I came across the following while preparing for my Father's Day message.
1. If both your parents worshipped with you regularly while you were growing up, there’s an 80% likelihood that you’ll worship God regularly as an adult.
2. If only your mother worshipped regularly with you, there’s only a 30% probability that you’ll worship regularly as an adult.
3. If only your father worshipped regularly with you, the likelihood that you’ll worship regularly as an adult increases to 70% percent!
With all the fuss at this year's Synod over the Office of Women, I almost hesitate, but those who know me, know I won't, to bring up the pink elephant in the room. Why isn't more attention being paid to the fact that men comprise only about 30% of membership of the RCA?
One could debate the future of women in leadership in the RCA, but we can't debate the truth that if we fail to increase the number of men in the pews the RCA does not have a future. If we don't address this growing or is it shrinking problem soon we will not have the funds to fund the Office of Women or much of anything in the denomination.
Yet I never hear this issue talked about at any level of the RCA. With the mass exodus of young people from our churches, most never to return, where will we be in 10-25 years? We need to get serious about the men inside and outside our congregations.
But will we assess the churches $1.30/member to form an Office of Men? I doubt it. If you want to see the real reason for our decline - ask, "Where are the Dads?"