Captivate in Pictures 8-29-10

Today at Captivate we finished up our "Together" series with a challenge for all of us to come together and grow up into and under the headship of Jesus Christ.

I'm a product of a fatherless home. In my life I was on track to be a statistic when it comes to boys growing up without a father and passing that on to a third generation. Fortunately along the way God brought people who believed in me and I have been blessed to be mentored by a few men who love Jesus and His Church. Sadly, many young men don't have those examples. I believe the Church should provide examples of biblical manhood to the culture. We first have to teach boys how to grow up and be men. To say this message was well received today would be an understatement.

There are many reasons that boys don't grow up and that men don't learn biblical manhood. They range from the subtle to the obvious. We take our cues about manhood from so many places other than Christ. Its part of my passion to develop boys into men. Captivate will do that.

To give men a proper view of self we have to begin with a proper view of Jesus. I took some time to read a 'poem' (church song) to a big African American biker who I pulled from the crowd today. I asked the audience how many men felt comfortable singing "Cause nothing else could take your place, to feel the warmth of your embrace. Help me find a way, bring me back to you." The reality is that singing is awkward for many men and on top of that the average guy has no desire to sing songs about feeling warm embraces with a man.

In the picture above I also addressed our own view of Jesus. This picture I brought on stage used to hang in the fellowship hall of my childhood home church. I described all of the graven images it sends. A white man with long perfect hair and a manicured beard gazing off into the distance. God didn't give us a description of Jesus because none of us has a corner on the identity of God. I reminded our church today "We are made in the image of Christ but yet we spend time making Christ in our image." That is a sin we must repent of and stop. It's idolatry. We don't worship an image, we worship a Savior.

Finally we discussed headship of Christ by pointing out his attributes in Hebrews 1:1-4. He is creator, sustainer, forgiver of sins, savior, higher than any other... etc. I then closed by taking the men in our church to Revelation 19 where we see a returning and triumphant Jesus coming back. He makes the UFC men look like they prance around with tulips and daisies in their teeth. Our coming Savior returns to handle business. Men can afford to worship that Savior. Men need to learn to worship the fullness that is Christ. The compassionate, just, righteous, loving, powerful, mighty and masculine "radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being"(Ephesians 4:3)

We need our churches to be under the headship of Jesus Christ. We must be about nothing else that can distract us. We are indeed His body on this planet and He alone is our head. Men, lets become great men of God who demonstrate to the world who our Savior is. Lets lead our churches with grace, love, truth, boldness and strength.

References from today: (Ephesians 4:11-16, Hebrews 1:1-4 and Revelation 19:11-21)

Article about 20-somethings: http://tinyurl.com/233doxp

Article by Mark Driscoll: http://tinyurl.com/2exdoe3