We have a few womyn pastors around here and it’s awkward. The men are very uncomfortable and the women think it’s great. I haven’t asked those I know who attend the churches if membership and/or tithing is down. If I had to bet, knowing the local population, both are down. It’s really sad. My husband and I both agree that our daughters will never be alterboys. It’s just not going to happen.
Typically guys who tune out at church are also guys who tune out at home. They figure they did their bit by earning income to pay for the house and food etc. A lot of the business of church is to get men to be engaged in their communities and engaged at home as fathers. If they’re not engaging the men—then they’re not doing their job.
It used to be in the PCUSA —of which I was once a member 30 years ago —that the male pastors would basically preach to the women who would in turn jerk the tithe out of their husbands. This created a relationship of screaming mutual contempt between the pastors and the men. The sons figured this out so proper presbyterian young men left the church. The PCUSA-which is the liberal side of the presbyterian church — for about 40 years has had 3% annual declines. I did some research on this about 10 years ago and discovered that most of the people leaving the church were young women. Why? Because the young men never returned after they went away for college. So in their late 20’s and 30’s the young women left as well in search of young men. In the last couple years after the PCUSA decided to bless all sex—the decline in membership has gone up to about 10% annually.
Doctrine is incredibly important. What killed the mainline protestant churches in Europe and now in the USA was and is a low view of Christ. That Jesus is just a man. and not also fully God. The problem here is that if you believe that Jesus is just a man— what you have for the central mystery of Christianity is.... a human sacrifice. That puts you on the same moral plane as Aztec priests cutting the hearts out of captives and offering them to their gods. Basically a church that has the low view of Christ has no more power than what the people can gin up among themselves—which is precious little.
My understanding is that the Catholic church has a similar problem with Liberation Theology which also in effect takes the low view of Christ.
And of course for some mysterious reason related to the human condition—human sacrifice is always accompanied by homosexuality.
The problem is that society as a whole —starting at the very top — has gone bad. When ever a church tries to line up with contemporary ethics — which are essentially unscripturally androgynous— the church dies. Why? because there’s no point in going to church anymore.