Men Are No Longer Warriors

 Over the fifty-some years in the ministry, I have watched the Church slowly lose its male population. The number of women in most churches outnumbers the number of men seven to one. The leadership of the Church has changed from all-male leadership to a majority of female leaders. In the past 30 years, Christianity in the American Church has become fully feminized. Christians have forgotten the Bible is a book of warfare. We have reduced it to a book of love, peace, and tolerance.

Why have the men left the Church? Some men feel the Church is no longer challenging. Men are active, not passive.

The Bible is the book to teach us about spiritual warfare, not tolerance for sin. It is a book to challenge the warrior to stand loyal in the fight for the cause of Jess Christ. Men are no longer coming to Church because there is no challenge. A religion that challenges is active, not passive. A church that requires you to adapt to its teachings rather than adapting to you is challenging. The longer you are involved, the more you realize the demands are great. Where is the challenge to be a warrior brave and true?

Young men once grew up being challenged daily. I bet I can throw this ball farther than you can. You can't run as fast as I can. I can lift more weight than you. You get the picture. We then bring these boys into the Church and discourage them from wanting to do the impossible. The Church is about sitting quietly, singing songs written for women's voices, and listening to a sermon on love, peace, and tolerance. Is it any wonder that men do not want to go to Church? 

Warriors are a people of discipline. The Bible is a book of self-mastery through discipline. Study to show thyself approved. The Spirit God gave us does not make us timid but gives us power, love, and self-discipline. 

Hebrews 12:

4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son."

7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their Fathers?

8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate and true sons and daughters.

9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live?

10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness.

11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.

13 "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled but rather healed.

"In the Bible, the theme of spiritual warfare is ubiquitous; saints, including female saints, are warriors. Warfare requires courage, fortitude, and heroism. We are called to be 'strugglers' against sin, to be 'athletes' as St. Paul says. And the prize is given to the victor.

As a teacher, I was taught to make the lesson rigorous and challenging—the same with being a Christian. Being a Christian is rigorous. It is complex; it involves cross-bearing and walking a difficult narrow path. It is about overcoming oneself. It is strict, and in that rigor, men find liberation.

Being a Christian is serious. It isn't easy. It is demanding. It is about mercy, but it's also about overcoming oneself. You will be challenged profoundly, not to 'feel good about yourself but to become holy. It is rigorous, and in that rigor is liberation.

I, along with other men, want life to be simple and clear about what I am supposed to do. Most men will feel comfortable when they know what is expected of them. God presents a reasonable set of boundaries. We are to present ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God which is our reasonable service. It's easier for guys to express themselves in worship if there are guidelines about how it's supposed to work—especially when those guidelines are so simple and down-to-earth that you can just set out and start doing something.

I wrote a morning prayer each day for two years and posted it on social media, not expecting it to appeal to very many. Some felt their day had a bad start if I was late in posting a prayer. I came to realize that many found it challenging to pray each day. Some religions provide morning prayers, evening prayers, prayer before and after meals, and so on--this gives men a way to engage in spirituality without feeling put on the spot or worrying about looking stupid because they don't know what to say.

 Several men have told me they never want me to call on them to pray because they don't know what to say. What is wrong about reading a prayer that speaks to our spiritual life? Why do we expect prayers to always be spontanious? The disciples were rugged men who asked Jesus how to pray. The prayer the LORD taught them to pray is repeated in many churches yet today. Churches do not teach men how to pray nor give them examples what to say in their prayer.

Men appreciate a challenge that has a goal: union with God. The problem is they need to be challenged to do something. Men want to be doing something, not just talking about it. The Church has been reduced to a place where we talk about the theory of being a Christian without the physical act of being a Christian. Here is what men need a challenge, a goal, perhaps an adventure — in primitive terms, a hunt. Christianity has lost the ascetic, that is, the athletic aspect of the Christian life. Men are activity oriented. Run the race before you. Fight the fight of faith.Endure the hardships as a good solider.

The language of the Church has adopted a more feminized vocabulary. This has resulted in men shying away from Church. 

What appeals to women does not appeal to men. Is it any wonder that men believe the Church is for women and children? Women have turned the studying of the Bible into  "a love story written for women by women." "American Christianity in the last two hundred years has been feminized. It presents Jesus as a friend, a lover, someone who 'walks with me and talks with me.' This is fine rapturous imagery for women who need a social life. Or it depicts Jesus as an emfeminate weak man. Neither is the type of Christ the typical male wants much to do with." They are looking for the warrior King.

I have never been a fan of holding hands while we pray—this appeals to women but not men. Men feel uncomfortable holding hands with another man. Most men I know are not the "touchy/feely type of person. They are not looking for emotional attachments, they are looking for a manly church.

One man said he looks at the curtains when entering a church. That tells him who decides how the Church is run and the type of Christians they want to attract.

Men either want to be challenged to fight for a glorious and honorable cause and get filthy dirty or loaf in their recliners with plenty of beer, pizza, and football.

 I have found that many evangelical churches base their salvation on emotional experience. Feelings. Tears. Repeated rededication of one's life to Christ in large emotional group settings. Singing emotional invitation songs, swaying hands aloft, and even Scripture reading was supposed to produce an emotional experience. The entire worship service was conducted to generate an emotional reaction. The whole religious experience is about emotional feel-good salvation.

"Men get pretty cynical when they sense someone's attempting to manipulate their emotions, especially in the name of religion. They appreciate authentic worship. It's not aimed at prompting religious feelings but at performing an objective duty.

Evangelical churches call men passive and nice (think 'Mr. Rogers'). Churches should call men to be courageous and act (think 'Braveheart').

What draws men to the Church is not simply that it's challenging or mysterious. What draws them is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the center of everything the Church does or says.

Christ is a militant. Jesus takes Hell captive. Jesus came to cast fire on the earth. (Men can relate to this.) In the one true Baptism of the Spirit, we pray for the newly-enlisted warriors of Christ, male and female, that they may 'be kept ever warriors invincible, filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit.

There are only two models for men: be 'manly' and strong, rude, crude, macho, and probably abusive, or be sensitive, kind, repressed, and wimpy. But in following Christ, there is  'neither male nor female,' but Christ who 'unites things in heaven and things on earth. There is only one type of Christian those who the blood of Jesus Christ has redeemed and have taken up the cross and followed Him.

Like it or not, men prefer to be led by men. In an authentic Early Church setting, lay women do everything lay men do, including preach, teach, and chair ministry duties. But what men like is to be led by men.

Regardless of the appeal of a church to men, a dangerous life is not the goal. Christ is the goal. A free spirit is not the goal. Christ is the goal. He is the towering figure of history around whom all men and women will eventually gather, to whom every knee will bow, and whom every tongue will confess. It is time for men who call themselves Christian to start acting like a warrior in the kingdom of God and step on the battlefield and join in the fight against the enemy of our souls.