Where are the men?

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In a recent message preached by Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary President Danny Akin at Advance 09, I heard him give a statistic that over 75% of the single overseas missionaries on the field in the Southern Baptist Convention were women, some of them serving in Islamic areas. This, to me, was a startling statistic. So much so, that I decided to do a little research on it.

On the International Mission Board website under the Global Research section, I found these numbers:

What does the 2007 Annual Personnel Study tell us about SBC missionaries? As a group at the end of 2007:

• 84.3% (4,442) married and 15.7% (829) single
• 45.6% (2,405) men and 54.4% (2,866) women
• Long-term mean age 45, median age 45, mode 45
• Short-term mean age 38, median age 29, mode 24
• Long-term personnel length of service mean 10 years, median 8 years, mode 4 years

This was at the end of 2007, but let's break it down into some different statistics. We can't exactly determine how many men exactly are married, so based on Akin's quote, I will make a guestimate of just how many single men are on the field. If over 75% of the single missionaries are women, then that would be about 622 women, adding a few more than likely. That only leaves 207 men spread out around the globe. If I had more access to the report or a report for 2008, the numbers could probably be more accurate. Another disturbing note about this report is the mean and median ages. There are very few long-term younger people on the field. Sure, I know a few who are my age in the lower 30's, but it appears that older people are on the field long-term. This may be a case where they went when they were young and now are older. Short-termers are younger. Young people are not committing themselves to long-term, it seems.

My main focus of this article is not to focus on the generation, but on the men. Where are the men? Are we losing them in our churches? Are they not being asked to give themselves to Christ? Why are women more likely to go overseas than men? Should not men be stepping up to the plate in the Church and taking the lead? It's no wonder that there are debates about women pastors, homosexual pastors, etc. Young men in the Church are not taking the lead. They have forgotten the charge given them in the Bible to go to all nations, making disciples. I'm calling on the men in the Church (particular young men, 18-35) to get up off their rear ends and serve. Quit warming the pews. The Christian women are showing you up. The women do not have access to Muslim men to share the Gospel. We need Christian men to do that. Where are you at? Playing your XBox? Texting your girlfriend on your shiny new IPhone? Working to pay off your brand new car? We have a calling from Jesus Christ to love God and to love the Church. Both go together. If we are loving God, we will be willing to go anywhere that Christ goes us to love the Church. I understand there is a budget issue right now in the IMB and this is another issue of the people not understanding that we must give to missions. As Christians, we are either senders or goers. If you have no desire for either, you better check your heart.