faith

I’m leaving this morning on a girly road trip to Birmingham with my sister, my mom, and our youngest girly children.  It takes me almost as long to pack all my cords (iPhone, MacBook, bluetooth, camera, etc) as it does my shoes (gray wedges, black/gray patten leather pumps, riding boots, wedge boots).  I probably won’t ‘see’ you until Monday, so I’m gonna leave you with a little homework.  As Lent approaches, I’ve been listening to some amazing talk radio on the ‘Theology of the Cross’……and I think you’ll like it too.  I’m working on a post on lenten discipline from the Lutheran perspective and have been contemplating what things to give up/recommit to during the next few weeks.  I have so many areas that I could ‘work on’ as do we all.  As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve tossed the idea around of closing my comments during that time…..to gauge whether or not my writing and my time on the computer is affected by receiving and leaving comments.  But I have to tell ya, I love the feedback and especially after yesterday……I have 50 new best friends.  So what do you think about lent and christian discipline?  I hope to have my thoughts ready by Monday. 

Also, it should only be two more weeks until Taylor’s (my son) bands’ first CD is ‘released’.  I’m giving away 10 CD’s to commenters today who tell me their thoughts on Lent—-do you observe it? do you not?  What have you ‘given up’ before?  Do you encourage your children to practice it?

Enjoy a sampling of The Verity……a song that Taylor wrote called Song 42!  I’m off to bookclub then to Birmingham!

Pay attention when you go to church this Sunday.  Your likely to see significantly more women than men.  Men are apparently leaving ‘the church’.  And just to make our discussion easier, when I say ‘the church’,  I am not speaking of any one denomination.  I mean to refer to the church as Christ’s bride; those who claim to be christians.  So why are men leaving?  And what effect does their leaving have on families, on the church, and on our culture.

The statistics are clear and sad.  There has been  a steady decline in church attendance by men for the past hundred years.  And there is no sign that this trend is slowing down or reversing.  The numbers vary based on who you read, but I’ve seen  an overall average of 60/40 women/men that attend church regularly.  There are many ways to analyze this data, but I will focus on possible reasons why men are leaving and the detrimental effects their leaving has had on families and culture.

Men, as a rule, don’t like the modern church.  They have in general found a very feminine culture there; an atmosphere where emotion is glorified and the ‘meek and mild’/turn the other cheek philosophy  is king.  True biblical masculinity has been lost and men are left feeling out of place:  like the burly guy wondering around in Victoria’s Secret holding a tiny piece of lingerie.  This is especially true in more contemporary worship where the music often has the overtones of “Jesus as my boyfriend”. The sometimes sensual, often emotionally driven music makes most men uncomfortable.  Combine that with a few songs in which they feel compelled to clap their hands and you’ve just made most men wish they were required to work on Sunday. I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong  with contemporary music but it can be weak on doctrine and theology and  can leave us tangled up in a web of emotion where the focus has now shifted from the true message of the gospel of Christ.  

The music hasn’t been the only culprit either.  Most pastors seem to be watering down their message of redemption and salvation and spiritual warfare to another list of 7 things the poor guy needs to do to be a better husband/father/leader.  He came to church fully aware of his growing list of sins and shortcomings and will likely leave with a sick feeling of guilt and shame to which no real solution has been presented.  Men want meat…..for supper and from the pulpit.   They crave serious doctrine and truth and need to hear, over and over again, that Christ has come in the flesh to slay our enemies and to bear our overwhelming burdens.  Then they would be free to slay the dragons that breathe fire down the backs of their families.  Maybe this shift in preaching toward a ‘pop-psychology/therapy’ session has been in part to address the audience that has shown up at church…..the women.  But if we want men to come and to keep coming,  our churches are going to have to meet the needs of men.   Men need a clear, harsh presentation of God’s law followed by the sweet saving word of the gospel.  

If you think about it, almost everything at church is geered toward women and children.  And men notice…..and figure there’s not much there for them.  So they leave, often never to return. And the statistics show that when they leave, that’s a death sentence for the children.  Despite the overwhelming influence that mothers have on children, when it comes to faith, children follow their father.  The statistical evidence is staggering;  there is little chance that children will become people of faith if their father is not a man of faith.  That’s makes the fact that fathers and men are leaving the church a big deal.  In two or three generations, the effect is devastating…..to families and to culture.  

Is your church a place where men can be men?  Where they are fed by Christ’s body and blood and by His nourishing word?  Does it have the feel of an 1980’s pop concert followed by a therapy session where “Jesus can be your lifecoach” ?  Or are men engaged and challenged to join the battle of the church militant?  To fight for their families and their children and to wage war against the world, the flesh, and the devil.  Some churches recognize this ‘loss’ and try things like Superbowl parties and fishing excursions.  These may delay the inevitable but it doesn’t address the core problem: the church has been feminized and men are increasingly making the decision to abandon ship.  If this trend continues, the church will continue to lose men, and therefore, continue eventually to lose children. 

In Leon Podles’ book The Church Impotent; the Feminization of the Church, Podles makes some interesting points.  He states that part of the reason for this emasculation is a shift from focusing on the objective doctrines and work of Christ to the more subjective emotional ‘personal relationship’ with Christ.  In religions that have clung closely to tradition such as Eastern Orthodoxy and Judaism, this feminization process has not been nearly as pervasive; and men don’t seem to be leaving.  Muslims also have a higher percentage of men than women because it’s a very masculine religion that focuses on personal discipline and often ‘jihad’.  It’s too bad that this shift has taken place in Christianity and we have been largely unaware.  It’s conceivable that the very men leaving the christian church could be drawn in to such religions as Judaism and Islam; where tradition and masculinity are alive and well.  And encouraged. 

