Topless church

So I’m sitting in a church service with my shirt off… and I’m not the only one.  The speaker is shirtless and about half the guys in the crowd tear off the shirts and go “skins” for the gathering… and I totally dug it.  You really have to try this… but I must warn you that you will probably meet some resistence if you and a few guys go topless on Sunday Morning at your local house of worship.  From a practical standpoint, I really don’t want to see you shirtless… but that point withstanding…at what point did clothing become an important focal point of worship? But the deeper question is why? 

Here’s the back story…

It was Tuesday about 7:15pm, and I’m sitting in a warehouse in downtown Nashville jamming to some original rock that could be best described as GodRock for GodMen.  The air conditioning in the converted warehouse couldn’t keep up with the 102 temp outside… but it was mostly bearable.  About 120 guys are gathered together to worship God Almighty in a mighty guy way…shirtless.

Brad Stine takes the stage and the the obvious cry rolls out… it’s hot… and it’s “guy weather”.  Brad encouraged us to embrace “guy weather” the kind of weather that says… “take your shirt off”.  Brad begins to flop the shirt off and is encouraging the rest of us to skin up.  I’ll admit I was a little reluctant at first, but then realized… dude I’m hot.  God sees me in the buff… what’s the big deal?  So I shredded the shirt.  You know what?  I was much more comfortable… and then we listened to God’s man deliver words of encouragement. 

Brad spent the next hour talking about men and faith.  “Amen” came from the crowd and my own mouth more than once as we agreed together that we’ve got to get back to basics with our fiath and our church.  The GodMen event is doing exactly what it’s name implies… it’s building Godly Men.  Initially, the message is raw and gritty… and I found it challenging.

I have been reading about and seeing GodMen on ABC Nightline.  I remember thinking… these guys are on to something.  I can totally relate to the idea that worship happens where it happens.  And for many of us guys, it sure is hard to go to church and have it happen there.  GodMen is stripping the trappings off of the current view of Christian dogma and trying to show guys that at the core of faith… it’s gritty, hard, tough work to be a man of faith.

I would like to challenge you to find out more about these guys and where they are heading.  If you don’t like church, and you just roll your eyes at the idea of “talking about your feelings” you need to check in to GodMen.  LiveBold.org certainly endorses this endeavor and we’ll be seeing more about these guys in the months to come.

Are you man enough to be a GodMan?  I certainly thought I was… but they challenged me to get out of the box.. all the way down to my shirt.  Let me make this one suggestion to you… go take your shirt off and sit around with a bunch of guys talking about real faith.  Just don’t try it with the ladies… it won’t work.  Check out the guys at GodMen.org

About

Welcome, and thanks for dragging yourself over to Live|Bold! My name is Greg Arnold and I am pumped to see you here. This interactive online community is here to point every man toward the cross. Whether you have been a follower of Christ for ages, or you are just stumbling into this strange new world of faith, we have something of value to offer you. This online e-zine is a cross between a blog, a social network, a resource center, and a pulpit. My hope is to inspire you to live your faith on the outside and be a real man for God. We need you in the fight.