25 ways men can be servant leaders.

The call to be a servant-leader is tough. No one gets it all right, and certainly no one gets most of it right overnight. It’s a life plan — a way of living you grow into with practice and time. Here are 25 suggestions, men, for being a servant-leader in your home.

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From boyhood to manhood

Albert Mohler shares 13 characteristics of maturity that define manhood. Great resource for fathers! Get “From Boy to Man: The Marks of Manhood” (Free PDF).

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Appreciating unashamed masculinity

Gloria Furman shares about the unashamed masculinity she sees in her husband and the Bible celebrates in its description of true manhood.  An excerpt:

The masculinity I appreciate as a wife is of far greater value than wealth-earning power. It’s a masculinity that is unashamed of the gospel which is the power of God (Romans 1:16).

The unashamed masculinity I enjoy in my home leaves a legacy that is more enduring than prolific fertility. It’s masculinity that fervently loves others from a heart that has been born again, born not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable. True masculinity is reborn through the living and abiding word of God.

The unashamed masculinity I love to follow in my home is far more impressive than macho pride. It’s masculinity that is willing to take the painful shrapnel in the battle against his own sin, rather than run from sin and hide in the comfort of silence. It is a masculinity that willingly exposes its life to the iron-sharpening-iron of open and honest male accountability relationships.

Keep reading.

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A birthday letter to a 16-year old

The other day I found a letter I wrote to our son when he turned 19 years old.  I teared up a bit as I read and reflected on that letter as I thanked God for Ian.

Then, a few days ago, I saw this letter that a dad wrote to his 16-year-old and which he published with his son’s permission.  What a model of faithful fatherly wisdom and leadership. I’d encourage you to read what Rick (here) wrote to Luke and use it as a model for writing your son or daughter a letter on his/her birthday this year.

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A book for men worth buying

Get Disciplines for a Godly Man  by Kent Hughes for $3.99 on Kindle currently. Remember you don’t need a Kindle to read this. You can read it on many different computer and mobile devices programs.

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Manly responsibility, wimpy theology, and true womanhood

The title is a compilation of two recent posts over at Desiring God that feature short quotes from John Piper.  Read and apply the call to strong men and theologically sound women!

This is a call to stoop down and to take the responsibility to be a leader—a servant leader in the various ways that are appropriate to every different relationship to women. It’s a call to us men,

 

• that we should take the risk of getting egg on our faces;
• that we should pray like we’ve never prayed for help in this tremendous responsibility;
• that we should be in the Word more than we ever have been to know what God expects of us;
• that we should plan things more than we do, and be intentional and thoughtful and less carried along by the mood of the moment;
• that we should be disciplined and ordered in our lives;
• that we should be tender-hearted and sensitive;
• that we should take the initiative to make sure that there is a time and a place to talk to her about what needs to be talked about—this “her” could be a friend, a date, a colleague, a wife, a sister;
• that we should be ready to lay down our lives in discharging this responsibility to be the leaders God is calling us to be.

Excerpted from Manhood and Womanhood Before Sin (1989).

Wimpy theology makes wimpy women. That’s my assumption that I bring to this evening. Wimpy theology simply does not give a woman a God that is big enough, strong enough, wise enough, and good enough to handle the realities of life in away that magnifies the infinite worth of Jesus Christ.

Wimpy theology is plagued by woman-centeredness and man-centeredness. Wimpy theology doesn’t have the granite foundation of God’s sovereignty or the solid steel structure of a great God-centered purpose for all things.

Stream or download the entire message delivered at the  2008 True Woman Conference.

 

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Time for men to man up!

“Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” (1 Corinthians 16:13, ESV)

Bill Bennet:

So what’s wrong? Increasingly, the messages to boys about what it means to be a man are confusing. The machismo of the street gang calls out with a swagger. Video games, television and music offer dubious lessons to boys who have been abandoned by their fathers. Some coaches and drill sergeants bark, “What kind of man are you?” but don’t explain.

Movies are filled with stories of men who refuse to grow up and refuse to take responsibility in relationships. Men, some obsessed with sex, treat women as toys to be discarded when things get complicated. Through all these different and conflicting signals, our boys must decipher what it means to be a man, and for many of them it is harder to figure out.

Bill Bennett’s article is well worth the read, ladies and gentlemen!

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What does it mean to take dominion?

Mark Chanski, author of Manly Dominion and Womanly Dominion and the pastor ofHarbor Reformed Baptist Church of Holland, Mich., was kind to answer a few questions about what it means for men and women to be men and women of (biblical) dominion.

Read this interview at Between Two Worlds! Well worth your time.

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Dwight’s half dozen: Oprah, Hell, Masculinity, Abortion, and the Civil War

The End of Soap Oprah by Carl Trueman:  ”Oprah’s show may be gone, but the soap opera plotline that she exemplified and promoted will live on in our society.”

Michael Horton offers an in-depth review of Love Win by Rob Bell:  In this in-depth review Horton gives an overview of the misunderstandings about God and His attributes, mankind and the Gospel which Bell presents in the book, and then reflects on the content of each chapter of the book in detail.

Tim Challies explains why he hates hell.

Want to know what true masculinity looks like?  Read this article. Dads, read it to your sons!

Enough abortions in one year to kill off all Cinncinati: Nancy Pearcy explains.

What started 150 years ago on April 12? Here are some pictures from that era!

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Man up or man down?

An essay by Dr. Mohler worth your read.  Here are some excerpts:

“We’ve arrived at another crossroads,” declares Newsweek — and this one represents a crisis for masculinity. As the magazine’s current cover story asserts, “The prevailing codes of manhood have yet to adjust to the changing demands on men.” With this cover story dedicated to “rethinking” masculinity, Newsweeklaunches itself into a very relevant cultural conversation.

“Man Up!” is the message the magazine conveys on its cover, though by the time a reader actually reads the article, he or she may be forgiven for having little idea of what this means. If, indeed, the traditional male is “an endangered species,” where does this leave men? . . .

The authors point to a “New Macho,” a redefined masculinity that is shaped around what Newsweek sees as the new realities in both the economy and the home. The new man is a nurturing man, they argue, as ready to change a diaper as to change a tire. And as for work, even as jobs in the traditionally male sectors of the society disappear, men must find new roles in sectors previously associated primarily with women. These are also concentrated in nurturing roles or positions in the information economy. . . .

The Newsweek cover story is an undisguised alert that the world is changing. A healthy masculinity should motivate men to find their way in this new world of changed economic realities and work opportunities, and to do this while remaining men. The unanswered question from Newsweek’s analysis is this: Will men change the new work of work, or will the new social realities change men?

Though barely mentioned in the article, the most haunting question is about today’s boys. The magazine’s cover features a shirtless man holding a young boy. It is the boy’s face that looks at the reader. We had better hope that the “new masculinity” of the uncharted future is one that leads that boy and his generation to become authentic and faithful men.

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