The Effects of Femininity on Our Culture, Part III: Our Discipleship

 In the last post I argued that our effeminized culture has had catastrophic effects upon our preaching, putting a major responsibility on preachers in our culture to fight against this tendency. However, today I want to turn the tables and say that the laity have been affected by femininity to such a degree that they are equally responsible, perhaps, even more so, for the state of the church in the West.

You see, if the desire of rebellious man is to seek out safe spaces where his ego is not bruised, he will seek out teachers/preachers/churches that do not bruise it. Like the children who would rather be around their mother than their father when it comes to getting what they want, they will seek out a discipleship from people who will appeal to them but not command them. Their interests, if it is to not feel inferior, appear to them to be threatened by one who speaks with authority. Hence, they will support those who say the same things, but not in the same way, with their time, finances, services, etc., and in doing so, give themselves the illusion that they are a part of the discipleship Christ requires of them. 

Instead, they have accumulated teachers for themselves that will stroke their egos rather than destroy them. After commanding Timothy to "preach the Word," he continues by saying that there are those who won't tolerate such teaching but seek out the type of teaching that is non-offensive to them.

For the time is coming when people will not tolerate sound teaching, but wanting to feel pleased by what they hear, they will accumulate for themselves teachers who will be fitting for what they want to hear (2 Tim 4:3).

Megachurches aren't filled up with people who were forced there by the preachers. Those preachers have positions because they have people who are there to support them. In the same way, most people don't choose churches based upon what truths are spoken but rather what truths are spoken in the way they want them spoken, which in our culture means "truth spoken winsomely." And what is winsome to a culture that loves the appeal? A culture where the feminine way of persusasion is exalted because it keeps the ego intact? These people seek to be discipled by people who will allow them to have their autonomy. 

As I argued in the last post, however, discipleship according to Jesus is a removal of autonomy. Jesus declared that one cannot even by His disciple unless the self is crucified. So as I declared that these preachers and teachers aren't actually preaching and teaching the Word of God, I will also declare that these seekers of discipleship aren't actually being discipled in the Word of God, even if the same words from the Bible are being used in their discipleship.

The Book of Proverbs has a lot to say concerning who we seek out as children when we are being discipled. Do we seek out peers or parents? Parents, mainly through the father who is also represented by the mother in the book, are the proper source of discipleship for a child who needs to be corrected. Peers, however, are those to whom foolish children are discipled because peers don't correct with authority. Peers have no authority. They convince by stroking the ego. They build the ego up. Peer pressure itself is this type of persuasion. It depends upon the exaltation of the ego by the individual. If an individual did not care about what others thought of them, it wouldn't be effective. As long as the ego remains, peer pressure works. But a child should seek out the guidance of Christian parents out of a godly fear and love, knowing that their authority is derived from God and by exercising it, they are replacing the self with Christ as Lord of that child's life.

In light of this, who do people choose to hang around? What do their cliques look like? Is it an atmosphere of peers where appeals and suggestions rule or an atmosphere of commands where qualified elders instruct with authority? Where you choose to spend your time and receive your discipleship is proof in the pudding regardless of what you may tell yourself. One who longs for ear-tickling will not much tolerate an environment of authoritative discipleship. He wants things suggested to him, not demanded of him, because this allows him to pick and choose what he will believe and do, thus retaining complete control over his life.

For this reason, ministry in the West has become more of a popularity contest where the preachers or teachers chosen by people are chosen based upon their likeability. And likeability is determined, as discussed in the last post, by how much the ego is stroked by that preacher or teacher, how much that preacher appeals rather than commands, whether he acknowledges that you are the mayor of You-town and respects/observes your rules when he is within your jurisdiction. 

When we realize that it is not really about what is said but the way it is said, we realize why so many of God's messengers were hated and killed by the congregations claiming to belong to God. Moses himself, a man God proved was sent by Him, was rejected by the people because they didn't like someone telling them what to do (Acts 7:35). They wanted leaders who would listen to them rather than leaders to whom they had to listen. 

This is why the appeal works so well in our culture and churches can grow so large amongst a people in rebellion. The desire to have mothers rule is so subtle and yet pervasive even among those who would repudiate the idea theoretically; but it is evidenced in what type of discipleship by the church one seeks out. 

It has been determined that children in a home absent of mother-care has the same chances of success as a home with both parents, but a home absent of father-care falls into great jeopardy. Boys may want their mothers instead of their fathers. Girls may want their mothers instead of their fathers. That's because they're children who don't yet know that they need their fathers in order to grow and survive in the world by his provision and protection. Mature men and women, however, seek out fathers, mentors, who will raise them as the images of God, as those who need to subject themselves to the ultimate authority if they are to become who God meant them to be. This does not mean that mothers are not needed. It just means that without the father, the mother can't get you there. Likewise, an environment that does not challenge autonomy with the authority of God's Word cannot disciple anyone under the Lordship of Christ.

Hence, the fathers of the church must do their due diligence to study the Word of God, not only for the accurate words to describe the message of God but for the accurate sound with which to describe it. Likewise, those who are under their care need to submit themselves to men who not only speak God's Word but speak it correctly. This means their ears will not be tickled, which is a Pauline phrase that refers to those who are seeking to have their autonomy, theological and lifestyle biases confirmed. They must not accumulate for themselves teachers that make them feel good, but teachers who actually preach the Word of God, as God intended it to be preached, as a means of producing good.