Show Notes:The 5 Masculine Instincts is Available for Order
Six years ago, I opened the notes app on my computer and started outlining some thoughts about Samson, adventure, and masculinity. I had wanted, for some time, to work on a book and felt like I had some initial ideas I was ready to explore. I had no idea where those first notes would lead.
It’s been a wild ride, and I worked harder on this book than any other project I’ve ever taken on. I’ve spent six years writing, rewriting, and editing two full-length manuscripts to finally get to what is now the completed book. Anyone who has written knows sometimes things have to get long and complicated before they can be simple and direct. The concept has been worked, reworked, and expanded from those original notes on Samson to become The 5 Masculine Instincts.
The book now covers:
- Questions about Masculinity and what I’ve come to call The 5 Masculine Instincts, based on Shakespeare’s stages of man. They include:
- Cain, the sarcastic schoolboy.
- Samson, the wandering adventurer
- Moses, frustrated by ambition.
- David, desperate to protect his reputation.
- Abraham, tested by his own disengagement and apathy.
Thanks to the incredible team at Moody publishers, the books if finally ready to release on March 1 and is now available everywhere for pre-order.
If you follow the Pastor Writer podcast, you’ve probably heard me share updates about writing the book along the way. There have been some really incredible moments and some really frustrating ones, including a contract terminated due to Covid. Still, I’ve kept at it. If I’ve learned anything through this process, it’s that perseverance is the whole game. Hemingway had a favorite saying that went, “but first you must last.” It was his way of saying that before anything can come of your work, you have to see it through. You can’t quit. That’s basically what I’ve been doing for the last six years. Writing, editing, rewriting, reading and asking questions, and writing again.
I’ve been plugging away at it for six years, often with very few people knowing the work I’ve been up to. When I have shared updates, so many of you have responded with so much encouragement and support. Thank you. It really has helped. And I couldn’t be happier with the news that it’s finally ready, and you’re some of the first to know.
The book includes a forward from Mark Batterson and endorsements from men like Scott Sauls, Jim Daly, Brad Lomenick, Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, Barnabas Piper, and Rashawn Copeland, along with several others. There is a print book as well as an audiobook version I’m currently in the process of recording.
If you’ll indulge me for a moment, I’d love to read the back cover copy to give you a better sense of what the book tries to accomplish. It reads:
Don’t trust your instincts—there is a better path to becoming a better man.
It’s no secret: today’s men face a dilemma. Our culture tells them that their instincts are either toxic or salvific. Men are left with only two options: deconstruct and forfeit masculine identity or embrace it with wild abandon. They’re left to decide between ignoring their instincts or indulging them. Neither approach helps them actually understand their own masculine experiences nor how those experiences can lead them to become better men of God.
The Bible doesn’t shy away from the reality of masculine instincts nor all of the ways those instincts can lead to destruction. Examining the lives of five men of the Bible, The 5 Masculine Instincts shows that these men aren’t masculine role models or heroes but are men who wrestled with their own desires and, by faith, matured them into something better.
Through this book, you’ll discover your own instincts are neither curse nor virtue. They are the experiences by which you develop a new and better instinct—an instinct of faith. By exploring sarcasm, adventure, ambition, reputation, and apathy, The 5 Masculine Instincts shows you how to better understand yourself and how your own instincts can be matured into something better.
This is the path by which we become better men.
In addition to this episode, I’m going to be releasing a series of conversations on the book over the next two months leading up to its release. Each conversation looks at a chapter from the book, covering the major concepts and questions addressed. It should be a good overview of the book and hopefully move the conversation about men and masculinity forward within the church.
I will get back to interviewing Christian authors this spring but being able to bring the book and this podcast together is especially meaningful for me.
In many ways, the Pastor Writer podcast exists in large part because of this book. Every writer knows that these days an author is expected to have a platform, an audience. I’ve always struggled with how to do that as an everyday pastor. I’m no celebrity, my church is no megachurch, and I’ve wanted to find a way to grow an audience that didn’t depend on me constantly selling things or promoting myself.
The podcast really started as an excuse for me to get to interview some of my favorite writers and to try and learn more about writing, publishing, and Christian books. But over the last three years, the podcast has grown into something much bigger. I’ve had the honor of interviewing some of the top Christian writers, people like Max Lucado, Lee Strobel, Philip Yancey, Os Guinness, Mark Batterson, Harold Senkbeil, Pete Scazzero, Jared Wilson, I could go on and on. It’s really been incredible. And make no mistake, the guests don’t come on my podcast to meet me; they come to meet you. It’s only because you listen that I get these opportunities. I’m just the guy trying to ask good questions and hitting publish. So again, thank you.
I want to end by asking for just one favor. Over the last three years of podcasting and six years of working on the book, I’ve done my best to give everything away for free. I’ve bought and done major book giveaways, created reading lists, done live webinars and live streams in the insiders’ group. I’ve read and responded to hundreds of your questions and comments. I’ve done my best to be as generous as I possibly can. And please know, I do it again for no other reason than trying to help like so many have helped me.
But if you are willing to help, it would mean so much to me if you would help by buying a copy of The 5 Masculine Instincts. Hopefully for yourself, but if not, buy a copy and give it to a friend, a husband, a son, perhaps a pastor.
I promise not to hammer you over and over on this. But it is the best way you can help me. As many of the writers listening know, how your first book does matters a lot for things to come.
But more than anything. I really do believe in this book. I really believe that our conversations about masculinity need a way forward. I hope this book can be that. An encouragement to men. A challenge to men. An opportunity for the church. I pray, as I have for six years writing it, that God will use it to shape you sense of manhood and that it would challenge and inspire a new generation of Christian men.
I’ve done everything I can to write that book and share it the best I can. If you’d read it, it would mean the world to me. And if you find it helpful, perhaps you’d consider sharing it too.
If you’d like more information, you can go to the5masculineinstincts.com. There is a link in the show notes. There I’ve got an online assessment you can take to learn more about the instincts as well as the book’s video trailer, pre-order bonuses, and related articles.
I’ll keep you updated on how the book is doing, and I hope the episodes to come are an encouragement to you as they were to me.
Once again, let me wrap up by saying thank you to you. I owe so much to this Pastor Writer audience. You really are the best.
