\u201cRun!\u201d He whispers, \u201cThat\u2019s it, keep going!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
His whispering erupts into a warrior\u2019s cry of victory,<\/p>\n
\u201cTou—ch d—–own!\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
He jumps to his feet, hands extended straight into the air.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, I can\u2019t believe it! What a come back!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
He yells as he dances around the room with childlike glee.<\/p>\n
Playing football with my brothers on a Sunday afternoon<\/p><\/div>\n
Maybe you’ve had times when you have felt the same way. You just wanted to get through church so you could get home to do something really exciting.\u00a0 Why is it that the same man who is put to sleep by the Church service can also be stirred deep within by a simple football game?<\/p>\n
I believe there is a simple answer to this.<\/p>\n
We (men) like action.\u00a0 We crave it.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
We also live in a culture that honors action heroes, California even elected one for their governor a few years back! \u00a0If you want men to watch a movie you’d better have few good explosions, a fight or a car chase.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately it seems that our churches have become lost in this fascination for action. \u00a0Men do not view the Church as a place of action, they see it as a place of “inaction”, a place where they need to be quiet and still.<\/p>\n
I fear this is the result of a theology of \u00a0I call \u201cDon\u2019tism.\u201d \u00a0 People who adhere to “Don’tism” view the Christian life as abstinence from all things evil. \u00a0In their minds holiness is mainly about staying away from sin which is usually clearly defined by a long list of “don’ts”<\/p>\n
In their effort not to do evil they fail to do anything at all.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I’m not saying that the Bible doesn’t prohibit things because it does. Take “Do not murder” for example. What I am saying is that I am persuaded that the Bible does much much more than prohibit.<\/p>\n
God’s Word is a call to action!<\/h4>\n
\n
- A call to walk and live in faith<\/li>\n
- A call to preach and teach the gospel<\/li>\n
- A call to pick up your cross and follow Jesus<\/li>\n
- A call to bring mercy and grace to the lost<\/li>\n
- A call to help the needed and defend the helpless<\/li>\n
- A call to choose the righteous action over the unrighteous<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
In a way, I don’t fault those men who can’t seem to get excited about worship on Sunday morning. Maybe the blame lies more on our church and traditions than it does on the individual.<\/p>\n
Questions: Why do you think men get more excited about football than they do about church? What can we do in our churches to change this?<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On any given Sunday morning around 10:30 you’ll find a man taking up his usual spot in the church sanctuary. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31],"tags":[72,80],"class_list":["post-1523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing","tag-church","tag-men"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/gabe-football-001.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3izZc-oz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":358,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/across-the-street\/","url_meta":{"origin":1523,"position":0},"title":"Across the Street","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"October 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"They have been building this large Orthodox church in the park across the street from our building for a few years now. Once the tower is finished it will be the tallest building in our area of town. The Orthodox church always tries to make sure it has the tallest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Updates"","block_context":{"text":"General Updates","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/updates\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":397,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/resurrection-sunday-in-odessa\/","url_meta":{"origin":1523,"position":1},"title":"Resurrection Sunday in Odessa","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"April 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"What was great about celebrating the\u00a0resurrection\u00a0here in Odessa Ukraine? Enjoying the walk to church with my beautiful wife! The fam, minus Anastasia who is with Ukrainian grandparents in Cherkassy A full service at our church \"Hope for People\" People enjoying the beautiful weather outside the church after the service. Matching\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family"","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":953,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/our-visit-to-makarovo\/","url_meta":{"origin":1523,"position":2},"title":"Our Visit to Makarovo","author":"Mishael","date":"June 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Last Sunday our family visited the church in the small village of Makarova. It is a farm land so they have lots of ducks and geese and many more animals there. I also have a friend named, Vitya who lives there, he is the pastor's son. They have a small\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family"","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/photo-11-001.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/photo-11-001.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/photo-11-001.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4028,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/churches-and-church-members-used-by-separatists-as-a-live-shield\/","url_meta":{"origin":1523,"position":3},"title":"Churches and Church Members Used By Separatists as a “Live Shield”","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"June 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine continue to use terror tactics as they fight against the Ukrainian government. Arsen Avokov, Interior Minister of Ukraine, wrote\u00a0on Sunday that separatist were firing a 120mm mortar they had set right in the yard of a church on the outskirts of Slavyansk. Why did\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ukraine"","block_context":{"text":"Ukraine","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/ukraine-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/thomas-rueters-001.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/thomas-rueters-001.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/thomas-rueters-001.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":393,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/palm-sunday-in-ukraine\/","url_meta":{"origin":1523,"position":4},"title":"Palm Sunday in Ukraine","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"April 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"What happens on Palm Sunday in Ukraine?The children from Sunday School prepared verses to recite and even a violin solo. A donkey showed up at church for the kids to ride on!Everywhere you look people are carrying pussy willows and sometimes flowers too. These babushkas were pleased to have their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Updates"","block_context":{"text":"General Updates","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/updates\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":425,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/church-on-saturday\/","url_meta":{"origin":1523,"position":5},"title":"Church on Saturday!","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"September 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, church on Saturday. My kids were a bit surprised we I told them we were going to a church service and it wasn't even Sunday yet. We visited the village of Lemani were Pastor Anatoliy and his wife are hard at work in a brand new church plant. They\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family"","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1523"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2870,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523\/revisions\/2870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"gabe](\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/gabe-football-001.jpg\")