Oh man, the latest DGM 2006 video of Mark Driscoll is killer.
I’ve gotta think these guys [David, Paul, John the Baptist] were ‘dudes.’ Heterosexual, win a fight, punch you in the nose, dudes. And the problem in the church today is it’s just a bunch of nice, soft, tender, chick-ified, church boys. Sixty percent of Christians are chicks and the forty percent that are dudes are still sort of chicks. I mean its just sad. When you walk in its sea foam green and fuschia and lemon yellow the whole architecture and the whole aesthetic is feminine and the preacher is kind of feminine and the music is kind of emotional and feminine and we’re looking around going ‘how come we’re not innovative?’ Its because all the innovative dudes are at home watching football.
One good thing for me from the interview is when he was talking about church planters. He said the key is screening. This part consistantly worries me. What if I don’t make it through their process? Does it mean I’m not a church planter even if I think I am? When Driscoll gets to the point where he’s talking about potential church planters I felt better. They are the “trouble makers” in the church who are critical and think they can do it better. It may be that they’re just critical and the screening needs to eliminate them. Otherwise, they might be church planters! They’re leaders and their not leading it is driving them nuts!
That made me feel better. :) I’ll just delude myself into thinking that’s my problem.
Addendum: The thing that is beginning to bother me a bit about this is the unqualified nature of the praise of all things male. Surely masculinity is incomplete without femininity for “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” While it is wrong to allow the church to lapse into a predominantly female organization, it would be equally wrong to incorporate masculinity unchecked. We don’t need leaders who go around punching people in the nose as their answer to problems. There have been many many times when my beautiful, wise wife has clued me in on how other people are affected and feel. I would have steamrolled right ahead and hurt some without my wife’s insight.
That said, we do need to man up in the church.
7 Comments
Precisely. We need to be after all mankind in terms of reaching people, not mere segments of the population designed to work out imbalances that currently exist in our own (particularly Western or American) contexts.
Hey Kevin, good to hear from you!!
You make a good point. As Calvinists (Driscoll is too) we know that God is the one who saves people. Who are we to argue with him if he saves more woman than men?
maybe if we intentionally instill courage in both men and women the masculine-feminine balance will begin to be restored…just a thought
That was a rather cryptic comment Laura. Care to expand it a little? I have no idea what you mean.
I’ve been thinking about this issue in response to an article on feminization in the BIOLA Connections magazine. As I read the article I came to realize that many of the complaints men were making were complaints that I, as a woman, share. Frankly put, I think wimpification is a bigger problem than feminization (maybe there are more women because we have a higher tolerance for wimpification).
So, if this is the problem, the solution would be to instill courage. We need the courage to proclaim God’s reign in the world, rather than retreating to the safety of the church behind the hedge. I have much more to say on the topic–in fact, this very topic will be the third installment in my response to the Connections article. It will probably go up tomorrow. It still needs a bit of editing, so I’m not sure yet. The first and second installments are up.
Here is the video of that same interview… well sort of.
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