Sun. April 13, 2008 (Bruce Hiebert)

Dr. Bruce Hiebert’s talk posed the question, “How do we help our church’s young men (15-25) develop a concept of masculinity which leads to a peaceful, nonviolent world?” How can we possibly help our young men be both ‘men’ (masculine) and nonviolent? Young men in this age group form society’s most violent group, are most likely to be serving in the military, are most likely to be in prison, and are generally distancing themselves from a church which fails to speak to their real world pressures. Society’s ideal is that of masculine power, which (TV assures us) leads to greater opportunities for sex.... Bruce suggested that we possibly need a new definition of Christian power, articulating what it is like and how it can be used. This power would not be a brutal conquering force, forcing the world to be the way we want. It would rather be a quiet serving power, one which purposefully works at changing tiny aspects of the world, bit by bit.... Christians developing this type of ‘power’ find that people in governments occasionally listen (even if only politely) when they sense that our willingness to devote serious time and energy to a cause represents a very real determination to change things and that some element of change may consequently be inevitable.... Bruce also challenged the church not to assume that we can teach young men solely by example, influential as this may be. We, like Jesus, also need to articulate why we live the way we do, what our ideals are and why. If we made these changes, would our young men feel more comfortable in the church (most attend now because of parental pressure and will soon leave the church), would our young men learn how to confront threats effectively with relationships and even friendships, would our young women learn to admire (and thereby encourage) a different type of masculinity in our young men, thereby reinforcing good behaviour? [JEK] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday April 13th using your browser's preferred media player.