Shifting Dynamics: Gender Roles and Church Engagement

In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss a surprising (or not surprising?) shift in the Church in the U.S. At the inception of the early Church, Christianity's promotion of the value of women is what resulted in flocks of women joining the Church. In fact, throughout history, women have predominated the church in number. That appears to be changing. A recent survey conducted by the Survey Center on American Life found that women are leaving the church in unprecedented numbers.

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The reasons that this shift should not surprise us, particularly when you do a careful study of both the rise of the “nones” - those who have no religious affiliation - and Generation Z. Dr. White has written books about both of these groups: The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated and Meet Generation Z. The vast majority of Gen Z women identify as feminists (whether liberal or conservative) and find the tendencies of some denominations within the Christian faith to be misogynistic. This has been a huge point of contention within the Southern Baptist Convention, who've made the decision to expel churches for allowing women to serve as pastors within the church. Dr. White referenced an article written by Jessica Grose for the New York Times titled “Young Women Are Fleeing Organized Religion. This Was Predictable.” We'd recommend taking the time to read it in full, as it provides a really helpful understanding of the causes for the recent decline. There was also a past podcast episode on the topic of women serving in leadership roles within the life of the church, including serving as pastors. We'd encourage you to listen to CCP7: On Women in Ministry if you haven't already.

The survey mentioned earlier also found that sadly, many of these young women are gone for good. As the article says, “Studies consistently show that people who leave religion rarely come back, even if they hold on to some of their formative beliefs and practices.” Churches must respond by shifting their focus, or else they risk losing both the strongest core of volunteers (traditionally always women) and the most consistent financial donors. Women need to see other women serving in leadership and teaching roles. Dr. White wrote a blog on this topic titled “Women as Pastors,” which you can find HERE.

Finally, they also discuss how the opposite shift is happening for men - they seem to be increasingly drawn to the church; and surprisingly, to the Orthodox Church. Dr. White mentioned the article titled “Young, single men are leaving traditional churches. They found a more ‘masculine' alternative” that you can read HERE. Men also tend to gravitate toward churches that teach men what it means to be a man in today's culture. Dr. White has delivered several series at Mecklenburg Community Church that you may be interested in checking out. These are Defining Manhood and Man Up

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