Pilgrim Soldier

I think that there is something to celebrate about the fact that 2007 is the centenary of the formulisation of Women’s ministries in The Salvation Army. 100 years of this incredibly important work has seen countless women saved and only the Lord knows how many families saved from collapse. The work of the Home League and other groups, especially in the developing and transitional parts of our Global Family, meet real human need. They fulfil the function of providing health and child care teaching in remote villages and city slums alike, and without them the world would be a poorer place.

But I wonder why we don’t put so much emphasis on ministry towards men. Across the Western world the church’s dwindling congregations are made up predominately of women. We in The Salvation Army might be better than a lot, I really don’t know the statistics, but if we are it’s probably because of that old male bastion (tongue fully pushed into cheek), the Band!

The simple fact is that many men these days don’t feel comfortable in the type of church that has existed for so many generations. Even those that do are often either involved as leaders or have very little involvement outside of Sunday worship. A lot has been made recently of the very songs that we sing in our churches, that talk a great deal about Jesus being our lover, but little about Jesus being our leader!

Surveys across the board tell us that increasing numbers of me are trapped into addiction to internet porn. This includes those fine, upstanding pillars of our church community, our leaders.

If we’re going to build community we must be aware of men. We must be willing to find ways of communicating the gospel to men, and provide support groups for those already in our churches.

So 100 years on from the launch of formalised women’s ministries, what is The Salvation Army going to do about men? Let’s not forget the importance and necessity of reaching out to men, in our rush to celebrate our work with women.