Gary:
Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.This week’s item is from the Associated Press, April 7, 2007, with a headline:Men Only Church Timed Sermons Meets in Gym, the following are excerpts.No hymnals, no pews, no steeple, no stained glass windows, and no women.This ain’t your grandma’s church.Organizers of the Church for Men say that guys are bored stiff in many churches today.We try to make it interesting for them, we meet in a gym and we talk about issues that mess men up, said Mike Ellis, 46, the church’s founder.The Church for Men meets one Saturday evening per month drawing about 70 guys dressed in everything but straight laced and neckties.The service features a rock band, a shop clock to time the preacher’s message, and a one hour in and out guarantee.Long church services also cause men to leave the fold, said Ellis, who first got the idea for a “man only” church six years ago.I have the attention span of a flea, he said, they say that if you don’t get a man’s attention in 6 to 8 minutes you’ve lost them.To that end, followers at Church for Men meet on a basketball court, a large score board with a time clock insures the preacher’s message is delivered in 15 minutes, and the same rock band that opened for Bad Company and the Georgia Satellites a month ago, bangs out a three song set of hard rocking tunes.Other churches with a male bent include GroveCommunityChurch in Peoria, Illinois.Members there don’t have a pastor, they have a coach who integrates a healthy life-giving masculine spirit throughout the entire church, according to the church’s website.
Tom:
Dave, there is so much of this going on, it raises the question:What’s the point of going to church? why have a church? Or let’s do whatever we can to make the church as attractive as we can.But it still comes back to, What’s the point of a church, Dave?
Dave:
Well, they meet together to worship the Lord, to fellowship with one another, and they pray for one another and with one another, and to talk to the Lord in prayer, to edify one another.We were reading, last week, wasn’t it? Or the week before, I can’t remember, Tom, but Paul preached all night, went down past midnight until the sun was up in the morning and they loved it!Why?
Tom:
You mean, there was no shop corner, there was no—
Dave:
They are in love with the Lord and they want to study His Word.
Tom:
Amen.
Dave:
Now, this is just catering to the weaknesses and the lack of understanding and spirituality of men.The Psalmist said:My soul thirsts for God, as the hart pants after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, Oh God.David said:“One thing have I desired, Psalm:27:4One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.
See All..., of the Lord, that will I seek after:that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.”Tom, if they went to a basketball game, shot clock, sure, to keep the thing moving along, but if that game went into overtime,especially if their team is in behind and just tied it up the last minute— how long does a basketball, NBA takes at least two hours, more than that, and these guys, you’ve got to do it in 15 minutes!There is something basically wrong with their whole attitude.
Tom:
Well, Dave, it’s really simple, they are attracting the men on the basis of feeding their flesh. And then they say, Well, where are we going to do it for 15 minutes so we can get to their spirit because their spirit can only handle it for 15 minutes or 30 minutes.And let’s take other churches, we have the same program, you attract them in on the basis of the flesh and then you think that you are going to speak to them spiritual things that they are going to take heart to or be under conviction by?Not that that can’t happen, but Dave, you know the axiom, what brings them in keeps them in.You bring them in with feeding the flesh, it’s a bottomless pit, you’ve got to keep feeding it.
Dave:
And as you began, Tom, what’s the point?What’s the point?Jesus said:I will build my church, on this rock I’ll build my church.Peter confessed, You’re the Christ, the Son of the living God, and you think of that.Jesus said:Where two or three are gathered together in myname—I don’t know whether they meet in the name of Jesus, I don’t think Jesus would approve of this, but anyway—there am I in the midst of them.Now, what does Jesus have to do with this?What does the fact that He died for our sins on the cross have to do with this?What is the fact that, If any man be in Christ, he’s a new creation, old things have passed away, all things have become new.There’s a difference between a Christian and the world, but these men are in the world.They still want to live like the world, think like the world, act like the world, and well, we might just squeeze a little bit of spirituality in there, but don’t overdo it because this is a Church for Men.Now, the Bible says that the man is the leader of the house, he is supposed to be the spiritual head and leader and inspire her for the church as well.And this pastor, I guess that’s what they call him—No, no, he’s a coach.
Tom:
Well, some churches they call him coach, because we don’t want to intimidate people by a preacher.
Dave:
He says he has the attention span of a flea.Now I don’t know about a flea or how much their attention span is, but he’s boasting of this? And he hasn’t been able to train himself to do any better?I tell you, if he ever stood in the presence of God, his attention would be focused, he would be on his face.Or if Jesus showed up to one of their meetings, they would be on their faces.There is no reverence, they is no fear of God.Tom, they are lacking a basic understanding of what the whole thing is about.Man is a sinner, rebellious, separated from God—All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned to our own way.These guys want to take their own way, and maybe throw in a little Jesus along the way.But Tom, this is Christianity today, unfortunately, to a very large extent and it’s going like this more and more.
Tom:
Dave, we just had some friends from Hong Kong, a Chinese church in Hong Kong, churches over there, and we’re going to be there in August, the Lord willing, and he said:You guys can talk for 2 or 2 1/2 hours whatever the Lord puts on your heart, and he said, I will tell you they will be riveted.Now if they are riveted on my preaching, Dave, that would be a surprise, but— No, I’ll take that back because if I’m speaking the Word of God by the whole power of the Holy Spirit, even I can keep their attention for a time.I know you will, but the point is that they are looking forward to it, they have a hunger and a desire for that.
Dave:
Amen, that’s the way it ought to be.