Men’s Movement Counters Toxic Culture with Dangerous Good
By Alex Murashko
On the eve of a men’s conference in the heart of Texas, most Jesus followers recognize an intensely broken world – especially in male culture.
Male culture changes over time and across cultures, but the core of it is constant: It has always been broken, just as it’s always been male. – Kenny Luck, from the book ‘Dangerous Good’
The Dangerous Good Conference on Saturday (8/27) comes at a time when events and circumstances in the country serve as the backdrop for a movement of men who want God’s power visible to everyone, Kenny Luck, founder of Every Man Ministries, told Think Eternity.
“The cultural narrative at this moment is the perfect backdrop – a broken male culture – to more clearly see a movement of a [Holy] Spirit-empowered male culture that’s doing unequivocal good,” Luck said. “There’s perfect context for the world to see, against the dark backdrop of hashtag ‘metoo,’ human trafficking, domestic violence, the orphan epidemic, fatherlessness and the generational cycles of chaos and dysfunction caused by broken male character and conduct.”
The “backdrop” also comes at a time when a multitude of issues dealing with human sexuality at the core, such as toxic masculinity, are part of the media soup du jour.
“The narrative right now when it comes to masculinity is that it’s toxic – don’t trust men with relationships, children, responsibilities, power, influence, or position, because they don’t know how to manage that strength,” Luck said. “Don’t give him strength, don’t let him express strength… The problem is that if men don’t have a healthy outlet for their strength they find unhealthy outlets.
“Trying to put a governor on male strength is not a solution, it’s a reaction. But strength isn’t even the issue because if a man’s strength is guided by character and compassion then we want that strength.”
He explains that male strength in marriages, families, neighborhoods, the workforce, and law enforcement agencies, is much needed.
“The bad rap that male strength has received, aka toxic masculinity, is that type of strength is without compassion and love. That’s toxic because if you have strength without compassion, character, and love, then inevitably you’re going to use that strength for yourself. Then, people suffer. That’s what people are reacting to right now.”
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” – Luke 4:18,19
“Jesus announced to His community that He had been weaponized by the Spirit of God to be dangerous with goodness,” Luck states in his book, Dangerous Good. “He would start crossing cultural lines and breaking the rules of broken-male culture whenever God’s will or God’s Word called for it.
“Jesus’ proclamation is ground zero of the dangerous good movement.”
PHOTO: EVERY MAN MINISTRIES
What did Jesus do?
In the the broken culture of His time, which thought in the broken male mindset: “Thank God that I’m not a woman, a kid, or a gentile,” there were the same ethnic tensions that we have today. Same gender wars that we are having today, same family dysfunctions that we have [and so on],” Luck told Think Eternity.
“Jesus started protecting and defending women, He started calling the children forward, embracing them and blessing them, and He never prequalified anyone on the basis of race. So, there’s your Spirit-empowered Son of God, now training up this ragtag group of 12 guys (3 years, 12 guys) and he tells them that the same Holy Spirit that’s bringing love and justice to people through Him is going to fill them and they are going to change the world.
Jesus said, “You’re going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the outermost parts of the world.”
Luck points to this exclamation from Jesus as “the city aspect of what I do.”
“If I watch Jesus and I watch His methodology – select, associate, train, impart – this is who He is with men in order to create a movement that will bless a city, that’s what happens in the book of Acts. Peter in Acts 2:14 stands with the 11. That is what changed Western civilization.”
He continued, “So you got these guys and something got inside of them. And that’s all bystanders can say. ‘Are these guys drunk? What’s going on? Oh, those are the guys who have been with Jesus.’”
Luck adds, “What happens is that in the character of Jesus, they now start expressing new conduct that reflects Jesus which starts creeping into all these spaces and places across the world.
During Jesus’ time on earth, “people witnessed the Kingdom rule of God.”
“Through watching transformed men living transformed lives and being agents of blessing in their cities, people reacted by saying, ‘That’s the real deal, that’s God, how can I be a part of it?’”
“Then we witnessed one of the greatest revivals in Church history, which is in the city of Jerusalem,” Luck said.
Jesus Christ’s ministry on earth is the biblical, philosophic, and spiritual template for the basis of the Dangerous Good movement. He encapsulates: “God’s spirit getting inside of men and then witnessing an eruption of transformation and evangelization in a city. That’s the Book of Acts.”
Luck hopes the same eruption happens for those attending the Dangerous Good Conference at Celebration Church in Georgetown, Texas on Saturday
“We’re going to preach the gospel, lift up the name of Jesus with a team of global powerhouses of worship … combined with prophetic teaching from God’s Word in an immersive musical and storytelling experience,” he said.
“We are going to talk about our identity in Christ. What does that look like? Well, we are talking about this guy who is really dangerous with goodness.”
For more information about the Dangerous Good Conference go here.
UPDATES FROM DANGEROUS GOOD CONFERENCE ON INSTAGRAM
Alex Murashko leads the Thinke Writing Team and blogs at Media on Mission. Find him on various social media sites (@alexmurashko). GETTR username @MediaOnMission.