Is the Church Producing Weak Men?

I was recently asked, "Is the church producing weak men?"

My answer:

The church is failing to make strong disciples of either gender. It's not a question of whether men are being made strong in their faith, it's a question of whether any Christian is being made strong in their faith. A better question is, "Is the church equipping the saints for the work of the ministry?" and "Is the church making strong disciples who are grounded in doctrine?"

Asking whether the church is producing weak men is ignoring at least half the people there. No church leadership should be asking this question. I believe it's part of the problem. If we focus on one gender and attempt to produce strength in only one gender, we are weakening the entire church.

In Ephesians 4:11-13, it says, "And he gave some, apostles, some, prophets, some, evangelists and some, pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect (mature) person, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."

In these verses, there is no gender specification. While some might want to apply it in a gender specific way, it simply is not written in a gender specific way. Such an application would be amiss.

Now, to go back to the initial question of whether the church is producing strong disciples. There are weaknesses in the making of disciples in the church and that weakness is rooted in Secular Humanism, which is the primary thing being taught in a good number of evangelical churches. Secular Humanism comes wrapped in patriarchy and has been devastating to our churches as well as our sons and daughters.

My husband and I didn't raise our kids in a gender-specific way. By this I mean we didn't have different rules for the boys or the girls. Everyone had to live by the same rules in our house. There was no idea that "boys will be boys," meaning they got away with certain actions just because they were boys. Our girls got in as much trouble as our boys. Our girls got as dirty as our boys. Neither gender got special treatment. Everyone had to be kind, thoughtful, obedient, compassionate, and humble. And "Even Steven" has never been welcome at our house.

Many Christian people actually encourage men and boys to define themselves through strength, aggression and competitiveness. This hides the real character of Jesus Christ and leaves our men and boys feeling like they don't have a model of masculinity that allows for fear or grief or tenderness or the occasional sadness that can overwhelm any of us at times. To teach men and boys to define themselves through strength, aggression and competitiveness is faulty because Jesus says his strength is made perfect in weakness and we are to treat others as more important than ourselves. So, to define a "man" as one who shows strength, aggression and competitiveness is to misrepresent all men as ones who cannot identify with Christ at all.

If you want to save our children - save our sons - save our daughters, give them Jesus and realize their gender means nothing in light of the gospel. Kids don't need special treatment based on gender. Kids need Jesus and the life-changing power and news of the gospel of God.

Stop the influx of Secular Humanism into our pulpits and preach Jesus and this will make strong disciples of each gender....and you won't care what gender anyone is!

~Tricia

Beware Your Liberty...

I've heard people say, "Well, we don't have to go to church," or "We don't have to go" to this or that meeting at church just because it's scheduled when it is.  We don't have to go.........we don't have to give..........we don't have to work with difficult people...........we don't have to!

Beware this trend in your heart.  If, in the process of "practicing your liberty" in Christ, you find yourself using this liberty as an excuse for what you have grown weary of in your church, or in your life, you'd better wake up and check your salvation pulse. You might be dead.  No, it would not mean you have lost your salvation, but it might mean you were never a child of God's to begin with.

Our Christian liberty is not given to us to be exercised in freedom from service to Him; it is given to us so that we are free to serve Him.

The writer of Hebrews brings this home in a very real way.  In chapter 10, he admonishes us as follows:

²³ Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, ²⁵ not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

This does not mean  "Let us" as in a command.  It means "Let us" in that we are no longer hindered from doing what he has said.  It means to no longer be hindered. The tense of the verb is present - we ARE no longer hindered to consider one another.  

Our liberty in Christ is not a ticket to do what we want, or not do what we don't want to do; it's a ticket to serving Him unhindered.  

Praise be.

~Tricia

Tuesday Trust

It was Tuesday and I was having a bad day.  It seemed like everything was going wrong!  As my day went from bad to worse, I became more and more agitated and eventually commented out loud to myself, “I don’t need this!” 

            A still, small voice in my head said, “Oh, yes you do.” And thus began a deeper exploration of the sovereignty of God in my life; my every day life. My Tuesdays.  This particular Tuesday started out with a root canal that was unplanned.  I had been having pain in a molar, and had an appointment at the end of the month. But, my pain increased over the weekend and I was popping pain pills like candy, so I called my dentist on Monday and made an appointment for the next day. When I got there that Tuesday morning, he discovered infection and inflammation and had to do a root canal on the spot!  Having never had that done before, I was more than a little nervous.

