Answering The Question, "Where Have All The Men Gone?" [Series]

“Man up!”, “Be a man!”, “Grow some balls!”, “He’s a real man.”, “Authentic manhood.”

These phrases (and more like them) echo in today’s culture and hidden behind those phrases is a question seems to haunt men in society today — “What does it mean to be a man? An authentic man?”

In today’s post modern culture the meaning and image of true masculinity is seriously getting diluted, tainted, watered-down and completely lost. Unfortunately the narrative that’s being played out today is ‘boys in men’s bodies’ with only a few wanting to be men…but not exactly knowing how, while others remain nonchalant.

Houston…we have a deficit of authentic manhood in today’s society! Seriously, where have all the men gone?

Lets answer that question.

In “Wild At Heart” by John Eldregde, he calls attention to some manhood issues that should raise any mans eyebrows:

1) Our culture (and even our churches) has adopted a strategy that facilitates the feminization of men.

2) Masculinity, with its predilection to adventure, rowdiness, and risk has become a condition to be cured.

3) Consequently, boys are in big trouble. School systems and churches have not taken the unique features of masculinity into consideration when designing curriculum or programs.

4) Our culture, intent on emasculating its boys, has produced a huge sense of withdrawal and boredom from its men.

5) As disconcerting as it may be to mothers everywhere, masculinity can only be imparted by masculinity. In other words, a young boy is never really sure he has become a man until another man, or group of men, tells him so.

6) Sadly, many, if not most, men have abdicated this responsibility.

7) Every man needs a battle for which he can live and die.

No wonder we don’t know what authentic manhood looks like! Culture doesn’t model it out for us. Society doesn’t model it out for us. You won’t find it in most churches. Most of our fathers don’t model it out for us.

Yikes, we are in trouble! Even worse…there is a battle raging on out there, to take men out and to destroy the family unit.

Men, did you even know that there is a battle going on out there?

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.

-1 Corinthians 16:13-14

Men we need to wake up, grow up and realize that there is a battle taking place and its is upon us right now. Sure we may not be in a theater of war or a battle of old, but we need to recognize that we are on a battlefield. The battle is real and it’s a fight for our families and the security of our future. We need men to rise up and be the men God has designed us to be. We need to press into God and we need to establish bonds of fellowship with our brothers to stand alongside us as we fight the good fight.

Guys, look…it’s not about you! Woodrow Wilson nails this when he said, “No man has ever risen to the real stature of spiritual manhood until he has found that it is finer to serve somebody else than it is to serve himself.”

Stop climbing the corporate ladder! Stop boozing it up with your buddies! Stop sitting around doing nothing and get a job! Stop, putting all of your time and energy into your stuff! Stop, looking at all that porn. Stop spending your weekends in front of the TV watching sports! Stop with the incessant gaming — seriously guys? Stop with your passivity! Stop with, fill in the blank ________! …Stop it!!!!

Aggravated with me? Good, that means I struck a chord!

There comes into the life of every man a task for which he and he alone is uniquely suited. What a shame if that moment finds him either unwilling or unprepared for that which would become his finest hour.

-Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill cuts right to the chase — every man has a task for which he is uniquely suited. The battle cry is this: Get off your lazy butts, surround yourself with a brotherhood, press into God, run with courage to the front lines and get in the fight men! Men, we were not created to just survive, we were created to live courageously from our hearts!

Look we are never out of the fight, so man up! God wants you to lead your families and finish strong. God wants you to be prepared and to shine when presented with your finest hour.

Defining manhood, since it barely exists today, is no simple task. Our church men’s group embarked on a ten week study on defining what authentic manhood is using the Stepping Up series as our guide. After many sessions I posted articles contemplating and wrestling with what I learned.

Let this series be your first step in becoming an authentic man — becoming the man God created you to be!

Answering The Question, “Where Have All The Men Gone?” [Series]

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