If you’re husband will attend church with you on Sunday, give him a big hug and smooch and then pay attention.  Is the church you’re attending highly feminized?  Does he go there ‘for you’? Does he feel like a fish out of water?  If so, get somewhere where true doctrine is taught and masculinity is cherished and celebrated.  Where he can be a man……..full of rough edges and irreverence and strength.  Your children will thank you.

And if he will not be attending with you, ask yourself why?  Could it be that your church has become too feminized?  Will he be asked to embrace a more emotionally driven worship experience where he is left with little to ‘chew on’?   And pray for him.  That he would answer his God-given call and responsibility to lead his children to faith.  For that is the essence of biblical masculinity; the giving up of oneself for another.  The very willingness to die so that others might live. 

 We need a few good men.  To lead our children to the saving faith that only Christ can give.  And we ask our churches to stop catering to women and children.  Trust me, we’re never more content than when our men are by our side…..at church.

For some informative talk radio on the subject,  go here.

 

Pietism began as a movement in the 17th and 18th centuries in the Lutheran church as a reaction to strict orthodoxy.  Pietism emphasizes the subjective, individual  experience of the christian with less emphasis on doctrine and the objective work of Christ on our behalf.  Pietism is so rampant and pervasive in American christianity, so a part of the wallpaper, that we hardly notice it.  I grew up as a full blown pietist and didn’t even know it.  The emphasis for me was always on ‘my christian walk’, ‘my testimony’, ‘evidence in my life that I’m a christian’, and so on.  Back in those days, pietists had a much different face than today.  We abstained from tobacco, alcohol, secular music, dancing, secular movies and often participated in programs such as The Victorious Christian Life, Bill Gothard’s Institute of Basic Life Principles and whole host of Bible studies whose primary focus was on the christian and his experience of faith.  Pietism may have had a face lift but as a movement and an epistemology, it is alive and well and very influential in American christianity.  Today, it is manifest in various forms and seems to have loosened it’s strict model for morality.  Most of the above mentioned ‘sins’ are now loosely tolerated if not accepted but there is still a profound emphasis on obedience to the law as the method of growth in Christ and on the subjective experience of the christian in worship and in evangelism. 

 There is an assumption that there are levels of spirituality;  that we are somehow ‘climbing’ a ladder of holiness, which makes it dangerously easy to look ‘down’ on the ladder at who’s has not yet achieved your high status of moral and religious excellence.  I know full well the ladder of sanctification lifestyle because I ‘climbed’ these rungs for years. Until I fell off the ladder and came crashing to the ground  and saw my life ‘shattered’ right before my very eyes. Very few people came to my aid…..because it’s hard to help someone on the ground when you’re holding so tight to your own ‘holiness’.   I don’t blame them either.  I’ve done the same thing many times to others and I heartily repent for the how my pietism obscured the pure gospel of Christ.  Pietism makes it easy to judge those who don’t seem to be showing the ‘fruit’ that our lives are producing.  

Pietists are often very mission minded;  certainly in and of itself a good thing.  But often what they offer to the lost world is ‘a christian life like mine with my lifestyle of integrity and prosperity’ ; the emphasis being on the practical advantages of being a christian.  Pietists are often characterized by tight fellowship and accountability groups and offer that ‘fellowship’ to the world as another benefit of becoming a christian.  It is often a very Christ-less movement in that most of the ‘benefits’ that are offered to the world do not hinge on the redeeming work of Christ….but instead on the sanctified life of the believer.

Pietistic worship is often centered around emotional and heartfelt responses with the preaching often focused on the making the life of the christian more….holy, moral, sanctified, and righteous.  A common phrase heard in a pietistc bible study would be “What does this verse mean to you?”  This movement in christianity always drives us back to ourselves instead of to the One who can truly teach us and feed us, with his Word, His body and His blood. This shift toward looking inward for meaning is a dangerous shift away from the all-availing work of Christ on our behalf and His alien righteousness which is imputed to us freely.  Craig Parton, a lutheran apologist, wrote, 

For a more clear presentation of this subject,  try this article written by Craig Parton or this online radio segment from Issues, Etc. featuring host Todd Wilken and guest Dr. Larry Rast.

And just so you know, I am so thankful for you my blog readers.  For those of you who are so kind to send comments and emails and to read my sometimes ‘wayward’ rantings.  I pray for you and thank God for the encouragement you have been in my life.  

 Heavenly Father,  Creator of heaven and earth, it is out of Your love and wisdom that You gave me work to do and fitted me in body and mind to do this work.  And yet my sinful will too often dreads the workday and casts about for other things to do.  But You, O God, have called me to this work.  Forgive me my sin.   Strengthen me by Your Spirit that I may see that my place of work is a field of Your service to my family, my fellow worker, and my neighbor.  Give me joy in my vocation, make me glad and grateful for the strength to serve You, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

~excerpt from the Lutheran prayer book~

~picture of Elea and I when she was a few weeks old…..I love baby feet~

~my blog is getting a makeover…..should be later this week…I’m giddy~