Reaching Men

Recently
a student worker came to see me, (admittedly that is surprising as what
I know about university work you could write on the back of your hand).
Anyway, she said she’d noticed that there weren’t enough male leaders
in Christian Unions, particularly in London, and that those who were in
leadership were often stepping back because the girls on committee were
so confident and boisterous (that’s probably the polite way of putting
it).

 I asked her, ‘Who’s your boss?’  ‘A woman.’  ‘And who’s the regional team leader?’  ‘A woman.’ 

At
that point I said she should give up trying to reach guys in the
Christian Union and just focus on the girls – women training women to
lead women.

You
don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see that to reach male students
you’ve got to get guys in leadership. The feminisation of conservative
evangelicalism continues apace. I can imagine that some will respond to
this post with the get out clause – ‘a Christian Union isn’t a church
and so headship issues don’t come into play so much’.  I would want to affirm that CUs aren’t churches.  They are the equivalent of a work prayer group or a Christian’s arts and crafts club.  But that doesn’t change the reality.  If you want to reach guys, you’ve got to get guys leading.