Eleven Reasons Why Pastors Are Trusted Less Today.

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

thomrainer.com/2014/01/eleven-reasons-pastors-are-trusted-less-today/

A day does not pass that I do not hear from a hurting pastor. Serving in that role has to be one of the most challenging vocations today. Sure, there are some bad and immoral pastors. But the vast majority of our pastors serve their congregations in a way that honors God and makes a difference in the community.

But both anecdotally and by objective research, we learn that pastors are trusted less and held in lower esteem each year. A recent Pew Research poll found that the favorable view of clergy had declined to 37 percent of those surveyed.

Why are pastors no longer held in high esteem? What is behind the precipitous drop in favorable ratings almost every year? Allow me to offer eleven possible reasons. As you will see, they are not mutually exclusive.

1. The moral failures of a minority of pastors receive widespread coverage. The media loves the sensational stories behind clergy failure. For sure, some stories such as sex abuse should be brought to the public eye. But many people now believe the bad behavior of a few is normative for all pastors.

2. Our nation has marginalized the Christian faith. So it should not be unexpected that leaders in the Christian world are viewed more negatively.

3. Pastoral tenure has dropped significantly over the past few decades. Tenure is up slightly the past few years, but the longer trend is down. Trust is built over several years, not two or three years. Fewer pastors have made it to the point of several years.

4. Some church members have a strong entitlement mentality. They see the local congregation as a place largely to meet their needs and desires, rather than to serve and give. If those needs and desires are not met, the pastor is often the locus of blame.

5. Social media encourages criticism from a distance. There is much commendable about social media. Indeed, I am heavy user of it. But it also is a means for critics to sound off about pastors (and others) without forethought or consequences.

6. A few pastors have poor work ethics. More pastors are just the opposite; they fight workaholism. But the few pastors who are lazy and have little accountability hurt the perceptions people have of other pastors.

7. Pastors are often the scapegoats for fear and change. It is cliché to say the world is changing rapidly. Many church members would like their churches to remain the same every year. Such a reality is not possible, and the pastor is often the scapegoat for the discomfort that comes with change.

8. There is a pervasive cynicism in our society. The reasons behind that reality are many. But congregations and their leaders are not immune from this widespread and pervasive cynicism on society that seems to be growing.

9. There is a failure of some pastors in two key areas: leadership and emotional intelligence. Some pastors are well prepared biblically and theologically. But some have not been taught leadership and healthy interpersonal skills.

10. There are higher expectations today for pastors to be competent, even dynamic, leaders. But, as I noted in the previous point, some pastors have no preparation to be leaders of churches.

11. More churches are dying in America today. I estimate as many as 100,000 churches in America are dying. Many will close their doors in the next few years. Many of the pastors of these churches are blamed for this malady.

I love pastors. Most pastors are wonderful servants of God, yet their plights are often very difficult.

What do you think of these eleven reasons? What would you add?

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

I'll add that churches have alienated men with their pro-female BS.

"You’re not just imagining it. Christianity is short on men. Here are the facts:
The typical U.S. Congregation draws an adult crowd that’s 61% female, 39% male. This gender gap shows up in all age categories. [1]
On any given Sunday there are 13 million more adult women than men in America’s churches. [2]
This Sunday almost 25 percent of married, churchgoing women will worship without their husbands. [3]
Midweek activities often draw 70 to 80 percent female participants. [4]
The majority of church employees are women (except for ordained clergy, who are overwhelmingly male). [5]
Over 70 percent of the boys who are being raised in church will abandon it during their teens and twenties. Many of these boys will never return. [6]
More than 90 percent of American men believe in God, and five out of six call themselves Christians. But only one out of six 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. [7]
Churches overseas report gender gaps of up to 9 women for every adult man in attendance. [8]
Christian universities are becoming convents. The typical Christian college in the U.S. enrolls almost 2 women for every 1 man. [9]
Fewer than 10% of U.S. churches are able to establish or maintain a vibrant men’s ministry. [10]"

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

Here's some more:

www.patheos.com/blogs/churchformen/2015/12/how-we-screen-young-men-out-of-church/



Two weeks ago I wrote about the Christian dating scene. A shortage of dateable men is making it easier for guys to play the field – and harder for women to find godly guys for romance and marriage. Gina Dalfonzo writes in Christianity Today:

"These days, the old courtship formulas no longer apply: A devout woman, instead of being likelier to marry, may very well find herself alone.
In response to this anxiety, women position themselves to compete for fewer single men. [Journalist Jon Birger] recalls anecdotes of Jewish girls starting strict diets in their teens, escalating to anorexia in adulthood. Many single Mormon women embrace elaborate beauty routines, plastic surgery, and breast implants. The statistics on dating in their communities—discussed in this chapter excerpted in Time—back up the contention that there’s a very real demographic issue at work here."


