Follow-Up on "Feminization of the Church"

This morning I came across this article from Doug Giles on TownHall about the feminization of the church. It dovetails nicely with my prior post on the feminizatoin of the church. Whereas I talked pretty much theoretically about the issue, Doug Giles gets down to the point of practical application of how to get men back in the church. Here is my favorite quote from the article - its as if he wrote this directly for me (notice the "Pastor Wayne" reference):

Put an end to preaching by cheesy, whiny, quiche eating, preening Nancy Boys ... right now! It freaks us meat eaters out. Get it? Hire a pastor who throws off a good John Wayne vibe instead of that Boy George feeling. Know what I mean? And cheer on “Pastor Wayne” to serve up the solid meat of the scripture … the stuff that prods the congregation to biblical maturity rather than prolonging their infancy.

I love it - I have been given a new phrase - from now on pastors who refuse to serve up the solid meat of the Scripture will be officially called "Nancy Boys."

Here are a few more of Doug's suggestions (paraphrased):

- Have the worship leader serve up weighty worship music, not the saccharine slush we have grown so accustomed to.
- Get rid of the Precious Moments figurines, decorate the church with "serious transcendant art works that stops us in our tracks."
- Lose the church's "I'm in therapy feel." Doug says, and I quote:

"Sure life’s hard, little Sally, and the sooner, we celebrate the struggle the quicker we will draw men back to our houses of worship."

-"If the Church wants to recover its losses, we’ve got to draw the knuckle draggers back to church. Masculine men are pretty easy. Toss in reason, competition, initiation, struggle, fun and a problem to spiritually throttle, and we’ll be there like stink on a monkey. Blow off, suppress, and spiritually emasculate the environment of these holy testicular necessities and your church, as far as men go, will be more empty than an Oktoberfest in Hialeah."

Thanks Doug, and a big hat tip and thanks to Dennis Laing for referring us to this piece on his blog.

Comments

[King of Fools]

I agree strongly with the therapy business. I have no problem with the church helping people along - making them well. However, the purpose in making someone well is so they can find their purpose and then be useful. They need to use their experience and newfound wisdom to do the same for the next guy (according to their giftings of course).

[David]

King (sorry I don't know your real name, but "King" is a great way to be addressed),

I'm honored to have an august blogger like yourself visiting my blog - thanks for your comments.

I'm with you, I'm afraid the therapeutic culture has really undermined the church. I hadn't previously connected it with the whole feminization thing as Doug Giles does, but maybe there's a link. Either way, it seems to me to create an unhealthy introspection.

God bless,
David

[Laura]

As a woman who can't stand the wimpinization of the church, my only objection is your use of the term feminization. Frankly, most women are wimps, not women. Plop them into a 19th century household and they'd fall flat on their wimpy little faces and pass out.

God is looking for strong men AND strong women who will stand up for the truth, who will speak the truth even if it crushes someone's daity little toes, and who will passionately search for the truth and toss out the baby food that passes for teaching. There's a place for baby food (to feed spiritual babies) and there's a place for counseling (healing the bruised), but there's also a place for putting on the armor and standing there to fight.

Nuff' said.

[David]

Good point Laura - somewhere, I think it might be in something written by Ann Douglas, she says that in the Victorian era women ornaments for men to decorate with fine clothing and mount in their living rooms for others to admire. Your point is well taken - feminine is not (or shouldn't be) a synonym for "wimpy."

[Adrian Warnocks UK Evangelical Blog]

ARe you a cheesy, whiny, quiche eating, preening Nancy Boy I hope not!!!! Whre are all the real men? I thank God there are loads in the church I attend. Whether it can attract real men is probably a good measure of the spiritual health of a church- the women seem to go anyway! Whether that says something about the spirtuality of women or the discernment of men I am not sure!

[David]

Adrian,

I'm not the Nancy Boy, I'm the "Pastor Wayne" who "serves up solid meat." My gargantuan muscles are involuntarily flexing even as I write ;-) Yeah baby, bring it on! ;-)

[Terry]

David,

I was tempted to write another blog about cats since that is what I got the most postings about, but it seems if you use the right language regarding men in the church, you get a lot of interactions from that too. By the way, John Wayne.....I'm not sure about his voice. "Well, little lady, turn in your Bible to ..."

[Diane Roberts]

While I agree with most of the article and the comments, I would caution us not to go on a tangent. When John Wayne is mentioned, let's be careful not to go back to the controlling macho stuff because that will make alot of women nervous.

I have been under a few controlling abusive pastors who love to tell us that their hero is John Wayne.

By the way, Wayne's real name was Marion Morrison and a real nice guy. I know this because my mother went to school with him and lived across the street from his family for a while.

"John Wayne" was a movie role. Let's be sure our pastors hit the "happy middle" and not live in a macho fantasy.

Or, as Aristotle put it......the Golden mean.

Or, as the Apostle Paul put it....moderation.

[David]

Thanks Diane,

As I remember, this isn't the first time you've added a very insightful comment to my blog. I appreciate you taking the time to do so.

David