John Piper on Masculine Christianity

At a recent pastors luncheon, John Piper delivered a message entitled "Sweet Blessings of Masculine Christianity." What Piper means by this phrase (though he acknowledges that words are inadequate) is this:

"The theology and the church and the mission are marked by over-arching male leadership and an ethos of tender-hearted strength and contrite courage and risk-taking decisiveness and readiness to sacrifice to protect and provide for the community-the feel of a great, majestic God making the men lovingly strong and the women intelligently secure."

Piper goes on to unpack eleven descriptors that flow from this ethos. I commend this message as a highly nuanced articulation of what Piper (and many others) have heralded for many years. Strong women and strong men are formed and flourish in the kind of Christian ethos that Piper describes. Churches that go the other direction tend to lose their men over time.