Let the Men of God Arise!

One of the crises among young men today is that they have effectively been rendered worthless. This may be due to living a lazy and careless lifestyle, engaging in abusive and destructive behaviours problem gambling, drinking, drug use, pornography and lying or being a distant or absent father. In some cases this may have been a result of other uncontrollable personal circumstances such as being made redundant from his job, significant financial loss, being hurt or unwanted by those around him, or abandoned by those who he may have called friends. This is further proliferated in society through law that considers that a father is not necessary in the upbringing of a child or even being part of a family.

Somewhere we lost our call to action. Perhaps it was because of the errors and failures of ourselves and countless men before us. Or perhaps we have been reduced to a couch potato lifestyle where the whole world is accessible online. Without a challenge or that sense of adventure we lose direction and take the easy way of life. With no goal there is no achievement. With no meaning there is no purpose. With no relationship, there is no identity. In the life of the Church, we will find a challenge and call to action that will never end – the everlasting search for holiness and the drive to bring all peoples of the earth to God.

The Church today needs more leaders who are in the world but not of it. Not bosses, managers, presidents, captains or kings. We need leaders. The human element of the Church is only as strong as those who are prepared to stand up and lead it. And God has called young men all over to take up this calling. In Ezekiel 22:30, we rise to a great rallying call, “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me.”

The leadership of the Church and its mission to evangelise the world does have a masculine presence about it. While it is a mission that is shared by all there are particular traits that are common to man’s true calling. The calling of men to stand up and lead the church is undeniable. The leadership of the Church is for those who will serve.

Leadership involves hard work. For in Genesis 3:17-18, through Adam, men are told “Cursed is the ground because of you through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.” Christian leadership is not just about getting up the front and preaching, it involves the engagement and relationships with all of the people of God. Further, in a role of leadership, men will strive to set the bar higher and higher, allowing his competitive nature to take an effective form for the Church. Striving for more and asking more of men will draw them to the fullness of life.

Leadership requires sacrifice. We go no further than Jesus Christ on the Cross. It could not be more clear. In Mark 10:45 we are told “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” In John 12:14 Christ instructs us “I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet” and online casino Philippians 2:8 “being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross.” Leadership is not self-serving, and neither is manhood. The decisions made must be directed toward wanting what is best for the other. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Leadership pursues victory. For if Christ’s death on the Cross was the end, then all hope would be lost. This is not so, the victory over sin and death is what is celebrated, and this victory was to be shared for all time. In John 16:33 “keep up your courage: I have won the victory over the world.” O hell, Where is your victory? It should be in the competitive, combative and courageous spirit of men that victory for God should be the goal. Not only is it the role of men to protect their Church, but further to take ground for the Kingdom of God, and enjoin the souls of so many broken brothers in Christ to the greatest victory ever won.

This calling was given to men through our very creation. The invitation to join in the greatest mission of all time and serve the Church of Christ was written within us from the beginning of time. The identity of men was lost, and we have gone looking for it in all the wrong places. This is an opportunity for redemption that Jesus has offered to Men – to seek His face and to share it to all whom we meet. In the words of St Augustine “You were within me while I had gone outside to seek you…And always you were with me, and I was not with you.” Now is our time: Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

There is no doubt that one who takes a leadership role in the Church will grow in faith and relationship with God because they are blessed with more opportunity to see His work and His glory. Let us return to our true place as the leaders of our families and our Church, for we are lost without it. The glory of God is man fully alive. Man’s glory is the vision of God.