Throwback Thursday: How Young Men Can Serve the Church
Note: This was originally published October 26, 2020. — Ed.
Note: Originally written for Wittenberg Academy’s Ninety-Sixth Thesis newsletter, the Michaelmas 2020 edition.
In years and cultures past, society valued young men. There was a common-sense realization that strong men meant a strong fabric of society. Christianity recognized the divinely-ordered family structure of the godly leadership of husbands and fathers, as well as masculine leadership in society. Indeed, God, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, describes the leadership of women and children as a curse (Chapter 3).
Even unbelievers recognized the natural order of male leadership, grounded in the physical strength of men and in the psychological make-up of men and boys as leaders of tribe and nation. This is most apparent in times of war. It was also obvious when tilling the land by physical brawn meant that the men were the ones, like Adam, to compel the stubborn earth to yield its fruits “by the sweat of [his] face” (Gen 3:19).