So what happened to all the devout men? Simple. We screened them out of the church as boys. Picked ‘em off one by one.


The way we raise boys in the faith eliminated the very kinds of men women find attractive.


Metaphor time: you’re standing in an asphalt plant. The operator loads pebbles of every size into a hopper. The pebbles are shaken through a series of screens that remove every stone that’s either too large or too small. The resulting gravel mix is perfectly suited to road surfacing.


Now, let’s apply that metaphor to the local church. Children of every kind come into the hopper. They are screened through children’s ministry and youth ministry. These programs remove the ones who are poorly suited to church culture. The final mix of adult churchgoers is heavily female, and very short on high-testosterone men. But it’s perfect for perpetuating the church culture we presently know.


SCREEN 1: SUNDAY SCHOOL


Little boys love going to church. There’s no shortage of lads in nurseries, VBS and the lower grades of Sunday school. But around the 4th or 5th grade, boys start disappearing, because that’s the age when males begin losing in church.
Losing in church? You didn’t realize church was a competition, did you? Well, with boys everything is a competition. And it’s a contest most boys can’t win. The rules of Sunday school are stacked against them: sit still, read aloud, memorize, find passages in the Bible, and receive instruction from a female teacher. So if these are the rules, who’s more likely to win, girls or boys?
By the age of twelve, many boys have been losing in church every Sunday for years. Girls possess superior verbal skills, reading skills and finger dexterity (for finding Bible passages). They can sit still longer and instinctively know how to express themselves in small groups. The average girl is made for Sunday school, whereas the average boy is made for the soccer field.
And that’s where increasing numbers of young men can be found on Sundays – kicking a ball, doing something they’re good at. Many of the dropouts are the wiggly, high testosterone boys who grow up to become leaders, athletes and alpha males.
Of course some boys DO make it through Sunday school, where they encounter the next screen: Youth Group.


SCREEN 2: YOUTH GROUP


When I was an adolescent, youth group was fun. It was based on the three Gs: games, goofiness, and God. We sang simple songs. We played nutty games. The teaching time was brief but meaningful to teens. I loved it. And it attracted a lot of guys. Church services were sometimes boring, but youth group was always a kick. Youth leaders of the 1970s were always men – that big brother role model the boys craved and the girls looked up to (and had secret crushes on).


Fun and games are still a part of youth group, but there’s been pressure to make it more “spiritual” by increasing the amount of time devoted to teaching. Singing time has also increased. And today many youth groups are led by young women. These three trends are screening boys out. Let’s take them in reverse order:
Female Youth Leaders. Here’s the politically incorrect truth about teenage boys: they are blatant sexists. Most young men will not follow a female leader unless they can be flunked, fired or court-martialed. And women bring a different style to youth group – more emotive, more introspective and more focused on feelings. I’m not saying it’s impossible for a woman to minister to teenage boys, but it’s a lot harder.
Lengthy “worship sets.” Praise and worship arrived in youth group during the early 1990s. The goofy songs disappeared. Singing time expanded to twenty minutes or more. The whole feeling changed from a fun group activity to an intimate personal time with God.


The youth meeting is quickly evolving into a music-centric experience. Teens stand in a darkened room and sing love songs to Jesus, led by a praise band of their peers. Singing can occupy up to half of the meeting. This has been great for the musicians—they get lots of stage time. But for the nonmusical, lengthy singing can be a drag.
Girls thrive in this emotional hothouse, but boys melt and evaporate. Many guys stand in the crowd with their hands in their pockets thinking, “I’m supposed to like this, but I don’t. What’s wrong with me?”
Before you know it, you’ve got nineteen girls and five guys at youth group. And there’s not a jock among the guys.
Then there’s one more screen: evangelical Christianity’s approach to dating, sex and marriage. Some seriously weird teachings got sown in the church during the 1990s, and they’re producing the fruit of loneliness in our generation. We’ll talk about that next week.

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

And yet another:

churchformen.com/men-and-church/why-do-men-hate-going-to-church/

A few years ago, my faith in Christ was hanging by a thread. I loved God, but I hated going to church. Sunday morning would find my body in the pews, but my heart was elsewhere. I was so desperate I began exploring alternative religions, including Islam. Did I mention I was an elder in my church?

