Wild At Heart?

I had a discussion yesterday with a mom of a young man who has proclivities towards classical music, poetry and other fine arts. Her concern was one that I found interesting: The portrayal of the Christian manhood within Christian circles.

She talked about how a magazine from a nationally known/respected family ministry had some professional athlete on the cover each month. She mentioned how books focused on traits like being a warrior, or being an outdoorsy kind of wild man, or being a knight. She talked about how the guys' small group at our church always played football or basketball in the half hour before the group study took place, and how the "guy nights" involve watching the game on the big screen or going to see some "guy movie." Even how our church's "Real Men's Bible Conference" had a "wild game" cookout and much was made of this during the promotions. She mentioned how our worship ministry had guys on guitars and drums but the brass and woodwinds more or less fell to the women.

In effect, she wanted her son to have a genuine place to belong without changing who he is. And, you know, she's right. True, there were some areas of our church's ministry she was unaware of (such as our film festival for budding directors and student art show coming up next November) but sometimes I think even within the Christian community, we have plenty of room for the Esau's (and admire the warrior side of King David, while ignoring the songwriter/musician side) and just nod politely and pat the Jacob's on the head.

The Kingdom is big enough for the Renaissance Man. In fact, I'm thinking that should be what we strive to encourage and include. We all can't be Maximus from Wild At Heart...nor should we want to be.