Questions
How Should the Church Form Men Rather Than Masculinize Them?
Summary: The church’s task is to make men more faithful, not more masculine—through Scripture read in full, communal practices of worship and confession, patient reasoning about cultural instincts, and the acceptance of discomfort in service of others. The result is not a paragon of masculinity but a servant of Christ who knows whose he is.
The church’s formational task for men is not to make them more masculine but to make them more faithful, which, for male and female disciples, involves becoming more fully human after the pattern of Christ. Forming men faithfully involves several things. It involves Scripture, not Scripture recruited to confirm cultural instincts, but Scripture read carefully and in full, including the parts that complicate masculine ideology. It involves communal practices like shared worship, confession, and accountability in which men are known in their weakness as well as their strength. It involves patient reasoning about the habits and instincts that cultural formation has produced, and deliberate practice of the alternative capacities that discipleship requires. It requires men to accept discomfort in service of others instead of acting like petulant children who leave the church when they don’t get their way.
The man that faithful discipleship produces is not a paragon of masculinity. He is a servant of Christ. He knows who he is because he knows whose he is. His identity is not grounded in his performance, his productivity, his physical strength, or his conformity to a cultural script. It is grounded in his relationship to Christ, which frees him to give himself away without the anxiety of a man whose worth is constantly in question. That man is capable of strength and capable of grief. Capable of leading and capable of following. Capable of courage and capable of gentleness. Not because he has achieved balance between masculine and feminine virtues, but because he has been formed by the one whose power was not threatened but demonstrated in the emptying and the incarnation (Phil 2:5-11). Through discipleship, we become more fully human than any cultural script could ever make us.
Key Takeaways: Forming Men, Not Masculinizing Them
- Scripture in Full: Read carefully and without selective proof-texting, including passages that complicate masculine ideology (e.g., bondservant texts, foot-washing, Gethsemane).
- Communal Practices: Worship, confession, and accountability in which men are known in weakness as well as strength—not environments curated for comfort.
- Grounded Identity: The faithful man knows who he is because he knows whose he is; his worth is not performance-dependent.
- The “So What” (Phil 2:5-11): Discipleship produces a servant of Christ capable of both strength and grief, leadership and following—formed by the one whose power was demonstrated in emptying and incarnation, not a balanced masculine/feminine ideal.
About the Author — James Spencer, PhD, is a theologian, author, and host of the Thinking Christian podcast, where he writes and speaks on Christian formation, political theology, and technology. He holds a PhD in Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and completed the Institute for Educational Management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He serves as President of the D.L. Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts, as adjunct faculty in Wheaton College’s MA in Leadership program, and as an Associate Research Fellow at the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, Christianity.com, and Sojourners; he has been quoted in The Telegraph; and he is a regular guest on Stand in the Gap Today with the American Pastors Network. His forthcoming book is Digital Discernment (InterVarsity Press, Fall 2026). Learn more at jamesgspencer.com.