The Men's Ministry of Eagles Nest Baptist Church

Why a ministry for men and men alone?  And why do we encourage men to do stuff on their own as groups of guys?  Are we sexist?  Are we encouraging gender division?

First let’s think statistics; Over the last 20 years 38% of believing men left the church.  In fact for men aged under 30, nearly 50% left in the same period of time.  Now that’s believing men deciding they don’t want to go to church anymore!  So we are facing a crisis before we even think about reaching men who aren’t yet believers. The decline is pretty terminal.  

Of course, women are leaving church too.  But no-where near as fast as men. I am often vexed by the lack of young men in church.  We have these great young girls who really want to find Godly husbands and yet there are no men.  In fact across the US the statistic is 60% women to 40% men.  Anecdotally the ratio is often 70:30.  Not good. So what do we do? Men aren’t good at small talk.  They don’t form trusting relationships as fast and as easily as women.  In fact, you might say that when a woman walks into a room she looks for people to talk with and relate to.  When a man walks into a room he is plotting his escape strategy and looking for the exit door! So men need a forum and a place to forge good strong friendships which over time will become open enough for conversation about stuff other than what they do for work or the football etc.  If this isn’t encouraged most men will go into a default “loner” mode. At ENBC we encourage men to be the spiritual leaders of their family to play an active role in the church.    As a church we host lots special events and services making sure that some of these focus on the men in our ministry.