Friday, March 19, 2010

Manly Men for Ministry


"...endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" (2 Timothy 2:3)

Manly men. You don’t see enough of them in churches.

It may just be me, but I think a lot of the worship dudes that are popular today are not very manly. They seem to be very much in touch with their feelings, and their singing sounds like prom songs to Jesus rather than robust masculinity and good theology. I guess I was cut from a different cloth than this crowd who drinks herbal tea, wears pastel colors, and loves to sing Kumbaya My Lord around a campfire.

Give me a macho guy who sings macho songs and I’ll listen to what he’s got to say. Most men prefer singing that is proclamational and thunderous in nature over emotional love songs. Myself, I best relate to men who carry over-sized pocket knives, drive gas-guzzling automobiles that get single-digit miles to the gallon, like to get outdoors, canoe in rivers, and talk about what they ‘think’ more than how they feel.

Sadly, the same is true for a lot of preachers. The weakest of men are often drawn into the ministry simply because it is an indoor job that does not require heavy lifting. But the ministry requires men who are tough. This fact is often overlooked. When Paul said a pastor must fight like a soldier, train like an athlete, preach like an ox, and work hard like a farmer (I Timothy 5:17-18; 2 Timothy 2:3-4; 2:5; 2:6), he had in mind the manliest of men being in leadership.

The church needs men. Real men. Not boys – men. Men who want to see lives transformed for generations to come and are willing to do the hard work. We need men who love their wives, pastor their children, submit to Scripture, bleed the gospel when cut, have steel in their spine, love in their heart, and lost people in their sights.

Many of the men who sit the in pews on a Sunday do not have the calling, courage, conviction, compulsion, or character to qualify. We are too influenced by weak-hearted spirituality. Ministry and toughness go together. My desire for PCC is to become a community of grace that is so ruled by Jesus Christ that our men will work their jobs, eat meat, romance their wives, study their Bibles, and raise their kids to obey authority.

God is still looking for a few good men.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

You might enjoy this

http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2010/03/brothers-we-are-not-figure-skaters.html

Ron said...

Rob,
Rob who?

I enjoyed the link. Tell me who you are.

Unknown said...

Rob Hadding. Liked the post and thought you'd enjoy the video.

Peace.

Ron said...

Rob,
Good to hear from you.