Get that Hippie Jesus away from me!

Lets face it, I am not known for being a passive person. I've gone through parts of my life as a Christian trying to be this affectionate cuddly person, which was my thought of how Christians should be. I've come to the realization (not recently) that I am not cuddly, and I am not very affectionate. I am brash, I have a history of saying things before I think, and as much as I have always wanted to be the person that people came to with their problems - seeking a friend, I have just not been that good at it. My aggressiveness has gotten me in trouble a handful of times in churches as well, I always have this pessimist mindset that is always questioning the things I hear, read, and see, and I am not slow to stand up to people that I disagree with. Not all of this is good, it's just how I am.

Given my natural (some would argue the natural part) tendencies, I have been frustrated for a while on one particular issue. A lot of people seem to have this picture of what Jesus was like, and thus they try to model their Christian lives to reflect that. My issue is that they view Jesus as this Richard Simmons, peace pipe smoking, touchy feely God that would rather dodge controversial situations with epic blocks of wisdom influenced prophesy, than to stand soundly with boldness. There has been a rise in Churches around the world that have fallen into a status quo where they no longer teach the Bible as it is, but Preach to people based on what they want to hear - not what they need to hear. A good example of this is the prosperity doctrine. Pastors around the world have become so concerned with keeping peoples butts in the seats that they have began to portray Jesus as this neutered and limp wristed popular sky fairy of pop culture that would never talk about sin or send anyone to hell! Jesus was caring and nurturing, but many have avoided teaching of His boldness. He was truly a controversial figure. He would not have been crucified if he was a peace loving, pipe smoker. He was crucified by the people who hated Him, and these people where not the non-religious, they where the people he loved dearest. The Jews.

I guess the meaning status quo is different from person to person, I consider it to be a lack of emphasis on "doing", which has been emphasized in the de-masculinization of Christ. it is the theology that teaches us to stay away from developing relationships with sinners, it's the emphasis of the cuddly Jesus. Now, there is importance and a place for the feminine side of God, but it seems as if many churches have they're scales tipped to this one side. They sing worship songs that are more touchy feely than onward Christian solders. They're needs to be a balance, one that equally portrays the love of God and the bold masculine side of God.

To be fair, People usually come in two groups. The contemplative and the doers. The contemplative usually seclude themselves, sing there songs and focus on prayer and learning. The Doers come from the mindset of "there's work to be done, people to be healed, fed, and saved! Just like most things the pendulum, swung too far the other way can be destructive. The people who do nothing, but use their heart and head don't' get anything done, but they seem to have this higher sense of understanding of God. The ones who focus on their hands and feet often times wear themselves out and forget to go to Jesus for a refill of the bucket so to speak, thus missing out in a close relationship with God, but man do they get stuff done for the kingdom of God! We need to focus our pendulum in the center, and slow the swing that often times affect our churches adversely. There are a lot of people who are better at doing than contemplating and vise versa, but many churches will teach the gospel over and over, they will even sometimes get deep into systematic theology, but they don't enforce the "doing" aspect of our Faith. These churches sit and contemplate. They focus to much on their heart and head, not their hands an feet. It is important to know the word of God and have a relationship with Him, but it's also equally important for pastors to give their congregation a lead boot in their tails and get their butts out of the pews so that they can put their Faith into practice. This is why I love speakers like Steve Holsinger, Aaron Gray, and Mark Driscoll.

After taking time and studying how Jesus was, I have become less apologetic of who I am. Jesus was not passive nor was He a girly man. I, of course need to focus more on the caring side of Jesus, but I no longer and ashamed of my sometimes aggressive and bold personality.

Jesus stood for the principle of take the Church out to the world. Not "lets bring the world into the Church". He casted out demons, raided a market held up in a temple, stood up to the Jews and challenged their beliefs, Held a cross on His shoulders and carried it up a large hill, then withstood the pain of crucifixion for you and I. He came to earth as a man and boy was he ever - a man. There is an issue here though. Just as there was a girly Jesus movement, there is a current movement that is swinging the pendulum in the very opposite direction. These groups are tired of their girly Jesus like I am, but they are over intensifying the masculine Jesus. We need to remember, God is both feminine and masculine. We need to embrace the full image of God and not just the image that makes us feel most comfortable. I will try to be more like Christ in the sense that I need to learn how to be more caring and and slower to react to situations before meditating on them, but I am no longer apologetic for being a man. I will no longer let the view of some churches de-masculanize me to be a sissy, conflict and work dodging wuss. I am a man in Christ and I believe I am to stand with boldness for the Kingdom of God.

David Roediger