Men bond over food. Feed them!
Ingredients: Crust, sauce, cheese, toppings. Prep: Order pizza. Open box. Serve hot.
Faith, Strength, Courage & Love
Men bond over food. Feed them!
Ingredients: Crust, sauce, cheese, toppings. Prep: Order pizza. Open box. Serve hot.
Establish four pillars of godly manhood: faith, strength, courage & love. Begin to redefine each of those according to God’s terms.
What not to do for great discussions! Do not… talk too much. As you talk, aim for 30% you, 70% them. Do not… teach too much. They heard teaching all week. This is time to process. Do not… answer too much. Easy answers are easily forgotten. Let them search, and they will remember what they worked for. Do not… handle hard issues alone. Talking about identity can bring up complex issues, so find good resources and call for backup.
Men bond over words. Guide them!
This week’s audio guides walked through the creation story in Genesis 2 to find four key gifts of God to mankind and with those the foundations of our four pillars of godly manhood.
Faith: Mankind was made in God’s image (Gen 1:27). Faith is crucial because by it we see the image we were made in.
Strength: God set Adam in the garden to work (Gen 2:15). Work requires strength in many forms (skill, power, wisdom, etc.).
Courage: The Lord gave Adam free will, with the freedom to eat any fruit in the garden but a restriction against one (Gen 2:16). Courage is the key to choosing right and resisting wrong.
Love: God’s greatest gift to Adam was also the solution to his aloneness: the gift of others (Gen 2:22). Love is both the key to relationships and the primary reflection of God’s image in us.
Circles of Difficulty! Click for directions. Modify to your group.
What’s the toughest thing you had to do because you’re the man? Do you see themes in the answers (courage, responsibility, etc.)?
Start with prayer & the Rules of Engagement: Speak with Grace, Listen with Humility, & No Shaming. Ask your guys what they thought of TeDese’s story and how they relate to it. (See link to TeDese’s full interview below). Then open your journals to discuss these:
Re-Definition #1: Faith. Share your definitions of the word faith. (See journal for Day 2).
Re-Definition #2: Strength. Share your definitions of the word strength. (See journal for Day 3).
Re-Definition #3: Courage. Share your definitions of the word courage. (See journal for Day 4).
Re-Definition #4: Love. Share your definitions of true love. (See journal for Day 5).
Take Home Truth: We are all made in God’s image. By faith we see God and reflect His nature more clearly. As we grow in faith, we redefine strength, courage & love by His nature.
Review the take-home truth. Remind everyone to listen daily to the Manhood Talks plan and share answers to the daily discussion.
Share this link to watch TeDese’s full story later.
Next week: bring Bible, pen, & journal. Anyone who doesn’t have a journal yet… man up!
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