Posted on 04/19/2004 8:13:27 PM PDT by Between the Lines
Have you ever asked yourself, "Self ... why do churches today look more like the lingerie department at Wal-Mart, than a battalion of men poised to plunder the powers of darkness?" Why do men avoid going to church, and what can be done about it?
Certainly, the lack of men in church is not at all difficult to see. Just open your eyes any Sunday morning and go to church. Then, count the number of ladies in the pews, and the number of men. The result: you're slapped in the face with the Jose Cuervo-like reality that men are avoiding church like Michael Jackson avoids reality.
More and more, we are seeing fewer and fewer mature and responsible, evil-challenging tripods who love leadership, the struggle and aren't afraid to boldly face an increasingly godless environment with conviction, power and the love of God.
So why do most men avoid church? Here's the veneer stripped-away answer: going to church for the majority of men is an exercise in unwanted effeminacy. Church, for most men, has not only become irrelevant; it has also become effeminate. Hanging out in church for most extra-Y chromosomes seems unmanly and most men more than anything want to be masculine!
The current lack of strong men within the Church, both in the numeric and leadership sense, has crippled our cathedrals and has helped devastate our nation ethically. The masculine spirit being absent from the pulpit, the pew and subsequently the public square has not only slowed down the forward progress of the Church, it has also weakened our nation's morality, increased our country's secularity, and has assisted [owing to our absence] the lascivious Left's re-definition of life, sex, marriage and law.
So how do we regain the masculine spirit in our houses of worship? How do we gird the Church to press on with that which is holy, just and good? How can we Christians fight the good fight honorably, for freedom, family and the flag? Here are a few things the Church can do....
* Put an end to preaching by cheesy, whiny, quiche eating, preening Nancy Boys ... right now! It freaks us meat eaters out. Get it? Hire a pastor who throws off a good John Wayne vibe instead of that Boy George feeling. Know what I mean? And cheer on "Pastor Wayne" to serve up the solid meat of the scripture ... the stuff that prods the congregation to biblical maturity rather than prolonging their infancy.
* Ditto regarding the worship/music leader. And make sure your new testosterone laden songmeister is outfitted with weighty worship music instead of the saccharine-laced slush we have had to sing ad nauseam et infinitum for the last, oh, 100 years. That's a pretty simple can-do ... don't you think?
* Enough with the Precious Moments prints and figurines -- okay? How about decking out the sanctuary with serious transcendent art work that stops us in our tracks, rather than ubiquitous prints of fat baby angels who look like they've got a good buzz going from too much Mountain Dew and children's aspirin?
* Lose the Church's "I'm in therapy for ever" feel. Yes, yes, we're all a work in progress but the co-dependant, extended womb the Church has wrongfully created has allowed congregants to not get a life because of some difficult doo-doo in their lives. Sure life's hard, little Sally, and the sooner, we celebrate the struggle the quicker we will draw men back to our houses of worship.
If the Church wants to recover its losses, we've got to draw the knuckle draggers back to church. Masculine men are pretty easy. Toss in reason, competition, initiation, struggle, fun and a problem to spiritually throttle, and we'll be there like stink on a monkey. Blow off, suppress, and spiritually emasculate the environment of these holy testicular necessities and your church, as far as men go, will be more empty than an Oktoberfest in Hialeah.
My ClashPoint is this: if concerned conservative Christians want to improve our nation biblically, then the Church has got to eliminate its effeminate drift and re-establish a masculine base. Our times demand strong men: the Church must produce them, not repel them. The Church needs men, who start a ministry, start a business; get involved in politics, the arts and education, and who are not afraid of the secular thugs and pimps who try to keep Christians marginalized in a religious ghetto.
One last word for the young Christian man: Do you want to grow up quickly? Then leave mommy's familiar, safe haven and venture out into the danger zone. As Leon Podles said, "Go find your Holy Grail; go meet the strange, meet the unfamiliar." Protect people; lead people; rescue people. Fight inequities and absurdities. Beware, young man, of parents and pastors who want to "mother" you. Avoid the secure; Fear over-protection; and happily accept the masculine task of the patriarch, the prophet, the warrior and wild man.
Get to a place, young warrior, where pain is not a big deal, where you embrace resistance. And by your example, you will encourage others to resist self-doubt, squeamishness, indecision and the impulse to surrender and withdraw into the warm, wet womb of Wussville.
