WOFOYO SHORT: The Flip

A quiet statistic can expose a loud spiritual problem: for decades, church attendance in the United States has often leaned heavily female, and that imbalance has shaped what church life feels like. Then a newer poll shows a flip in recent growth, with men showing up in bigger numbers than expected. We dig into why that excites us, why it may irritate some people, and why it could be a sign of a broader Christian awakening rather than another short-lived revival moment. 

We talk about the difference between revival and awakening, and why awakenings tend to leave structural change that spills into communities and nations. We also wrestle with what men seem to be seeking when they return: faith that costs something, services not engineered for comfort, and a discipleship mindset that sounds more like “go” than “stay.” If the church is heading into a season of correction, we want to be honest about what needs to change and what needs to deepen. 

Then we take it straight to prayer. If you’ve ever felt like you circle your real request with extra words, extra emotion, or spiritual theatrics, we challenge that pattern head-on. Jesus gives us legal access to the Father, and Scripture calls us to ask, seek, and knock with real expectation. We explore how indirect, over-explained prayer can reveal unbelief, and why sincere, direct prayer is often the most mature move you can make. 

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Transcript

Awakening Versus Revival And Why

Why Direct Prayer Gets Results

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Hey everybody, welcome to another WoeFo Yo short. This is C Dub. A lot of y'all ain't gonna like this one. That's fine. Want to bring out a couple of statistics. Uh, traditionally, for the last 30, 40 years, if you were to look up church attendance in the United States, you're gonna have about a 61 to 39 percent female to male ratio in your local congregations, especially get bigger churches. Um, if you get urban black churches, uh you're you're talking even a higher percentage. And we've addressed this dynamic in our book. Uh, I had a little section called General Patton and June Cleaver, and uh was talking about the different mentality of the way things are done, the Holy Spirit versus church mentality. And one is a go into all the world, make disciples. That that that's the Holy Spirit, and then also talked about the spirit of the church in a way, which I know there's a lot that's not theological. I'm just telling you what I saw. But it's this religious spirit that wants to make everybody comfortable and wants to you need to stay here and you need to uh you need to be a good church attendee. I was looking interestingly because I was trying to look up that statistic and see if it was still true. There's been a flip that a poll in 2025 uh of recent attendance, it's a 4336 new growth. 43 percent is men, and 36 percent of new growth is women. Sir, there's a flip happening. There's a correcting, if you will. And so let me tell you why this has me excited and why it's going to piss a lot of you all off. What this means is we've been talking about awakening, awakening, awakening, a move of God awakening, uh, not just a revival, because there have been revivals. Revivals are usually local anyway, if you look at the history of them. But awakenings, a little bit broader, and they usually bring about some kind of structural change as well as some kind of tangible, noticeable, lasting effect out beyond the walls of the church. It affects a community, it affects a nation. Uh, they just had a movie about a great awakening, about George Whitfield's friendship with Benjamin Franklin and how that led to a shaping of the foundation of this country and the Constitution being written. There, there's there's a different dynamic to things with an awakening versus revival. That being said, you look at what happened in 25 when that that poll was taken, and it was well, one of the big things was there's a lot of guys that were listening to Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk was assassinated and martyred, and it resonated with a lot of guys, and there's, you know, well, we're gonna start attending. Uh, also, one of the things that I've noticed is uh men are going to a lot of the more traditional services where it's not as easy, it's not designed for comfort, it's designed for sacrifice, and that's where the men are going. It reminded me of this little clip that I'd sent it to Bones, and I'm not gonna get into the full detail of it, but it had an Asian guy with a marker board and it had men, and below it it said a dot said sorry, and he drew this straight line. Men, sorry. And then on the opposite side, it had a dot said women, and below that had a dot said sorry, and he started going kind of imitate crying and and whining and explaining, and he for about 30 seconds he's just drawing all over this board and keep circling around sorry, and then he goes to another word which I won't repeat. Bones and I were laughing about that, and and during our conversation, we were going, I got to thinking, you know, you know, because this has been a traditionally more female way of attracting, and we can trace that back to World War II when the big flip happened, because it used to be more like what it's going back to. Uh you used to be real close 50-50. World War II, and you got the people that couldn't go to war, the ones preaching, and men coming back from war ain't really wanting to listen to the Mambi Pambies. They're not wanting to listen to those who didn't go through the same things and tell them to be good boys after they just went through hell and back. Wasn't happening. So that led to what it is. But there's been a change, and and I would argue it's been getting ready to head that way ever since COVID. COVID was an awakening in its own, but we were talking about the the this simple idea. The men were direct, they wanted to do things and get to the point. And because of the overall emotional nature that the women were going, you know, all over the place, and sometimes never getting to the point. And I go, well, the funny thing is, with with the nature of that, a lot of times that's the way things happen in prayer. We since since the church has been feminine in nature for so long, the way we've been taught to pray and approach God has not been to do so directly, which is the whole point of Jesus Christ. We have a mediator that we can go to to approach the throne, to boldly approach the throne of grace because of Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Now it doesn't mean you're doing so in a prideful manner, but Paul said we can boldly approach the throne of grace.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

