Church Leadership- Where Are The Men?

Reading Time 13 min.

Americans used to pride themselves on their masculinity and masculine impulses. Men were men. When I was growing up, the western cowboy was what every kid wanted to be. That rugged individualist fighting off bandits, Indians and cattle rustlers, used to define our culture. Since the 1960s, there has been a change in men. There were still some red-blooded American males in the late 1970s who were inspired by Clint Eastwood's portrayal of Josey Wales and Dirty Harry. 

We once used the titans of the past to inspire us to become a strong nation, masculine, independent men rather than the weak slaves of the state. Thanks to the rise of the New Left, things changed. Great men like MacArthur and Patton are out, and the plant food boys of Antifa are in. That's both because the left canceled our heroes and because the feminist movement led to the feminization of society. People with less than noble motives trashed Titans of history and masculinity itself, destroying our community. A nation needs strong, not weak, men to function. America and the West generally have far too many of the latter and far too few of the former, thanks to what the left and feminists started in the 60s.

Masculinity was kicked out of the workplace, the home, and the Church. The world of cancel culture was in style. I can remember when schoolboys would fight out their difference on the playground. Today they are taught to talk it out, which has resulted in more school shootings than any time in history. Do you remember when guys drove their pick-up truck to school with a rifle in the gun rack?

The heroes of the glorious past are gone. Men like Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Robert E. Lee, George Washington, and the 300 Spartans of Thermopylae are being struck from our memory. We are replacing them with celebrities who lead disgusting lives with no real accomplishment or moral code.

And what has that created? A nation of weak men that shy away from pride, accomplishment, and responsibility. They would rather spend their time sitting on the couch playing video games. They live their lives vicariously through sports personalities or movie celebrities. This brings me to what I want to talk about today.

Over the years as a minister, the discussion of women and their role in the Church has sometimes put me at odds with fellow ministers. In some churches, it will look as though Christianity is oppressive to women. But I will contend that women have taken over Christianity. Is this a bad thing? Yes and No. There is a visible lack of men in church attendance. Why? It could be that women have taken over the Church. Let me first say most churches would have closed their doors had it not been for the faithfulness of women in the role of leadership. God has used women from the beginning of the Church. The first messenger of the resurrection was a woman. Jesus commissioned her to tell his disciples he has risen. With that, let me say, I am in agreement with Isaiah the prophet, "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead you cause you to err and destroy the way of your paths." This is the judgment of God upon a nation where men have failed to be the leaders. The man's leadership role has a significant impact on the well-being of the family and the Church, which, in turn, has a substantial effect on society. 

There has been numerous research done as to why men do not attend Church. I find it strange that 5 out of 6 men will call themselves a Christian, but only a small fraction will attend Church. From the small number who attend Church, fewer are willing to be leaders.

Jesus, the Head of the Church, is a man. The twelve Apostles are men. Elders and deacons are men - since they must be "the husband of one wife" (1 Timothy 3:2, 12).

As leaders in the Church, men have a heavy responsibility. Paul told the elders at Ephesus: "Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood" (Acts 20:28).

The world has redefined leadership, and the idea of being a servant or being humble has been given negative connotations. Yet, the biblical perspective of a Christ-like leader as one who serves others and is humble remains imperative. God is the one who chooses his Church, and he is the One who chooses who leads it – and the men who God calls to lead in the family and the Church have the responsibility to respond and submit to equipping for their leadership role (1 Peter 2:9-10; 2 Corinthians 6:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:13-4). Spiritual leadership comes into focus here since it overlaps with the positions of leadership in family and Church. These leaders are not chosen by the will of man but by God. It should also be understood that God keeps all leaders accountable in the roles to which he has called them.

The man's spiritual leadership role is to accomplish God's purpose in the family. These are based on a firm belief that 1 Peter 2:9-10 biblical norms guide the spiritual leadership role of the man found in Scripture. 

