Saturday, October 11, 2008

Re:Lit | Porn Again Christian | by Mark Driscoll | Chapter 1 - A Tall Glass of Toilet Water

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Here's today's reading assignment, guys. Driscoll takes up the topic of godly masculinity - the lack of it that is. We have a lack in pastoral leadership resulting in a lack of truly masculine Christ followers.

Ouch.

"God tells us that his people tend to satisfy their thirst not by drinking from his streams of living water, but instead drinking from man-made toilets (Jer. 2:13). This metaphor is particularly adept in a world where men such as Tom Leykis, Dr. Drew, Howard Stern, and a legion of men’s magazines and porno providers become wealthy by selling glasses of toilet water to thirsty men across our nation, many of whom claim to be sons of God. Meanwhile, the church alone has access to the living water from God’s perfect Word, but largely fails to teach men masculinity in any area, particularly regarding their sexuality." read more here

 

my notes:

"the church alone has access to the living water from God’s perfect Word, but largely fails to teach men masculinity in any area, particularly regarding their sexuality."--- I totally agree with this. The church attempts to tame men which is something I totally needed when I came to the Lord. I was wild, fresh out of the military, looking for parties, women and trouble. So much trouble came my way that if Christ didn't intervene, I would be dead, no doubt about it. God used my future wife and a real relationship with Jesus to tame me. But I felt like the church wanted to feminize me (I remember people rolling their eyes at me if my shirt sleeve lifted high enough to reveal a tattoo on my arm - that was awhile ago) as if Jesus wasn't a real man so I couldn't be either. Thankfully, my wife wouldn't let that happen.

I'm not sure what that has to do with anything, but I do think that certain aspects of manhood are stifled.

"the effeminate nature of pastors and churches causes many masculine men to feel unwelcome in what they perceive as an organization solely for women, children, and weaker men."--- I would never attend a church where the pastor is effeminate. If I can't follow the guy, or if I think he can't whoop my butt in a fist fight (or at least give me a run for my money), I can't really receive from him. I'm not saying this is a strength, but it is what it is. He's got to be man enough to get in my face personally or I won't grow.

Re:Lit | Porn Again Christian | by Mark Driscoll | Chapter 1 - A Tall Glass of Toilet Water

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Meanwhile, the church alone has access to the living water from God’s perfect Word, but largely fails to teach men masculinity in any area, particularly regarding their sexuality."

Spot on. I'm guessing because of religious pressure to be nice and "safe for the whole family", or frank talk about pornography and men's sexual issues would have offended the vast majority of Christian women sitting in the pews and, in turn, perhaps drove them to stop giving their tithe.

There have always been ministries dealing with sexual issues but by and large they weren't easy to find.

"Lastly, the sad truth is that many pastors are also enslaved to their own sexual sins and/or are languishing in unfulfilling and infrequent sex with their wives, and therefore are unable to speak of sexual matters out of a sense of disqualification."

I would not want to be in pastoral ministry still struggling with this issue. A lot of guys feel alone in this struggle, and some cannot take it to other men in the church because they would be condemned and the benefits of such a confession would be outweighed by the negatives. So they struggle, alone, and unless God sovereignly intervenes they go through a season of life, sinning sexually in their minds and abusing their bodies, alone, without it being known by other brothers in Christ nor being challenged and encouraged by them to overcome those sins.

"....because God uses frank words for deplorable sin so we will feel its sickness without anesthesia."

I don't want anesthesia. I want to be confronted and challenged in a Godly way, so I may repent and be healed, of every sin I struggle with and commit.

Bryonm said...

Great comments Brian!

One thing that I heard Rick Warren say recently is that we live in a culture with a "gotcha!" mentality. Many church leaders live in that kind of political environment IN CHURCH. They can't bring their junk out because there would be no healing for them. So the sin spirals like a dog eating it's own tail.

Anonymous said...

Bryon,

We people NOT in leadership deal with that kind of environment, too (sex isn't the only thing we tend not to confess, so the principle applies in all kinds of areas of our lives). If you bring the wrong thing up, it can cost you friends, ministry opportunities, even your place in church. Thankfully, lots of churches won't throw you out for wanting to confess, repent and overcome sin, but there are the horror stories out there from people who were.