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Ray Ortlund on Men With A Whole Heart

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Love this post from Ray Ortlund in so many ways.  Here you go:

There is only one way to play football — 110% effort every play, all the way to the end of the fourth quarter.  You lay it all down on that field.  Then you crawl off the field after the final gun with nothing left to give.  Football must be played with wholehearted abandon.  It’s the nature of the game.  It prepares us for life.
If I could change the Bible, all I would do is add “play high school football” to the qualifications for elders.  Men who have experienced such intense effort, hurling themselves into every play, especially as a team sport — such men understand what ministry demands and how good it feels to give their all for a cause greater than self.
Of course, there are other ways God provides for men to punch through to the experience of total abandon.  Football is not the only way.  But every man needs some kind of experience like this, to become the warrior God wants him to be.
There is only one way to serve Christ — all-out passion.  Passive men don’t understand, men who are afraid they might get knocked down or hurt.  Christianity must be lived with wholehearted abandon.  It’s the nature of the faith.  It prepares us for eternity.
Men with a whole heart — joy awaits them!
“Blessed are those who seek Him with their whole heart.”  Psalm 119:2

Godly Leadership In the Home

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I was encouraged earlier this week to listen to Heath Lambert’s podcast on Godly Leadership in the Home.

Maybe this would be something that would benefit you, as well.  This brief audio in an interview with Heath Lambert and Stuart Scott.  I love how the counsel to pursue Godly leadership flows out of realities that are in the Gospel.   Further, guys are encouraged to not be passive and even paralyzed by the calling, but are encouraged to seek out what leadership may look like in the Bible.

What Does It Mean To Be A Man?

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We discussed this at our Men’s Ministry Collision Course this past Sunday. Here’s the video we watched and the transcript:
 
What Does It Mean to Be a Man? from Desiring God on Vimeo.

Scott Anderson: Doug, in some of the things that I’ve read, that you’ve written online and in your books, you lay out some helpful roles — I don’t think you mean them to be binding but they are descriptive and I think helpful in helping us to understand what it means to be a man. And, I’d like you just to maybe comment on just a few of these. Talk about a man being a lord, a husbandmen, a savior, a sage and a glory-bearer. Unpack that a little bit for us.

Doug Wilson: I write on that in Future Men and I’m taking that breakdown from a gentleman named Bill Mowser who developed this in depth and has got some good materials on this, where he’s pursuing that. But, a lord, lords of the earth, think of men as built to explore. When God created Adam and gave him Eve and said, “Multiply,” He had the exploration of continents in mind. There were mountain ranges and places and seas to cross. There was a lot of exploration there that God expected men to go check out and in order for God to expect us to go explore those things, we have to be the kind of people who want to. So what impulse is it that stirs a man up to want to see what’s beyond the next mountain. So, lords of the earth is sort of the exploring motive. Discovery. And I’m talking geographically, but it also applies to scientific exploration, theological exploration, figuring things out.

Scott Anderson: So, a creation mandate, go-take-dominion kind of thing?

Doug Wilson: Yeah, in Proverbs it’s the glory of a king to search out a matter. God has built us for that. So figuring it out, digging all the way down, that’s the lords of the earth. But then, once you’ve discovered this continent, you need to cultivate it. You need to–you can’t just be a free-booting pirate moving from–that’s got no civilizational building power, you can’t build civilizations unless someone finds the territory to build it in. But, you can’t build it unless the husbandmen, the ranchers, the farmers come in and settle and tend and cultivate. So there’s a deep impulse that men have to cultivate.

