Man Up Leadership!

Have you heard of Man Up Leadership?

Man Up Leadership is an app for your phone or for your browser. The app was released at the beginning of this year and is growing quickly. What makes the app so great and effective? It consists of the four following categories:

RESOURCES - CHALLENGES - HURDLES - ADVENTURES

The resources section contains powerful articles and videos that are written for men and by men. The Manturity Blog joins the ranks of Blog of Manly, My One Pursuit, FiveStarMan, Fearless Men and many more! The Challenges section is led by founders Josh and Tyler. The two men put out a new video every Monday that contains a serious challenge for all men to step up and accomplish! The Hurdles section is the heavy hitter on the app. Any man can write about whatever he is struggling with, needs advice about or if he needs some prayer support. 

As stated above, the Manturity Blog posts will now be featured in the Resources section on the app. It has been amazing to see how God has blessed the Blog since it's inception. This partnership is just another example of God showing me how faithful He is and continues to be. 

I would love to hear if you have downloaded the app and hear what you think about it. Do you agree that this could bring real change to the men of this culture or world? 

Click here to learn more about Man Up Leadership!

MAN UP! -Book Review

MAN UP! BECOMING A GODLY MAN IN AN UNGODLY WORLD is a book I recently had the pleasure of reading. The book was written by author and speaker Jody Burkeen. The book starts out with a powerful testimony about the journey Jody had to go through to truly find God. It's a testimony of a man fighting false desires and continually going up against the strikes of the enemy. A testimony of truth and honesty. He fought many of the battles we men face each and everyday and he didn't sugar coat it. In Jody's own words he had to MAN UP and stop being a spiritual sissy!

The book is divided up into some powerful, faith packed chapters. He doesn't just point out the life of Christ, but he points out how we are to mold our life after Christ. This applies in so many areas and Jody nails them in this book. He doesn't stop there though. He takes each chapter and asks some hard and relevant questions. Questions that demand answers from every man! Here is a brief outline of the chapters.

TIME TO MAN UP PERSONALLY

MAN UP IN YOUR MARRIAGE

MAN UP IN YOUR FATHERHOOD

MAN UP IN YOUR CHURCH

MAN UP AT WORK

MAN UP AND BE ACCOUNTABLE

MAN UP AND BE A DISCIPLE

PUT UP OR SHUT UP

As you can see these chapters go right to the heart of the man. The core. He takes each chapter and gives you great examples and explains how to apply them to your life. The questions at the end are the cherries on top. They bring the entire chapter together and ultimately into your personal life. Don't let these questions go unanswered; don't skip them and move on. Take ten minutes, grab and pen and paper and have a heart check. Pray and see where you stand with God on the issues brought up in each chapter. As Jody would say, Stop being a Spiritual Sissy and Man Up! 

The book doesn't end at the last chapter though. Jody does something great and asks you for more. As men, we all want more; but we have to make sure we want the right things. Well 30 days beyond the book chapters is the "more" we need. Develop your personal testimony, read the scriptures, keep a journal and PRAY! Sounds easy enough, right? There is also an Accountability Covenant near the back of the book. You'll have to read Chapter 6 to learn more about that. This by the way is my second favorite chapter, next to MAN UP AND BE A DISCIPLE. 

I encourage everyone to check out this book. It's a short, easy read that is packed with some powerful life changing material. Read the first part of the book here for free and click the picture below to pick yourself up a copy. Now MAN UP!

What is "Spiritual Maturity"?

Spiritual Maturity. Its part of the main theme for Manturity, but what does it really mean? My goal will be to take the next few posts and review spiritual maturity and what it takes to get there and stay there. 

Lately I have been using some avenues on Social Media to ask different ideas and opinions. The responses, although they were few, were great and to the point. The first response was from the author Jody Burkeen from MAN UP! Gods Way; he referenced the verses from 2 Peter 1:5-15. I never used these verses in reference to maturity before, but he sure gave me some things to think about. By the way, I am reading his book and it's pretty awesome. I hope to have a review coming out soon this month. Anyway, the verses go something like this:

⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; ⁶ and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷ and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. ⁸ For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

If you need to, read it again. (Maybe a couple times more for good understanding measures :). Whoa! I'll attempt to go over this in a short, but effective manner. Make EVERY effort to add to your Faith. I don't think I read "when it's convenient, add to your faith". Make EVERY effort to add to your knowledge! This is asking us to go beyond the Sunday sermon and really seek out who the Lord was and still is. Make EVERY effort to add to your self control! This isn't talking about controlling some of your self; it's talking about all of yourself. This includes but is not limited to your physical behavior and your emotions. This includes when you are with people and when you are alone. Your actions should be pleasing to Christ. Make EVERY effort to add to your Godliness, mutual affection and love. You should be seeking to know more about God daily. Seeking to experience his Love and Affection for us and how we can translate that into our actions with other people. In the end, these things will keep you "up to par" and productive in the sight of the Lord and others. They will not be easy to maintain daily, but they are worth every minute trying. Don't be blind in your actions or emotions, don't forget what Christ has done for you and continue to follow his path and mature.

