So I’m sitting in church the other day….and I’m wondering what happened to the guys. Unfortunately in the minds of most guys my age, the word “Sunday” is synonymous with the word “Football” and the phrase “Sunday morning” might as well be replaced with “WTF?”.
Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure that if you don’t have young men in your church, your church is dying. It’s something that frustrates the heck out of me at times, and is one aspect of the church I feel called to develop. The Church is crying for Christian guys with initiative, leadership ability, and intimate relationships with the Father to lead it.
CRYING.
The result has (more often) been that ministries / callings have not been fulfilled, or that Christian women have had to spearhead these efforts. Don’t get me wrong, there are awesome Christian women out there passionately serving God in millions of ways, and in no way can the Church be led without their guidance. I am incredibly thankful for their service and they inspire me every day, but the sad truth is that many Christian women are forced to fill roles that they shouldn’t need to because the guys simply cant step up. The problem isnt that women are leading people to Christ- its that guys aren't.
SO WHAT HAPPENED?
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dude, allen and me were just talking about that last weekend. he just read a book on it, i dont remember the name, but you should ask him about it
I have been similarly burdened. And I have started to try to look into it. And honestly, I still have a hard time answering where they went. But I am becoming convinced it is quite simple why they stay away.
The Church does not communicate the need for men in a way men understand.
I am the type of guy that is hesitant to accept the "Wild at Heart" view of men. But it is becoming clear to me that what is descried there is in every man in some why, some stronger, some weaker.
If you have a man come into the Church usually they offer for them to serve as ushers or in the youth group, but most churches do not have leadership structures like IV or Campus Crusade or nlcf where men can grow into positions to cast vision and take risks.
Basically as I see it if the Church wants men we need to let them excel at what men do best, lead, take risks, and make things efficient. And men need to get over some of their super macho-ness and grow in their walk with Jesus.
The Gospel seems feminine (care for the poor, feed the hungry, clothe the naked) to men... what is missed is that Jesus exhibited gospel that has lots of feminine and masculine elements, but he did that in a masculine way.
You are right men left the church at some point, but as women filled roles the men vacated they made it seem to men like it was always for women. Like we should not expect non-Christians to change to come to Christ we should not expect men to change, we need to make the Church more accessible to men. Then teach them to let go of some things and take hold of others for the sake of the Gospel, once you get them to commit to a vision, to a purpose they will change.
I like one thing from a book I recently read. He said he heard a woman once say she wanted her reckless son to come to Jesus so he would calm down. The writer noted that Jesus never promised to make people less reckless, if you look at the gospels... he took reckless men and directed that trait to the service of the Kingdom.
So this has been a little scatter brained, but I hope it starts some thoughts in whoever reads it.
Cya in a few days bro!
Ok...so here comes the vision God showed me over break.
1)You build up a "gang" (because we're looking for masculine terms here) of unmarried guys from 18-26 ish in a church- an IV small group esque kinda thing.
2)You build up another gang of older guys already in the church leadership. It's be awesome if these guys were husbands, fathers, teachers, pastors, etc. But they gotta be rock solid in their faith and committed to leading the Church.
You put the two togeather in descipleing relationships/ retreats/ Sunday afternoon Football games after church. Older pouring into younger on topics like.....Ohhh LIFE, CAREER, LEADING THE CHURCH, MARRIAGE, BEING A MAN etc, and younger guys refreshing & inspiring the older guys with new vision/methods/energy/etc.
WHAT IF THE CHURCH DESCIPLED???
Who wouldn't want that???????
I LOVE IT!!!!!
And I agree, however you get it to happen Discipleship is the key. It is something every or most college students in campus ministry know. We know it is sooo helpful.
WHY DOESN'T THE CHURCH DO IT!?!?!?!?
Seriously I am working on a few visions of my own, but that is part of why IV staff looks so good to me. They get something the church is not, how awesome would it be to bring some of the stuff we do, only figure out how to do it better in the church!!!
We should be excited to leave college and get into a church, as it is most of us are scared cause we know it is hard to find stuff like what we have out there.
I LOVE THE IDEA ERIK!!! It sounds like an edit of something I have heard b4, the idea was just to have the younger group, and he called it a platoon. But I love the idea of having older guys too. Preach Brother!
BAHLIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
are you guys starting a church?
i am not use to you posting this much i can't keep up...this is good stuff, glad to hear you thinking it through...i saw a special on tv once about this very thing and how this guy started this "manly" church...because he felt the church was too much about emotions and love and things woman relate to the best and not for men...i forget what it was on, might have been 60 minutes or something like that...i like what everyone is saying and for me i think it stems from how most people in the church (mostly mainline denominations, this is not all but what i have come to see in my 31 years of life) are raised and what they see in their parents...this is what i have seen, you go to church when you start having kids, those kids grow up in the church and then they head off to college and then sow their wild oats until they have kids and so on and so forth...i think that is why there are few men and also 18-35 year olds in the church and a lot of people in the church (that i have seen, who i thought where strong in their faith) see this as ok...well those are my thoughts any way...erik your vision was the idea i had about for that documentary i told you about last year...two age groups of guys coming together on a journey across america
ohhhhh. Nice. That whole idea would be really great launching point for a community like this.
Erik, I am preaching on this subject on Jan. 20th, I will get you a copy...great thoughts.
hey i wanted you to know i saw a book at the family book store called No Man Left Behind: How to Build and Sustain a Thriving, Disciple-Making Ministry for Every Man in Your Church by Patrick Morley, David Delk, and Brett Clemmer...it isabout what you actually wrote in this blog...
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