The need for virile masculine spiritual leadership
One of my favorite subjects is restoring the true masculine to spirituality in the Church. The fact that we have female lead pastors in violation of scripture (see item 13 in Pet Peeves – in church), a feminized spirituality that fails to appeal to men (who by design need to be Warriors, Wildmen, and Kings), and a lack of a serious call to leadership and discipleship in the Church all lead us to weak spirituality, and a failure to be salt and light in society.
Even worse, the liberal churches, esp. the Anglicans/Episcopalians, having abandoned the biblical leadership mandates and distinctions for men in the family and church, have gone the next step beyond feminization to the heresy of ordaining unrepentant homosexuals.
Over the years, men’s ministries such as Promise Keepers, as well as good books such as No More Christian Nice Guy: When Being Nice–Instead of Good–Hurts Men, Women and Children, Healing the Masculine Soul: God’s Restoration of Men to Real Manhood, and Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul have stepped into the gap to address weak masculine spirituality.
Now, American Vision offers us a four part DVD series entitled Masculine Spiritual Leadership, on sale for $10 instead of $30! I’ve ordered it today, and look forward to viewing and using it with our men. Here’s the outline of what’s in it. BTW, nice cover art – kind of steam-punkish.
- PART 1: A Lost Art�Masculine Spiritual Leadership (27 minutes)
- PART 2: Leading Ourselves, Our Wives, & Our Children (37 minutes)
- PART 3: In Search of Virtue (26 minutes)
- PART 4: Decision Making in the Home: Dictatorships, Disagreements and the Garden of Eden (37 minutes)
The Wisdom of Mentoring
So, I just had my biweekly lunch w/ my pastor, who is mentoring me as I work towards being a full time pastor. He’s a really atypical pastor in that he is leaving the pastoral line of work for professional coaching. He planted the church I am in about 14 years ago, and is going through the tough process of letting it go to others. He also just submitted a manuscript of a book he’s written for people wanting to optimize their life – not a Christian book, but more like one of those Peter Drucker books.
But what I like about him is his wisdom in the frustrations of ministry, his disregard for religious expectations, and his desire to do things with effectiveness, integrity, and reality. His own life is not squeaky clean and perfect, and he is transparent about his own brokenness, which is why he is beloved at our church.
So I wanted to start recording the things I learn in our long lunch meetings.
