A Guide to Navigate Evangelical Feminism In a society where gender roles are a hot-button topic, the church is not immune to the controversy. In fact, the church has wrestled with varying degrees of evangelical feminism for decades. As evangelical feminism has crept into the church, time-trusted resources like Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood help remind Christians of what the Bible has to say. In this edition of the award-winning best seller, more than 20 influential men and women such as John Piper, Wayne Grudem, D. A. Carson, and Elisabeth Elliot offer thought-provoking essays responding to the challenge egalitarianism poses to life in the church and in the home. Covering topics like role distinctions in the church, how biblical manhood and womanhood should work out in practice, and women in the history of the church, this helpful resource will help readers learn to orient their beliefs with God's unchanging word in an ever-changing culture.
Dissatisfied with a Victorian culture focused on domesticity and threatened by physical decline in sedentary office jobs, American men in the late nineteenth century sought masculine company in fraternal lodges and engaged in exercise to invigorate their bodies. One form of this new manly culture, developed out of the Protestant churches, was known as muscular Christianity. In this fascinating study, Clifford Putney details how Protestant leaders promoted competitive sports and physical education to create an ideal of Christian manliness.
“Church is boring.” “It’s irrelevant.” “It’s full of hypocrites.” You’ve heard the excuses—now learn the real reasons men and boys are fleeing churches of every kind, all over the world, and what we can do about it. Women comprise more than 60% of the adults in a typical worship service in America. Some overseas congregations report ten women for every man in attendance. Men are less likely to lead, volunteer, and give in the church. They pray less, share their faith less, and read the Bible less. In Why Men Hate Going to Church, David Murrow identifies the barriers keeping many men from going to church, explains why it’s so hard to motivate the men who do attend, and also takes you inside several fast-growing congregations that are winning the hearts of men and boys. In this completely revised, reorganized, and rewritten edition of the classic book, with more than 70 percent new content, explore topics like: The increase and decrease in male church attendance during the past 500 years Why Christian churches are more feminine even though men are often still the leaders The difference between the type of God men and women like to worship The lack of volunteering and ministry opportunities for men The benefits men get from attending church regularly Men need the church but, more importantly, the church needs men. The presence of enthusiastic men is one of the surest predictors of church health, growth, giving, and expansion. Why Men Hate Going to Church does not call men back to church—it calls the church back to men.
Man Enough challenges the idea that there is one way to be a man. The masculinity that pervades our church and culture often demands that men conform to a macho ideal, leaving many men feeling ashamed that they’re not living up to God’s plan for them. Nate uses his own story of not feeling “man enough”, as well as sociological and historical reflections, to help men see that manhood isn’t about what you do, but who you are. It’s not about the size of your paycheck, your athletic ability, or your competitive spirit. You don’t have to fit any masculine stereotype to be a real man. In our culture and churches more thoughtful, quieter, or compassionate personalities, as well as stay-at-home dads, are often looked down upon; and sermons, conferences, and publications center on helping men become “real men”. This pressure to have one’s manhood validated is antithetical to Gospel living and negatively affects how men relate to each other, to women and children, and to God. Man Enough roots men in the Gospel, examines biblical examples of masculinity that challenge the idea of a singular type of man, and ultimately encourages men to conform to the image of Jesus—freeing men up to be who they were created to be: a son of God who uniquely bears His image.
In an age when fathers are more important than ever, how do you embark on your journey to manhood and know how to steer clear of the dangers along the way? In Fathered by God, New York Times bestselling author John Eldredge reminds us that there's a path to masculinity and, best of all, there's a loving Father ready to help us follow it. In Fathered by God, Eldredge calls men back to a simple and reassuring truth: God is our Father, and he wants to show us what masculinity really means. Eldredge teaches us that there's a path leading to authentic manhood, cut by generation after generation of men. There are perils along the trail, even disasters--all the more reason to rely on the guidance of a Father who has gone before us. A boy has a lot to learn in his journey to becoming a man, and it takes the active intervention of father figures and the fellowship of other men to guide us along the way. Eldredge shares that in all of life's trials and triumphs, God is initiating boys and men through the stages of manhood. Through personal stories and practical guidance, Eldredge provides a map through the six stages of a man's journey and answers some of the most common questions about manhood that he's received over the years, including: How can I set a good example for my son? What does the Bible teach us about masculinity? How can I become the man that God designed me to be? Fathered by God maps out the path of manhood--not more rules, not another list of principles, not formulas, but a well-worn path that men have followed for centuries before us. Discover the truth about masculinity and become the man that God sees in you.
