c. 2006 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Even when Jerusalem Baptist Church holds a men’s event, more women show up.

“I have never known us to have more men than women,” said the church’s pastor, the Rev. R. Clinton Washington, who estimates about 80 percent of his church members are women. “I don’t know any church that does.”

Women in the historic black congregation say they pray for the husbands and young men who don’t join them in the pews, but they don’t allow the statistics to stifle their faith.

“It doesn’t bother me,” said Jean Lucas, a longtime member dressed in a red suit, gathered with other women in the back of the church after a recent two-hour service. “Women run the church. They have to. … We don’t have any men.”

Women outnumbering men in sanctuaries across America is nothing new. But some church leaders are starting to address the issue _ with books like David Murrow’s “Why Men Hate Going to Church” and efforts at the local and national levels to boost male involvement.

For many, it’s more than a matter of mates; it’s a question of helping a church function at its fullest.

“There are millions of women who worship without their husbands and one of their deepest desires is to have a spiritual walk with their husbands,” said Murrow, who is based in Alaska but has spoken across the country since his book was published in 2005. “It affects mothers who knock themselves out to take their boys to Sunday school, vacation Bible school, Awana clubs and then, when the boys reach 15 years old, it’s `See you later Jesus,’ and it breaks their heart.”

Some church members, aware of the family fallout that relates to the presence _ or lack _ of fathers in the church, are being proactive to change traditional ways.

At the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Gaithersburg, Md., men ranging in age from their 30s to their 70s are developing a group that will gather socially but also serve the multicultural church and the surrounding community.

“If a family wants children to … grow up in the church, it creates a very difficult dynamic particularly for the kids, when fathers don’t go or they go because they’re dragged,” said Richard McFarland, an usher and a member of the church’s vestry, or governing board.

He said the new effort at his church to get men more involved _ which has included looking at how Knights of Columbus and evangelical men’s groups have developed _ is “about the whole church.”

The Rev. Kit Carlson, interim pastor at the Gaithersburg church, said she agrees with Murrow that some aspects of church life can repel men.

“There’s music and flowers and singing and I think when it was a male-dominated leadership structure, that was OK,” she said. “But now that women are in positions of leadership, both in the clergy and in the lay leadership, that tends to seem more and more girlie.”

For women who wish to marry someone who shares their faith, the sanctuary statistics can be particularly challenging.

“I hear from women all the time who are wondering where the single men are in their church,” said Camerin Courtney, an editor and columnist for ChristianSinglesToday.com, which is affiliated with the evangelical Christianity Today International.

The issue goes beyond women wishing for a mate to collective groups of women seeking a more balanced fellowship.

“I feel bad for the body of Christ,” Courtney said. “It’s like limping around without a body part.”

The Rev. Rosa M. Clark, an associate minister at Jerusalem Baptist, doesn’t agree with that assessment.

“God will use whomever he decides to use and the fact that there are more women than men, his word, his program, his promise will come through be there many women and few men or vice versa,” said Clark, whose husband is supportive of her ministry but attends only when she is preaching.

Murrow, who estimates that almost 25 percent of married women worship on any given Sunday without their husbands, can’t help but pass along a joke about the topic.

“The men in the church are like parking spaces,” he said. “The good ones are either already taken or they’re handicapped _ and by handicapped I don’t mean physically challenged. I mean they’re so spiritually inept. They’re just wimpy. They’re not take-charge.”

He and other experts say the issue is more acute in African-American churches than others.

The Rev. Vance Ross, associate general secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Discipleship, speaks occasionally on the relative dearth of men in black churches. He said the absence of a shared faith practice can create “a considerable disconnect” between black men and women.

“There are some values but those values will not have the same point of departure,” he said.

While some women have determined that they’ll live with the situation, others don’t intend to accept the status quo.

Hazel Frye estimates that her predominantly black Pentecostal church in Fayetteville, N.C., has one single man and 15 single women. But at age 40, she’s not ready to give up.

The divorced mother of three says sometimes the answer to finding a potential mate in the faith is by checking out another church.

“Why not visit some other churches?” she said. “Even though there may be a shortage … that doesn’t mean that one of those men in another church may not be for you.”

KRE/PH END BANKS

Editors: To obtain five photos of R. Clinton Washington, Rosa Clark and women at Jerusalem Baptist Church, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

See other Father’s Day-related stories, RNS-MEN-CHURCH and RNS-MEN-TECH, both transmitted June 7, 2006. Camerin in 15th graf is CQ

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