I often see stories about how men no longer want to participate in worship.  Is it any surprise?  I think it’s simple, like most of the ways of a man.  He is bored.  It’s the same reason boys are wrestless in school.  They too are bored, they want to be out conquering the world.

I was really struck this week by remembering services that I have enjoyed actively participating in.  Now perhaps I am not normal.  I define the bane of those elementary teachers, attempting to drug the little boy, out of the little boys.  I was drugged, but unsuccessfully.  Strong leaders are the result of all that little boy energy directed into some positive direction.  And even when it is directed in the wrong direction, you can’t help but admire the fireworks.  But this is not allowed anymore.  Teachers like the passive, following nature of the females and many of the males are happy to go along with it.  Tom Garfield always tells the story about how you give a bunch of kids a picture to color and the girls are all trying to color inside the lines as carefully as possible, while the boys turn the paper over and start drawing their own thing.  This is male leadership.  This is the job of every male, to lead in his home at the very least and also outside it to whatever extent possible.  These are the men who sailed to this continent, who led revolutions and wars.  These are the men that got other men to follow them on their adventures.  And this is what we repress with drugs¹.  And so we have lots of followers and no leaders.

I want the Gladiator to be my worship leader. What guy wouldn’t be singing?
I googled “worship leader” the first picture was some scrawny hipster and the second was a woman!

I think this is important in worship.  Do you really want to follow your typical worship leader into battle?  I don’t.  This is the first guy down when the trouble comes, he is off in the corner crying, or having flashbacks to the emotional throne room of heaven. And this ain’t no throne room, this is back on earth, it’s dangerous.  Oh he’s  sensitive and caring but worship is warfare.  That’s how we fight, by worship.  We are in a war, as if it isn’t obvious, Paul says as much explicitly.   The language of the Psalms is the language of a warrior sometimes beaten by his adversaries, sometimes victorious, sometimes praying for victory.  I want to follow the Psalm writer into battle.  This is the real man who is so grounded on the word of God that nothing can shake him, every event is an instance for calling to God. We share his joy in victory and his tears in defeat.  The Psalms are vivid and often blunt, women don’t like this and so our modern translations have softened the language, and modern churches simply skip most of them.

One thing I noticed about engaging churches was that they keep you busy.  The order of worship is unapolagetically rigorous.  If you don’t pay attention you get left behind, and you look the fool.  There are times for listening to scripture, times for responding to the scripture and times for singing.  And the singing is complex, there are parts.  And not just male and female parts, but  Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone and Bass.

Adam Smith observed that the the division of labor was one of the keys to the wealth of nations.  But it is not anything new.  Cain and Able participated in divided labor, one was a rancher, the other a farmer.  That is how men function best.  The Protestant work ethic rediscovered this.  All work, before God is valuable.  And each man who has his job and does it well should take pride in it.  And so you could have the coal miner down in the dark, chipping away somewhere in Ohio, taking pride that he is fueling America.  The America that was victorious over the obvious evil of Nazi occupation, he played his part.  No shortage of men willing to sign up and do their part.  Yet in praise music there are no parts, it’s mindless simplistic chanting, and so the men stopped singing.  On the other hand if you are singing parts and the men are silent, something is missing.  A man has about as much tolerance for something not getting done right as he does apathy at being told to follow.  The high church aristocrats dressed like women in all their robes, the modern worship leaders act like them.  And so the men don’t follow, they don’t sing, or even go to church.

I am told, by men who know more about music history that I, that most old hymns used to be to a faster tempo, like a march.  Because, we are an army preparing for battle.  We battle every day. Every bit of evil that we push back to make way for the kingdom of heaven is a good work, and it is difficult work.  The worship we see in the throne room of heaven is not an end in itself.  As the worship proceeds, real events, real war happens on earth.  And Jesus the Christ is victorious.  This is the language of the Gospel, the language of conquest of our inheritance.  We have been given the earth, as an inheritance, like Abraham, now we must claim it, as far as the curse is found.  The worship service should rally us for the battle the rest of the week.

If you want men to participate, give them something besides an experience for the sake of experience, to participate, in.  The worship service should be directed to equip us for the rest of the week.  The words in the music should come to mind when the battle gets us down.  The strength of the congregation singing should push us to fight through the difficulty to the glory.  As I said it’s simple, treat the men like men.

This kid gets it:

That original seems to have been removed, couldn’t find one without any soft spots.  What a shame.  The snare drum here gets to part of the original intention.

 

Am I a soldier of the cross,
A follower of the Lamb?
And shall I fear to own His cause
Or blush to speak His name?

Must I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease?
While others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas?

Are there no foes for me to face?
Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace,
To help me on to God?

Sure I must fight, if I would reign
Increase my courage, Lord!
I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain,
Supported by Thy word.

Thy saints, in all this glorious war,
Shall conquer, though they die;
They view the triumph from afar,
And seize it with their eye.

When that illustrious day shall rise,
And all Thy armies shine
In robes of victory through the skies,
The glory shall be Thine.

-Isaac Watts, Am I a Soldier of the Cross

1. I find it ironic that the men are now leaving these feminist schools and leading to another place.  They receive criticism for this but can you blame them?  Higher education has become a place for liberal evil and the girls who follow it.  This principality and power must be destroyed and ceasing participation is a good first step. []