There’s also the third thing: the savior impulse, the deliverer impulse. Which you can see in little boys. Boys want very much to save their sister. They want to save the damsel. There’s a reason why St. George and the dragon stories resonate. They resonate for a reason. And I would say there’s something important about this, because this, the necessity to be a savior predated the Fall, just like work predated the Fall, the husbandman thing that God wanted us to do — God told Adam to tend the garden. Well, God also by His providence told Adam to defend the Garden and defend his wife, because you had a world with no sin, you had an unfallen world, a perfect world, perfect marriage, perfect everything and yet in that Garden there was a serpent. There was a dragon. So, Adam needed to be a savior. And, he needed to step in, because God had told him not to eat of the fruit. Eve wasn’t created when that prohibition was given, so Adam needed to intervene somehow, he need to drive the serpent off. He needed to fight the serpent so the savior impulse predated the Fall. And, of course, after the Fall, it takes a different, there’s a different complexion to it, given the reality of sin, just as husbandry takes a different complexion after the Fall. But, Adam was to tend the ground before there were weeds and Adam was to tend the ground after there were weeds. Adam was to explore the world before there was sin and Adam was to explore the world after there was sin.

Then, the fourth thing you mentioned was a sage. And this echoes something else we talked about where in Colossians Paul wants every man presented perfect in Christ. Well, our goal is to grow up to maturity in Christ. And I think you can see that clearly in the Garden of Eden prior to the Fall. I don’t think it–had Adam not fallen, I don’t think we’d be able to go visit him in Mesopotamia today and have him still there hoeing a bean patch, standing around living in his little hut. No. He would have — it’s the glory of kings to search out a matter and he would have done so. Sin interferes with that, disrupts it, but doesn’t obliterate it.

And, then, lastly, the Bible is very explicit that men are the glory and image of God. A woman is the glory of man and man is the image and glory of God. And, so man is intended to be a glory bearer. He is, when he seeks glory, a recent book, very helpful book, by Dave Harvey, Rescuing Ambition, is a great book for this. We are glory chasers. And, that’s easily perverted, but it’s a godly and a good impulse, God has built us that way. We’re supposed to reflect God’s glory.

As you think about manhood, what stands out to you? I hope this video encourages you.

Weekend Recap – 9/16/12PM

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On this past Sunday, our men gathered for a series called Collision Course, which seeks to allow men to sharpen one another to practice Biblical masculinity.  Specifically, we engaged with this Doug Wilson video entitled Two Departures from Masculinity:

Here’s a transcript:
Scott Anderson of Desiring God: Doug, talk to us about what it means to depart from masculinity? What are the options if we fall off that horse?
Doug Wilson: I’m fond of telling our people at our congregation at Christ Church that there’s always a ditch on both sides of the road. There are two ways to run your car off the road. And if you want to stay on the road of Biblical, godly masculinity, one way to veer off the road is simply to abdicate, to collapse in a heap, to fail to fulfill your obligations because you twisted your ankle, just sort of an effeminate collapsing. Then, the other way to veer away from masculinity is through bravado or machismo or sort of a swagger that is all hat no cattle. You know all the trappings of masculinity are adopted: sports fanaticism, smoking cigars, loud music, your pickup truck is jacked up so you can go hunting bear. You’ve got all the trappings, but you’re not taking responsibility for your wife or for your family. So, one is a counterfeit machismo and the other is an effeminate collapsing.
Benjamin Oard led our men in a discussion on what are the ditches to avoid, how are they created and how we keep in the center, walking the path of Biblical masculinity God intended.  We had lots of rich discussion and prayer at our tables following this and ended our night.  It was a great time of fellowship and encouragement for the guys.

Weekend Recap – Collision Course on Inescapable Headship

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On Sunday PM, 4/22/12, our Men met to discuss issues of manhood.  We watched a video entitled Inescapable Headship.  Here it is:

