We have a “men problem” that’s getting worse, not better. Young men especially are paying the price. Many are in chaos, and all are struggling to figure out how to do life in an increasingly secular world that is gutting the institutions of marriage and family. God’s solution is for mature men to take younger men under their wings and show them how to walk the Christian life.

A young man in his late 20s asked me to mentor him. On our fourth visit–long enough for him to size up whether or not he would trust me–he sat down and said, “I have a mediocre business, a mediocre marriage, and a mediocre relationship with God.” And then he sat back, a sense of relief sweeping over him as he finally got it off his chest. 

How did it happen? His father, though in the home, had never shown his son the ropes. He had never tutored him in the ways of manhood. He wasn’t in the picture. His father didn’t have a plan to raise a man. He was, in essence, a “practical” orphan.

Many young men today are growing up as “practical” orphans. They’ve been left to “guess” at what normal male behavior looks like. There has to be a better way. Who will take responsibility for these men–to mentor and disciple them in the ways of manhood? 

Disciples cannot be mass-produced. I can’t disciple young men by teaching them in my large Bible Study. Men need individual attention. Mentoring is very situational. Like when a young man is trying to figure out why his wife thinks he’s neglecting her, or whether to walk away from a home mortgage that’s twice as much as the home is worth. 

Who is going to show the ropes to all those young men whose fathers are not in the picture? Moms can only go so far. It takes a man to teach a man how to be a man. 

Until every church disciples every man…

Pat