Today’s review is a guest post by my husband, Will. Enjoy reading his thoughts instead of mine for a day 🙂
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For a lot of parents, there’s a big challenge in knowing the right way to pass on your values and beliefs to your children. Manhood Journey & City on a Hill Studio hopes to help bridge that gap with the Manhood Journey Father’s Starter Kit. The concept is straight forward: they’ve built a weekly curriculum that takes the key concepts that are important in spiritual formation, and they focus them down into a form that’s easy to use as conversation-builders and study groups.
I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I was immediately impressed with the packaging. The size of the books was great, and the package looked great and felt great. It made me want to open it immediately.
Inside were five items: A book by Manhood Journey Co-Founder, Kent Evans entitled Wise Guys. Along with this book were the Embarking Group Discussion Guide and The Embarking 1 on 1 Discussion Guide. There was also a DVD of introductory videos and a pack of ten “Maprochures,” which are helpful in recruiting dads to join your group and to help the groups select which modules they’d like to do.
The Group Guide encourages the leader to use the material as a foundation and then adjust it to fit the specific tone of the group, so I spent quite a bit of time mulling over the content from the first session and working out how I would present it to our boys. The session was built around an analogy of Big Rocks and Small Rocks, paired with a few Bible verses to draw deeper meaning from the “word picture.” This was great. As I presented the concept, the boys’ eyes lit up with understanding. Then I presented the scriptures and challenged them to meditate on how they were all connected.
I let them perk on the ideas overnight and we arranged a time to continue our discussion. Then, I helped guide them through refining their insights.
If you can get a larger group together on a regular basis, this will be a good tool to use as the foundation for that group. I also find that it’s flexible enough that you can make it work on your own with your own children if that’s all you have.
My only critique of the program is that some of the references to pop culture feel dated. I’m sure that some of the parents would get the references, but I’m not sure many of the kids would. I think if you are using this with your own children, you may find that it’s useful to adjust things so that they relate to a younger audience. I’m not referring to the meat of the program (which is excellent) only the supporting examples. For instance, one of the goals of the discussion is to create a “porch moment” like on The Andy Griffith Show when Andy and Opie would talk about the day’s events. If you’re familiar with The Andy Griffith Show, you’ll get it. But you might find that a more modern example (or skipping the pop culture reference altogether) would be better in your specific group.
Based on the Starter Kit, it seems like a great tool for helping fathers open a spiritual dialogue with their sons.
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Blessings,
