I remember a John Eldredge piece (I think from Wild at Heart) discussing the average Christian man as weak. He said look around your churches today and the majority of men in them are weak men. I don’t know how to change my car’s oil. I couldn’t hammer a nail with a nail gun. I don’t fish. I won’t buy the tool sets, the big trucks, or the chain saws. But I don’t think that’s what Eldredge was getting at.

We do have this stereotype of the average American male as an idiot. Evidence here (commercial with Dwight Schrute), here, here, and here.

Actually, I think we underestimate the average male. I think we’ve relegated the laymen to the margins and have lowered our expectations so low that we expect next to nothing, save they’re present on Sunday. I also think we’re dropping the ball in building men up into men who take the kingdom of God by force. Matthew Raley, in a recent post, speaks of the men we thought we knew. I think he’s right on.

When we don’t underestimate the average guy, when we’re able to disciple them, encourage them, and guide them we become a Church that’s willing to think deep about difficult subjects, that wants to go beyond the surface, that challenges and questions. That leads us to Scripture. That leads us to poetry.

As the Warrior, Poet, and King wrote, “Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust…”