Church is for chicks.
Or perhaps there is a dualism of emotive feminized worship and rationalistic masculine preaching.
Over in England:
But by what kind of men is [the church] led? Men who are widely perceived as being weak wimps, and often in their pronouncements seem to do their best to perpetuate this stereotype. Men who like to wear brightly coloured dresses, at least in my own Anglican church. Men who are often rather camp, feminine in their behaviour, and perceived as very probably either gay or paedophiles while often being hypocritical in condemning such people. Men who seem happy to spend their time doing feminine style things, i.e. most church social events, with groups of mostly women. Men who gladly consume the typical church diet of quiche with weak milky tea, who are therefore not real men.
Peter Kirk in Why real men don’t go to church
But men have not been content to sit back and let the church be sissy-fied. In the US we have reactionary movements like Promise Keepers and the Young, Restless and Reformed as well as foul-mouthed preachers like Mark Dever (I think that’s his name) and the Emergent Movement who think vulgarity is a sign of manly faith.
But the real problem here is not about suits and dresses. The problem is that denominations are being dragged down by history and debt. Churches ape the organizational institutions of their culture. The Coca-Cola method of church planting in the early part of the last century led to a proliferation of Protestant brands with representation in every town. The over-saturation, followed by a cultural shift away from belonging to clubs have left the carcasses of a once vibrant movement spread across our land.
In the US we have a complex of factors that are leading to an affluent and connected loneliness:
- Suburbs are full of super-sized houses whose occupants don’t know their neighbors.
- The Internet and social media have led to a facade of connectedness while people are increasingly isolated from their own family members.
- The local clergy have lost their influence to mega-pastors like Rick Warren who have stolen their flock.
- Denominations weighed down by mortgages and costly upkeep have lost their original mission.
Into that lonely mix, the Gospel breathes life and hope. Those who are liberated by its message love their neighbor and gather to themselves a community of faithful. The “gathering,” not the “church” is the true translation of “ekklesia” in the New Testament, and it is largely invisible, unmeasureable, and invincible.
What’s the first thing you do with a dead horse? Stop riding it. But unfortunately our own fear of change causes us to keep digging in the spurs and riding the whip and trying fancier saddles or a bit of silver on the bridle. The Old Grey Mare she ain’t what she used to be. So maybe it’s time to hop off and look for an alternative form of transport.
Mark Dever’s fans are gonna give you a good dressing down for that one.
Driscoll, methinks.
Thank you. Well stated. The fruit of the cultural persecution the church has ignored (materialism/comfortability) is very apparent in the apostasy we’re seeing in the west. Perhaps real suffering is required to return the Body to Christ – to a place where people cry out to God, knowing that those who trust in man are cursed.
“Poverty has slain her thousands, prosperity her tens of thousands” Thomas Brooks(1608-1680)
David, I’m sure you have put your finger on important parts of the US problem, which are similar in some ways to ours but different in others.
I don’t think it’s fair to blame megachurches for stealing sheep. Sheep go where there is good grass. At the old churches there are only a few dying patches of it among the dirt, because there is a lack of the rain of the Holy Spirit. If they stay there they soon start to look like your mare. Rick Warren and friends offer green pastures for the sheep to graze and lie down in, and of course they go there, following your advice by (to mix the metaphors) getting off the old grey mare. Is Rick at fault for promoting the work of God in Psalm 23:2 and offering “an alternative form of transport”?
Unfortunately, American sheep don’t just go after greener grass, they also go after candy and whatever other kinds of junkfood suits their self-centered a-theological fancy. (I’m not directing the junkfood metaphor at Warren, but direct it at the leaders of large churches in Texas who are deceiving their flock with promises of their “Best Life Now”.) Regarding the “feminization” of the church, I wonder how much of our perception of the “feminine” has to do with a really warped sense of what “masculinity” is. Equally unhealthy is the reaction to “feminization” that prescribes a masculinity that insists that one grunt, grab his crotch and watch football (either American or otherwise).
Jim, indeed sheep go after candy. But they wouldn’t, at least not nearly so much, if they were being well fed by their old pastors/shepherds, indeed if they had ever been fed good grass and learned to distinguish it from candy.