How Women Help Men Find God

Time for another book review.

How Women Help Men Find God - by David Murrow

I originally came across this book at Word bookstore in Vic Park when a few of us were browsing before we had dinner next door at Makan Makan. It caught my attention because of the title, and I picked it up to have a flick through. I read a few bits inside (I think the section was about worship) and I liked how it was written and that it made some good points that I never thought about before. It seemed to cover a lot of ground in one book, so I thought I would go buy it.

It was a bit more expensive than what I normally like to pay for a book ($17.95), but because I was interested, I bought it anyway. My rationale was that I spend more on dinner or a CD sometimes so why not spend on a Christian book?

Anyhoo.

Basically, Murrow writes about how the church has been feminised in recent years to the point where men have been gradually put more and more off from going. With more women in church, the church has changed to become more appealing to women (often unintentionally), and as a result, most men have just felt out of place and have ended up leaving the church. He writes about why this is a problem, how it has become like this, the common mistakes that churches make, what the church can do to fix the problem, and practical ways to evangelise to the men in your life.

Personally, I found the book very helpful and it made some excellent points that I had never thought about. It also helped to affirm the things that we do in our own church already which have helped to encourage the brothers to keep coming (e.g. men's fellowship).

However...

I found that there was quite a contemporary slant to what Murrow would write, and coming from a traditional church, I didn't quite agree with everything he wrote in the book. It seemed as though he favoured the idea of a big, slick, tech-savvy, modern church with all the bells and whistles - a view that I didn't necessarily agree with. Also, being from a predominantly Asian church, some stuff was less relevant - he presented an idea of having a group of mechanics at church providing free  repairs to the community, but I ain't seen no Asian mechanic in church recently.. Maybe there can be an accounting or engineering consultation? Maybe not.

It's not that I was being close-minded to the ideas in the book, it's more that I wasn't too convinced that these would achieve the ultimate goal for us as Christians - which is to glorify God. I felt that sometimes, what was written in the book tended to be more fearful of man than of God.

But that's just my opinion.

I would recommend that you have a read of the book, just to get an idea about the problem that the modern church is facing currently. It is definitely a very real problem and one that would jeopardise the future of the church, the family unit and the effectiveness of ministry. Read the book with an open-mind, but with discernment. But really, any book that we read written by man should be read in the same manner.