Seven Million Men Missing

In a recent podcast of The World and Everything In It, host Nick Eicher interviews David Bahnsen of The Bahnsen Group. The episode begins with this startling statistic:

In the United States today, nearly 7 million men between the ages of 25 and 54—prime working years—are out of work and are no longer looking for work. That’s one in ten of the entire male workforce in that key age bracket. Historically, that group has been nearly fully employed, at about 98 percent. Now it’s down to 89 percent.

While the interview touched on some of the contributing factors, its primary purpose was to sound the alarm about a significant cultural trend that should concern all Americans, especially Christ followers who desire to see our communities flourish.

In his recent book, Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life, Bahnsen writes: “The work rate for prime-aged men this last decade is lower than it was in the Great Depression! Does that not chill you to the bone?” He goes on to write:

The trends, absolute numbers, and changes in ratios over time are too compelling to ignore an obvious message: We have an epidemic of worklessness, primarily in men, with different negative consequences depending on which demographic group we are talking about. Whether we are referring to young adults, the over-55 group, or those in their prime working-age period, the data is troubling. It speaks to a broad cultural reality that is eroding economic growth, suffocating productivity, and cutting people off from their God-created purpose.

However, this crisis extends beyond economics. As Bahnsen reminds us, we are made in God’s image—created to be productive and creative. “We work because God worked,” he writes, “and in working, we find purpose and calling.” Work is woven into the very fabric of what it means to be human.

The Biblical Vision for Work

The importance of work and its relationship to our created purpose is one key aspect of human flourishing. In a previous article series, we explored how the Bible addresses six domains of flourishing that Amy Sherman identifies in her book Agents of Flourishing, including what she calls “the Prosperous”—the domain of commerce, work, investment, and economic opportunity.

The biblical vision is clear: work is not a curse but a blessing. From the beginning, God entrusted humanity with the responsibility of stewarding creation—to tend the garden and cultivate its possibilities. We were made to be productive, creative image-bearers who meaningfully participate in our communities. When seven million men are disconnected from work, they are cut off from a fundamental way they express their God-created design. This is not merely an economic crisis. It is a crisis of purpose and identity.

But we must understand the world we’re in. Sin has distorted God’s design for work. The Fall introduced scarcity, exclusion, and exploitation into economic life. Greed plagues every economic system. Yet even in our fallen world, we still bear God’s image and are granted intelligence, creativity, and strength to fulfill His mandate to be fruitful and multiply.

Here is the question before us: What does it look like for Christ-followers to live faithfully in this world marked by both brokenness and possibility? How do we use our work, resources, and opportunities to help individuals and communities flourish, especially those seven million men who have given up looking for work?

Four Themes To Live By

In Agents of Flourishing, Sherman offers four themes to guide the Church’s response:

• Living in alignment with proverbial wisdom. “We must continue to live into the cultural mandate to work, steward, and produce—but with attentiveness to our new conditions postfall and to God’s instructions. God’s wise law, which he gives to us that we might find a measure of shalom east of Eden, provides counsel at both the personal and interpersonal levels.”
• Economic practices to empower and include the poor and oppressed. “Because of the realities of human sinfulness and human frailty (given the fall, some community members are now weak, disabled, or infirm), humans must implement practices that prevent the vulnerable from becoming a permanent underclass.”
• Redeeming business. “Because of common grace, believers and nonbelievers seeking to operate in alignment with the original purposes for business can do much good. A productive economy can help lift people out of poverty; indeed, the capacity for a for-profit business to do this is greater than that of nonprofit organizations or philanthropy.”
• Living in the King’s economy. “We can push back against the idol of homo economicus by remembering and practicing our true identities as persons made in God’s image. This will require confronting the ways (subtle and not) we have been ‘conformed to the world.’ As Rhodes and Holt remind us, Jesus teaches Econ 101 differently. We must eschew the norms, values, and practices that are not in line with those of Jesus’ kingdom economy.”

Each of these themes offers a pathway for churches to equip their people to contribute to the prosperity of their communities. In the coming months, we’ll explore each theme in depth, examining what it means practically to live out these principles in a world where millions have lost their sense of purpose in work.

For now, we conclude with these reminders from Scripture:

We have been created for good works. Walking in the purpose for which God created us brings both good to others and life satisfaction for us. 

Ephesians 2:10

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Colossians 3:23-24

They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

Isaiah 65: 21-22

May we encourage one another with these words.