Disbanded Brothers – Has a ‘Feminised’ Church Alienated Men in the UK?

CHAPTER SIX
CONCLUSION
This paper has investigated the gender gap within the UK Church and found conventional
explanations inadequate in accounting for the recent growth in women’s majority over men.
There is a growing body of Christian literature that attributes this imbalance to a feminisation
of the Church. Some of the main aspects of feminisation were examined in Chapter Four,
and this paper has found various indications that such feminisation has indeed occurred.
Whilst feminisation is, by its very nature, almost impossible to measure, we have found
literary, anecdotal and statistical indicators that show that not only is it present within the UK
Church but also that it has grown more dominant in the last two decades.
This paper has further argued that the genderal issues affecting the Church have been
complicated and exacerbated by two factors: a general reluctance amongst Christians to
engage with this topic and, moreover, an underlying ‘androgyny’ or ‘gender blindness’ that
fails to recognise and respond to men and women’s distinctiveness. A consequence of this
has been further alienation of men from the Church, since their differences from women
have not been fully appreciated or spoken to by the Church.
Now that men’s alienation from the Church has been identified and, at least in part,
explained, questions arise as to what the response ought to be. That an ecclesial response
is called for does not negate the fact that men still have a personal responsibility to seek
Christ and follow Him, irrespective of any barriers they may face. For our part as the Church,
however, we must acknowledge the times and the ways we may be responsible for such
barriers, and do what we can to guide people to the Way. This is a highly significant
missiological issue and one that calls for a mature understanding of how Christianity in this
country must be appropriately contextualised. 28
I look forward to exploring this in greater depth in a subsequent paper. In the mean time,
however, I would like to outline some aspects of a possible trajectory that the Church may
wish to consider:
• Reinvigorating our understanding of the Church as the Body of Christ in such a way that
holds in proper tension both the Body’s unity and its diversity, with regard to gender.
• Repenting of the abuses of patriarchy and masculine excesses, without condemning or
vilifying masculinity itself.
• Recognising that Biblical role models, including and especially that of Jesus Christ, 29 are
instructive in helping men live authentically masculine lives.
• Accepting, valuing and celebrating our distinctiveness as males and females, a Godcreated
differentiation that is part of the glory of His creation.
• Without compromising any aspect of the Christian gospel, developing language,
metaphors and methods of communication that men relate well to. This may involve
restoring the balance between how we speak of God’s transcendence as well as His
immanence.
• Acknowledging that some aspects of how we meet as Church work to alienate men, and
that we should therefore endeavour to create forms of worship and expressions of being
Christian communities that are as attractive and open to men as they are to women.
28 For example, Charles Kraft (1980, 211) speaks of a ‘dynamic equivalence church’ that has three elements: it “(1)
conveys to its members truly Christian meanings, (2) responds to the felt needs of its society, producing within it an
impact for Christ equivalent to that which the first-century church produced in its society, and (3) appropriates cultural
forms that are as nearly indigenous as possible.”
29 Hawkins and Tunnell (2002, 16) are entirely correct to state that “our best example of masculinity comes from what
we can glean from the example of Christ” and, just as all humans must learn to shape their humanness in the light of
Jesus’ example, so too men must shape their masculinity after Jesus’. Other, lesser, role models for men can also be
found in the Bible: see for example Goldingay (2000) and Boyer (1996).
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