Christian Men Are Less Engaged Than Women

It seems like the common observation of modern Christianity is that men are under-engaged1. When we look at the data Pew collected, there is an observable gap between men and women in most religious metrics.

This is an excerpt from, The Blue-Collar Blindspot

Buy it Now

These statistics are from 2014, but they hold surprisingly well. Current (2024) PEW stats actually show working-class numbers have declined by 5-10% across all metrics and gender gap remains largely unchanged.

To start, there are ten percent fewer Evangelical men than women. Remember that each of these numbers represents real people who the churches aren’t reaching. These may be small percentages, but they represent parts of a real number. In America, there are about 327 million Americans, and the above Pew Research Study found that around seventy percent of Americans identify as Christian. Ten percent fewer men in Evangelical Christianity means that around 23 million men are missing from the church.2

It is also possible to find the total percent of men and women that are Evangelicals. We can compare the percent of men with the percent of women who are engaged at church, regardless of percentages not being actual numbers. The percentages are how we can compare like with like when the number totals are not available.

Men are five percent less likely to attend church services weekly than women. To give Christ room to work, we should want at least weekly attendance. Only 55 percent of men who identified as Christians said they attend church at least once a week, compared to sixty percent of women. Men are also two percent more likely than women to seldom or never attend church services. That’s a seven percent hurdle just to get men in the front door.

Men are less likely to go to prayer groups and bible studies. With this statistic, we see about the same seven percent spread that we did before. Men are four percent less likely to attend prayer groups and Bible studies and three percent less likely to sign up for these services at all. Women come in ahead again.

How about just believing in God? Women are five percent more likely than men to believe in God absolutely. Men are also a single percent more likely to be unsure of God’s existence. That makes the belief gap closer to six percent. A little more than thirteen million men professing Christ aren’t absolutely sure of God’s existence.

Belief in the Bible as the inspired Word of God is waning in men. A full five percent said they didn’t know if it was the word of God or not. That’s one-in-twenty self-professing Christian men who lack confidence even in the Bible. A full nine percent of Evangelical men say the Bible is not the word of God. That’s almost one in ten that don’t believe the Word of God came from God. Only 51 percent of men surveyed definitively said the Bible is the Inspired Word of God. The gap with women was around eleven percent.

Christianity is supposed to provide a metanarrative that gives a foundation for objective moral truth, core values, and answers to life’s biggest questions. It’s surprising, then, that Christian men are seven percent less likely to view their religion as a source for objective, moral truth. Men are also six percent more likely than the fairer sex to forsake scripture and rely on so-called “common sense” and philosophy. That’s a thirteen percent gap with our sisters in the faith. The total is only 56 percent of Evangelical men that look to their religion as the source of moral truth.

Providing the meaning of life seems like something it would be important for Christianity to do, but it looks like a full 25 percent of Evangelical Christian men disagree. Evangelical men are eight percent less likely than women to agree that their religion is very important to them. They are also two percent more likely to say that their faith is not very important at all. That’s a ten percent gap with our sisters in the faith. Thankfully, a full 75 percent of men still say their religion is very important, but this should be a lot closer to 100 percent.

How often do Christians read the book that their entire religion is based on? Evangelical Christian men are eight percent less likely to read their Bibles at least once a week. They are four percent less likely to read it at all. That’s a twelve percent gap. As men, we should be spiritual leaders in the home. It needs to be a lot more than just 58 percent of Christian men that read their Bibles at least once a week.

How about prayer? Here the dearth of spiritual leadership shows the most. Men are a full ten percent less likely to pray daily, and four percent more likely to pray seldom or never. Christian men are much more likely to pray once a week or even just once a month, while women are more likely to pray every day.

How about church engagement (this one is especially important for blue-collar Christians)? Of the men that call themselves Evangelical, they are around seven percent less likely to be engaged in church3. In numbers, that’s just over six million men who could be more engaged in the Word, prayer, the church, and at home. That last one is the most important, because families are the backbone of the church. For perspective, the population of the entire city of Los Angeles is just under 4 million.4

Importance of the Blue-Collar People Group

So what does all of this have to do with being blue-collar? The church’s culture should appeal to blue-collar Christians because (I know, more numbers, we’ll get through this together), thirteen percent of all American jobs are blue-collar5. Additionally, 79 percent of all blue-collar jobs are held by men. In real numbers, that means there are around sixteen million blue-collar men in America.6 The solution to the missing men in church today is blue-collar men. Find blue-collar Christians and converts, and you find your men.

Remember from the first chapter that blue-collar Christians are an unreached people group. These are people who are not being spoken to or directly engaged by the modern Evangelical movement. They are forgotten and passively ignored. Speak to blue-collar Christians, and you’re speaking largely to men. Men who are already underrepresented in the modern churches. Pastors, by calling to the blue-collar heart, can close the gender gap.

Blue-collar men are not victims, or poor babies that need to be cared for. It’s easy to slip into a victim narrative when talking numbers and demographics. It's important to remember that these are construction workers that bend stone and steel to make buildings. These are the thin blue line between peace and chaos. These are the brave soldiers on the front line. These are factory workers who make giant metal monsters that drive and fly at incredible speed. These are miners who venture into the heart of the earth just so you can have electric lights and air conditioning. Never forget that.

When you add such men, and precious few women, to your congregation, the Lord is sending you men and women ready to work. In another Pew Research survey7, they found our exact blue-collar category was more likely to search for a new congregation based on opportunities to serve and provide fellowship. They were also less likely to consider distance traveled as an important factor. Blue-collar churchgoers care more about service opportunities and fellowship and less about how far they have to drive. That’s the kind of congregation every pastor should want.

This is an excerpt from, The Blue-Collar Blindspot

Buy it Now

Get it free

Are you a ministry leader?

Get my Ministry Assessment Tool, free!

Find out how blue-collar friendly your ministry is!

Join the Crew

Support the work here and help keep the lights on! Access a member’s only Discord and LIVE Q&A.

1Murrow, David. Why Men Hate Going to Church. Thomas Nelson, 2011.

2Given current US Pop x Pew Research 70% Christian America: 5-10% of 229,740,000 is From 11,487,000 to 22,974,000 missing men, assuming an ideal 50/50 split.

3Of Evangelical men(40% of 229,740,000 Christians = 91,896,000 Christian men), avg 6.75% are less engaged in church than women. That’s 6,202,980 men that could be more engaged. Engaged is defined as an average of all the above % categories.

4“U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Los Angeles City, California.” Census Bureau QuickFacts, 2019, www.census.gov/quickfacts/losangelescitycalifornia.

5This is not the same as our earlier category of -50,000/year income and no college degree. This is just just construction, manufacturing, and mining/logging. “Employed Persons by Detailed Occupation, Sex, Race, and Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 22 Jan. 2020, www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm.

679% of 13% of all American jobs (157,538,000) is around 16,179,152.6 men working b/c jobs in America right now.

7Schwadel, Philip. “The U.S. Class Divide Extends to Searching for a Religious Congregation.” Pew Research Center, 30 May 2020, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/11/26/the-u-s-class-divide-extends-to-searching-for-a-religious-congregation/.