“How parents and congregations can stop the exodus of boys from church” reads the subtitle and sums quite nicely the theme of “Searching For Tom Sawyer” by Tim Wright and published West Bow Press. You read much these days about how men are shunning the church, and even some about what we might do to make our churches more palpable to men. This volume looks to solving the problem before it begins–with boys.

Mr. Wright begins by presenting a solid case for males and females having distinct differences designed by the Lord, even though both are of equal worth to Him. He repines our culture’s mistaken emphasis on sameness at the expense of differences. These differences must be considered if we are to have a church that reaches men and women.

He even digs into the differences in how our minds are wired. Boys develop a little slower than girls and most Sunday School classes are geared more toward girls. Girls begin reading earlier so boys naturally don’t like getting called on to read and be embarrassed in front of those same girls. As time goes by, boys are by their Creator’s design likely to squirm and hate being forced to sit still. Again, we often set things up this way. So, boys start hating church at a very young age. The author makes some suggestions about setting things up differently. Whether we would exactly follow his instructions or not, these are issues worthy of much thought.

I appreciate that in his recommendations he discusses lower-cost ideas for those of us who don’t have massive budgets. The model of mega-wow factor simply won’t work for us all. The book ends with a few sample lessons designed to appeal to boys.

Our culture almost seems embarrassed by manhood. No amount of indoctrination, however, will ever remove how God made us. It is particularly ridiculous to organize church against what we know to be true! This is a helpful book that we should consider carefully.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 .

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