The Borg has nothing on Mass Marketing Inc. We have been assimilated into mass consumers. The gotta have the latest greatest I can't live without it keeping ahead of the Jones' society.
That's an understatement! For your interest...
Too true. Preachers should abide by the Word of God - BELIEVE it and LIVE it. I don't want a touchy-feely leader, I want someone with convictions, and a backbone!
we've got to draw the knuckle draggers back to church
Like I was saying ...
Just two generations back, you can find strong Christian men who built churches with their hands, looked to the Lord to lead their families, and shared the Bible with their friends.
The Gospel of John reveals a man's man - living in the wilderness, eating locusts, hunting, and fishing - John was tougher than most folks!
Forget the wussified baby angels playing in the clouds. Give me some stained glass of a male angel with hawk's wings, lopping off the head of a dragon any day.
A study of the New Testament reveals that 'preaching' is for unbelievers, and 'teaching' is useful for both unbelievers and believers. It is absolutely unscriptural for pasters to 'preach' to Christians in church services. Preaching was never intended for believers. Preaching doesn't require the hard work of studying.
The Church at this moment needs men, the right kind of men, bold men. The talk is that we need revival, that we need a new [movement] of the Spirit--and God knows we must have both; but God will not revive mice. He will not fill rabbits with the Holy Ghost.
We languish for men who feel themselves expendable in the warfare of the soul, who cannot be frightened by threats of death because they have already died to the allurements of this world. Such men will be free from the compulsions that control weaker men. They will not be forced to do things by the squeeze of circumstances; their only compulsion will come from within--or from above.
This kind of freedom is necessary if we are to have [powerful preachers] in our pulpits again instead of mascots. These free men will serve God and mankind from motives too high to be understood by the rank and file of religious retainers who today shuttle in and out of the sanctuary. They will make no decisions out of fear, take no course out of a desire to please, accept no service for financial considerations, perform no religious act out of mere custom; nor will they allow themselves to be influenced by the love of publicity or the desire for reputation.
Much that the church--even the evangelical church--is doing these days she is doing because she is afraid not to. Ministerial associations take up projects for no higher reason than that they are being scared into it. Whatever their ear-to-the-ground, fear-inspired reconnoitering leads them to believe the world expects them to do they will be doing come next Monday morning with all kinds of trumped-up zeal and show of godliness. The pressure of public opinion calls these prophets, not the voice of Jehovah.
The true church has never sounded out public expectations before launching her crusades. Her leaders heard from God and went ahead wholly independent of popular support or the lack of it. They knew their Lord's will and did it, and their people followed them--sometimes to triumph, oftener to insults and public persecution--and their sufficient reward was the satisfaction of being right in a wrong world.
Another characteristic of the true [man of God] has been love. The free man who has learned to hear God's voice and dared to obey it has felt the moral burden that broke the hearts of the Old Testament prophets, crushed the soul of our Lord Jesus Christ and wrung streams of tears from the eyes of the apostles.
The free man has never been a religious tyrant, nor has he sought to lord it over God's heritage. It is fear and lack of self-assurance that has led men to try to crush others under their feet. These have had some interest to protect, some position to secure, so they have demanded subjection from their followers as a guarantee of their own safety. But the free man--never; he has nothing to protect, no ambition to pursue and no enemy to fear. For that reason he is completely careless of his standing among men. If they follow him, well and good; if not, he loses nothing that he holds dear; but whether he is accepted or rejected he will go on loving his people with sincere devotion. And only death can silence his tender intercession for them.
Yes, if evangelical Christianity is to stay alive she must have men again, the right kind of men. She must repudiate the weaklings who dare not speak out, and she must seek in prayer and much humility the coming again of men of the stuff prophets and martyrs are made of. God will hear the cries of His people as He heard the cries of Israel in Egypt. And He will send deliverance by sending deliverers. It is His way among men.
And when the deliverers come . . . they will be men of God and men of courage. They will have God on their side because they will be careful to stay on God's side. They will be co-workers with Christ and instruments in the hand of the Holy Ghost. . . .
Stuffy robes ruin marriage chances, say Greek priests
Archbishop Christodoulos in traditional robes - but is it a turn off?
I'd wager that half the people in a church service aren't true Christians. That's been my experience. Half the church leaders I know are more interested in the cemetary than the fate of those in it.
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