A few months ago I spent a couple of days analyzing the top fifty bestsellers as reported by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association.  Nothing much surprised me.  Evangelicals read a lot of fiction.  They aren’t very interested in theology or history.  Self-help books reign supreme.  Here’s what did surprise me.  Of the fifty books listed, twenty-two percent were marketed directly to women as compared to only four percent marketed directly to men.  The publishers know who is and isn’t reading.

Perhaps I should know better, too. America has a long history of women being considered our lighthouses of faith, our caretakers of morality. This was the point made not too long ago by Margaret Lamberts Bendroth in Fundamentalism and Gender (1993). Just about one hundred years ago, men were AWOL from the Church: “In 1899, Baptist preacher Cortland Myers identified not women’s suffrage but masculine passivity as ‘one of the burning questions of the hour.’” Indeed, in the early years of the twentieth century you can all but pick a denomination and find men refusing to lead—or serve—in the Church.

Twentieth century Fundamentalism did seek to reorient an evangelical faith with a masculine tint – conservative Christianity was, after all, a virile faith. So, in the 1920s and 30s it wasn’t uncommon to read or hear statements like, “It is manly to follow Christ” or Christianity “makes bigger, stronger men in every way.” And yet, as Bendroth noted, after a century of “muscular Christianity,” the average male-in-the-pew today was left, in her words, with “a genuine confusion over what true Christian manliness entailed.”

I think this confusion still exists. Could it be that somewhere between the mauve carpet, the whitewashed pews, the pulpit flowers, and the sermon on etiquette men are wondering, “Where am I? What have I signed up for? Is this what following Jesus really looks like? Is this what following Jesus has to look like?” A generation of men is neither impressed nor engaged with church life. What’s to be done?

I’d like to suggest that every Christian male tempted to rob a local church of his time, his money, his gifts, his leadership, etc. take a look at 1Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” When Paul talks about the “work of the Lord” he’s referring to the building up of the church! This is clear throughout the letter to Corinth. Take 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 for just one example. Paul’s describes himself as a “skilled master” laying a foundation. But what is he building? The church! He proceeds to call the Corinthians to join him in this construction—the building of the church.

What does this have to do with men serving the church? Everything! If the work of the Lord is the building of the church—the local church—than the investment made in a local church “is not in vain.” Can the same be said of any other institution on earth? Can the same be said of work in the Supreme Court? In the White House? In the halls of Congress? On Wall Street? In your accounting firm? In your law firm? In your store? No. All of this work is good and God is rightly honored when we work in all of these areas but the work of the Lord, according to Paul, is the building up of the church, and not a minute of this work will be spent in vain. This is a tremendous promise—enough to encourage every believer to commit his life to Christ and the building of His church.

Update: It is uncanny that a very similar piece to Aaron's would be published today in the Wall St. Journal.  Click  here for "Church Ladies." 
(Hat tip to Douglas Burtt at the Boars Head Tavern).