I was one of those youth workers who employed Rob Bell and Donald Miller in a effort to connect my students to Christ. Seasons of "eye-candy Christianity" gave way to a shallow "feel good" experience. A lack of Biblical integrity in these resources led me to have a "Bell-burning", which left me without a mentorship series. Walking out of Miller's Blue Like Jazz created more despondency as I sought to find a connecting resource to use with my students in addition to the daily Bible presentation in the classrooms and chapel services at Hillcrest.
I found great hope in Focus on the Family's The Truth Project which led me to explore Summit Ministries and Jeff Myers' Cultivate. This steady rise of hope has led to an exciting sky-diving free-fall to my students, following the completion of Eric Metaxas' Bonhoeffer.
After attending Mr. Metaxas' Bonhoeffer Tour, and in reading the inevitable classic, I was inspired to start a mentor group reflecting Bonhoeffer's thursday mentor sessions with select students. I was privilidged to obtain a pre-release copy of 7 Men during the tour and believe this could be a cornerstone piece for a new paradigm in youth ministry.
Mr. Metaxas begins 7 Men by warning readers that his book doesn't talk about manhood, rather it shows manhood. Although not written as a youth ministry curriculum, his approach is a welcomed diversion from most behavior-modification youth ministry curriculum. Writing a series of biographies rather than a planned mentor-study, Metaxas comments,
You can talk about right and wrong and good and bad all day long, but ultimately people need to see it. Seeing and studying the actual lives of people is simply the best way to communicate ideas about how to behave and how not to behave.
7 Men isn't a How-to book of simple steps or required environments to foster Biblical manhood. Instead Mr. Metaxas has created a first volume highligting the inspirational lives of seven men who "all evinced one particular quality: that of surrendering themseleves to a higher purpose, of giving something away that they might have kept."
Metaxas takes readers through a tour of George Washington, William Wilberforce, Eric Liddell, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jackie Robinson, Pope John Paul II and Charles Colson. Leading as if he were Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Metaxas uses moments of humor that dive into moments of deep introspection during his brief overview of the seven.
I found myself with a new and inspired appreciation for the seven men Mr. Metaxas highlights who have shaped the course of history, a gratefulness I didn't obtain through my high school study of their historic exploits. The book is both informative and transformative with the focus being lives lived in response to Jesus Christ.
Metaxas cooresponds quantitative historic research with qualitative analysis, explaining the character and integrity of those chosen for 7 Men. What were surprising selections for me in Jackie Robinson and Pope John Paul II created an appreciation through Metaxas' eyes. The spread of his stroke in painting the picture of men who have surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ in various faith contexts is refreshing, revealing bare authenticity in these men's holistic devotion to God. His selection of the men for this volume, across racial and denominational chasms, show grace and draw focus to Jesus Christ, which is the apparant goal of his piece.
I pray this is the first part of a multi-series exploration for Metaxas as I employ 7 Men for a summer mentorship series with students from Norway, Korea, China and the United States who attend HIllcrest Academy. This book has aided in me establishing a moral creativity I have sought to build in myself for some time; something I have felt the need for after discovering C.S. Lewis' explanation of the "chest" in The Abolition of Man.
I have no dout 7 Men will encourage and guide others to avoid the trappings of a self-help approach to Biblical manhood and will call for a formation of a greater ethos of manhood centered on the person of Jesus Christ.