Here’s a transcript:
Scott Anderson: Doug, you’ve written, in your book on Reforming Marriage, you’ve talked about the nature of headship and authority in the home and I think the phrase that you use is that there’s inescapable leadership in that if you understand the indicative nature of what’s being said about man being the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. Talk a little bit about that and how does that relate, how does that transfer over to the realm of pastor in the church and so on.
Doug Wilson: Right, it’s interesting that Paul, for example, doesn’t tell husbands to be the head of their wives. They are the head of the wife. The husband is the head of the wife, he says. The command is to love your wives. Husbands can love their wives or not. When a man disobeys, he is unloving and when a man is obedient, he is loving. But a man can’t disobey in such a way as to not be the head. He’s inescapably the head. So if he abdicates or if he runs away, he runs off with another woman, the empty seat at the dinner table in that family is dominating that whole family it becomes that family’s story. His headship, his abdication, his infidelity are all examples of twisted or bent headship, but it’s headship. It’s really influential. It has a huge impact on his wife, kids and so forth. So he can’t opt out. He can’t shrink away and say, well, I’m going to be a nullity in this family, I’m going to be inconsequential. He can’t do that. He can say I will not love, I will not praise, I will not sacrifice. He can be disobedient. But he can’t be disobedient to the point of ceasing to be the man, ceasing to the husband, ceasing to be the father.
By way of Application, we looked at these Scriptures: 

1 Corinthians 11:3 –But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.
Ephesians 5:23 –
For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.

Here’s some further questions to consider:
• What does it mean for the husband to be “head”?
• How do these texts understand our headship will be practiced?
• What is one area in which you can be more effective in headship?
• Pray about these things at your table.

Father Hunger?

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Our Men’s Ministry Collision Course met this past Sunday, March 18, 2012.  We discussed this video from Desiring God entitled, What is Father Hunger?

Here’s a transcript of the interview:

Scott Anderson: So Doug, tell me about this phrase I’ve heard you write about on your blog and talk about before, Father Hunger.  What do you mean by that and what are you trying to get at using that phrase?
Doug Wilson: What I mean is that when, when fathers abdicate, when fathers are not fathers, when fathers don’t exhibit the kind of backbone their wives and their children need them to exhibit, there’s a natural and built-in creational need that his wife and his children need him to exhibit but he’s not exhibiting.  They need him to give them something that he’s not giving to them.  And when he—famished nature will be avenged—when you withhold from your children the praise that children ought to receive from their father, when you withhold from them a love that they ought to get from their father, when you withhold from them provision they ought to get from their father, they have a deep awareness that something’s missing. 
Now, oftentimes, because of how they’ve grown up they don’t know what it is exactly.  They can’t pinpoint what the problem is but they are highly susceptible to political demagogues, they are susceptible to counterfeit forms of masculinity, screaming at rock stars, people who exhibit some sort of machismo, some sort of strength, people gravitate to that not knowing why they do.  They’ll fall for the promises of a paternalistic state: “I’ll take care of you; I’ll provide everything you need.”  And that’s all driven by father hunger.  Feminism is driven by father hunger.  Many people think feminism is the desire to have men go away.  I think fundamentally feminism is the deep angst over men not showing up.   
After showing this video to the men, we discussed the examples of Abraham (Genesis 22:5), Job (Job 1:5) and Paul’s commands to the Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 16:13-14).  We asked men two questions:
1) What do the examples of Abraham and Job teach us?
2) In what area(s) do you need to “act like a man”?
We closed in prayer with men praying at tables with one another over these things. 

Weekend Recap — Collision Course, Session 1

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This past Sunday PM, 2/19/12, we kicked off Collision Course at Crestview.  A series of videos and talks about the meaning of manhood, allowing men to sharpen one another as iron sharpens iron.

Here’s the video from session 1:


We also added these notes:

