A church should have a masculine ethos (or not)

More thoughts guaranteed to raise your blood pressure. From Christ is deeper still: Top-line thoughts from the Raleigh Boot Camp.

1. A church should have a masculine ethos. 1 Corinthians 16:13 commands a whole church, "Act like men." There is cowardice, even effeminacy, in American churches today.

I am wondering what the correct technical word is for a pile of dog poo like this. Ah yes, I know, complementarianism!

Let us start by looking at 1 Corinthians 16:13 in a range of Bible translations:

• Today's New International Version (TNIV): Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.
• The Message (MSG): Keep your eyes open, hold tight to your convictions, give it all you've got, be resolute
• Revised Standard Version(RSV): Be watchful, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong.
• New English Bible (NEB): Be alert; stand firm in the faith; be valiant and strong.
• New Jerusalem Bible: Be vigilant, stay firm in the faith, be brave and strong.
• New Living Translation (NLT): Be on guard. Stand true to what you believe. Be courageous. Be strong.
• New Revised Standard Version (NRSV): Keep alert, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong.
• The Source: Keep your wits about you! Stand firm in the faith! Be courageous! Be mighty!
• New International Version - UK: Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.
• English Standard Version (ESV): Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
• King James Version (KJV): Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

A short pause for a comment that, as is so often the case, the KJV will be completely mis-understood by most people: "quit like men" will not be taken to mean be courageous or anything similar. My teenage son said it means you have to beat everyone up and then fire a rocket launcher at them.

Now my main point. The original text (literally "be men") is a picture, a common expression. To take this as an instruction to have a masculine ethos is quite simply a misuse of language. Clearly it is intended to mean "be courageous" which is entirely consistent with the other demands. Be Alert. Stand firm. Be courageous. Be strong.

It is incredibly insulting to the memory of extremely courageous women to claim that this is a masculine trait. Just take the second world war as an example. As a pacifist one of my Great Aunts drove around much of North Africa in a Red Cross ambulance during the second world war (I have always thought driving an amulance around a rapidly changing war zone is highly dangerous). Many women demonstrated great courage in rescuing Jews and providing routes back home for them and people who had escaped from concentration camps or escaped crashed planes. Others served in the resistance and special operations, while others set a fine example in concentration camps. Many rose to face new challenges that they had always been told were beyond them in factories, fields, transport etc etc.

Anyone who has seen a woman go through another pregnancy after a previous difficult and/or dangerous birth has seen great courage in action.

In short to claim that this simile justifies a masculine ethos for the church is plain ludicrous. It also gives a dangerous edge to the idea of being courageous and one that disenfranchises at a stroke 50% of the worlds population. It is worth remembering that God is NOT male. Becoming masculine does not make us like God. Even the ESV and KJV record that in Genesis 1:27 God created males and females in God's image.

My suggestion is that Ray Ortlund takes the quotation used as his blog title more seriously. For if ever there was someone that illustrates that 1 Corinthians 16:13 does not require us to all become men it is Corrie Ten Boom.

Hat tip: Transforming Sermons: Men or mommy's boys?.

It is about time we had a competition. So come up with your short and theologically sound alternatives to "A church should have a masculine ethos". Answers in the comments please and the best can enter one of the bus slogan competitions.

Comments

[PamBG]

OK, Yeah. That set my blood boiling. I don't even like the concepts of 'masculine' and 'feminine'.

Have to write a sermon today but might get back to this if I have time.

[Martin Jack]

I found more of this manly men ethos reading Driscoll's recent blog entry I Need Nine Hundred Men: Calling All Potential Church Planters and Multi-Site Campus Pastors. Here he describes the kind of church planters and pastors he is after:

We are deadly serious about the great commission and loading all guns to storm hell with the gospel of grace. And we need more men. Nine hundred men. Not boys—men. Real men. Men who care less about padding their resume and getting their vacation days than about seeing lives transformed and legacies altered for generations. We need men who love their wives, pastor their children, submit to Scripture, bleed the gospel, and have steel in their spine, love in their hearts, and the lost in their sights.

Calling all hunter-gatherers!

[Peter Kirk]

Surely "quit you like men" means what most men in Britain have done: leave the church!

But I'm not sure the word really does "literally" mean "be men". This is probably the etymological fallacy: the verb is derived from the noun meaning "man" or "husband", but that doesn't imply that its meaning is directly that. As most modern translators have realised, the real literal meaning of this verb, at least in this context, is indeed something like "be courageous".

[PamBG]

"Storm hell with the gospel of grace" is not only a contradiction in terms, it's what Jesus didn't do.

Have I misunderstood or is Driscoll is preaching the same message that The Tempter preached to Jesus when he told Jesus to throw himself off the Temple and take control of the powers of the world?

[Dave]

Thanks for the feedback.

Peter, I am thinking of writing on the issue of men leaving the church as I recently heard a different perspective.

I took the "literal" meaning from my interlinear Bible.

[Peter Kirk]

Dave, I would like to see your thoughts on why men leave the church. I know it is not really because they have been reading and misunderstanding this verse in KJV! Maybe it is partly because the church has too much of a feminine ethos. That is not to support Driscoll, but to say that the church should be balanced in these matters. My own church is actually quite well balanced between men and women, which I think is because of the leaders' care not to be too feminine, or masculine.

[PamBG]

Given that most congregations are run by men and that denominational rulership in all denominations in the UK is majority male, how does 'the church in general' succeed in having a mainly feminine ethos? It must be the male leaders who are creating this, no?

[Chris E]

Calling all hunter-gatherers!

Anyone evaluating the ministry of a 38 year old pastor who, by his own admission, has lots to learn, has to evaluate him as someone who is work in progress.

There is a lot to critique about Driscoll's approach. On the other hand, Driscoll's church doesn't seem to have any problem attracting men, especially young men - if you claim it's for all the wrong reasons you at least acknowledge that different things attract men.

If men aren't attracted to a church, is that because God wills them not to be saved? Or is it that those churches aren't being completely faithful to their call to the Great Commission?

[Peter Kirk]

"Calling all hunter-gatherers!"

Chris, you can drop "gatherers" part. In this anthropological model or stereotype the women are the gatherers and the men are only the hunters.