I finally finished slogging through the book, Why Men Hate Going to Church by David Morrow. This book took a few months to get through, not necessarily because it was bad, it just wasn’t something that kept my attention.

The subject of the book was quite clear from the title given it and David stuck to the topic. I’d have to say that this book would be an excellent text for seminaries or even Bible schools but unfortunately, I found it difficult to get through even though I was interested in the subject.

The first third of the book did a good job of presenting the problem of churches being attended mainly by women and basically saying that it is due to churches being made for women. From the colors of the furniture and the quilts and banners on the wall, to the lecture style of learning, Sunday mornings are not built for men according to Murrow.

The second third of the book is where I had trouble getting excited picking it up again after putting it down. I found that his arguments began to repeat themselves. I actually began looking back through previous chapters for fun trying to find how many times he made the same point. The arguments he made were very clear and in my viewpoint, the majority of them were true reasons that men don’t want to enter churches. For some reason, I found the repetition a little overboard.

The end third of the book was much better and I am glad I pushed ahead and read the whole thing. He gave practical suggestions, even going as far as suggesting that on Sundays, leadership from the front should be by men which I happen to agree with (begin the flaming.)

Another suggestion he made which I would stress as incredibly important is to strive for excellence in the service, from the worship teams to the dramas. I find it incredibly distracting when the choir, or even worse, the soloists are out of tune or forget the words and I know the majority of men feel the same way.

Morrow made many generalizations in the book, most backed up by studies that he points to in endnotes (I would have rather have had footnotes in the book.)

Pastors also tend to have lower testosterone levels than other men.

Unfortunately, in the example above, his endnote was…

Andrew Sullivan, “The HE Hormone,” New York Times Magazine, 2 April 2000. Sullivan says, “Actors tend to have more testosterone than ministers, according to a 1990 study.”

Personally, I found this generalization to be rather insulting. I understand why he used the quote, it drives home his point that “Pastors should be Masculine, Strong and Resolute” and that pastors should, “Talk less and listen more” and “Be judiscious about emotive displays.”

Unfortunately, by not actually telling us what ministers the study actually tested, and how it was done, it actually made me raise my eyebrows and begin questioning any other study that Morrow used to back up his conclusions. It isn’t just me who had a problem with this specific example. In fact, while talking to a coworker who had also read the book, he also questioned the validity of the statement.

I do recommend the book for those interested in the topic and it would be interesting to hear from pastors who tried to implement some of the suggestions that are made. Don’t give up if you find it tough to get through the guts of the book, it IS worth getting through to the end.

David Morrow’s website for the book is ChurchForMen.com.