Monday, August 28, 2006
Jesus' manhood
I have started Coughlin's "No More Christian Nice Guy" and loved the parable of Jim. However, I'd love to see something more modern. I first thought about gangsters [Jesus starting a new gang]. But then I haven't been part of one so I'd have a lot of learning and studying to do to write anything decent.
Then I thought about what I know best: the corporate world, and reasoned that maybe Jesus can open a venture capital funded startup. But I realized that the life or death danger isn't found in corporate setting that, say, gangsters face.
How would it seem if Mary asks Jesus to make a high quality pot or cocaine (both are from natural materials unlike meth or PCP) for a wedding party? Or recasting Luke 22:36-38:
Maybe someone with more free time or real gang experience can write this right.
Copyright 2006, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.
Then I thought about what I know best: the corporate world, and reasoned that maybe Jesus can open a venture capital funded startup. But I realized that the life or death danger isn't found in corporate setting that, say, gangsters face.
How would it seem if Mary asks Jesus to make a high quality pot or cocaine (both are from natural materials unlike meth or PCP) for a wedding party? Or recasting Luke 22:36-38:
He said to them, "But now if you have a wallet, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a handgun, sell your [leather] jacket and buy one. It is written: 'And he was numbered with the transgressors'; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment."Or have Jesus using four letter expletives! [Personally, I don't think there is any sacred English words, even Yahweh, since we don't know how YHWH was really pronounced in the first place. Words like God and Jesus aren't inherently sacred, as far as I care. Now, I don't use them nor allow my children to use them only because people around me would not approve.]
The disciples said, "See, Boss, here are a Smith & Wesson and a Beretta."
"That is enough," he replied.
Maybe someone with more free time or real gang experience can write this right.
Copyright 2006, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.
Review of Why Men Hate Going to Church
I finished Murrow's "Why Men Hate Going to Church" this weekend and here is the promised review. Originally, I was going to do bits of reviews but I started changing my thoughts on church and discipleship while I was reading so I've decided to wait to the end.
I'm glad I waited: the ending was much better than I had expected, but I don't think he went far enough.
But first: If you have son(s), buy the book since you'll see why they don't (or won't) like church. Even if you (a man) still attend church, it won't mean that your sons will. I know this well since my sons are more active [and less scholarly type] than yours truly, and church as they know it today is so dead compared to what they are used to in their daily life [free to choose their way, they only have to sit still only during punishment or while eating]. I, on the other hand, have [continued to] attend church due to my geeky nature and find "worship" sermons to be intellectually stimulating.
For others, it certainly is eye opening and well worth reading to rethinking what church is all about. [I was going to write down many quotes on how relevant it was but I'll let you buy and read them yourselves.]
The last part of the book gets more in line with what I have been blogging recently: churches should have spiritual fathers [discipleship] and band of brothers [manly fellowship] to get men moving into church. However, I don't like his emphasis on going back to church as most people [including myself] know it. I'll blog more about this soon...
Copyright 2006, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.
I'm glad I waited: the ending was much better than I had expected, but I don't think he went far enough.
But first: If you have son(s), buy the book since you'll see why they don't (or won't) like church. Even if you (a man) still attend church, it won't mean that your sons will. I know this well since my sons are more active [and less scholarly type] than yours truly, and church as they know it today is so dead compared to what they are used to in their daily life [free to choose their way, they only have to sit still only during punishment or while eating]. I, on the other hand, have [continued to] attend church due to my geeky nature and find "worship" sermons to be intellectually stimulating.
For others, it certainly is eye opening and well worth reading to rethinking what church is all about. [I was going to write down many quotes on how relevant it was but I'll let you buy and read them yourselves.]
The last part of the book gets more in line with what I have been blogging recently: churches should have spiritual fathers [discipleship] and band of brothers [manly fellowship] to get men moving into church. However, I don't like his emphasis on going back to church as most people [including myself] know it. I'll blog more about this soon...
Copyright 2006, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Empowered over Man's Rules
I was just reading:
"The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." Mark 2:27b-28What Jesus offers us is freedom from petty Rules of Men [be it religious legalism or political correctness or any other set of rules]. Under God's Laws we are not only freer [as compared to being under Rules of Men] but we are empowered to be men: to lead, guide and explore.
Of course we can temporarily choose to be under a set of rules [like a game of poker or football or chess], but they are only for a limited time. The rules of the land is similar but more lasting since we choose to live in a specific location [country, state, city] and even more so if we buy property in that location [and it would be worse if you choose to be enslaved by debt: i.e., mortgage].
How does all this affect my daily life? Hmm. But I am [still] working on my declaration of empowerment.
Copyright, 2006, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Kicking out women teachers out of church
"Sunday school teacher dumped for being female" so at least one Baptist church gets serious about what Paul talks about in 1 Tim 2:12.
But I believe this is like closing the barn door after the fact. Getting rid of women teachers or even my [previous] extreme of kicking out all women from church isn't good enough [or wrong approach].
We need to follow Jesus by following His steps and "go and make [male] disciples" -- and church will happen as natural consequence of following Him. Of course, women & children can come [as disciples in training?] but should not be the main focus, just as Jesus focused most of His time in making His disciples Himself.
