Get Out of the Canoe and Walk on Water

Ross Werland said Sunday in the "Q" section of the Chicago Tribune that most men would rather sit in a canoe than in a pew. It was one of those "Why Real Men Don't go to Church" columns.

It's true. The church has abandoned men. Men sit outside and watch. They snicker about what goes on "in there". Men have no interest in being a part of what's going in the over-feminized church of 2007. Here's part of what he said:

Consider that the Barna Group, a Christian research organization, recently issued a report indicating that mothers are better stewards of Christianity than fathers in relation to families.

Further, Barna found, men are more likely to be "unchurched" than women, with males accounting for 55 percent of the category. Unchurched meant "has not attended a Christian church service within the past six months," excluding holidays.

Research also showed that more women pray at least once a week: 89 percent versus 79 percent. I don't know if that includes males praying: "God, please don't let my wife ask me to go to church again this Sunday."

There happen to be a few other religions in this country, so that helps explain why some people are unchurched, but some of it may involve how all this is measured.

The standards for determining that mothers were better Christian energizers involved attending church, praying, reading the Bible, participating in a small group, attending Sunday school and volunteering to help at a church.

I would guess that most of the people who do these things are wonderful Christians, but these acts say nothing about the spiritual reality. In large part, those things simply mean you're a joiner, not more holy.

Later in the article he says:

When my sons were growing up, we held our own brand of religious ceremonies beside a campfire, where spiritual feeling was palpable, and talked in a Christian context about how Native Americans lived so harmoniously with creation and in awe of its architect.

I think my sons now are as unchurched as I am. But they still love to camp. And when one of them called by cell phone the other day and asked me to tell one of the old Indian stories on speaker phone by his campfire, I knew that the great spirit must still be alive.

I may be unchurched, but I think God's voice sounds much clearer in my own back yard.

Ross is being the spiritual leader in his home and his sons are following in their fathers footsteps. There's something wrong here. Those boys may well come to a place in life where the real thing would have far more impact than this aversion to the girlyness of empty religion has brought them. Empty religion may very well cost them the ultimate price.

Contrast that with the meeting I attended Sunday night. About 700 people were there. People from all over the region. To see and hear a relatively famous speaker, John Bevere. He was exciting and effective. Not feminine. A man and his call. A man and his love and family. Hard hitting. Not evangelistic. He focused on the call and mission men carry in their souls and the necessity to find and follow that call. It shook the room. You could feel it. It was more than any canoe ride even in a rapids could produce.

He had an altar call. For salvation. I would not have predicted there would be many men going forward. This was a meeting focused on believers. 40 or 50 people came forward or more accurately rushed the altar. All except 3 were men. Men from teens to men in their 60s.

It was inspiring to see. It was fascinating to think that at the same time men are fleeing the church at large that men are rushing the altar when a suitable challenge involving a courageous act is required. There was nothing namby pamby or feminine about John Bevere's message. In fact it was designed to rattle men's cages.

It did me. It did others. It did Peggy.

Men need to know they are needed to build the kingdom. Not to sit in the pew, pay attention, behave, shut up and tithe (just like mommies treat their little boys, which is how the feminized church treats them); they must know that the mission and purposes of God are tugging at them. They must find what it is God has called every one of them to do and then with an aggressive warrior spirit get out of the canoe and on track to where God calls them.

If we as the church would do what we are called to do we would teach men to get out of the canoe and walk on the water like Jesus did. We don't challenge our men enough to hold them. They are un and underused. They can't contribute as men so they drift away.

That's why they leave the church in droves and go canoeing. It's something they can do. They don't want to join, they want to contribute. Read what Ross said: In large part, those things simply mean you're a joiner, not more holy.


Ross, give me a few weeks, I'll show you how to find real adventure in Jesus. That other, as good as canoeing is, is no substitute for the real thing.

He wants to show you spectacular scenes you never dreamed possible. He'll shock you with his manifested glory. He'll take you to unbelievable peaceful places. He'll commission you in the Army of God. You'll never be the same.

I sent this to him. You should do the same. Ross is open to receiving a "better than a canoe" message. If you are a minister of the Gospel, what would you offer him? How would you make him that offer he can't refuse? Why not make all the men you minister to the same offer? Show them how to walk on water. Treat them like men and not little boys. We serve Father God who made the waters Ross canoes on, not a Mother Church.

Write him at:
rwerland@tribune.com

PS: After I was filled with the Holy Ghost I actually tried walking on water. I sank. I believed I could do it if Jesus did it. I still do! I would rather believe in the miracle power of Jesus and fail then doubt even one thing about who he is in me. Any church, any person, any pastor, any man who doesn't believe in the miraculous isn't being realistic, that means doing everything Jesus did and the Apostles in the book of Acts did. Where is it written we should settle for second best? It's not in your Bible. Everything that happened in the Bible from Genesis to Maps is for today. Anything less is settling. Never settle.