Rule #94 -- Be Awesomely Manlier than Everyone Else
...and so there I was, and Mr. Norris wouldn't even get off the floor. I said to him, "Chuck, it's okay. You lost. But stand up and be a man." And I think he would have, but he was still unconscious.
As I walked away, fist still smarting a bit, I thought about what has become of our culture, and how everyone's become feminized, like Oprah Winfrey, who almost picked me as a life coach one time. And it's now affecting the church, and to fix that, we need awesomely bold people to preach week-in, week-out to pretty much the same people in the confines of our buildings.
I agree with John Piper, who wrote recently that manliness happens when "Preaching is more readily prized, " and "the fear of strong preaching is part of the effeminizing of the church, and the full range of the way God is and appears on the Bible is not known where preaching is simply casual and conversational."
My friend, I won't dance around all girly-like like that and mince words. I'll say it, my way: The church has become too feminized, and the way to rectify it is to make the church sit down, be quiet, and passively listen to awesome people like me.
There's simply nothing manlier than not being able to respond, to just sit there and take it. Women? They have "conversations". But men? That's not us. We sit down in large numbers, in rows, audience-style, listen, and quietly accept. Why? We're men. That's what we do.
Case in point: On the manly blog I linked to, no one is allowed to leave a public comment. No one. Boldness? Hell, yeah. And that's right, I just cussed, like John Wayne in "Rio Lobo" before he shot that one guy, and we need more John Wayne's shooting from the Biblical hip with the Winchester of truth from the pulpit of...something...western-y.
Let's make this simple: Here's a Manliness Quotient list of activities, from Manliest to Girliest:
1) Me, boldly leading you, a leading leader of visionary leaders.
2) You, listening quietly to me boldly leading you.
3) You, teaching conversationally, among people who know you, who are allowed to challenge, ask, clarify, and teach you, too.
Friend, be a man, stand up, and do number 2.
