The holy Scriptures urge and instruct Christian men to be wise, zealous, and strong leaders, producers, providers, and protectors. But if you look at most western evangelical men, they are very often foolish, lazy, complacent, and weak. They act a lot like the average unbelieving male. What are the main reasons for this?

  1. Neglect of diligent prayer and Bible study. These are the first two disciplines that must be practiced and maintained in order for a man to grow in godliness. He must be a man of prayer and the Word. He must develop a rich and reverent communication with His Lord by seeking Him through prayer and Scripture learning. It’s only by first being led by the perfect Man that he will even begin to grow in true masculinity.
  2. Isolation from more mature brothers. There are two components to this. First, the whole predominant structure of western Christianity prevents the most mature brothers from having close relationships with most of the men in their congregation. Why? Because the most mature men in the congregation are usually the pastoral leaders. But the way that most assemblies function is that these leaders spend most of their time away from their other brothers, since they are viewed as the “professional” clergy, whose chief job is to lead “services” and “preach sermons”. As such, they should be careful about spending much time with their brothers who are just your average, every day, “laymen”. They have far more important things to do then to develop close relationships with these men, and invest in their spiritual growth!

The second component of this isolation is that many western Christian men deliberately avoid spending a significant amount of time with more mature men. They would much rather enjoy their time with their “buddies” who are at the same level with them, and enjoy the same activities outside of the weekly gatherings. If they pursued deep relationships with more godly men, that would pose too much of a risk of exposing their faults and inadequacies, putting them to shame! But accountability, brotherly encouragement and correction, and the visibility of more mature men’s behavior and character is exactly what Christian men need. What we need is brotherhood – with older brothers mentoring, teaching, and leading younger brothers toward greater godliness, holiness, and righteousness. Rise up, O men of God! Let us follow the instruction of Paul for Timothy, and deliver what the apostles have entrusted to us to “faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Ti. 2:2).

C) The failure of the middle-aged generation to pursue and pass on masculinity to their sons and grandsons. There’s a deplorable neglect of “millennials” and Gen-Z’ers by the previous generation of Christian men. Enamored by their early prosperity, and distracted by the drastic changes in western society and culture, they largely failed to grasp their responsibility for training up the next generations of Christian men in biblical masculinity. Now, Christian teens and young adults are mostly left to discover Christian manliness on their own. Many of them have resorted to the unbelieving voices of the “red pill” manhood leaders on social media, such as Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan. But such God-hating men are leading our younger brothers astray. They have much good to say about discipline, hard work, strength, and good sense, but none of it is focused at the goal of becoming more like the Lord Jesus. Please, older brothers, see the needy younger brothers around you, and take them under your wing!

Here are some recent video resources for learning more about this topic: