Men who are influencing me

Men need the influence of other men in their lives if they are going to continue to grow spiritually and mentally. I feel the weight and responsibility of that as a Dad of two boys. Last Saturday, Wesley (my oldest) and I were sitting outside. We had been burning brush all day and we had taken a break. As we sat on our outdoor swing, Wesley put his hand on my shoulder and said, “This is good father/son bonding time.” Very astute for an eight year-old.

This did get me thinking about the men who are influencing me today. I only have a personal relationship with one of these men. The rest of them have been influencing me through some kind of media (books, music, podcasts, etc.) This list changes as influences change, but these are the men who are shaping my thinking today. These men have produced the voices, the one-liners, the paradigms of thinking that are rolling around in my head. (And no, I am not hearing voices!) These are the men who are speaking to me, the men who are challenging me. These are in no particular order.

Mark Driscoll
http://www.marshillchurch.org/

I listen to his weekly, one-hour-long sermons every week. I first discovered Mars Hill Church in the late 1990s in my research on postmodernism. They were held up as an example of the postmodern church. Today no one is really using the term “postmodern” and Driscoll and the church has ceased to be identified by that title. In Driscoll I have a great deal of comradery, because he is a good mix of theological depth and pop culture-infused humor. He is the most persuasive Calvinist I have ever heard. He has helped me reframe salvation in terms Reformed theology. Don’t get me wrong. I am not a Calvinist, but Driscoll and others (including Bruce Ware and Mark Dever) have caused me to take a few theological steps in their direction. Or should I say, God preordained that by his grace I would shift in their direction!

Eugene Peterson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_H._Peterson

I continue to quote him and ask myself, “What would EP think?” He was a Presbyterian pastor for some thirty years, taught pastoral and spiritual theology, and translated (paraphrased?) the Bible into modern English in recent years. He has written a number of books on pastoral leadership and spirituality. His recent trilogy Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, Eat This Book, and The Jesus Way have been extremely influential books. Peterson has a keen theological mind and a heart that is passionately in love with the local church. He is THE pastor of pastors.

Ignatius of Antioch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_of_Antioch

He has been dead for a long time. He died a martyrs death in Rome. He was thrown to the wild beasts. On his way from Antioch to Rome he was in chains, but wrote seven letters to seven churches. I read through them recently and they read much like the biblical epistles. He died in 110 AD and is one of the earliest church fathers. He was passionate about the establishment of orthodox Christian doctrine over the heresies of other groups, especially the Gnostics. I was reading one of his letters one morning and I was struck by the fact that here I was reading his writings some 1900 years after this man’s death. I was able to do that, because he took the time to write. Ignatius has challenged me to continue writing.

Brian Zahnd
http://www.brianzahnd.com/

Brian is the only guy on my list that I know personally. He has been my pastor since I was in college and there was a time when I thought we were going in separate directions. Over the last three to four years he has been re-thinking, re-living, and re-preaching the Christian life in a way that is larger than any one Christian tradition. He continues to challenge me with his theological pursuits and his reading list. His teaching is dominated by five themes – cross, mystery, eclectic, community, and revolution. I listen to him weekly.

Bob Dylan
http://www.bobdylan.com/

I put Bob under Brian, because Brian gave me an introduction to Dylan back in 2005. At that time I had two of Dylan’s gospel albums – Slow Train Coming and Saved. I was interested in Dylan’s gospel albums, but I hadn’t stepped into Dylan’s world at that time. In December 2006, I got two Dylan albums for Christmas. Since that time, I have got deeper and deeper into the world of Bob Dylan. It is a strange and fascinating journey through the life of a poet. (Dylan says he has always been a poet first and a musician second.) I am now beginning to speak Dylan-ese, that is, inserting Dylan lyrics into my writing, speaking, thinking, and conversations. Many of Dylan’s songs have become paradigms in which to sort things out. I know have 15 albums and a couple of bootlegs, and four DVDs. I have 185 songs to date. Dylan has released 44 albums, so I am only just beginning!

Wayne Grudem
http://www.phoenixseminary.edu/Default.aspx?tabid=155

Grudem is one of my favorite theologians. If I would ever do a Ph.D in systematic theology, I would study under him. I have found his abbreviated theology, Bible Doctrine: Essential Teachings of the Christian Faith, to be a helpful resource. I turn to it time and time again. He comes from a Reformed background, but has done some good work in the area of charismatic theology. He is thoughtful and thorough in his theological treatments. This book is a scaled down version of his larger Systematic Theology and an easier read for pastors or Bible study leaders. I highly recommend it.

Robert Lewis
http://www.mensfraternity.com/

Last fall our church started a Men’s Fraternity, a men’s ministry pioneered by Robert Lewis at Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock. The book that we have been going through is The Quest for Authentic Manhood, written by Lewis. We are coming to the end of our course of study, but it has been good for me and then men at our church. I have become increasing passionate to reach men and connect men with Jesus and the Church. For so long the local church has been considered a woman’s thing. One of the reasons is because we have failed to raise up strong, godly men in our church. MF has been a great way for us to do this, to raise up men who REJECT passivity, ACCEPT responsibility, and LEAD courageous. These three themes have been dominating my thinking recently.

These men are changing my way of thinking and, hopefully, changing my way of living.

Gonna change my way of thinking,
Make myself a different set of rules.
Gonna put my good foot forward,
And stop being influenced by fools.

 

Worthless Men

I am posting another sermon outline, partially because it is good and partially because my right wrist is aching a bit today and I do not feel like hammering away at the keyboard anymore today. I have been working long hours on my dissertation at night after being on the computer off and on all day. These are the notes for a message that I will preach Saturday night at a multi-church men’s meeting hosted by our church.

Worthless Men
A Sermon by Derek Vreeland

1 Samuel 2:12 ESV Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord.

Eli was a priest. He had two sons Hophni and Phinehas.

Nobody names their boys Hophni and Phinehas, because, the Bible gives them a two-word description: worthless men.

“Worthless men” – a description of men that is common today.

If you have watched family-based TV sitcoms over the last twenty years, you may have noticed that the guy who plays the father role is typically worthless, e.g. Tim “the Tool Man” Taylor from Home Improvement.

Tim wasn’t a hero…he was a joke.
He wasn’t someone to look up to….he was someone to laugh at.
He wasn’t a hopeful man…he was a worthless man.

The Bible says that Eli’s boys were WORTHLESS MEN.
They were men without honor, value, character or significance.
They were worthless.

Why? (The Bible gives five reasons)

1) They were GODLESS men
1 Samuel 2:12 ESV Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord.

They were religious men…preachers’ kids, but they were completely cut off from any kind of relationship with God.

Dads if we do anything with our boys, we need to SHOW them Jesus.

2) They were VIOLENT men
I Samuel 2:16b He would say, “No, you must give it now, and if not, I will take it by force.”

They did not respect anybody else. If they did not get what they want, they took it forcefully.

There is a natural aggression that is a part of the male spirit that is good and created by God. The reason you like watching helmets clash in a football game or hunting during deer season is because God made you that way. This is also the reason you like movies like Braveheart and Gladiator because God made you that way.

When we use that aggression to hurt other people by our words or actions – like Eli’s boys – that is when we cross the line.

Jesus had natural male aggression, but was always loving…even when he turned over the moneychangers’ tables.

3) They were DISRESPECTFUL men
I Samuel 2:17 ESV Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt.

“Contempt” is not a word we use often. It means disrespect.
It is the equivalence to having someone spit in your face.

Do you remember the uproar in 1997 when Bill Romanowski (LB for the Denver Broncos) spit in the face of J.J. Stokes during a game on Monday Night Football?

Hophni and Phinehas were disrespectful men.
They would spit in the face of God or anyone to get what they want.

We have to become men of respect where we respect each other no matter if you are black, white, rich, poor, educated or uneducated.

4) They were EVIL men
1 Samuel 2:22-23 ESV Now Eli was very old, and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting. [23] And he said to them, “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people

Eli was calling them EVIL, because they would not treat women with respect. The true TEST of a man is how he acts around a woman.

Some men are all tough and macho until they get around their girl and then they just turn to Jello. Some men will lie, cheat, steal, forsake all their friends…for the love of a woman.

On the flip side, there are men they will act all kind and respectful in public, but on the inside there is a deep LUST that drives them to look at women merely as objects of their enjoyment.

We have to become the kind of men that value the women in our lives.

If you are married God wants you to cherish, adore and care for your wife.

5) They were DEAD men
God has enough of all this from Eli’s boys and shows up to talk to Eli.

1 Samuel 2:34 ESV And this that shall come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you: both of them shall die on the same day.

God said, “That is it. You may let your boys take advantage of women and men giving offerings at the temple, but I have had enough.”

The Bible makes it clear that you can be any kind of man you want to be, but if you continue to live a life GODLESS life, where you do your own thing and leave God out of the picture…you will ultimately die.

Romans 6:23 ESV For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In contrast, to Hophni and Phinehas, the Bible talks about good guys, men of courage of faith…guys like Noah.

God was ready to destroy the earth with a flood, but before doing so he picked one family that he really like. Noah was the “big daddy.”

Genesis 6:9 NIV These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.

I believe that God is calling on us to become men of WORTH, men of honor and value who walk blameless in our generation.

We need to be these kinds of men for the next generation of men.

We as parents are raising the next generation of men who will either lead with honor and integrity or abandon every good thing they have inherited. They are bridges to the future. Nations that are populated largely by immature, immoral, weak-willed, cowardly, and self-indulgent men cannot and will not long endure. These types of men include those who sire and abandon their children; who cheat on their wives; who lie, steal, and covet; who hate their countrymen; and who serve not God but money. That is the direction culture is talking today’s boys.

James Dobson, Bringing Up Boys, pg. 54

Weak, pitiful, worthless men are the downfall of any society.
Being a man of strength, honor and worth begins with walking with God.

H&P were worthless men and did not know God.
Noah was a righteous man, because he walked with God.

Micah 6:8 ESV He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Do you act justly?
Do you treat people in a way that is just and fair?

Do you love mercy?
Do you extend the forgiveness that you have received from Christ to others?

Are you walking humbly with your God?
Have you acknowledged that there is only one God and you are not him!?!