Waking the Sleeping Lion

I remember watching a documentary once about a family of lions where the male lions would go away for days at a time defending the borders of the pride while the lionesses kept food on the table and the whelps in check.

The hyena’s in the area knew when the males were away coming and harassing the female led pride to the point where blood was drawn in battles with the matriarchs.

The problem for the hyena’s came however when the males returned and caught them red handed inside the territorial lines.

The large male lion of the pride caught and mauled the high ranking hyena to death which sent the rest scurrying for the hills. The male lion was huge and the locals gave him a name Ntwydmala meaning - “he who greets with fire”.

The symbol of the lion is often used in the Bible to describe God and men in particular situations that call for courage, boldness and fierceness. There is a part of man that identifies with the strength and ferocity of a lion along with an admiration of how he is respected by the rest of the animal kingdom.

As men we are called upon to do many things and one of those things is to defend and protect what God has given us. The church is now more than ever in desperate need of men who are like lions and who know how to defend those who cannot be defended and to protect the borders which the world continually encroaches upon.

I’m not talking about becoming more traditional or more liberal but about those things which God created and those things which should never change.

What am I talking about? - Masculinity.

Sometimes I wonder if we as church men have lost what God placed into each of us at our creation. Have we like well fed lions laid down under the shade of the tree and disengaged from church life because it all somehow got too hard?

Maybe we have become like the lion in the Wizard of Oz movie who had no courage. Everyone would agree that this portrayal of the Cowardly Lion was totally out of place and unnatural with what we normally associate with lions – courage, ferociousness and no fear.

Isn’t it just as unnatural to see a church man who does not exhibit characteristics that are normally associated with being male? Maybe we have found church too hard and we have retired to the forest to hide in the shadows like the Cowardly lion.

The church and the world need strong men to step up to the plate, “men who are as true as steel” someone once said.

Is it time to get in touch with our feminine side as the world would have us believe or is it time to return to our roots and become what God has created us to be - masculine.

Danny Bell
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WACMen Intro

Hey Fella’s,

Let me first say it’s was an excellent camp at Easter time and it was good to catch up to all my old mates and get acquainted with some new ones.

This is the first WACMEN (WA Conference Men’s E-News) which should come out to you monthly if all goes well and it will keep us up to date on what is happening in the Conference. By no means is the name static or going to stay this way. It was just an off the cuff thought and it lined up nicely with the theme of what I wanted to say.

I keep thinking of the Men’s movement in our church as a giant sleeping Lion who hasn’t seen any action for a long time but when he get’s up everyone better move out the way.

I want to encourage you to print off a copy of WACMEN and hand it to your church pastor’s, personal ministries leaders and any other’s who you think may benefit. One of the things that came out of our meeting on Sunday afternoon at camp was the idea that we would like to see a Men’s Ministry tent next year at camp just like the ladies have.

This is not a tit-for-tat thing but as I wandered around camp talking with men there was a real felt need that blokes around the conference are not going too crash hot when it comes to church. I’ve always felt this in my own ministry to men but when talking to men at camp from different churches I was amazed at how many are doing it tough. It is also evident to many experts that men both outside and inside the church are struggling on all kinds of fronts.

WACMEN is just a start but if we all get on board we will be an awesome force to be reckoned with when it comes to reaching Ozzy males. At the Men’s tent we hope to provide a consolidation point where possibilities can be explored. One of the most important universal things that should come out of the Tent is the concept of mateship.

A consistent thing I kept hearing at camp was, “I don’t have any real mates in the church”. One idea (and it’s only an idea) to help this is the concept of a Buddy Board of events for different Men’s activities from around the Conference that we can all hook into. t will be explained below but you will be invited to contribute and hopefully as it circulates it will be packed with all kinds of stuff for us to be involved in.

Someone once said “if you mobilise the men in the church then get ready because we are going home”. Waking men up and giving them the permission to do things their way is in a sense waking the Lion within our churches. For too long the Lionesses have been shouldering the work while we slept under the shady trees. Now it is time to awaken the King of the beast within each of us and get about our role as males – leading, challenging and making a difference in the church.

I really believe this and hope that we can gain support and encouragement as we get involved in our home churches so men can once again be happy in the work of God.

Catch ya round,

Danny BellRead full post...