Workbook: A Map for Your Masculine Journey
Fathered By God
A companion to the book Fathered by God, and helpful for discussion questions when going through the video series. Written to help you find your way, to figure things out, and to get the most out of Fathered by God, which itself is a map to the masculine journey. A journey worth taking. A journey with many challenges. And many rewards. The essence of Fathered by God is that every man needs someone to guide him through the process of masculine initiation, but there are few men who have anyone around to do that for him. So God steps in to take the role of a Father in our lives, and show us the way. This tool is designed to help you walk with your Father through your own journey.
Trailer
Fathered By God
Trailer – Using a men's small group setting, John takes users through the six stages a man goes through as he matures in life and faith, sharing insights and teachings on how each stage can be encouraged and supported.
Session 1 – The Masculine Journey (Part 1)
Fathered By God
Session 1: The Masculine Journey – The world in which we live has lost something vital, something core to understanding life and a man’s place in it. Our way of looking at the world has changed. We no longer live, either as a society or even as the church, with a father-view of the world, a view centered on the presence of a loving and strong father deeply engaged in our lives, to whom we can turn to at any time for the guidance, comfort and provision we need. But this is actually an occasion for hope! Because the life you’ve known as a man is not all there is. There is another way, a path laid down for centuries by men who have gone before us. A marked trail. And there is a Father ready to show us that path and help us follow it.
Session 1 – Closing Thoughts and Prayer (Part 2)
Fathered by God
Session 1: Closing Thoughts and Prayer – After your discussion of the group questions, you can now play, and end your time with these closing thoughts and prayer for Session 1: The Masculine Journey.
Session 2 – Boyhood (Part 1)
Fathered by God
Session 2: Boyhood – We begin the journey of being fathered by God by looking backward, to what our lives as boys were like. More important, we want to examine what they were meant to be. So much of the way we approach life as men was set in motion in our youth – some of it for good, and some not so good. We want to recover what was good and find healing for all that was not.
Session 2 – Closing Thoughts and Prayer (Part 2)
Fathered by God
Session 2: Closing Thoughts and Prayer – After your discussion of the group questions, you can now play and end your time with these closing thoughts and a prayer for Session 2: Boyhood.
Session 3 – Cowboy (Part 1)
Fathered by God
Session 3: Cowboy – Men, and boys, learn by doing; we learn through experiences. It’s one thing to be told you have what it takes. It’s another thing altogether to discover that you have what it takes, through some trial brought up in an adventure or through some test that hard work demands. For masculine initiation is not a spectator sport. It is something that must be entered into. It is one part instruction and nine parts experience.
Session 3 – Closing Thoughts and Prayer (Part 2)
Fathered by God
Session 3: Closing Thoughts and Prayer – After your discussion of the group questions, you can now play and end your time with these closing thoughts and a prayer for Session 3: Cowboy.
Session 4 – Warrior (Part 1)
Fathered by God
Session 4: Warrior – Historian Thomas Cahill, speaking of the violent origin of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, observed that “there are humiliations a proud people – even one oppressed for generations – cannot abide”. Indeed. It may take time, and require repeated provocation, but eventually a man must come to realize that there are certain things in life worth fighting for. Perhaps, when we appreciate the truth of this, we can better understand the heart of God. Like the Jews before Christ, we, too, live in a world at war. We are supposed to fight back. It is apparently a difficult reality to embrace, as witnessed by the passivity that marks much of modern Christianity. We just want the Christian life to be all about the sweet love of Jesus. But that is not what’s going on here. you may not like the situation, but that only makes it unattractive – it does not make it untrue.
Session 4 – Closing Thoughts and Prayer (Part 2)
Fathered by God
Session 4: Closing Thoughts and Prayer – After your discussion of the group questions, you can now play and end your time with these closing thoughts and a prayer for Session 4: Warrior.
Session 5 – Lover (Part 1)
Fathered by God
Session 5: Lover – Now we come to a fork in the road in the masculine journey, a stage that is both essential and, sadly, often overlooked and bypassed by many men. It is the lover stage. By this I do not primarily mean that time in a young man’s life when he falls in love with a girl. Though that is part of it, I don’t believe it is the core of the stage or even its ultimate expression. Instead, this is the season in a man’s life when his masculine heart is awakened to beauty and ultimately “The Beauty” when he discovers a sacred romance with God.
Session 5 – Closing Thoughts and Prayer (Part 2)
Fathered by God
Session 5: Closing Thoughts and Prayer – After your discussion of the group questions, you can now play and end your time with these closing thoughts and a prayer for Session 5: Lover.
Session 6 – King (Part 1)
Fathered by God
Session 6: King – We come now to the “goal” of the masculine journey, the maturity for which God has been fathering the man since his first breath – to be a king. It is a man’s destiny to wield power, influence, and property in God’s name. It is as great and noble an undertaking as it is difficult; history makes that very clear. The reason behind many of our miseries upon the earth in these days is that we have lost our kings.
Session 6 – Closing Thoughts and Prayer (Part 2)
Fathered by God
Session 6: Closing Thoughts and Prayer – After your discussion of the group questions, you can now play and end your time with these closing thoughts and a prayer for Session 6: King.
Session 7 – Sage (Part 1)
Fathered by God
Session 7: Sage – This is the final stage, the crescendo of a man’s life. This is the time of wisdom and fathering others, counseling others: Scripture calls it the “elder at the gates.” This can be a difficult time because it can feel as though your kingdom is shrinking, but in fact this is the time of your greatest influence. Your life experience is flowing over into the world, shaping the lives of young kings coming up in your steps.
Session 7 – Closing Thoughts and Prayer (Part 2)
Fathered by God
Session 7: Closing Thoughts and Prayer – After your discussion of the group questions, you can now play and end your time with these closing thoughts and a prayer for Session 7: Sage.
Session 8 – Let Us Be Intentional (Part 1)
Fathered by God
Session 8: Let Us Be Intentional – Over the course of this video series, John’s mentioned that you are prized by God, that you are his delight! Jesus addressed this directly in asking the question, “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:9). In other words, if we, as human fathers have some natural inclination of generosity toward our own sons, how much more is your heavenly Father’s love for you? You are prized by God. He longs to be generous toward you!
Session 8 – Closing Thoughts and Prayer (Part 2)
Fathered by God
Session 8: Closing Thoughts and Prayer – After your discussion of the group questions, you can now play and end your time with these closing thoughts and a prayer for Session 8: Let Us Be Intentional.