Monday, October 29, 2012

"Man Up!" Blog Tour

Man Up!
 
by Jody Burkeen
 
The church is dying because of lukewarm Christian men. With the world infiltrating slowly through the church doors, Christian men are being swept away at an alarming rate.

Complacency, continual sin, and disobedience are tearing men away from God. Families, churches, and communities are suffering because so many Christian mena are “spiritual sissies.”

Jody Burkeen writes candidly about the seven areas in a Christian man’s life where he needs to Man Up!

Man Up! Becoming a Godly Man in an Ungodly World is a call to arms for lukewarm Christian men.

About the Author:

Jody Burkeen is the founder and president of MAN UP! Gods Way Ministries. This ministry was birthed out of a desire to change the way Christian men “do” Christianity.

Jody's self-described "Damascus Road Transformation" led him on a journey to search the Scripture to find what he had been missing his whole life, which was Jesus Christ. In this journey, the Word of God took over in a way he never expected. Searching for men in the church to help him in his walk, he found very little help. What he did find was men that needed the same kind of help he did.

Through MAN UP! Gods Way Ministry it is Jody’s hope that he can challenge men to live a separated life on fire for God.

Jody has been married for 21 wonderful years and has two beautiful children ages 8 and 11.



Author Interview:

Why another book for Christian men?
This is not your normal “let’s try to do better” Christian men’s book. This is more like the “you already know what to do, now start doing it” Christian men’s book. Christian men are inundated with the “how to”, I felt God was telling to write a book that would challenge them to just “do it”. Stop being spiritual sissies and Man up the way God intended them to. This is why our ministry uses Revelations 3:16 “So because you are lukewarm neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth”. Christian men have become lazy, complacent, and disobedient to Gods words.

Who should read this book?

Any Christian man that is not living up to the potential God has for his life. The Christian life is not easy, but it’s harder without God and His Word. This book lays out 7 areas in a Christian man’s life where he need to apply certain disciplines to better his walk.

Have you always been a man that Man’ed Up in his walk?

By no means. Most of the book talks about the struggles I have had and how I worked on making myself disciplined to reading the scriptures, praying and applying what God was teaching me. Each day I do all I can to stay a man that God will be proud of.

Why do you discuss “7 areas in a Christian man’s life”?

As I look at my own life, the process I took and am still taking, involved 7 specific areas.


1. My personal relationship with Christ. With this in the forefront, the remaining 6 can be obtained with His help.
2. My marriage.
3. Being a father.
4. Church.
5. Work.
6. Accountability
7. Discipleship.

I believe that is you follow these step or 7 areas, you will become a godly man in this ungodly world.

How can we find out more about you and the book?

You can check out our website
www.manupgodsway.org . We are on Facebook www.facebook.com/manupgodsway and twitter @manupgodsway1. I also travel the country speaking to men’s groups, conferences and seminars. You can book me at info@manupgodsway.org . Send us an email and we can give you more details.

As part of this book tour, how can we find out where more free copies of Man Up! will be given away? Visit http://ChristianSpeakersServices.com.




My Husband's Take:

In our culture, men are often portrayed as incompetent fools incapable of running a household.  The sad thing is that many men in our society, while capable of running a household, often don’t.  And worse, this is often the case in the modern church.  Many Christian men are willing to let their wives lead their households, which usually translates into letting them lead the church.  Too many times I have seen women and children serving in the church, while the men take a back seat and stay at home. While everyone should be serving in the church, of course, men especially are not doing what they should.  Man Up attempts to explain to men how to rectify this situation.  Unfortunately, I feel that this book is a weak attempt to fix a very serious problem in our culture.

I must applaud the author for trying to tackle such an important matter as leadership in the home and at church, but he often isn't clear.  After being called a sissy multiple times per chapter (and sometimes multiple times per page), you get the idea that the author is trying to shame men into becoming what they should be.  For me, it would have been more effective to convince me using scripture instead of shame.

Scripture is used in the book, but not always well.  Many times, simple platitudes are used instead, which is vague and not helpful.  If someone is struggling with leadership, telling them to be a leader isn’t going to help.  They need to know how to do so and why they should.   

When scripture was used, it was often confusing and sometimes just inappropriate.  The author would come close to the right point, and then stop.  An example is when he was discussing Ephesians 5. He referenced that many men read the verse about wives submitting to the husbands and skip the part about the husbands.  He says that when we as husbands love our wives as Christ loved the church, it will help our wives to submit to us.  This is an excellent point and one that should be made. 
 
However, he then says that when we don’t love our wives as Christ loved the church, our wives don’t have to submit to us.  This is just plain wrong.  The scripture doesn’t have a caveat in it.  Our wives are to submit regardless of whether we husbands are doing our part. (See 1 Peter 3:1-2) And, vice versa. We husbands are to love our wives as Christ loved the church whether our wives submit to us or not.  This is not a 50%-50% proposition.  It is a 100%-100% deal.

This is just one example of the author making a valid point and then stating it poorly or just flat out making it wrong.  It is a shame, because I know this author means well and has some very good points.  He is just does so in a vague way using platitudes and cliches instead of scripture and practical application.  I recommend that if you read this book, exercise caution and discernment. 

I was given a complimentary copy of this book from the author in exchange for posting the author’s interview and/or book review on my blog. CSS Virtual Book Tours are managed by Christian Speakers Services (http://ChristianSpeakersServices.com).

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and Christian Speaker Services. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this is accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

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