  9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light; 10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy

There is a significant leadership vacuum in Church and society. Genesis 1-3 holds that man was created first by God, after which he was given work to do, and then God created Eve, and together they were given the command to have dominion over the earth (1:27, 28). However, Genesis 3 shows how Adam fails to be the leader that God designed him to be. He disobeys God's command, and sin enters the world. The opening verses in Genesis 1:27, 28 give mankind a glimpse into what God designed as his perfect order for the relationship between man and woman. In the context of humanity, the male was created first, and subsequently, God made the female from the rib of the man. They were both created in the image of God: they were both equal in value but had distinct roles. The equivalent value of man and woman and their specific roles are keys to the way men and women ought to understand their importance and role in family and Church.

Amidst a lost and broken world, God conforms his people to the image of his Son (Romans 8:28-29). Adam's sin caused his fellowship with God to be broken. As a consequence, his connection with his wife is shattered. When men fail to be the leaders at home and in the Church, there is a broken leadership in the family and the Church. Because Adam fails to be the leader in the family, all humanity is paying for his failure. It was not Eve who failed, but Adam. Eve was deceived. Adam was not; he chose to disobey the LORD. The same is true today. God has appointed the father to be the spiritual leader of the family and in the Church. When men are not the spiritual leader in the family, they will not be spiritual leaders in the Church.  

Many within the Church do not understand or know the importance of the order of leadership. Let me use the example of the military.

The type of leadership used by the military was called 'Command and Control' Leadership. It was the style of leadership that worked for centuries. After World War II, command and control leadership was often used extensively in companies where employees expected to spend their entire careers and be rewarded with a pension. Before the internet, employees didn't have as many options to change jobs. Leaving a company searching for greener pastures was less common, as employees valued stability and tenure over flexibility.

This is not true anymore--workers are more comfortable exiting jobs, and more than half of employees are actively looking for a new job. Many workers are happy to be their own boss. 

Today's workers don't need to tolerate command and control leadership. Employees who feel micromanaged or strictly scrutinized by their managers feel comfortable jumping ship and finding a new job with more autonomy to do as they please.

At the end of World War II, there was a change in the family structure. Women had spent the last four years working in the war factories providing for the family. They gained new freedom and independence that allowed them to become independent. This changed the whole leadership role of the family. The husband gave authority over to the wife. He gave his spiritual leadership responsibility to the wife.

An elder must hold "fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict" (Titus 1:9). To be a leader, you must first be taught sound doctrine. You cannot know what sound doctrine is if you have not taken the time to learn. Men in the Church will not take the time to learn sound doctrine. They leave that responsibility to the women.

Peter instructs Elders: "Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by constraint but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock" (1 Peter 5:2, 3). Just a side note, women are not lords.

Younger Christians are to submit to their elders: "Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for 'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (1 Peter 5:5).

If men are not the leader they are called to be, then God will use the women to carry out His plan. In doing this, God brings judgment to the nation, as seen in Isaiah. 

The account of Deborah and Barak is found in Judges 4 and 5 in the Old Testament. The Israelites had been under the control of the Canaanite king Jabin and the commander of his army, Sisera. The Canaanites had 900 chariots of iron and ruled over Israel for 20 years (Judges 4:2–3).

A prophetess named Deborah judged or made rulings for the people of Israel under a palm tree during that time. One of Deborah's judgments was to instruct Barak to summon 10,000 men and attack Jabin's army. Likely fearful of complying with such a command, Barak told Deborah, "If you go with me, I will go; but if you don't go with me, I won't go" (Judges 4:8). She replied, "Certainly I will go with you. . . . But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman" (verse 9).

Deborah and Barak then gathered 10,000 troops and attacked Sisera and his army. Barak's troops won: "All Sisera's troops fell by the sword; not a man was left" (Judges 4:16). Sisera himself fled to the tent of a Hebrew woman named Jael. She gave him milk to drink and covered him with a blanket in the tent. Then, "Jael . . . picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died" (verse 21).

Following this battle, "God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites. And the hand of the Israelites pressed harder and harder against Jabin king of Canaan until they destroyed him" (Judges 4:23–24). Deborah's prophecy was fulfilled: Barak won.

• A woman killed Sisera.
• The Israelites were freed from their enemies.

Because Barak would not assume his leadership position, God used two women to give victory to Israel.

