Men and Church

A few days ago I received an an article from a friend regarding men and the church. Essentially a review of David Murrow's Why Men Hate Going to Church, this article reactivated my thinking on this topic. Murrow found that the top reasons why men don't like church are:

1. Men don't like to sing in public.
   Think about how much of our worship involves singing. Look around at your next worship service and notice how many men are participating but not singing.


2. Men don't really like to talk about their feelings or to talk about relationships.
   Think about how your church talks about following Jesus. Most of us use the picture of a relationship with Jesus. We tell men that they grow in that relationship by sitting around and talking about how the Bible impacts their life.


3. Most men love a challenge, a chance to risk and to put their faith into action.
   Consider having more opportunities for the men in your church to grow through service. I had a real learning experience when twelve men from our congregation spent a week in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. We did not spend a ton of time in the Bible each day, but instead put faith into action, shoulder to shoulder, as we "mucked out" houses, shingled roofs and ate and played together. I bet those twelve men would say they grew more in their faith that week than at any other time in their lives.


4. Men respect and expect excellence and quality.
   But excellence and quality are probably not the first two words that pop into the average man's mind when he thinks about church. Think seriously about how your church can strive for excellence and quality in all the areas of your ministry; from the music to the messages; from the way the church is decorated to the activities you offer men. God is worthy of our best efforts and so are the men (and women) who have yet to come to know His grace in Jesus.

Personally this list really speaks to my heart (well, 2-4 anyway--I do love singing). It's really no wonder our men are passive our absent--we've designed the church to exclude and suppress much of what is masculine. We don't let men be men and we suffer for it.

In our simple expression of Christ's body we've been examining Jesus and one thing that's been brought to our attention is how he's constantly on the move. He's active. He's working. Sure, the conversations and relationship are there, but those things are developing while Jesus is taking his band of followers all over the place--i.e. eating and healing, proclaiming the nearness of the kingdom of the heavens, righting wrongs, and living out righteousness and shalom in his every moment. Jesus hardly spent most of his time in a sterile environment sitting around in a circle discussing how loving God is. He was out demonstrating how loving God is.

We still sit around and have discussions--and rightfully so--but we also encourage people to get out there and dispense some shalom to the people around you. Whether that is sitting at a bar watching the Red Sox and talking with the people there (like Jen and I are doing tonight), or walking your puppy and taking advantage of the opportunities that creates (like the Plotts are doing), or helping out at a homeless food shelter (Adam and I on Wednesday) it's important to get out there.

Men of the church, what are your thoughts?

Here's a website discussing these issues.

Cross in the Cemetery

Purple flowers

Forcing "Jerusalem" to Happen

A Dallas Willard quote in response to Steve's question about if the American Experiment has failed:

[On the new earth and] in this new city--"Jerusalem," or "the peace of God," is its name--"all cultures and languages will come together to see God in his glory (Isa. 66:18). They will transmit that vision of God throughout all of the earth, and all humanity will come regularly to the center of divine presence on earth, to delight in God and worship him (vv. 19-23).
The power of God's personal presence will, directly and indirectly, accomplish the public order in and among nations that human government has never been able to bring about. Truth and mercy will have met and kissed each other at last, like long-lost friends (Ps. 85:10). Grace and truth are reconciled in the person of the Son of man (John 1:17).
The greatest temptation to evil that humanity ever suffers is the temptation to make a "Jerusalem" happen by human means. Human means are absolutely indispensable in the world as it is. that is God's intention. We are supposed to act, and our actions are to count. But there is a limit on what human arrangements can accomplish. The alone cannot change the heart and spirit of the human being.
Because of this, the instrumentalities invoked to make "Jerusalem" happen always wind up eliminating truth, or mercy, or both. World history as well as small-scale decision making demonstrates this. It is seen in the ravages of dictatorial power, on the one hand, and, on the other, in the death by minutiae that a bureaucracy tends to impose. It is well known how hard it is to provide a benign order within human means. For the problem, once again, is in the human heart. Until it fully engages with the rule of God, the good that we feel must be cannot come. It will at a certain point be defeated by the very means implemented to produce it.

feel free to stop reading there (that's the main responce), but Willard continues:

God's way of moving toward the future is, with gentle persistence in unfailing purpose, to bring about the transformation of the human heart by speaking with human beings and living with and in them. He finds an Abraham, a Moses, a Paul--a you. It is this millennia-long process that Jesus the Son of man brings and will bring to completion. And it is the way of the prophets, who foresaw that the day would come with God's heart is the human heart: "the law of God would be written in the heart." That is, when what is right to God's mind would be done as a simple matter of course, and when we would not be able to understand why anyone would even think of engaging in evil. That is the nature of God's full reign [i.e. the Kingdom of God].
All of the instruments of brutality and deceit that human government and society now employ to manage a corrupted and unruly humanity will then have no use. As, even now, the presence of a good person touches, influences, and may even govern people near-by through the respect inspired in their hearts, the focused presence of the Trinitarian personality upon the earth will govern through the clarity and force of its own goodness, and indirectly through its transformed people.
Thus we see repeated portrayed in the prophecy the gentleness of this government--for the first time a completely adequate government, in which the means to the good do not limit or destroy the possibility of goodness. The beautiful prophetic images portray the divine way of operating: "Your true king is coming to you, vindicated and triumphant, humble, mounted on a donkey. His word will bring peace to the nations, and his supervision will take in all lands, from where his presence is centered to the farthest reaches of the earth" (Zech. 9:9-10).
Divine presence replaces brute power, and especially power exercised by human beings whose hearts are alienated from God's best. "I will focus my being in their midst forever. And the nations will know that it is I the Masterful Lord who makes my people different" (Ezek. 37:26-28).

The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard, pp. 380f.

As long as we humans act like we're God (and God's not) there's no real hope for any human institution. But the day described above will come. I long for it. Don't you?

Maranatha, Lord Jesus!

Cruising Reflections

Perhaps you hadn't noticed, but I haven't been updating this thing too frequently. I apologize, but this will likely be my last apology. Blogging is enjoyable, but it is far from a top priority in my life right now, so I'll put something up when I have both the inclination and time. Oh, and I won't make the mistake of trying to catch you up on all that has happened since my last update either--that's a daunting task that only makes me less likely to even try. Now that that unfortunate business is out of the way . . . .



We returned from our cruise a week or two ago, and I've been planing on blogging about how pathetic it is that we Americans think of cruising as an ideal vacation. I started explaining my thoughts to Jen a few days ago when she said, "I just really enjoyed it. It was nice to relax and be taken care of for a while."

What a better perspective. I'm sure if I had just decided to dwell on the blessing of being on a vacation then I would have had a more cheerful one. As it is, on tropical vacations I usually let my thoughts drift to self or societal criticism.

Becoming "fully alive" is a personal and team goal, and I think a drastic and divine transformation and renovation of my mind is in order. I like how Paul put it:

Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. (Philippians 4:8 MSG)

So, friends, if you don't mind, then please help me with this transformation. When you see me help direct my thoughts toward the good and perhaps we can together find God in it.



A few cruise pictures for you: