Where are the Men?
In our land, divorce and separation rates have reached 70%. What that means is that less than one third of the kids growing up today are coming out of homes with both of their biological parents. Sadly, as common as the failure of marriages, is the failure of men to maintain their responsibility as a father. It seems that all too many men lack the intestinal fortitude and backbone to stand up to the new wife for their old kids. What has all of this produced? It has produced a mess in our culture, society, and our churches. Young men need patterns; they need examples. They need role models. Primarily fathers should perform that job. If they don't find the leadership they need from men, in whom will they find it? This vacuum will be filled, but by whom or by what?
In our churches women are filling this void of male leadership. Did you know that there are almost 4,000 licensed and ordained women m the Assemblies of God? There are also 1,225 ordained Southern Baptist women with roughly 200 of the ordained women serving as pastors and associate pastors. The United Methodist Church has 4,743 women "clergy." The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has 2,419 female leaders. Iniagine this: in 1979 the United Presbyterian Church, forerunner of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A, adopted a resolution REQUIRING the congregations to elect women elders. This politically correct denomination also voted to ban the ordination of any man who opposed women clergy and gave such men 10 years to change their minds or get out (EP News Service, June 21, 1980). The United Church of Christ has 1,803 female leaders. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has 1.358 ordained women.
I must admit I'm a little weary with men who boast of their courage, yet seem to be afraid to cross the little wife. One very wise pastor told me that every man he had ever had a problem with in his church had marital problems at home. He suggested that these men were acting out in public what they were afraid to act out at home. I found that amazing. It seems that a generational cycle has been started. It needs to be stopped. Hey, you dads out there, get home guts, be a leader at the house and the church. If you've got kids, be an example to them. You are supposed to be the leader-not your wife, and certainly not your kids.
Steven E. Mays - Trumpet Editor