Copyright, 2006, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.
But I believe this is like closing the barn door after the fact. Getting rid of women teachers or even my [previous] extreme of kicking out all women from church isn't good enough [or wrong approach].
We need to follow Jesus by following His steps and "go and make [male] disciples" -- and church will happen as natural consequence of following Him. Of course, women & children can come [as disciples in training?] but should not be the main focus, just as Jesus focused most of His time in making His disciples Himself.
Copyright, 2006, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Great Commission Redux
Most evangelical churches use Matt 28:18-20 as the impetus for everyone in the church to do the 3 things: make disciples of all nations, baptize the believers and teach them to obey Jesus' teachings.
But note that He did not say: go and build mega-churches [I mean both the membership in numbers and the physical ownership and maintenance of the huge buildings]. Go and create children's ministry, youth's ministry, women's ministry, single's ministry, senior citizens ministry, and [last and least] men's ministry. Go count: weekly church worship and Sunday School attendances, numbers of self-confessed conversions, numbers of baptism and numbers of missionaries sent. Go and build up volunteer systems with training sessions, background checks, record tracking and annual retreats.
I write all this with tongue-in-cheek, because I am [technically] still a member of a mega-church in Austin, TX and have seen it grow from few hundred to few thousands over the past 8 years. And our church loves to re-read Matt 28:18-20 and tries to reapply it to our church, right now, today. Unfortunately, what I was taught was:
And my thinking is that church happens as part of discipleship [creating disciples create church and worship happens as an outgrowth of this fellowship of the saints] not the other way around as it is done in most churches: church meetings take place and discipleship may or may not happen. Which is why I believe Jesus said:
NO! He said "go and make disciples."
And the call for me, I believe, is to make myself and my sons His disciples [with other men's help, of course] rather than His church attenders and church members.
[I don't know how wives and daughters fit into all this, yet.]
--
As a side note:
I now personally believe that Matt 28:18-20 is a call only for the 11 disciples, not anyone else. I believe that we are called by God individually and our responsibility is to obey our calling (be it to fulfill 1 or 2 or 3 or zero of the 3 parts of the Great Commission). My hats off to my friend who pointed this out for him [and his family] and I agree!
More background: I write all this because of the things which I wasn't happy about in the book I've started reading this week: Why Men Hate Going to Church. The author, Murrow, seems to emphasize making the current church more attractive to men rather than re-thinking church. Ever since I read Howard Snyder's The Problem of Wineskins: Church Structure in a Technological Age, I have been weary of traditional church [for many years now] and Murrow's book made me rethink some more and then I felt compelled to go back to what the Great Commission really says and hence this blog entry.
Copyright 2006, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.
But note that He did not say: go and build mega-churches [I mean both the membership in numbers and the physical ownership and maintenance of the huge buildings]. Go and create children's ministry, youth's ministry, women's ministry, single's ministry, senior citizens ministry, and [last and least] men's ministry. Go count: weekly church worship and Sunday School attendances, numbers of self-confessed conversions, numbers of baptism and numbers of missionaries sent. Go and build up volunteer systems with training sessions, background checks, record tracking and annual retreats.
I write all this with tongue-in-cheek, because I am [technically] still a member of a mega-church in Austin, TX and have seen it grow from few hundred to few thousands over the past 8 years. And our church loves to re-read Matt 28:18-20 and tries to reapply it to our church, right now, today. Unfortunately, what I was taught was:
- Discipleship is all about taking classes over several weeks. It is not a multi-year (if not multi-decade) mentorship.
- Baptism: that's what the pastors do after some sort of training. But the numbers which matters are the conversion numbers (as if Christian life was a one time event)
- Obey: This area is murky since what they teach is invariably weakened by human reinterpretation of the Bible, which no one is immune from, including yours truly.
And my thinking is that church happens as part of discipleship [creating disciples create church and worship happens as an outgrowth of this fellowship of the saints] not the other way around as it is done in most churches: church meetings take place and discipleship may or may not happen. Which is why I believe Jesus said:
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations [Matthew 28:19a]Rather than "go and start a church." Or start a denomination. Or sign up new members. Or invite friends to take part in church [or play church]. Or get friends and relatives to be churchy [like invite them to your home fellowship rather than to the big-mega church].
NO! He said "go and make disciples."
And the call for me, I believe, is to make myself and my sons His disciples [with other men's help, of course] rather than His church attenders and church members.
[I don't know how wives and daughters fit into all this, yet.]
--
As a side note:
I now personally believe that Matt 28:18-20 is a call only for the 11 disciples, not anyone else. I believe that we are called by God individually and our responsibility is to obey our calling (be it to fulfill 1 or 2 or 3 or zero of the 3 parts of the Great Commission). My hats off to my friend who pointed this out for him [and his family] and I agree!
