There is a far cry in today’s evangelicalism about what is called the ‘feminisation’ of the church.
Some of those concerned are trying their macho gimmicks: Mark Driscoll makes a fool of himself, and the gospel, with his distasteful exhibation of masculine sexuality, while others are betting on sports and body building, all of it, as we well know from the Bible, powerful way of building strong men of God. 
And, of course, for many of those fundamentalistically inclined, the real cause for this undeniable reality is feminism. Exactly how did feminism produce this effect is not told, bet everybody knows (supposedly) that feminism is bad, so it must be it.
Maybe not, argues Mark Sayers in this blog post.
If you find this interesting, maybe you should read it.
Interesting analysis, even if it’s a bit shallow on the ‘so how do we sort this out’ bit.
Personally, I think being role models is key. Telling a teenager to ‘man up’ doesn’t help, when he has no idea what a man is supposed to look like. And while you play down sports and the like, I think they do play a part.
Jesus chose as disciples a bunch of manly men – fishermen, rough country guys, and he went on their boats and on long treks with them. The gospels don’t show an effeminate Jesus, but one who was a man among men. OK, he didn’t play football with them – it hadn’t been invented yet. But he went fishing with them, he joined them in their sailing trips, he walked long miles with them, he slept outdoors.
Maybe our teen just need to see us being men – and need to hear us encourage them to be men – not violent but active, engaged in physical work, taking leadership, that kind of thing.
By: Marius on 29 January 2012
at 1:04 am
I agree with you, Marius. Discipleship/mentoring is the solution. Yet, this art is almost dead in evangelicalism.
I am not against sports, but only against the obsession with sports of American evangelicals. Also, I believe that the cultivation of winning at any cost, so common these days, is in fact conterproductive in terms of character formation.
By: DanutM on 29 January 2012
at 1:12 am