I was not alone. Truth is, a lot faithful, churchgoing men are not all that excited come Sunday morning. Quite a few attend out of habit, surviving on the memories of victories won years ago. Others attend services simply to keep their wives happy. Most guys do nothing midweek to grow in faith. Few churches are able to sustain a viable men’s ministry.

Why are men so bored in our churches? Of course, there are the hypocrites. But even men who are born-again, Spirit-filled, longtime Christian guys are clamming up and dropping out. What’s going on?

A business guru once said, “Your system is perfectly designed to give you the results you’re getting.” Christianity’s primary delivery system, the local church, is perfectly designed to reach women and older folks. That’s why our pews are filled with them. But this church system offers little to stir the masculine heart, so men find it dull and irrelevant. The more masculine the man, the more likely he is to dislike church.

What do I mean? Men and young adults are drawn to risk, challenge and adventure. But these things are discouraged in the local church. Instead, most congregations offer a safe, nurturing community — an oasis of stability and predictability. Studies show that women and seniors gravitate toward these things. Although our official mission is one of adventure, the actual mission of most congregations is making people feel comfortable and safe — especially longtime members.

How did Christianity, founded by a man and his 12 male disciples, become the province of women? There is a pattern of feminization in Christianity going back at least 700 years, according to Dr. Leon Podles, author of The Church Impotent: the Feminization of Christianity. But the ball really got rolling in the 1800s. With the dawning of the industrial revolution, large numbers of men sought work in mines, mills and factories, far from home and familiar parish. Women stayed behind — and began remaking the church in their image. The Victorian era saw the rise of church nurseries, Sunday schools, lay choirs, quilting circles, ladies’ teas, soup kitchens, girls’ societies, potluck dinners, etc.

Soon, the very definition of a good Christian had changed: boldness and aggression were out; passivity and receptivity were in. Christians were to be gentle, sensitive and nurturing, focused on home and family rather than accomplishment and career. Believers were not supposed to like sex, tobacco, dancing or other worldly pleasures. The godly were always calm, polite and sociable. This Victorian spirituality still dominates our churches. Those of us who grew up in church hardly notice it; we can’t imagine things any other way. But a male visitor detects the feminine spirit the moment he walks in the sanctuary door. He may feel like Tom Sawyer in Aunt Polly’s parlor; he must watch his language, mind his manners and be extra polite. It’s hard for a man to be real in church because he must squeeze himself into this feminine religious mold.

Men, if you’ve felt out of place in church, it’s not your fault. If you’ve tried and failed to get a men’s ministry going in your church, it’s not your fault. If you can’t get your buddies interested in church, it’s not your fault. The church system is getting the results it’s designed to get. Until that system changes, men will continue to perish, both inside and outside our congregations.

Some of you don’t know what I’m talking about. A feminized church? Some guys are happy with church just as it is, and see no need for change. But try to see church through the eyes of a typical guy. It’s intimidating for a man to hold hands in a circle, to cry in public, or to imagine falling deeply in love with another man (even if his name is Jesus).

If we’re going to be fishers of men, we’ve got to do a better job considering men’s needs and expectations. Jesus did it; so must we.

My book, Why Men Hate Going to Church, offers more than 60 pages of practical ideas for bringing a healthy, life-giving masculine spirit to your congregation – and to your own walk with God.

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

[JACK-2]

Yeah, the profemale slant is true which is why alot of smart young men go for more male friendly groups: Libertarians and Atheismplus, reason rally , etc. The church is definitely sissified, good topic.

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

Jan 5, 2016 8:50:43 GMT -5 JACK-2 said:

Yeah, the profemale slant is true which is why alot of smart young men go for more male friendly groups: Libertarians and Atheismplus, reason rally , etc.

I haven't heard of Atheismplus before. It makes sense that smarter and more independent thinking people would shy away from religion. The most productive and individualistic like to do things. Sitting around and talking about feelings appeals to vaginified men, women, children, and old people. Same thing with the liberal politicians.

[WarMachineRhodey]

/Close Thread

[The Big Daddy C-Master]

Jan 11, 2016 19:13:40 GMT -5 WarMachineRhodey said:

/Close Thread

This stuff is almost comical. These pastors never cease to amaze me. It's almost out of fiction.

He's almost like Anthony Weiner level of comedy.

A pastor around here was money laundering. Ron Sailor Junior.

www.rockdalecitizen.com/news/ron-sailor-jr-sentenced-to-months/article_2c966b84-e101-5e54-8f35-fddf99d9cce7.html

Bishop Eddie Long was accused of... you guessed it, touching young boys.