More background: I write all this because of the things which I wasn't happy about in the book I've started reading this week: Why Men Hate Going to Church. The author, Murrow, seems to emphasize making the current church more attractive to men rather than re-thinking church. Ever since I read Howard Snyder's The Problem of Wineskins: Church Structure in a Technological Age, I have been weary of traditional church [for many years now] and Murrow's book made me rethink some more and then I felt compelled to go back to what the Great Commission really says and hence this blog entry.
Copyright 2006, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Returning to Patriarchy: Problems with Family Integrated Church
I was going to write a rambling piece on why I don't like Family Integrated Churches.
My main beef is the over emphasis on the Integration rather than redoing church. More on my rethinking church in future posts.
Patriarchy [with the fathers submitting to grandfathers who submit to the local elders] seems to be what is needed in all of life not just churchy life. What does that look is something I'll be exploring, as well.
See my friend's posts on Family Meal Table, which I think is a good starting point. My struggle is as I live with my parents, how to turn my passive father into an active leader of the Patriarchy as I live an example for my sons....
Copyright 2006, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.
My main beef is the over emphasis on the Integration rather than redoing church. More on my rethinking church in future posts.
Patriarchy [with the fathers submitting to grandfathers who submit to the local elders] seems to be what is needed in all of life not just churchy life. What does that look is something I'll be exploring, as well.
See my friend's posts on Family Meal Table, which I think is a good starting point. My struggle is as I live with my parents, how to turn my passive father into an active leader of the Patriarchy as I live an example for my sons....
Copyright 2006, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
The church needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.
We've all heard of the phrase:
Note (8/11 update): I've left "real" in quotes above since I'm talking of men like construction workers, fishermen and gangbangers who would get excited over a sport's game with a beer in one hand but couldn't care less about Jesus Christ other than as one of their expletive vocabularies. The kind of "real men" Jesus called in the New Testament (and I believe, today as well): Peter, Andrew, John and James were fishermen while Matthew was a tax collector [more like Mafioso or gangbanger of today]. Simon the zealot: the name saids it all [I imagine him to be more of William Wallace (of the "Braveheart" fame)]. There may have been some scholarly men called, but I not aware of any....
Copyright 2006, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.
-- background on this blog entry --
While I started commenting at RightNation.us to point to my blog, I remembered cowboy church and googled to find a cowboy church directory. Pretty cool. However, I don't like the emphasis on boys (which is why I don't like "Boy Scouts" -- I don't want my teenage sons to aspire to be boys but men). And I don't want cows to be required, either.
And as I typed some more, I remembered the well know phrase above and twisted it to be my blog entry title!
'A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.'But really, when that phrase was coined, the 20th century church already was no place for men. With so much focus on women and children already, they might as well said "the church needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" -- and they (we?) have effectively kicked out "real" men. Only the geekly and/or scholarly types are left in the modern church -- which deters "real" men even more.
Note (8/11 update): I've left "real" in quotes above since I'm talking of men like construction workers, fishermen and gangbangers who would get excited over a sport's game with a beer in one hand but couldn't care less about Jesus Christ other than as one of their expletive vocabularies. The kind of "real men" Jesus called in the New Testament (and I believe, today as well): Peter, Andrew, John and James were fishermen while Matthew was a tax collector [more like Mafioso or gangbanger of today]. Simon the zealot: the name saids it all [I imagine him to be more of William Wallace (of the "Braveheart" fame)]. There may have been some scholarly men called, but I not aware of any....
Copyright 2006, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.
-- background on this blog entry --
While I started commenting at RightNation.us to point to my blog, I remembered cowboy church and googled to find a cowboy church directory. Pretty cool. However, I don't like the emphasis on boys (which is why I don't like "Boy Scouts" -- I don't want my teenage sons to aspire to be boys but men). And I don't want cows to be required, either.
And as I typed some more, I remembered the well know phrase above and twisted it to be my blog entry title!
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Boys cheated by schools [and others]
The feminized, mothering world we live in is stacked against males, especially boys. School is the most influential system in a boys' life [at least for those who aren't homeschooled].
Gerry Garibaldi's "How the Schools Shortchange Boys" points out the school system's problem for boys and how boys "get around" the system (rather than working with and taking advantage of the system).
Unfortunately for the boys [and us men], the effeminate systems do not end at school: mothers are in charge at home [with passive or workaholic or missing fathers], women are in charge at church [Sunday school teachers are usually women], and the ever present, overreaching, mother State [local and fed government: your tax money "at work"].
The challenge for us fathers is how to work with/against the system ourselves as well as teaching our sons to do likewise. Stay tuned for "Declaration of Empowerment" that I'm [still] working on....
Copyright 2006, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.
Gerry Garibaldi's "How the Schools Shortchange Boys" points out the school system's problem for boys and how boys "get around" the system (rather than working with and taking advantage of the system).
Unfortunately for the boys [and us men], the effeminate systems do not end at school: mothers are in charge at home [with passive or workaholic or missing fathers], women are in charge at church [Sunday school teachers are usually women], and the ever present, overreaching, mother State [local and fed government: your tax money "at work"].
The challenge for us fathers is how to work with/against the system ourselves as well as teaching our sons to do likewise. Stay tuned for "Declaration of Empowerment" that I'm [still] working on....
Copyright 2006, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.