Session 1—2/19/12PM
Masculinity Defined
With Doug Wilson
Masculinity Is the Glad
Assumption of Responsibility
(http://vimeo.com/30751344)
Scott Anderson: So Doug, when John [Piper] invited you to speak at the Desiring God Conference for Pastors coming up in 2012, he noted that he’s been amazed to see in the past 25 years or so this resurgence among the young reformed guys in their embracing of complementarity and he would not have foreseen that: a bunch of young reformed guys reformed and also concerned about Biblical Manhood.  He’s been heartened by that and thus we want to do this conference on it.  I wonder if you have any kind of working definition for Biblical Masculinity or Biblical manhood as you understand it?
Doug Wilson: Yeah, the working definition that I have is that masculinity is that which takes responsibility, so the glad assumption of responsibility or to fill it out a little bit more, the glad, sacrificial assumption of responsibility is masculinity.  So, my understanding of Christ’s teaching is that authority flows to those who take responsibility.  And, authority flees those who try to evade responsibility.  And so, when men try to evade responsibility through laziness or brittle egos or whatever, however much they make excuses, authority, natural masculine authority, is running away from them.  But when they take responsibility—husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church—that’s the assumption of responsibility, and that’s the sacrificial assumption of responsibility.  And, when a man does that, he begins functioning as a head ought to function.  He is the head, regardless, but he begins functioning the way a masculine head ought to function.  So, the glad assumption of sacrificial responsibility is how I would understand masculinity. 
Some Scriptures That Unpack This:
In the Garden before the Fall and before Eve, God gave Adam the task of naming animals: (Genesis 2:19-20)  “Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.  And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.  20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.” 
After Eve’s sin in the Garden, God comes looking for Adam: (Genesis 3:8-9)  “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
God considers men those who sacrificially take responsibility: (Ephesians 5:23) “…the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.”
Therefore…some questions for application:
1) In what areas do you need to take responsibility?
2) What is keeping you from doing this gladly?
3) What sacrifices will this mean for you and how do they compare with the sacrifice Christ has made for the church?
4) What effect do you think that your taking responsibility might have on those around you?
5) How can other men help encourage you and hold you accountable in your assumption of responsibility?
Hope you have a fruitful time unpacking what we discussed.

Weekend Recap – 10/23/11 with Dan Dumas

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We had a great weekend at Crestview with Dan Dumas visiting. I was really impacted by the book he co-wrote with Randy Stinson entitled Guide to Biblical Manhood. Having heard Dan unpack what the purpose of the book was a few times this weekend, I would say it is a tremendously helpful, practical book on fleshing out what manhood looks like according to the Bible. Upon reading that, I knew I needed to get Dan here around our men and yesterday was our day.

During the SS hour, Dan preached from James 1:19-25 a message entitled God’s Mudroom for Worship. God has given us His Word as basic functioning for life. Specifically, this passage calls us to hear and heed God’s Word by application.

In the AM Worship Service, Dan preached from Job 1 a message entitled Spiritual Ruggedness. This message really unpacked how Job could be a point where he worshipped after suffering hit and his anchor proved to be a Sovereign, Immovable God.

Finally, in the PM, Dan preached from 1 Kings 2:1-9 on the DNA of Biblical Manhood. Seizing upon David’s deathbed charge to Solomon, Dan gave rich application to the men to Fear God, Tremble His Word, Be Tough As Nails, Do Hard Things First, and simply Act Like Men.

All is all, my soul was very nourished and refreshed. Weaknesses were exposed in both my life and leadership. Many applications need to be pursued as a result of this weekend. I hope your Lord’s Day was profitable as well.

Weekend Preview for 10/23/11

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We anticipate a great weekend at church this weekend.  First off, on Saturday, October 22nd, our Ladies have a Prayer Retreat.  Always a great time for them.

I’m really excited, though, for Sunday when we have Dan Dumas from Southern Seminary and author of Guide to Biblical Manhood in to speak.  He will preach in the morning and speak, specifically, to our men at the Men & Boys Chili Feed, Sunday night at 6PM.

The Gospel changes everything, especially how you act as a male and female in the unique hardwiring God created for you.  Come this weekend expecting this glorious Gospel to be on full display as we flesh out what being a man and woman is all about.

Family Decline…Are you helping?

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I was challenged by a recent post on the Resurgence entitled The Decline of the Nuclear Family.  Among other things, this post highlighted how the demographics of families have changed and how the church should respond.  The point:

Perhaps the most loving, most prophetic thing the church can do is to call men in their 20s to love Jesus, read their Bibles, get a job, to leave their parent’s house, and to love one woman—according to the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and the New York Times, no one is doing that.

Creating a culture of manhood is, evidently, not that hard. Let’s call men to this high standard and watch the fruit it produces.