“That’s Not How We Do Things Here”: American Men’s Ministries in an Australasian Context

Abstract

C hristian organizations that focus on men are nothing new. For example, the Holy Name Society, founded at the Council of Lyons in 1274, and the Knights of Columbus, founded in 1882, both continue to this day (Kauffman 1982). More broadly, Christian movements that focus on men are also nothing new: Muscular Christianity as well as the Men and Religion Forward Movement gained momentum in the late 1800s and early 1900s (Allen 2002, Bederman 1989, Putney 2003). A second wave of Muscular Christianity took hold after the Second World War, with special reference to Christian sporting activities (Ladd and Mathisen 1999). A third wave of Muscular Christianity can be identified in the late 1970s, starting with the establishment by Ed Cole of the Christian Men’s Network (CMN), which saw the creation of what we now know as ‘‘men’s ministries’’ (Gelfer 2009). Some men’s ministries, such as the well-known Promise Keepers (PK), are non-denominational, while others are affiliated with specific denominations, the most numerous of which are Catholic (Gelfer 2008). Some men’s ministries have no further focus than men, while others have a tighter agenda, such as fatherhood (Gelfer 2010a). The uniting reason for men’s ministry is an anxiety about the fading of men within the church: either an anxiety about men losing power in the Church as a result of increasing feminine influence or a missiological anxiety that fewer men are being brought to Christ. The goal of men’s ministries is therefore to attract men back into churches. This is largely achieved by appealing to stereotypical masculinities based on sporting, military, and