Forget the Marlboro Man and the Macho Man, these days it is the Metrosexual Man. He (Mr Metrosexual) is not defined by his sexual orientation, but rather he spends an inordinate amount of money, time and attention on his looks . . . and style. Mark Simpson calls this form of masculinity “mediated masculinity” e.g. narcissism. Today the subject came up at meeting . . . metrosexualism . . . and I have to admit that I had NO idea whatsoever about what they were talking about. This blog is not about metrosexuals, its about communication.
Communication is a dastardly tricky icky sticky cultural challenge. There are literally thousands of generational-specific subtle nuances in language. My parents were definitely the Mayberry-Lawerence Welk variety. I am much more the Hotel California/Life in the Fast Lane -Sanford and Son/The Six Million Dollar Man variety. My children have no idea what I am talking about with any of the above information (apart from the Eagles). So I spent myself recklessly today attempting to coach a group of people that I am organizing to become a Preaching Team. The challenge is in explaining to a diverse group of potential preachers, the difficulty of communicating to a much more diverse congregation of attenders, the eternal Truth of God’s Word.
My co-worker Mark appropriately warned the preaching team not to get locked into their Americanism, because many people coming to the English service are not Americans. I don’t think my group of potential preachers are taking Mark’s challenge very seriously. Thankfully this metrosexual thing came up and I was able to confess to my complete ignorance, but also show them that even I as an American was not aware, or in the loop on this metrosexual language.
Communicating scriptural truth is seen as a high and significant calling in the CMA, and today I was thrilled to be in our camp. That is not my experience every day, but it certainly was today. I was pleased beyond words to see the differences in our personnel. I was so happy to see that our people are far better trained than many of the folks from other organizations. I even met one guy this week who told me he had purchased his ordination! While I am no big fan of ordination as a concept, I was flabbergasted that you could buy it! Don’t worry, I did not invite that guy into our preaching team . . .but I might in the future. Communication is a life long learning experience, but in the end, if God don’t show up, ain’t nothing going to happen anyways.
Communication is a dastardly tricky icky sticky cultural challenge. There are literally thousands of generational-specific subtle nuances in language. My parents were definitely the Mayberry-Lawerence Welk variety. I am much more the Hotel California/Life in the Fast Lane -Sanford and Son/The Six Million Dollar Man variety. My children have no idea what I am talking about with any of the above information (apart from the Eagles). So I spent myself recklessly today attempting to coach a group of people that I am organizing to become a Preaching Team. The challenge is in explaining to a diverse group of potential preachers, the difficulty of communicating to a much more diverse congregation of attenders, the eternal Truth of God’s Word.
My co-worker Mark appropriately warned the preaching team not to get locked into their Americanism, because many people coming to the English service are not Americans. I don’t think my group of potential preachers are taking Mark’s challenge very seriously. Thankfully this metrosexual thing came up and I was able to confess to my complete ignorance, but also show them that even I as an American was not aware, or in the loop on this metrosexual language.
Communicating scriptural truth is seen as a high and significant calling in the CMA, and today I was thrilled to be in our camp. That is not my experience every day, but it certainly was today. I was pleased beyond words to see the differences in our personnel. I was so happy to see that our people are far better trained than many of the folks from other organizations. I even met one guy this week who told me he had purchased his ordination! While I am no big fan of ordination as a concept, I was flabbergasted that you could buy it! Don’t worry, I did not invite that guy into our preaching team . . .but I might in the future. Communication is a life long learning experience, but in the end, if God don’t show up, ain’t nothing going to happen anyways.
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