Teaching
The problem? A Christian man is called to lead—in the home, in the Church, and often elsewhere. Yet many men are ignorant of—or negligent in—their Biblical duties. As a result, many Christian boys are not being systematically prepared for manhood.
Meeting a need
We conduct these trips to encourage men in their Biblical responsibilities to lead, protect, provide for and teach their families. We give men tools and encouragement to help them teach boys proactively. The boys are challenged to view themselves as "Future Men" who will someday step into leadership roles in the Christian family, the Church and the culture. The men are exhorted to lead these young men by example.
What we teach
We teach Bible-based principles for manhood and leadership, biographies of Christians from ages past (both positive and negative examples), critical thinking and American history.
How we teach
We’ve found that many men learn well through stories, so we tell a lot of them—funny stories, sad stories, inspirational stories. We use war (American Civil War and American Revolution) as the backdrop of our discussions because the content interests many men and helps challenge our critical thinking skills, and because the crucible of war often exposes a man’s true convictions.
I've been to Promise Keepers. I've been on church retreats. I've been to all manner of Christian and leadership events—many of them costing thousands of dollars. But my trip with Steve and his team with my two sons was one of the most rewarding and significant trips of any kind I have ever been on. Steve's presentations were not only fact-filled for the expert, but also exciting and understandable for the novice. But—and this is an important point—the trip was not just about battles, but about leadership and Christian character, what it looks like in flesh and blood and how it's formed in real life. I felt truly blessed to be able to share this trip with my sons. Months have gone by since the trip, and it is a rare day that my sons and I do not talk about some lesson we learned on it. I am a better father and my sons, I'm sure, will be better men because of it.
Warren Smith - President, Ministry Watch
Why use war to teach Biblical truth?
Some thoughtful Christians are puzzled about why we would use war—i.e., killing—to help men learn Biblical truth, let alone the American Civil War, any discussion of which must include the topic of slavery.
It is precisely these difficult topics that make for memorable lessons and fruitful discussion, and we address them head-on. We talk about the great evils of kidnapping, hatred, racism and abuse. We talk about the difficult decisions of conscience men have to make when deciding whether or not to join a war cause. We talk about the sin that exists in everyone’s heart—from the worst of scoundrels to the hero. Life is filled with complex decisions, and we help to prepare men and future men for some of the complexity that lies ahead.
On our Civil War trips, we talk about the complex causes of the war. Many of us learned in school that it was only a war about slavery, and we are surprised to learn of the theological and worldview conflicts at the heart of this war. On our trips covering the War for Independence, we discuss whether or not the American rebellion was justified by the circumstances.
We find these discussions to be great opportunities not to “set the record straight” but to encourage men to be Biblical thinkers and engaged theologians and historians. Most of all, we are encouraged to be faithful fathers, sons, brothers, husbands and friends.