The Costs of Not Discipling Our Men

[rgrove]

Read this on the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) news website today that supports their denomination's magazine called "By Faith". It had a very interesting article on the consequences of the churches failure to make disciples. He goes over his families history which unfortunately had some hard lessons to be learned. But he makes a good point that the church his mother and father left in his youth (with disasterous consequences) had made a worker out of his father, but not a disciple. The article goes through and spells out the differences, as well as making some recommendations about how to go about discipling men. There are a number of them, so I won't go into the details here as you can pull them out of the outline fairly quickly. The author concludes with this interesting quote:

"We have systemic problems. These problems will only be resolved by applying systemic solutions. If we get men right, marriages will be right. If we get marriages right, families will be right. If we get families right, the church will be right. It’s been tried before—'For God so loved the world' that He sent Jesus, who gathered some men around, built into their lives, and then said, 'I’m leaving, but I want you to teach others what I have taught you.'"

Here is a link to the article:

The Costs of Not Discipling Our Men

What do you think? Or better yet, is your church doing anything specifically to disciple men? The Elders of our church have a class on the second Tuesday of every month where they want to men of the church to come and recieve teaching specifically tailored for them. Unfortunately due to business travel and personal issues I haven't been able to make as many as I would like, but I'm very happy they are making this committment to teaching the men of the church to be Biblical men that provide Biblical leadership in church, but more importantly in the home.

Yours In Christ,
Ron

[Soulfyre]

We have sorely been remiss in our duties to men in the church. This unfortunately has happened at a time when the concept of gender differentiation (aside from biological appurtenances) is in full dissarray. Gender differntiation is now based on how one "feels", not on "what" one IS. It is no wonder that in times such as these, Christian men are set adrift, never understanding what they are at the deepest level. This confusion slams full force into our children, who then have little objective basis for self -definition and self-understanding. It is scarcely a wonder that churches are a reflection the break up in American homes. There is back-biting, political maneuvering, gender conflict, all covered by wonderful multi-media presentations. Perhaps we should all don green glasses, as we are told to ignore the special-effects "wizard" standing behind the curtain, and pretend to enjoy our make-believe church of Oz. But I am persuaded there are yet many who see this humbug for what it is, and will finally reveal the unclothed emperor, laugh at their own foolishness, and return to God, our Creator, whose design included male and female to reflect his nature.

God bless and keep you,

Matthew (souflyre)