I know you have thoughts Spiritual Maturity. 

Share a story. Share your opinion. Make an impact.

'Guys with Kids' Review

It's the fall television season and all the networks are putting out their new shows. One of the things I look for are shows related and meant for men. Almost year ago, one of the major networks put out a show called 'Man Up'. I actually wrote a post about it that you can check out. Man Up was a complete disaster! It had men in their thirties that did nothing but wine, complain and act like children. The show was not about men "manning up" at all, it merely showed a bunch of immature men that were trying to man up and failed every episode. I think the network realized its faults and the show is not to return. 

Recently a new show popped up on the scene called 'Guys with Kids'. The previews looked slightly skeptical showing three dudes all strapped up with babies and kids around them. At first I thought this was going to be another fail. I figured it would be three guys, all divorced, trying to make it on their own by dealing with the kids and their ex-wives. The worst part is I imagined the show would of course be a comedy. The show would be selling the fact that it is acceptable to be divorced, raising kids and all the time making fun of the scenarios. But this was not the case.

After watching the first episode, I was surprised. There were, of course, guys that had kids, but two of them were married while the one was divorced. I became more interested in the show based on these ideas. The main idea of a show is the relationship among the three guys. They and their families all live in the same apartment building and visit each other often. The one guy has a wife and a couple younger girls; the second guy has a wife and has four boys; and the third guy is divorced with maybe a 12 month old baby. The mother is still present in the show so far, but they mostly deal with trading the baby back and forth. Most of the comedy comes from the relationship between the three guys, but a lot of entertainment is aimed at all the kids. 

Overall, the show is not a complete miss from the target. It shows pretty good examples of a couple marriages. Do the marriages go through some troubles and run into some strange things? Well, yes, but what marriages don't? And most of the time the troubles in marriage can be pretty funny if taken with the right heart. It also shows an example of a divorced couple, but at least the father is around and takes responsibly for the child. In the end, it doesn't set a horrible example and is much, much better than Man Up. 

I don't know if it will last for seasons to come, but check it out and share your thoughts if you get a chance.

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Airs: Wednesdays at 08:30 pm
Runtime: 30 Minutes

Strength Over Time

We can never have more than we can bear. The present hour we are always able to endure. As our day, so is our strength. If the trials of many years were gathered into one, they would overwhelm us; therefore, in pity to our little strength, He first sends one, and then another, then removes both, and the third, heavier, perhaps, then either; but all is so wisely measured to our strength that the bruised reed is never broken. We do not enough look at our trials in this continuous and successive view. Each one is sent to teach us something, and altogether they have a lesson which is beyond the power of any to teach alone.  -H.E. Manning

Culture says "Man Up"?

It's one thing for the culture to notice that there is a problem with men these days, but it's another thing to leave it up to culture to "try" to fix the problem...

I recently started watching a couple new shows on TV that were suppose to portray a "manlier" image. The first show that came to the chopping block was 'Last Man Standing'. I have to say that out of the newer shows this is one of the better ones, but still not overly "manly". The father, Tim Allen, is surrounded by his wife, three daughters and his oldest daughters baby boy. The concept is to show men that they can still be manly amongst all those women. He also wants to show his grandson that he is in charge and that the true man is still alive..
The other show that came out recently is titled 'Man Up'. In my opinion, this show did not hit the bar at all. I don't think it even realized there was a bar to aim for... The show is loaded with immature men in their forties who are trying to grow up. Really? So the show is not about mature men doing the responsible things in life, but rather doing the irresponsible things and trying to learn from them. The show starts with the main characters playing video games and ends with them playing video games. I don't think this is hardly any example of men that are making an attempt to 'Man Up'. The networks know that a manlier image is needed back on television, but who is running the networks? I can't answer this question, but maybe someone could enlighten me with the answer.

I also find it interesting that these shows have come out while a new movie is out in theaters called 'Courageous'. Men that are struggling in life, but come to a Resolution to fix their issues. This is a true example of men becoming responsible men! Television shows are more easily accessible, but they still require an audience that wants dumb people cracking the same old jokes and making no real point. The new shows mentioned above do have some very subtle and sometimes very quick examples of men doing the right, responsible and mature thing, but the majority of the shows are fill and fluff.

So the idea is simple. The world, our family, our friends, our workplace need to see men 'Man Up'. But how that happens and where the influence comes from needs to be managed properly and responsibly. Sure, these shows can be funny and have their moments, but being a man is more than that. It's about growing in maturity, becoming a man of integrity, making the hard decisions and raising kids that know who is in charge and why. Man is ultimately responsible to God. It is the way we were designed from the very beginning. If a man can stay true to his roots, his Father, than his path will be straight and long.

So in short, Man Up! And do it carefully and according to the design God intended.