 100 adults today". I overheard again a leader saying that many people were going back to the villages as it was a long weekend with Wesak Day today. Yes, indeed a few people including leaders went back to their home villages, but the Lord brought many new people to church. A total of 102 adults worshipped together with 30 plus children attending Sunday School.

I truly believe that the new sign board put up a month ago has some impact as our church is located is located a strategic place, right at the corner along the one of the main routes to Penampang. Now from 70-100 meters away, you can see our sign board right up there at both sides of the building. It was quite a sight, no wonder for the past few weeks, every Sunday we welcome new members and I pray that they will find something warm and love so that they will make it their home church.