I feel this in my bones:
Across every denomination, the Christian faith in Western churches has been distilled down to an 11th Commandment: "Thou shalt be nice."
This is done in the name of love, and truth is the first casualty.
As the church becomes more of a social club, men check out. Men want something to fight for – a cause that is worthy of struggle, sacrifice, and death. They want to boldly lead, build, and fight back the shadows. More than that, they want and need a king to follow into battle.
This is why the ardent fedora-wearing keyboard warrior, who proclaims no belief in God and believes he alone is the pinnacle of human intellect, is likely tweeting about how superior he is while surrounded by hordes of Marvel, Disney, and Dungeons & Dragon gear. He can't help but live in the way he was designed to be as a man, and if he doesn't follow his Creator into battle, he will follow and worship the idols of ComicCon, Wall Street, and ESPN in God's stead.
These men need a God who isn't a sky fairy, but a warrior who hurls the horse and driver into the sea. They need One who puts on righteousness as His breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on His head, to repay wrath to those who have perverted justice. They need the Ancient of Days who opens the books from His throne of fire, slays the beasts, and holds everlasting dominion. They need One with blazing eyes who comes from heaven with a sword and a robe dipped in blood, ready to strike down the nations.
Because of this, a church that's reduces itself to self-help messages from the pulpit and lovey-dovey songs about our feelings doesn't inspire or attract men.
The way our churches view men and women is largely the same as the surrounding culture. As this complacency has happened, churches' views on marriage, sexuality, and parenting have become more or less what Hollywood celebrities were saying 10 years ago.
As our fundamental understanding of our human identity erodes, civilization collapses under the weight of growing sin. Many churches see this problem, but are trying to fix it by becoming more "affirming" and "tolerant," like a mom trying desperately to love a rebellious kid out of reckless behavior when they need the firm discipline of a father.
When men try to do what God designed them to do and bring order to the chaos, they are told they are being proud and the label "servant leader" is weaponized to undercut their natural masculine desire to protect against encroaching danger.
The Church cannot survive without manly men of God leading it. The congregations that ignore this reality will fade into apostasy and inevitably close their doors.
How do we fix this problem?
Simple: Smash the secular idols that have been placed alongside Christ in our churches for the last century, then put Christ and His Word back at the center.
What begins with the family flows into corporate worship.
The reason young Christian men are turning to secular experts like Jordan Peterson and are increasingly interested in Christian Nationalism books (which will never be featured in most churches) is that they know, deep down, that masculinity is a fixed and unmovable thing that God has designed and defined, and that something in our culture has gone horribly against this design.
It is programmed into each man's heart, and like gravity, will always assert itself given enough time.
The problem is, human masculinity is not the all-encompassing definition of God's character. God made men and women in His image – each different, and each reflecting different aspects of His glory.
What the milquetoast American churches do not realize is that the coming backlash of culture against the over-feminization of society is inevitable. It is already happening. The Church will follow instead of lead (because it hasn't led for nearly a century in this nation), and the consequences will be dire.
When that happens, the woke feminist screeches about the Patriarchy and toxic masculinity very well may come true, especially now that culture reflects pagan societies much more than Christian civilization. The same brutal hyper-masculine worldview of the Vikings or the Romans or the Assyrians may come to pass in America as well. The prophecies of alt-right "Handmaid's Tale" nightmares very well may have some truth to them as order comes to inevitably quell the chaos of the secular left.
The question for these churches, then, is not whether they will attract more men to the church by embracing masculinity, for God is capable of that Himself. Instead, it is a question of whether the Church will temper that rising masculine flame into a form that is profitable for building and protecting society – and build a structure of ordered authority centered around God that disciples men and keeps the fire hot and productive – or, if it will let the fires of the coming backlash burn unchecked as the pendulum swings to a period of hyper-masculinized, godless depravity.
Church leaders, start here:
From this point, expand your focus on men. Don't push books about vulnerability and servant leadership by New York Times bestselling Christian authors. Go to the fringes, find the people the culture is demonizing, dive into history books, and talk about what it means to make disciples of the nations.
And if you get the chance, go sit in a deer stand with some men and start planning the revolution of godly masculinity that will shatter the spears of the devil and fortify the Church so that she can be protected from the utter evil that now assails her.
