Somewhere along the line, the role of male leadership and female leadership has been distorted. Both can be equally strong and powerful without being a detriment to the other sex.

I also love your concept of a kick-ass community. Keep fighting for it!

I would agree - pastors are needed to serve faith communities (big and small communities I suspect). I wonder if many (and by many I mean bunches and bunches) pastors are already out there, but folks in institutional church settings have simply not recognized them…nor could recognize these people even if they showed up on their church building doorsteps.
It may be like the guys on the Emmaus Road not recognizing Jesus because their brains were hardwired with an image of Jesus (or the church, or ministry or ministers) that was not bad, but not the present reality either.

Maybe these unknown pastors (unknown to most in a formal sense) look at a church building as a bit of a box, and honestly, who wants to live in a box even if signs that read “Freedom” are posted on the walls. I know these unknown pastoral types are out there because I just met one in my office building.

This guy has a small hovel he calls his office and stacks of books on shelving units with titles such as Velvet Elvis, Wild at Heart and Why Men Hate Church. He gave me Velvet Elvis…probably a kick-start book for beginners. I was actually intrigued by “Why Men Hate Church”, but I told my wife there is probably nothing in the book that I have not pondered over the last few years. Don’t get me wrong, as a man I love the church…she’s growing into quite a beauty…it’s just that I am not so crazy over the not-so-pretty-plastic manakin we often see propped up in a window display that we call a church service.

What I mean is that most churches (services) seem to be designed for and cater to women…very feminine in nature. These services, it stands to reason, are neither relevant not engaging for men. Women are often so pumped that their husbands even go, they don’t notice that the majority of the men slip in and out of coma like states throughout the service time.

Anyway, this guy I just met, was a former pastor and youth worker and now is on his own (along with family and friends) to encourage men in the faith or as he states it, “awaken the passion”. Apparently, if men get connected to faith and passion, cool things happen like it often transforms their lives and the lives of their family, friends and places of employment. This guy has balls, or maybe he’s just crazy.

Regardless, this guy is out there doing pastoral type stuff. So my thinking is that there are probably tons of people out there doing pastoral type stuff that most of us don’t know about. Sounds like a good concept. Sounds a bit non-status quo and exciting. Maybe what we need are a few postings that read, NEEDED: PEOPLE! ALL INCLUSIVE, WHO ARE WILLING TO AWAKEN FAITH AND PASSION. NOW IS AS GOOD A TIME AS ANY. Sounds like a kick-ass community to me.