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Bedridden Christians
Wake Up Pastor, Your Men are Bored
The Wild Man
Sit, Be
Quiet, and Grow Up to be A Girlie-Man
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I often think back to my 1st year as a high school football coach. Fresh
out of college and full of know-it-all-ness I was assigned the duty of
coaching the junior varsity football team. My job was to mold the boys
who didn't play in the varsity game on Friday night into a cohesive unit
for Saturday morning's JV game. As was our custom, we often had the "reserves"
stay after the varsity practice had ended, to sharpen up our skills for
the up-coming Saturday.
The usual format was to have eleven players work on a series of plays,
as 25 other boys stood and watched their position. The plan was that the
25 watching would learn from the 11 playing. Inevitably, I would find
much of my time being wasted speaking to the 25 who were supposed to be
watching, but were instead, goofing off.
One particular Tuesday evening I received a bit of advice from a grizzled
ole veteran coach that stuck with me throughout my 25-year coaching career.
After watching my level of frustration rise, this "old-timer" slid quietly
up to my side and softly shared the advice that forever changed my approach
to working with young men.
"Coach", he said, as he hitched-up his pants over his sinking waistline.
"You can work these boys until their tongues are dragging the ground and
they will come back tomorrow." His fierce, kind eyes bored in on mine.
"But don't you bore them. If they are bored, they'll never come back."
Pastor, your men are bored.
"A poll recently conducted by California-based Barna Research Group, found
85 percent of Christian men are not "spiritually challenged," according
to a statement from Promise Keepers, a Colorado-based men's organization.
The Ole Coach must be smiling.
I love Promise Keepers. I attended my first one in Folsom Field in 1990.
I have been part of it all. "Stand In the Gap", "Storm the Gates", and
"Another Million Men at The Cross". Pk changed my life. They called me
to a greater commitment to my Faith. As an estimated 5 million men have
experienced, a PK event deepens you. I learned to pray with my children,
to value my wife, to reach out to my Christian brother, to help with household
chores. As Promise Keepers awakened the heart of the Christian man, by
the millions men answered the challenge to a greater commitment. They
left the stadiums with great expectations and returned to their local
church genuinely determined to change.
But, out of the glare of the lights and the aroma of men, they fell back
into the pattern of "church", and the same stale church programs that
for years they had avoided. Soon the fire was dimmed, the passion was
gone, and the lion had been tamed. Longing for the thrill of the game,
they sat quietly in their churches watching the pastor's Sunday performance.
Men are bored, and they are quitting the team.
The nature of man is to fight. For thousands of years men have filled
stadiums to watch gladiators battle. Whether it is a Roman Coliseum or
a modern-day college football game, men turn out in droves to live vicariously
through the warriors on the field. The battle is exhilarating, touching
us in the deepest part of our maleness. Deep in his heart, any man worthy
of his testosterone longs for the battle. Pastors, do you really want
to know why men are not "spiritually challenged"?
They have no battle.
Longing to do something great for Christ, we have instead been given effeminate,
nursery school duties. How many dishes do we have to wash? How much bread
must we hand out to the needy? How many men's breakfasts do we attend
before we find that passion…that fire that ignites our heart? We love
the Lord, and long to serve Him, but why is it the average Joe would rather
attend an Ohio State football game than join our men's group for a trip
to the local nursing home?
The Lion of the Tribe of Judah lives in us and is itching to roar. Unfortunately,
the church is trying to domesticate us, trying to transform the Lion into
a Lamb.
Five years ago I was an effeminized Christian man. A leader of men in
the real world, I was a pew sitter in the church, expecting the pastor
and the women to do the church business. Content to do dishes, pray for
with my kids, and turn the other cheek, it took a blindside attack from
the ACLU for me to awaken. Sued for having the audacity to pray with our
football teams, I was unceremoniously drug kicking and screaming into
the cultural war. For the first time in my life I was confronted with
the question "How does a Christian man act?" With my back to the wall
I was faced with the option to roll over or fight.
I have been swinging away ever since.
In 2002 we organized a group of lion-hearted Christians who were sick
and tired of watching Americas foundation be destroyed. Realizing that
Jesus told us that the "gates of hell would not prevail against the church"
we decided that it was time to stop hiring mercenaries (Republicans, conservatives)
to face the enemy that Jesus had specifically called the "church" to oppose.
Tired of the squishy, "pray for them" approach to the enemies of God,
we determined in our hearts to oppose evil wherever it reared its ugly
head.
