Spent time over the weekend with two books that looked at the spirit of masculinity and femininity in the church from two different perspectives. One of these books, written by Denise George, is titled What Women Wish Pastors knew and is subtitled “Understanding the Hopes, Hurts, Needs, and Dreams of Women in the Church. The other book, by David Murrow, is Why Men Hate Going to Church.
One book approaches the problem from the side of exhausted, worn out women who sense that the church is a men’s club where women’s hearts are neither listened to or understood. The other side sees the church as a ladies’ club that is dominated and run by women.
Let me give you one excerpt from Murrow. He says on page 135, “Ninety-five percent of the senior pastors in America are men, but you could not tell it by the sermons they preach. Weakness, humility relationships, communication, support, and feelings are constantly held up as the ideal values of a Christian… Men get the message that Christ-likeness is synonymous with Mom-likeness.”
While using the long weekend to look out the window…and catch more than enough of NCAA Bowl Games and NFL playoff talks… reading both books side by side has me thinking.
P.S. One of my co-workers just read the above and asked if I forgot to add what I’ve “been thinking” (smile). Sorry if the ending of this post seemed abrupt. I knew that some of our group would jump in at this point. Am planning to follow through in the next few days with excerpts from the books to show why men and women need to listen to one another
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