I think the average man is immature spiritually; they don’t have a Christian worldview. They don’t even know the beginning of what a Christian worldview is. Barna’s statistics prove that only 9% of those going to church have a Christian worldview. I think that men who don’t take that responsible role of leader in the home spiritually abdicate that role to the wife, and that literally oozes over into what the church is. And the truth is most men would rather watch football than correct their children. I don’t say that sarcastically but if you’d ask the average father how much influence they have on their children’s day-to-day lives I guarantee you it’d be very small, so they abdicate that also to the wife and mother.

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In an interview like this I can’t define what biblical manhood is, but I base what I do on the 2 Timothy 2:2 scripture where we teach and give to faithful, teachable, reliable men truths that we can pass on to other men. I think that men need to feel a part of something. They need to feel like they are making a contribution. They need to feel like they are being listened to. They need to feel like they have influence. But they’re not going to accept that responsibility if they are not taught and given guidance and given mentoring and also given an example of what they should be. So many fathers in America still deal with the whole issue of God’s love because they’ve had such a poor relationship with their father. I don’t mean to use that as a crutch but it’s really true. I read somewhere the other day where a full 20-30% of men are still angry at their fathers even 10 or 20 years after their dads are dead. Well, you can imagine how that anger, that frustration will affect and influence how we treat kids and how we treat our spouses, how we look at the church and even how we look at God.

Preaching: What do you want to say to pastors and preachers that I haven’t asked you?

London: I want to say to them that Bill Hybels didn’t call them and Rick Warren didn’t call them and John Maxwell didn’t call them and Jim Dobson didn’t call them and Billy Graham didn’t call them and Chuck Colson didn’t call them and whomever else they want to put on that list didn’t call them. That one day God looked at them and in that moment of decision tapped them on the shoulder and said, “Follow me,” and we left everything to do that. He didn’t call us all to be superstars or megachurch pastors — He just called us. He said, “Surrender your gifts and your graces to me and bloom where you’re planted and I promise to never leave you nor forsake you.” I would like to say to pastors today that they need to look back in time and rethink their call and rethink their mission.

But then they need to recognize that God, because of His investment, wants to see dividends. We can’t always be looking over God’s shoulder to see what He’s got coming for us next. We need to look Him in the eye and say, “What do you have for me right now?” And we shouldn’t put ourselves down or disparage our effectiveness simply because we pastor a small church or a power-based church or a church that’s in a dying community. That has nothing to do with it. What everything has to do with is the call of God in our lives and our making the most of the opportunities given us. We’re not all created equal and the rewards will not always be equal as far as earthly rewards. The “well done” that comes from God when we see Him someday is the most significant reward.

I think when Paul was talking about contentment in Philippians 4 it surely wasn’t because he was happy in jail. It was because he knew that he was where God would have him for that moment, and that one day this would end and the true contentment would come when he received his final reward, when he talked to Timothy about his crown and that kind of thing. I just don’t think we have the right to diminish God’s call in our lives by comparing ourselves to other people or other churches or other situations. We must make the most of where we are now, because eternity depends on it. The moment we start feeling sorry for ourselves, then we get our eyes off the mission and put our eyes on our self and when you do that then there’ll always be heartbreak.