It's a very direct thing. Uh, also, we had a chapter uh in our book where I was talking about uh one of the secrets to answer prayer, and we related it to the tabernacle. But a lot of times we're we're taught to pray all over the place, and we're you gotta pray this way and you gotta pray that way, and make sure you do this and make sure you do that, and and and there's all these things that are put out, but sooner or later you get to to what I classified as the um the Ark of the Covenant moment, where all the other stuff gets stripped down and it's just you and God, and you finally say what you've really been wanting to say the whole time. Sometimes you got to get past a lot of you, and that's part of it. But the way we're taught to pray, a lot of times, especially in a female heavy congregation, is there's going to be so much emotion in it, there's going to be some drama to it, and it's not going to be direct.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

So if we're since the attendance has shaped how things are presented, then that indirectly affects how we're taught. And the thing is, God is not afraid of the reason he put Jesus out there so you could legally in his name go to that mediator and go to the Father in his name and boldly approach.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

It's okay to be direct. God's not going to be offended. Believe me, if you get out of pocket, oh, he'll remind you real quick who's boss. You ain't gonna worry about that. Oh, you'll you'll you'll figure it out. But a lot of times we we're taught to put on displays, we're taught to put on all these go-arounds, all these things that are really wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, because you didn't have the courage to go straight into the land and do what you were told to the first time. And that's what we're doing in prayer. And and when we were talking about that, Bones goes, Well, you know, the thing is, uh, when you're praying like that, rather than going and being direct, and not that there isn't value in praise, and not that there isn't value in intercession, and not that there isn't value in worship, there is. But there's also this thing that Jesus told us, ask and it should be given. Seek and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Who whosoever asks receives, whosoever seeks will find, and whosoever knocks, it shall be open unto them. When we're going all around and going through all the rigmarole that we're taught in prayer, it's unbelief. Because we're already approaching as if the answer is no. We're trying to over-explain to a God who already knows everything. Rather than be sincere and let our spirit talk to his spirit, we're adding a lot of extra stuff. And we don't need to do that because really that's coming from unbelief.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

As Bones put out, he said, it's like you're you're asking for something and you already know the answer's no when you do that, rather than go openly, expectantly, and know that the price Jesus paid was enough, and that as long as we're in line with that, the answers are yes and amen.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

This should be a really interesting next five years to see how the body of Christ properly handles some of these shifts, uh, to see what grows in numbers versus what grows in depth and effectiveness.

What To Watch Next And Farewell

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Do not be afraid to go to your father who has good pleasure in giving you the kingdom.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Wofoyo. Hey everybody, thanks for listening. We hope this challenges you and causes you to grow. You can always check us out at woefo.org or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Audible, or even check us out on YouTube. For Bones and myself, this is C Dub reminding you that if you're going to grow, you got a WoFO Yo. Get in the word for yourself.