what young men want from the church
February 18, 2026
One day, several weeks ago, I arrived at my PCA church’s middle school youth group and was disturbed to find around 30 girls and no boys in attendance. Granted, it was the opening weekend of hunting season. Still, even when more boys are there, they are outnumbered by the girls and often unenthusiastic and uninterested. Eventually, one boy showed up a couple of minutes late, looking rather unexcited. We are a fairly large and continually growing church with more than 500 weekly attendees, and a youth group that is considered one of the best in our area. Every Sunday at our church, the Bible is preached well by men of integrity. And yet we struggle to attract young men.
What’s going on with young men? In recent years, many concerning studies have emerged about young men, particularly those in Gen Z. We hear about climbing high suicide rates, singleness, and social degeneracy. The number of those who identify with LGBTQ is increasing, and worst of all, many young Christians are apostatizing. It is encouraging to hear that religion is becoming masculine-coded and that young men are outpacing young women in turning to religion for the first time in a long time, but Gen Z is still currently the least churched generation and churchgoers are still predominantly women.
