Jun 15, 2012
Challenging the Man of God Teaching
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I look foward to listening to this in next few days!
This "Man of God" idea bothered me when i was in the IC and it makes me want to vomit if i hear it now after years outside the system. It separates people from each other's humanity...and reinforces the false "clergy/laity distinction".
after listening to this i realise it wasn't really about the 'man of God' idea that i thought it was - ie the professional guy who is like this mythical figure at organised churches...doh
Great podcast. One of the things that disgusted me about the last congregation I attended before leaving the church altogether was that the 2 pastors (both male) were possibly the most pathetic, emotionally repressed and downright wussy men I've ever seen. What made it worse was that both men had large groups of men in the church who would follow them around like lost puppy dogs, hanging on every word they said as if it was from God himself, trying desperately to emulate their behavior. It was so bad that I began to wonder if half the men in the church were secretly gay. I considered most of the men to be a waste of space, but I still have great respect for many of the women there, who were generally emotionally and spiritually stronger than the men, and in many ways were the actual leaders.
Finally,someone spoke the big hidden lie!Most men are beaten up,wimpish guilt ridden,jellyfish.We forgot the fact that men are part of the body ofChrist which is MALE.Bang on podcast.
Good talk! I couldn't agree more. I lived for years listening to all the things these men/husbands were not (I was single and never married so I got told all sorts of things. And strangely I didn't want a man like that at all. So yes true it is awful what the standard for men was but I also didn't want to be the "Godly woman" that they claimed we all had to be. Which was quiet, deeply bitter, helpless, useless, never enjoying life because you had to wait on the Lord to change the men! Pretty funny really. Church time created men and women who horrible to be around :)
I love it! Talking to my wife, I said, "A man always has a fire going on the inside. Sometimes its a pilot light, waiting to ignite, and sometimes it's a full on forest fire. You can never ask a man to completely shut it off, or he ceases being the man that can protect and provide security, or correct bad behavior, etc. That fire has to stay on, and you can't flip a switch and turn it off, or you're dead."
You can't take away his essence. Sometimes that fire gets stoked at the wrong time, but we're so backwards in our society and the man's role, we don't look at it for what it is... a flare up. I'd rather have the occasional flare up, or to have it stoked, than to have to try to ignite it after it's gone out and cooled off.
I’ve often wondered if this has something to do with canon 3 of the Ecumenical Council of 325. I’ve also wondered if the arrangement at that conference was “pi d”. I suppose that I’ll probably never know.
When I tell my christian friends ( even the ones I went to a grace bible college with) that I don't even think about being like jesus anymore they look at me as if my head exploded. I can hardly stand to hear someone say it anymore.
You made a distinction between wanting to be like jesus or christ and being christlike. I've been thinking lately about what people mean when they say they want to be like jesus. I understand your elvis analogy but don't the people that say they want to be like jesus almost have to mean they want to be more christ like? Anything else would make no logical sense.
I think we become "Jesus Impersonators" when we wear a bracelet that says, "What would Jesus do?" The moment we see Christ-like-ness as being about what we "DO", how we "ACT" or "REACT", we are impersonating what we believe to be Jesus Christ.
The sad thing today is that when most people say they want to be like Jesus, they're almost always referring to their PERFORMANCE as a Christian. They're thinking, "I need to love more, I need to be a better teacher, I need to sin less, I need to pray more, I need to be more spiritual, I need to be a better encourager, I need to help people more................ It's all about performance. They're also saying they don't want to be who they are. At the heart of it, is the inner desire to escape themselves and become Jesus. Make no mistake about it; THAT'S NOT CHRIST-LIKE.
Christ-likeness isn't about "performance." It's simply about what drives us from within.
Well, when you put it like that, how can I disagree. Glad I'm christ-like and myself at the same time. Can't beat that.
Darin, is it ok if I copy your answer to fb?
I just sent an email to my husband thanking him for being such a bad ass son of God, and I mean that in a complimentary, respectful way. He has fought the church, his parents, me, my daughters and even himself. He has gone as far as "laying down his life" to become a son of God (not daughter or anything in-between).To really know what it is to be a man, he has endured many wounds, abuse and bloody battles. We are both still detoxifying from the lies , but Oh, how I love him for being the man of my heart's desire. Great talk, we need to hear more on this subject. Thanks.