Church construction projects are (or at least used to be) a pretty common site, with one springing up on practicually every major road or in every large or small community. As you'd drive by from day to day, you'd watch as the foundation was laid, the walls went up, then the roof, and finally the spire. Not long after, you'd see the cars filling the parking lots and the people coming to inhabit the new edifice.

Several years ago, our church bought a nearby tract of land and began building a much larger sanctuary.  In the center of the altar of the new church was a 30-foot-tall obelisk with a cross carved in it.  Because of the obelisk's size, it was the first thing installed, and the church had to be built around it.  We had to drive by the construction site on the way to the old church.  

One day, after the walls were up but the building was not yet completed, my six-year-old daughter looked out the car window at the project.  She then turned back and asked, "Has Jesus moved in yet?"

The NOT THE BEE (NtB) social news site recently reported that Gen Z women are leaving Christian churches in record numbers, according to a surprising new poll.

But even more surprising is that the recent trend of men exiting the Church en masse, it is now reversing, so even as women are now leaving in record numbers, men are actually returning.

According to the pollsters:

Over the last two decades, which witnessed an explosion of religious disaffiliation, it was men more than women who were abandoning their faith commitments. In fact, for as long as we've conducted polls on religion, men have consistently demonstrated lower levels of religious engagement. But something has changed. A new survey reveals that the pattern has now reversed.

"Men, meanwhile," reports NtB, "seem to be growing into a greater devotion [to] religion in a way that has been unfamiliar to America since the 20th century began." This is evidenced by more findings from the study:

What's remarkable is how much larger the generational differences are among women than men. Gen Z men are only 11-points more religiously unaffiliated than Baby Boomer men, but the gap among women is almost two and a half times as large. Thirty-nine percent of Gen Z women are unaffiliated compared to only 14 percent of Baby Boomer women.

What's more, NtB reports,

This recent study [also] showed 57% of young men want to start a family compared with 45% of young women. It is far from normative for a society to raise such a large percentage of young ladies (who are the gatekeepers for sexual selection and procreation) who do not want to start families.

So you don’t attend church today because you were forced to attend as a child? Such is the common complaint that I hear when the subject of church comes up with the unchurched. I understand. You were made to go. The only drug problem that your parents had was that they “drug” you to church. You didn’t particularly enjoy it, except for the Easter candy, the Christmas program, or maybe catching the eye of that pretty girl.

But the long, boring sermons were punishing. The Sunday School teacher thought you had a rotten attitude, and publicly called you out. You didn’t like wearing dressy clothes. And when the preacher talked, it seemed that he was looking right at you. You couldn’t stand singing in children’s choir and the list goes on.

So now, you refuse to attend. Furthermore, you resent the fact that your parents made you attend and have stalwartly determined NOT to require your children to attend church on the basis of allowing them to “make their own decisions.”

I understand. After all, that the church has been viewed as being too religious, judgmental, packed with hypocrites, and besides all that, they seem to want your hard-earned money.

While it may be true that the church, in general, has needed an overhaul in some ways, I would like to challenge you to consider another angle.

My parents not only made me attend EVERY church service (minimum of 3 days a week plus revival services), including extra youth service and prayer meetings, but they also made me carry my Bible. I brought an offering to Sunday School that came out of my allowance and had to memorize Bible verses. If we misbehaved in a church service, it might be that we were called out from the pulpit, or a “(h)usher” would attend our side. Rain or shine, we were in church!