"What happened to the brothers in the church? We did not see them in church ministries. We could not see them in meetings' time, and could not see them in the family..." A fellow worker said this at a priest's party.
We often see the sisters who run busily, cook and visit members in the church. And even at some places where a church is being built are mostly sisters. Where are the brothers?
The Bible says that God thinks highly of brothers, for example, in terms of the order of creation, God first made Adam who took the responsibility of managing and guarding at work. Concerning the order of marriage, the husband is the head of the wife, and in the family, the husband shoulders the responsibility of raising children and running the marriage. From the perspective of the church, Jesus picked up twelve apostles in the world to be responsible for planting churches and shepherding the saints in the church. We can see clearly that God gives brothers extra grace and trust.
However, nowadays brothers are in a state of absence. Children can not get their father's care. Wife's love cannot be satisfied. Many of the church's ministries can not be done because of a lack of brothers. It also leads to the lack of care and visitation to the existing brothers, and accelerates the loss of male Christians in the church, and also makes the pastoral ideas and ways of governance comprehensive.
What leads to their absence?
The first factor is their social responsibility. In fact, the social background is very demanding for brothers. From a marriage point of view, even to find a spouse in the church, many of the church brothers still have to prepare a house, a car, and money. However, if a newly graduated brother does not ask their parents for help, it is very difficult for him to buy an apartment.
Even though in marriage, the high cost of living is overwhelming, including children's education, interpersonal relationships, mortgage loans. In addition, their parents must not get sick.
Some people say, "Brothers love the world very much so that they have so much pressure." In fact, I want to say that in the face of reality, the brothers have the responsibility and obligation to create a better life for their family. Just because they are bent down by the pressure of reality, like a humpback woman, they lost the power to look up to Christ.
Second, the brothers are generally rational. Therefore, they are not like sisters who are easy to give full dedication because of the inspiration of God's love. Brothers will ponder over, then will miss a lot of opportunities during the reflection.
Sisters can serve as housewives while serving God, but it is difficult for brothers to serve full-time, and their cost of being a church worker is much higher than the sisters, which results in that the brothers rarely serve in the church.
But whether it is a difficulty or reality, today's churches really need a number of great warriors to stand up.
In Timothy 2:8, "I want men to be without anger, without controversy, to hold up holy hands and pray everywhere". I deeply believe that when more of us pray for the brothers in the church, they will eventually be raised by God and become the utensils used by God.
-Translated by Sun Xiaowen
