where have all the men gone?

As mentioned in the past post this time of the year for me is a small bit of down time before regular programming at our church begins. One of the things that I have to do each year is work to rebuild our volunteer team. This happens in a variety of ways and I am thankful for the help of other volunteers and staff to make our needs known and spread the gospel of middle school ministry.

However I have a reoccurring frustration over the past couple of years and sadly this year is no exception. Our ministry is without men. That is not completely true. We have several great guys ranging from high school age to fathers with their own middle school students involved but overall we are hurting. The interest from woman has been awesome but men, hmm. It troubles me to think about what message this sends the students, especially the boys.

Why is this a pattern each year? Is it the age group? Is it my leadership? I tend to think that most guys respond best to a direct call to action so perhaps it is that we have not done that well enough or that my presupposition if false. Either way I am frustrated. In general I think that people who are a regular part of church should be part of making that community work. This means they are involved and volunteer. If the majority of people took more action I believe there would not be the above problems. But my personal problems aside, what is it that keeps people from getting involved at church?

I fear it is our consumer mentality and the lack of the basic understanding that the church is a community and for it to function as it is created to it needs full participation of every person. This leads me to have to look and the mirror and remember that people’s perceptions are influenced by leadership and that it is my job, along with others in leadership, to create a proper biblical understanding of what it means to be part of the church or at least my best understanding.