We are in the game, and our Faith has come alive.
While millions of Christians gathered in the safety of their church on
Sunday April 25th, the Minutemen, and women, (www.minutemenunited.org)
trekked to Washington D.C. to stand for life against those who were marching
for death. Hundreds of thousands of pro-death marchers spewed venom and
hatred at us as we proudly defended the unborn.
"Hey buddy", we yelled at the effeminized men in the parade who marched
dutifully behind their bossy women, "Real men raise babies, they don't
kill them." Seems pretty radical, eh?
It was the most gratifying church service of my life!
Want men back in your church, Pastor? Quit making them act like sissies.
Give them a Gospel that demands something, a Gospel that calls them to
a battle, a Gospel that they are willing to die for. Stop trying to turn
them into women.
Last August our family traveled to Chicago for a few days of R and R.
The searing hot sun so common in the midwest was baking us as we walked
the several blocks from our hotel to the waterfront. We suddenly found
ourselves at the entrance of the Lincoln Park Zoo. As we wound our way
along the steaming asphalt I muttered under my breath my displeasure at
coming all of the way to Chicago to be char-grilled in the zoo. As I rounded
a bend there was a sign directing us towards the "big cats". "Interesting",
I thought. Let's check out the Lions.
As we walked by the glassed-in, fake mountains so prevalent in zoos today
I strained to get a look at the majestic lions. Certainly they were there,
probably lying in the shade, waiting on some fresh meat from the zookeeper.
To my dismay, no cats were to be seen.
Suddenly, my daughter yelled, "Up here, Dad." I carried my sweat-soaked
body a few paces, to the entrance of the building where the lions were
housed. As we walked in, the coolness of the air conditioning offered
an immediate relief from the scorching sun. Looking to my left, behind
the glass, stood a majestic lion on the top of the miniature-golf-like
mountain. With his fluffy mane proudly furled, the King of the Beasts
walked down the path, stopped in front of our family, and looked us in
the eye. I stood transfixed by this huge animal, feeling as if he had
been waiting for me.
"Finally", he must have been thinking, "someone who understands."
He threw back his large head, shook his yoke-like mane, bared his teeth,
and trumpeted a roar that shook the entire auditorium.
"There is my church," the Lord said to my heart. The Lion of the Tribe
of Judah, trapped in the air-conditioning, bored by life, waiting to be
fed…..longing to roar.
All that was missing was the padded pews.
"Put me in Coach!" I can't tell you the number of times I have heard that
over the years. The heart-cry of a young man is to get in the game. Sadly,
as these young men get older, the cry to war gets muted, as the church
undertakes a domestication process, turning the lions into kittens.
So the lions look for other places to fight. Some turn to the workplace,
others to sports, still more to the NASCAR, all looking for a place where
it is okay to be a man.
At no time in American history has the need been greater for Christian
men who are willing to roar. As evil boldly parades up and down the streets
of America, God's churches have become like the Lincoln Park Zoo. The
Lion of the Tribe of Judah, those who are charged with storming the gates
of hell, sit in man-made zoos with padded pews, too domesticated to roar.
If this great nation is to survive, the animals must be set free.
"Rise up of men of God, have done with lesser things. Give heart and soul
and mind and strength, to serve the King of Kings."
"Put me in Coach". Can't you hear the cry, pastor. Set the captives free!
I heard somewhere that when the lion roars every animal in the jungle
goes silent, fully aware of the ferocity of the greatest of all beasts.
America is rapidly becoming a jungle.
Now is time for the lions to roar.
Coach Dave Daubenmire hosts a talk show called Pass The Salt heard on
The Word 880am WRFD, in Columbus, Ohio, and WTSJ in Cincinnati.. A former
high school football coach sued by the ACLU in 1999 for praying with his
football team, Coach Daubenmire is President of Pass The Salt Ministries
www.ptsalt.com and Minutemen United www.minutemenunited.org> , which
are dedicated to standing for Christian values in the public arena. Coach
may be contacted at coach@ptsalt.com .
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"You can work these boys until their tongues are dragging the ground
and they will come back tomorrow." His fierce, kind eyes bored in on mine.
"But don't you bore them. If they are bored, they'll never come back."
Pastor, your men are bored.
Deep in his heart, any man worthy of his testosterone longs for the battle.
Pastors, do you really want to know why men are not "spiritually challenged"?
They have no battle.
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