Men in Leadership

I got this today in my daily Tozer email:

Prayer: Men Who Do Not Pray

Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good
reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint
over this business.
--Acts 6:3

Let us watch that we do not slide imperceptibly to a state where
the women do the praying and the men run the churches. Men who do
not pray have no right to direct church affairs. We believe in the
leadership of men within the spiritual community of the saints,
but that leadership should be won by spiritual worth.

Leadership requires vision, and whence will vision come except
from hours spent in the presence of God in humble and fervent
prayer? All things else being equal, a praying woman will know
the will of God for the church far better than a prayerless man.

We do not here advocate the turning of the churches over to the
women, but we do advocate a recognition of proper spiritual
qualifications for leadership among the men if they are to
continue to decide the direction the churches shall take. The
accident of being a man is not enough. Spiritual manhood alone
qualifies.

This has obvious ramifications for the church. But I also wonder how many Christian homes this affects? By that I wonder how many men expect their wives to show Ephesians 5 submissiveness if they aren't loving their wives as Christ loved the church?

It's incredible to see our marriage compared to how it started. I was pretty spiritually meek. I barely had any foundation because I didn't become a Christian until 2 months into our marriage. I was addicted to porn for the first 4 years and that didn't help either. But then things finally started to break through as I dealt with this in my life. Now I think we do a better job of modeling the right kind of marriage, though some in our family might think that Amanda is in charge. I think we have a good thing going now.

At any rate, I want to make sure that I am someone who spends his time with God to be an effective leader. Otherwise I'll just be a spiritual despot.