We provide recommended reading in the resource section for anyone who wants to learn more about biblical manhood, but what you’ll mostly see in these pages are practical ways to live it out every day of your life, to push past the barriers that often separate belief from behavior.

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has published a new book called A Guide to Biblical Manhood based on the Biblical Masculinity class taught in January 2011 by Randy Stinson, dean of the School of Church Ministries, and Dan Dumas, senior vice president for institutional administration at SBTS. In the following excerpt, they explain their motivation for providing this resource. Readers can find more information about A Guide to Biblical Manhood at press.sbts.edu

We need men

If ever there was a time we needed men to know their purpose and to be men again, it’s now. Our world is filled with great uncertainty and instability and leaders are hard to find. We need men who aren’t pre-occupied with their amusements or appearance, but instead are willing and able to take on manly challenges.

But it’s not enough for men to take up manly activities here and there. Men abound who can do manly stuff (like shave with a straight razor, build fires without matches and deep fry turkeys) while still being disengaged where their leadership is needed most. Every day, men hide behind computer screens or pleasure pursuits instead of engaging.

We need men with consistent character: integrity, courage, perseverance and a willingness to sacrifice and lead for the greater good.

We need men of God

We’ve written this book, however, with a major distinction from other manhood resources. We’re convinced that what we need most are men of God. We need men who won’t just stand up, but will stand on something solid and timeless. In a relativistic world, men need to understand who God designed them to be, how they are prone
to sin in their manhood because of the Fall and how Jesus came to redeem them as men.

We need men of God who are doers of the Word

We’ve also written this because we’ve seen too many men with great gaps between their beliefs and behaviors about biblical manhood. We need men of God who
are active and consistent in living out their faith.

“Be doers of the word,” says James, “and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (1:22). It doesn’t matter what you believe about God or biblical manhood if it doesn’t make a meaningful difference in the way you live – in the classroom, on the job, as a husband or as a father.

This guidebook is all about practical theology – the doing of the Word. We provide recommended reading in the resource section for anyone who wants to learn more about biblical manhood, but what you’ll mostly see in these pages are practical ways to live it out every day of your life, to push past the barriers that often separate belief
from behavior. We realize this kind of practical application of biblical manhood can be seen as subjective.

We’re not going to say that acting on all the specifics of this guidebook is the only effective way to demonstrate biblical manhood. We are convinced, however, that beliefs
have to result in action. The last thing the world needs is men with great insights on
biblical manhood sitting on the sidelines (or worse, acting in ways that contradict what they believe).

We need men of God who are doers of the Word for the sake of the Gospel

Ultimately, however, we wrote this book because we believe that biblical manhood has to lead to urgency for the sake of the Gospel. We need men who will shoulder
the weight of manhood as God designed it, who will live it out day to day but will incline their manhood toward the Gospel.

It is the Gospel that saves men – as Jesus replaces their sin and rebellion with his righteousness – and it’s what makes it possible for men to be redeemed in their masculinity and to serve God with all of their manhood. And it’s for the sake of the Gospel that redeemed men have a new commission for their leadership – to proclaim the good news and make disciples.

Instead of compartmentalizing the Gospel, redeemed men are to see it intersecting with their life at work, in their marriage and with their kids. And pastors who understand this intersection as well shouldn’t see cultivating redeemed men as a distraction from the Gospel but see it as a primary front for advancing the good news.

The Gospel needs of our world today provide unlimited opportunities for both men and women to serve. But so many of the needs – in rapidly growing urban centers, among unreached people groups and so on – require a kind of courage, toughness and self sacrifice, that God gifted men to bring.

And so we pray this book will admonish, encourage and instruct you to be a man of God who is a doer of the Word for the sake of the Gospel.

This article appeared in the April 11, 2011 issue of Towers – the magazine of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary – and is used with their permission.