Church nixes girly tunes and men return

Last updated on: September 11, 2013 at 9:53 am by David Murrow

Church nixes girly tunes and men return 2013-09-11T09:53:20-06:00 David Murrow

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Getting more men to attend your church may be as simple as changing your music.

Attendance at Strathcona Baptist Church in Edmonton, Alberta was running 60% female. The church’s female elders set a goal to attract 50% male worshippers.

After reading and discussing “Why Men Hate Going to Church,” these women decided to eliminate the feminine songs and see what would happen. They developed a numeric scale and evaluated each song according to how masculine or feminine it was. For example, the song, “Lord You are More Precious than Silver” scored 8 on the feminine scale, and was excluded.

The elders didn’t eliminate every feminine song – the goal was balance. But any song that scored a 6 or above on the “femininity scale” was dropped.

Without changing anything other than the music, the church’s gender gap quickly evaporated. Men participated more, including a marked increase in the number of men who spoke their praises aloud to God. And overall attendance grew.

Please note – this was not a bunch of angry men demanding change. The effort was initiated and driven by the women of the church.

Read the article in Christianity.ca. And join the conversation on our Facebook page. Or leave your comments below.

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