There’s been a lot of conversation of late on redeeming masculinity. While the church has, for the most part, abdicated her role instructing men to be men and women to be women, there is now a renewal of sorts among Christians – and even culture at large – to relearn the God-given roles associated with our gender. There are still those who take offense to anyone or anything claiming the authority to instruct others on how they should live – and in a postmodern, relativist society bent on redefining marriage (and even gender!) we shouldn’t be surprised – but for those who opt to submit to the Bible (even the passages that don’t necessarily jive with our culture’s perception of gender), little books that cast a bright light on God’s Word are crucial to our growth.
In their first offering, SBTS Press‘s A Guide to Biblical Manhood: How to Serve Your Wife, How to Mold Men Through Baseball, How to Make Men in the Church, and more does a fantastic job of laying out the Biblical principles of masculinity while avoiding the pitfalls that so many pastors and church leaders fall into.
It’s become all too often that we hear masculinity equated with Mixed Martial Arts, Cage Fighting, hunting, and other sports if we hear of it at all. And I am happy and grateful that the authors Stinson and Dumas avoid such faulty thinking.
When I glanced at the cover of the book, and noted it’s brevity (108 pages), I was sure that it would be light reading with a lot of nice illustrations. I was way off. The font is small enough to be legible, but condensed enough to pack a full on theological punch that one would expect to come out of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Instead of compartmentalizing the Gospel, redeemed men are to see it intersecting their life at work, in their marriage and with their kids.
The book lays a foundation of Biblical manhood at the onset, observing lessons we can learn from the lives of Adam (Biblical Leadership), Job (Spiritual Ruggedness), David and Solomon (Show Yourself a Man), Jesus (The Crux of Biblical Manhood), and Paul (Grace and Grit for the Gospel). Then it offers some very helpful, practical guides for husbands, for fathers, and for pastors.
The last thing you want to do is motivate someone to be a man without calling them to be a man of God.
I’m looking forward to looking back in a few years and seeing what a difference it has made on my marriage, my family, and on my ministry.
Pick it up. You won’t regret it.
