Where are all the men?

Look around you on an average Sunday morning. You'll probably notice a disproportionate number of women. Who is singing in the choir? Who is helping in the children's ministry? Who is stepping onto the mission field? More often than not, it's the women. To be sure, I praise the Lord for these women, but men, where are you?? Even as I think of counseling issues and spiritual lethargy in homes, most problems stem from a lack of male leadership.

Gender Blog reports today on the urgent need for male leadership in our homes and churches...

While the influence of evangelical feminism is harmful, John Piper helpfully points out that there is an even greater danger lurking in most evangelical churches and homes - men abdicating their responsibility to lead.

If I were to put my finger on one devastating sin today, it would not be the so-called women's movement, but the lack of spiritual leadership by men at home and in the church. Satan has achieved an amazing tactical victory by disseminating the notion that the summons for male leadership is born of pride and fallenness, when in fact pride is precisely what prevents spiritual leadership. The spiritual aimlessness and weakness and lethargy and loss of nerve among men is the major issue, not the upsurge of interest in women's ministries.

Pride and self-pity and fear and laziness and confusion are luring many men into self-protecting, self-exalting cocoons of silence. And to the degree that this makes room for women to take more leadership it is sometimes even endorsed as a virtue. But I believe that deep down the men - and the women - know better.

Where are the men with a moral vision for their families, a zeal for the house of the Lord, a magnificent commitment to the advancement of the kingdom, an articulate dream for the mission of the church and a tenderhearted tenacity to make it real?

When the Lord visits us from on high and creates a mighty army of deeply spiritual men committed to the Word of God and global mission, the vast majority of women will rejoice over the leadership of these men and enter into a joyful partnership that upholds and honors the beautiful Biblical pattern of mature manhood and mature womanhood.

[Excerpted from What's the Difference?: Manhood and Womanhood Defined According to the Bible, 68-69]

Men, will you, by God's grace, step up with this kind of vision, zeal, and commitment for the kingdom of God? Will you start tonight in your own home?

Men, will you rise to the challenge? A good place to begin is to come broken before the Lord in prayer, and to lead your family to church this Sunday.