Since the laity is primarily women, ministers have adapted their message to women. And men and women have different characteristics. Women will try to gain the goodwill or favor of someone; they try to maintain bonds of friendship; they try to avoid conflict—and all these feminine tendencies have affected both the way churches operate and what doctrines are taught. For example, most agree that sin and evil exist, but personalizing sin and evil damages self-esteem. It is not nice to call someone a sinner or to say they are evil. The result is a "believism" rather than a conversion through conviction, repentance, and new creation. The Scriptural plan of salvation is distasteful, so it is not the accepted method in the profession of Christianity.

I find it amazing that twelve men were the core of leadership at the beginning of the Church, appealing to other men to the point that they turned the world upside down in twenty-four months. Has the Scripture changed? Has the message of salvation changed? Has the message of love become an emotional, squishy relationship of touchy-feely. 

Why is it then we had command and control leadership there was the highest enlistment for military service and love for our county but not for the Church? Yet, 83% of Americans call themselves Christians. Could it be Christianity has lost this masculine sense of a struggle against the forces of evil? Is it that the message has been watered down to passionate feelings and emotional responses that men find difficult to identify with?

Paul used expressions that appealed to men, his description of evil was in military terms like-- conflict, swords, armor, battles, and warfare. Men outside the Church consider going to Church to be a place for passive wimps and other weak people who need help. That may be the reason military enlistment has been voluntary for the past several years. Men are conquerors and protectors and are supposed to be strong. The Church has changed the message to appeal to women, not men. The warrior class is missing. Sunday School lessons are written primarily by women. Devotional and self-help are written to attract the woman reader.

Christianity has become an emotional religion of the heart. Over the years, the Church's terminology has become feminized. The predominance of feminine emotions or religion of the heart has brought about a subtle change in Christianity to conform more to the desires of the feminine heart. A shift in the emphasis on the emotion from the true evil nature of sin has made it difficult to distinguish from the Christianity of the Gospels. The struggle for inner peace and eradicating corruption has all but disappeared from modern Christianity in favor of a message of universal acceptance that does not require holiness but rather goodness.

Many women who are leaders in the "church" have constructed an image of Jesus as they wished men were: sensitive, always ready to talk about their relationship, loving, kind, and unwilling to show anger. This Jesus is not the Jesus of the Scriptures. This is a perverted view of Jesus, making him a wimp in the eyes of men.

Men who are attracted to the Church will not stay in a feminized church. The Church must develop a proper understanding of the meaning of masculinity and femininity, an understanding that is consistent with a balanced view of Scriptures. Only then will men return to the Church and become the leaders they are called to be. I might add that most women I know in the Church would be happy to have men in leadership roles.

So men, if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have accepted a commission to serve in the Army of the Lord. With that commission comes an oath of service to protect the Church against enemies within and without the Church. Those failing to perform the duties of leadership are traitors. Give the women a break, and it's time to step up and be the leader you have been called to be. 

There was a time when the Sunday school teachers were men. Boyes and girls were taught separately. Men taught the boys, and women taught the girls. 

Titus 2:3-5 The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

Ladies, I am not the one that handles telling young girls how to dress and conduct themselves. That is your job. Older women in the faith model and teach the younger women the above curriculum so that "the word of God may not be reviled" (Titus 2:5b). The Greek word blasphemer translated "reviled" in English. Blasphemer is a word that is used to mean "to speak against God so that you cast through or make null and void God's word and His truths." [v] God is jealous of His name and His glory (Exod 34:13-14). This is why it is so imperative that Christian women obey the commands to be self-controlled, pure, kind, submissive to their husbands, etc.

Disobedience to these commands can confuse non-Christians into assuming that Christianity does not change a person's heart and behavior but instead causes them to remain the same or become a worse individual. A woman must also resist the temptation to obey the commands she deems worthy of obedience and then disobeys the ones she considers culturally irrelevant. God's Word is timeless, and it must be respected and obeyed in its full context.

It is my responsibility to teach things which become sound doctrine: that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. Young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded.

The men of this Church must teach the young men to love their wives and family. You cannot teach what you do not know or practice.

Colossians 3:19 - Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.

Ephesians 5:25 - Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it;

1 Peter 3:7 - Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

Ephesians 5:28 - So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.

1 Timothy 5:8 - But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

I do not know if the men of this Church will step up to be the spiritual leaders teaching the Word of God and instructing the young men or if the older women will instruct the young women. If you do not assume the responsibility you are charged with, we will lose another generation of our youth.