Wednesday, March 26, 2008

The masculinization of the church, part 1

This may become an on-again, off-again series...but then again, it may not.

In some circles, men are practically gnashing their teeth over what they term the "feminization" of the church. These men, of course, view this as a bad thing because, in general, they have a low view of femininity. Frankly, I've never quite bought into their argument about the church in American being "too feminine" and this supposedly being the root of all its ills.

Recently I was discussing this with someone, who pointed out, "But the real problem is that the church has become far too masculinized --- men are treating it as a business, rather than as a family or as the Body of Christ!"

That was, for me, one of those, "well, duh...!" moments. Yes, of course, I thought. That explains it.

Someone else told me, also very recently, about a special meeting called at his church. It seems that his church had reached a crisis point of no longer being able to sustain itself financially due to dwindling attendance. The meeting was spent exploring solutions: marketing strategies, campaigns, special events, etc. It sounded to me just like...well, like a business meeting of a secular organization. It also sounded all too familiar. I've been to those sorts of meetings. In fact, in more recent years, I've been to way too many of them.

Once, I sat through a church meeting that was supposedly about the "new church vision". Most of the meeting, however, was taken up by showing us samples of the types of advertising and marketing the church leadership was considering. The pastor was proposing that tens of thousands of dollars be spent, by a small church, on mailings, DVDs (not of sermons but of clever "commercials" for the church) and gimmicky gifts such as bibs, pens, hats, etc. featuring the name and clever new logo of the church.

I've heard about pastors --- and actually met one --- who prefer to call themselves by a more business-oriented title, such as CEO or administrator or lead teacher. Anything but pastor...

I've read books and articles about church leadership that sounded just like the sort of stuff I used to read when I was part of the corporate world.

In fact, the business model of church growth and management is rampant in American today.

Call me hopelessly feminine, but I think it's wrong. I think it is more than wrong --- I think it is dangerously misguided. It is, in my opinion, the most serious symptom of the grave problem of the masculinization of the church.

It is, of course, entirely understandable that men would want to change the church into something that is familiar and comfortable to them. It is also understandable that they would want to take control, that they would want to remake the church into their own image --- as if it was their creation and their body --- and would want to define and take credit for its "growth".

But it's wrong.

The church belongs to Jesus Christ. It is His Body. It's not a commercial enterprise or a business entity. The Bible never describes it as such. We are family, we are united as members of His Body. We are not officers, managers, and employees of a business.

Jesus is the one who builds His Church.

He did not tell us to wage great marketing campaigns for Him. He told us to make disciples. Clever advertising and church growth strategies are not the way to fulfill the Great Commission.

Missing in all of this --- at least to my feminine way of thinking --- is prayer and a reliance on the Holy Spirit to do His work. My admittedly feminine approach to dwindling church numbers would be to open God's Word and ask, "How did He add to the church back in the beginning, when there were so few of them?" And then we would get on our knees, on our very faces, before Him. First we would come in repentance for all that we've done personally to get in the way of His work, the many ways we had brought shame to him and caused strife within His Body. We'd repent of our lack of love for each other and for those outside of His Body. We'd plead with Him to change us. Then we would pray on behalf of His church. We would plead with Him for revival, first in our hearts and then in the hearts of others. We would ask Him to make us bold in sharing the gospel. We would ask Him to build His church. We would ask Him to equip us for every good work, and to send us out into the harvest. We'd plead with Him to guide and direct us.

And we'd keep doing that.

In the meantime, we'd look to His Word to see what else the church is supposed to be doing. We would love one another. We would tend to the widows and orphans. We would feed and clothe the hungry, visit the prisoners, care for the sick, pray for one another, preach the gospel in season and out of season, teach our children, and make disciples. Most of all, we would worship God in spirit and in truth. We would love Him with all that we had, and we would pray for the ability to love Him more.

Yes, I know. Way too feminine. Unrealistic. Behind the times. I know. I know.

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7 comments:

  1. i am totally stunned no one has commented yet! once again Rebecca, terrific posts and insight! i posted alink to your blog on a form i hang about on, LoveToLearn.com, in case you see some traffic and wonder about it

    blessings and keep on posting!
    Barbara

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  2. I agree with Barbara. Great post.

    We are to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. That is the only way we can worship him.

    I find it strange that gender is being credited for a good or bad church. Maybe it has more to do with the spirit and the truth?

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  3. It's not a gender thing.
    It's demonic.
    Paul wrote and said so while he was still living, so it's not unexpected since it's been going on and getting worse and worse since then.
    ..
    P.S.
    In the gooooogle search engine, the automatic whatever offers to replace "Jesus" with "just" in a search.
    That's the way of the world.

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  4. Very good post!

    I think we "do" church more than we "are" church. Church has become an institution that we worship, defend and regulate.

    But we can go back to being the church. Maybe that will be the next revival!

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  5. "In the meantime, we'd look to His Word to see what else the church is supposed to be doing. We would love one another. We would tend to the widows and orphans. We would feed and clothe the hungry, visit the prisoners, care for the sick, pray for one another, preach the gospel in season and out of season, teach our children, and make disciples. Most of all, we would worship God in spirit and in truth. We would love Him with all that we had, and we would pray for the ability to love Him more.

    Yes, I know. Way too feminine. Unrealistic. Behind the times. I know. I know. "

    Rebecca, This reminded me of a book by Lisa Bevere "Fight like a girl".
    Lisa acknowledges the inbuilt uniqueness of men and women, and she encourages women to stand up and claim our ground back, femininely. She says women try to be men so they are accepted in the battleground, but at the end, we need to be women, truly feminine (as in what God created us to be) and raise to the challenge.

    The book makes some great points. I especially like the way she portrays women as strong relationship builders, "solutions" to problems, and nurturers. We aren't the problem, she says, we were created to be a solution.
    In that context, I think the church needs some female assistance!

    Thanks for the post, again.

    Madame

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  6. I think I see treating the church as a business as a form of worldliness-- and both men and women are capable of this. However, since even today men tend to run businesses more than women, it's probably a more masculine form of worldliness, than otherwise. However, I can't see prayer and humility as being exclusively feminine traits, nor do I think that's what you meant, Rebecca!

    The thing is that the church has always been masculinitized-- how could it not be, when the men were running everything and women's voices were excluded? But nowadays, when men in the church are more likely to listen to women, the church is moving more into balance. Those who see this as "feminization" should realize that they have no basis on which to call it that, since no one knows what a church run by females only would look like! (However, even if females had the opportunity to do so, I somehow doubt they would exclude men the way they have been excluded!)

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  7. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek male nor female. The assumption that it is feminine to want prayer and Holy Spirit and that it is masculine to want (manmade) strategies and business models is erroneous. If one puts aside ones own agenda and allows HIS agenda to be preeminent all of these things would simply go away. As has been said; At the heart of sin lies self.

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