Finished "Why Men Hate Going to Church" last night. Solid book, I agree with the premise, my fear is just that we'll go too far in the other direction and have to put up with men peacocking all the time in these men's groups. I had to deal with that a little at my old church, listening to men brag about their promotions and such, I'm just not into that, but I may be in the minority.

I'll just share two quotes from the chapter entitled "Check Your Manhood at the Door":

Before he became president of the US, Teddy Roosevelt was a Sunday school teacher. One day a boy showed up for class with a black eye. He admitted he'd been fighting, on the Sabbath no less. Another boy was pinching his sister, so he tok a swing at the scoundrel. The future president told the boy he was proud of him and gave him a dollar. When word of this got 'round the church, Roosevelt was let go.

My friend Randy took the youth group downtown to minister to street people, but got in trouble for giving a ride to a man who had been drinking. Several mothers were incensed. "You're supposed to keep our children safe!" one mother said. "Why can't you just meet at the church and teach the Bible?"

Another story told of a men's group that was going paintballing one Saturday morning, but due to feminine pressure that the activity was too war-like and agressive, the pastor asked the men to stay at church and study 1 Tim instead. They did, few showed up.

Of course, there is balance in all of this. One connection I had to the quotes above was a discussion with a fellow teacher, an older man, who attends a large congregation in my area. This year for their harvest party they had some sort of outreach at the church that somehow attracted a small group of gothic teenagers. Some of the mothers were enraged, and packed their kids up in the minivan and headed for the comforts of their suburban home. John, on the other hand, a man who in his prime was a bodybuilder and still works out six days a week, said he felt that these were the people Jesus would have attracted to one of his parties, so he was all right with it. I'll bet you next year, though, that there won't be such a party where outsiders like this are not welcome, it just isn't safe!