For years a debate has raged over how to define true masculinity and true femininity. While there is agreement that men and women share equally in the privilege of being made in God's image, some views of manhood and womanhood blur God-given gender distinctions. Wayne Grudem assembled a team of distinguished writers to show how egalitarian views destroy God's ideal for your relationships, marriage, and life purposes. The contributors to this book include: John Piper, Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota Bruce A. Ware, Senior Associate Dean of the School of Theology and Professor of Christian Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Richard W. Hove, Director of Campus Crusade for Christ at Duke University Daniel Doriani, Dean of the Faculty and Professor of New Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary Daniel R. Heimbach, Professor of Christian Ethics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary Peter Jones, Professor of New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary in California These writers explore key issues, including the interchangeability of male-female roles, the meaning of submission, and the historical novelty of egalitarian interpretations of Scripture. This book will demonstrate how some views of manhood and womanhood tamper with our understanding of God's character and why the extremes of male domination and feminism destroy the beauty of our sexual differences-differences that celebrate the excellence of men and women as God created us.
Man up; it’s the best thing you can do for others—and yourself Men are so busy doing so many different things; when not working, their free time is often full of the trivial or sinful. But what society and church so desperately need are men who embrace all that God created them to be, who long to follow God without limits and meet the needs of those around them without hesitation. To get there, we need what Pastor James MacDonald calls “radical surgery”—a deep, probing exploration and reparation of all that it means to be a man. In his definitive, bold voice, MacDonald calls men to be watchful, firm in their faith, strong, and loving. This isn’t a call for bravado and bluster. It’s a call for men to mix tender and tough, to be humble, to follow Jesus. It is a call to be leaders, men of God, husbands who are present and caring and strong. It is straight talk—no posturing or posing or beating around the bush—inviting men to redemption and restoration in their manhood. Read Act Like Men and take bold steps toward being all that God designed you to be.
What is this World? What kind of place is it? "The round kind. The spinning kind. The moist kind. The inhabited kind. The kind with flamingos (real and artificial). The kind where water in the sky turns into beautifully symmetrical crystal flakes sculpted by artists unable to stop themselves (in both design and quantity). The kind of place with tiny, powerfully jawed mites assigned to the carpets to eat my dead skin as it flakes off. The kind with people who kill and people who love and people who do both... "This world is beautiful but badly broken." "I love it as it is, because it is a story, and it isn't stuck in one place. It is full of conflict and darkness like every good story, a world of surprises and questions to explore. And there's someone behind it; there are uncomfortable answers to the how's and whys and what's. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Through Him were all things made... Welcome to His poem. His play. His novel. Let the pages flick your thumbs."
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The “paradigm-influencing” book (Christianity Today) that is fundamentally transforming our understanding of white evangelicalism in America. Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping, revisionist history of the last seventy-five years of white evangelicalism, revealing how evangelicals have worked to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism—or in the words of one modern chaplain, with “a spiritual badass.” As acclaimed scholar Kristin Du Mez explains, the key to understanding this transformation is to recognize the centrality of popular culture in contemporary American evangelicalism. Many of today’s evangelicals might not be theologically astute, but they know their VeggieTales, they’ve read John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart, and they learned about purity before they learned about sex—and they have a silver ring to prove it. Evangelical books, films, music, clothing, and merchandise shape the beliefs of millions. And evangelical culture is teeming with muscular heroes—mythical warriors and rugged soldiers, men like Oliver North, Ronald Reagan, Mel Gibson, and the Duck Dynasty clan, who assert white masculine power in defense of “Christian America.” Chief among these evangelical legends is John Wayne, an icon of a lost time when men were uncowed by political correctness, unafraid to tell it like it was, and did what needed to be done. Challenging the commonly held assumption that the “moral majority” backed Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 for purely pragmatic reasons, Du Mez reveals that Trump in fact represented the fulfillment, rather than the betrayal, of white evangelicals’ most deeply held values: patriarchy, authoritarian rule, aggressive foreign policy, fear of Islam, ambivalence toward #MeToo, and opposition to Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ community. A much-needed reexamination of perhaps the most influential subculture in this country, Jesus and John Wayne shows that, far from adhering to biblical principles, modern white evangelicals have remade their faith, with enduring consequences for all Americans.