            After the root canal, I felt I needed a nap. I was exhausted. It took 2 1/2 hours!  But, I only had time to quickly change clothes and get to my part-time job.  I got there on time only to be told that my part-time position would more than likely be going full-time. When I enquired of my boss what happens to me if it does go full-time, she proclaimed that the company had no obligation to me....in other words, since I can only work part-time, I was going to lose my job.

            Then I opened my email and discovered an email from my husband stating that a property that we thought had sold had not sold after all! We were counting on that sale, and my part-time job, to see us through a particularly difficult financial trial.  That’s when I said, “I don’t need this!” 

            And that’s when I heard, “Oh, yes you do.”

            Why would I need that?  Why do any of us need the trials that we face every day? Why can’t things just go smoothly and easily for us? It’s easier to serve God when things are going well.  We feel happier and like we have more to give.  It’s hard to serve God when things are going wrong and the world, or our fellow believers, are taking advantage of us or criticizing us.  We know the Scriptures, how that James tells us that “the trying of our faith worketh patience” (James 1:3) and how we are not to think it strange when fiery trials try us (I Peter 5:12).  But, I do think we reserve those Scriptures for the big stuff. We don’t apply them to every day life; nor do we always consider the impact the Holy Spirit has on our every day life.

            Our trials do not take God by surprise, but our trials are not limited to the big stuff, either.  Being stuck in a traffic jam, having an overdrawn bank account, breaking a tooth, having to wait in an incredibly long line at the grocery store, receiving a package you’ve waited a week for only to discover the item damaged, the feeling that no one understands you, loneliness, exchanging harsh words with a friend, children who are demanding and uncooperative.......all these things work patience in us as well.  Even if all those things, and more, happen to you all in one day, that does not mean that the sovereignty of God has taken a nap.  The opposite is true.  It means that the sovereignty of God is well at work in your life.  It really means that He loves you more than ever and wants you to grow closer to Him and have more trust in Him.

            When I decided to take a closer look at His sovereignty in my every day life, I started with His character.  Taking a look at His character helped me get a glimpse of the depth of His wisdom and knowledge of me and my circumstances. The character of God is unchangeable, perfect and always just. We can depend on Him because of His character; because He never changes.  He never reacts to us, but He loves us with an everlasting love.

            A good place to start understanding what God knows about you is Psalm 139. Read it. Meditate on it. Learn from it.  I have listed a few initial observations from this passage, but there are many, many more.  Add to my list; create your own as you study out the sovereignty of God in your life. My list:

God has searched us and known us (v 1)

He knows when we sit and when we stand (2).

He discerns our thoughts and He is acquainted with all our ways (3). 

He knows our every thought, even before we do! (4). 

He has put a hedge of protection around us and laid His hands on us (5).

We learn that we cannot hide from Him (7-12). 

He leads us and holds us (10).

We learn that He formed us in our mother’s womb, before our bodies were even formed! (13 - 16).

We learn that He thinks of us constantly and wrote our parts in His book. (17 - 18). 

He will slay the wicked (19)

He will search us and try us, and know our hearts, leading us in His everlasting way

(23 - 24)

            Do we need more?  Won’t that sustain you on a difficult Tuesday? Take God literally. He means what He says and cannot lie.  That’s enough to sustain us through a difficult Tuesday at home with the kids, on the job with the boss or even when we are alone and tempted to sin.  It’s really just a small token of His unending grace; that wonderful grace that is greater than all our sin.

            I kid you not, as I was actually typing this out on my laptop at my dining room

table, (yes, on a Tuesday afternoon), I received an email from a friend that reminded me

of a painful experience in my past, bringing me to tears; and just then, the bread machine

that I had going in the kitchen took a nose-dive off the kitchen counter!  It broke into a

hundred pieces with my bread dough still inside!  As I stood there in my kitchen looking

at the broken bread machine, I had to laugh out loud.  I was not even the least bit tempted

to say, “I don’t need this!” Instead, I laughed and said, “Well, I guess I needed that!”  My

Tuesday trust was intact for today. Tomorrow is a new day with new trials. Big or small

it matters not; they are real and they have a purpose and God already knows all about

them!