BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Anyone attending church these days can see that there are usually a lot more women in church than men. Judy Valente has a story today about attempts underway in some churches to bring back the missing men -- encouragement to be better husbands and fathers and friends, but also sometimes by emphasizing qualities the Gospels do not.

JUDY VALENTE: A darkened room. On the screen, a film about Scottish warriors. A movie theater? No. Try Sunday worship. This is the Grove Community Church in Peoria, Illinois, a self-described "men's church." Mark Doebler, the bongo-playing pastor, says Christian men have been "neutered."

Rev. DOEBLER: We're not saying that we shouldn't be gentle and humble and serve people. But there's a flip side to that, which says we have to be aggressive in the world when it's appropriate. We are warriors.

GROVE COMMUNITY CHURCH CONGREGATION (singing): "Oh, oh this is our war cry, oh, oh. This is our battle cry."

VALENTE: The congregation meets in what used to be a nightclub. The ambience is decidedly masculine.

HAROLD WILSON: You saw the pastor on stage in an open collar, blue jeans. He was speaking to me man-to-man. It wasn't a polished sales pitch or anything like that. He was speaking to me on a man-to-man level.

Rev. DOEBLER: So guys walk in and they feel like, "Okay, this is a place that understands men." Most women are okay in a guy's environment.

DAWN TRIEBEL: I think it's really important to get the guys here because if you get the guys, you get the rest of the family.

VALENTE: Doebler calls himself not the men's pastor but their coach.

Rev. DOEBLER: It helps them identify with me, and it helps me understand what my role is, which is really to challenge them to be the best they can be, to praise them when they do well and challenge them when they do poorly, and to create a team environment.

VALENTE: And at the end of the service, the men go into a huddle.

Rev. DOEBLER: There's a very spiritual component to that, and it is equipping and challenging guys to be spiritual leaders in their homes.

VALENTE: What Doebler is doing could not be done in most churches. This is his approach to making Christianity more attractive to males. There seems to be no single reason why many men feel uncomfortable in church. Different men give different reasons. If there's one common thread, it might be that men perceive church as too feminine -- a "woman thing."

DAVID MURROW (Author, WHY MEN HATE GOING TO CHURCH): There is a reputation among men that church is something for women, weirdoes, and wimps.

VALENTE: David Murrow's book: WHY MEN HATE GOING TO CHURCH.

Mr. MURROW: Over the years there's been a gradual feminization of a lot of our practices. There's been an emphasis on relationships, nurturing, close-knit communities. Men are into challenge, adventure. Men, especially young men, like conflict and change, and these are the sorts of things that are downplayed in church today.

VALENTE: The early Christian church was dominated by men. Depending on whom you talk to, men began slipping away from church as long ago as the Middle Ages. In other religions, men play a prominent, even dominant role. Christianity has been described as a case of male generals leading an army of women.

Reverend JACK ELWOOD (Pastor, Burke Community Church): Women, by default of men's participation and leadership, have been forced into leadership, and they have simply created an environment that is friendly to them, and they don't understand why men don't want to draw into that.

(Song playing in background): "Off we go, into the wild blue yonderÖ"

VALENTE: This is Jack Elwood's congregation in the Virginia suburbs of Washington. On Veterans Day it went a step further than most churches in honoring the military. There is a large military component here anyway, but Elwood makes a serious effort to reach out to all men. Things like this, as well as a fast-moving liturgy and short, focused sermons by Pastor Elwood send the message that men are important here.

(Song playing in background): "From the halls of MontezumaÖ"

Rev. ELWOOD: You can tweak a worship service to have more masculine vocabulary. For example, you can focus on challenge rather than comfort.

(Scene of woman dancing on stage)

VALENTE: But this, too, is part of Elwood's service. Churches like Burke Community and the Grove, both nondenominational, insist that by focusing on men they are not trying to exclude or diminish women. They say they want to create a different type of spiritual partnership between men and women.

Rev. ELWOOD: We're not making our services to appeal like a lodge meeting for men or a locker room gathering where only men are going to feel comfortable. We want men and women to both connect with Christ in our services. The challenge is that while many women can do masculine, most men can't do feminine.