I've now been around students for ten years. Throughout the decade, I have learned that finding aspirant men who can spiritually lead is infinitely more difficult than finding complacent boys who can flaccidly whinge. Rather than emulating the heroes of the faith, today’s lads are coached into being heroes of the trivial.

Of course, there are many reasons for this, but the present shortage of strong male leaders in the universities of Britain may, I feel, be connected to at least three phenomena I observe in student contexts.

Firstly, godly leadership is painted almost exclusively in terms that are culturally associated with women. Acceptance, tolerance, sensitivity, and gentleness are admirable qualities which we yearn to see in leaders. But what of the boldness, danger and robust, controversy-creating determination we see in Jesus? These are seen as awkward traits of immaturity at worst, and optionals at best. We tend to errantly paint Jesus as being more Gok Wan than Gladiator, and then wonder why real men, ‘leadership men’, are not drawn to lead like Him.

Secondly, for this generation, leadership itself is regarded with squinting suspicion. Nietzsche has taught us to be skeptical of those who aspire to influence, especially concerning the spiritual realm. Leadership is associated with coercion and abuse rather than service and sacrifice, and is often seen, even by Christians, as an unfortunate yet occasionally necessary evil. It is also wrongly associated with purely organisational rather than relational responsibility, as though Jesus was a stuffy CEO rather than a dynamic revolutionary. Leadership, sadly, is not cool.

Thirdly, we have reduced the gospel into a set of factual precepts which demand only intellectual agreement. Growing in Christlikeness is regarded, perhaps subconsciously, as a passive inevitability rather than a pursuable joy. In the New Testament, Paul exhorts us to proactively “be transformed” and “pursue righteousness”. Unfortunately, our culture exhorts us to passively watch Transformers and pursue relaxedness. In limp compliance, our ill-defined model of grace permits spiritualised inactivity, even condones it. True grace, of course, by very nature compels and motivates us to live for and like Jesus; thus, men who have deeply understood the grace of God are deeply interested and invested in the world and prepared to take the initiative to influence their culture.

So what is the solution? It would be easy and indeed commendable to suggest that we revise our feminised Jesus, and Biblically address our own apathy. But we must not see the solution solely in humanistic, testosterone-fuelled effort; the very thing which led us to consistent failure and thus spiritual non-engagement in the first place. Rather, we must ask and allow God, through the Holy Spirit, to transform us into the likeness of the greatest man, Jesus. Observing him will inspire us, but being empowered by him will change us. We need all the help we can get.

This article first appeared in the Summer 2010 edition of Agapé's MOVE magazine, which you can read more of here.