“Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, and peace upon Israel.”
— Psalm 128:6
“Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me forever.”
— Jeremiah 35:19
Both in America’s churches and society at large, there appears to be a shortage of men. Male workforce participation collapsed in 2020 from 69% down to 66% (if you believe government figures), and has yet to recover. If that seems troubling, just consider that in 1950, the male labor force participation rate was 86%.
Marriage rates have also been on the downswing in the United States, with almost 10 marriages per 1,000 of population in 1990 to only 6 out of 1,000 in 2021:
Anecdotally I hear that the average age of an American pastor is over 55, with many pastors in Reformed circles due to retire in the next decade or so with few qualified candidates ready to fill these pulpits.
Perhaps supply and demand will take care of this issue, considering that the number of weekly church attenders has been declining as well.
If faithful male leadership and family continuation is a blessing from God, as these passages of scripture indicate, then surely a shortage of men indicates the opposite – that God is cursing a nation for disobedience. One chapter later in Jeremiah God says to the apostate king of Judah who had just flouted the warnings of the prophet, Therefore thus saith the LORD of Johoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to reign upon the throne of David[1].”
Jesus said The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest[2].
The feminist social experiment has failed. Without men going into the trades, into STEM fields, into the arts, and into marriages, society will flounder and collapse like a body without a head. The church will face greater and greater temptation to appoint female pastors “because men aren’t stepping up.”
God has promised us that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church[3]. Whatever judgements fall on the nations for forgetting God, there will always be a remnant[4] preserved. We must trust the sufficiency of Scripture to guide us in all areas of life. As the world around us changes, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. [5]
I'll conclude with some ever-relevant preaching from Voddie Baucham:
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