Life is not about you. – Adam's Return Brothers, I want to suggest that our lives, our stories, our maturity are not finally about us. The aim of this Parts Work series is not to achieve a new spiritual height. Nor is it to create yet another template for the self-life. Rather, the aim is Christ. To love him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. And to engage our world for the well-being of others in union with Christ. “It is no longer I who live—but Christ lives in me.” (St. Paul) It...
Mar 28, 2023•54 min
“I have come to heal the broken hearted….I have come to set the captives free and release prisoners from darkness.” – Isaiah 61 In the confusion of your life, have you ever found yourself having one of these internal conflicts? I am overtired but under-rested. I am overworked, yet I feel unproductive. I am overweight but undernourished. I am overstimulated yet under-engaged. I am working to make a meaningful contribution, yet I often feel under-celebrated. What if these internal conflicts are in...
Mar 14, 2023•54 min
Spiritual transformation in Christ is the process of all of the essential parts of the human self being effectively organized around God, as they are restored and sustained by him. Its result is love of God with all of the heart, soul, mind, and strength, and of the neighbor as oneself. – Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart Friends, The most important thing you can ever know about a person is that they bear the image of God. But what does this mean? There is a Father, providing abundantly ge...
Feb 28, 2023•1 hr 12 min
We are made in the image of God; we carry within us the desire for our true life of intimacy and adventure. To say we want less than that is to lie. – The Journey of Desire Friends, It started with an ocean lifeguard dory boat race. Two-man teams set to row from the coast of Catalina Island across the twenty-two-mile open-water channel back to the mainland near San Pedro. To add to the adventure, it was the opening of lobster season. In response, Jared and his buddy cooked up an off-the-couch ad...
Feb 14, 2023•1 hr 4 min
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the path that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the path that leads to life, and only a few find it. – Jesus of Nazareth Eugene Peterson phrased Jesus’ words this way: “Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The w...
Jan 30, 2023•57 min
We don't believe something by merely saying we believe it, or even when we believe that we believe it. We believe something when we act as if it were true. – Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart In Part 2 of this conversation, we hear another fresh batch of stories from the frontlines of our newest mission: the Becoming a King Retreat . Constructing a four-day context that shepherds men into their masculine initiation, the Becoming a King Retreat weaves together story, teaching, rest, play, a...
Jan 18, 2023•58 min
Rule with the heart of a servant. Serve with the heart of a king. Friends, we’re pulling back 50 yards from the frontline to hear fresh stories from the field. The Becoming a King Retreat is slowly and steadily building an irreversible revolution in the hearts of men all over the world. We’re hoping the stories of men like you taking risks all around the globe will inspire you to do the same. What if there was a way to be good again? It isn’t cheap. It isn’t quick. It isn’t easy. Few things will...
Jan 03, 2023•51 min
“Where are you, Adam?” – Genesis 3:9 A disruptive phrase in Isaiah 44 has grabbed my attention and refused to let go. Notably grieved, the prophet utters these words: “They know nothing, they understand nothing. Their eyes are plastered over so they can’t see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand….No one stops to think...” (44:18-19 NIV) The prophet was urgently inviting the people of his day to stop everything and consider afresh God and his engagement with them. More than 2500 year...
Dec 20, 2022•53 min
Each human soul has to enact for itself the gigantic humility of the Incarnation. Every man must descend into the flesh to meet mankind. – G.K. Chesterton Friends, We have a gift for you. Take up a childlike heart again and be swept up into the awe and beauty of Immanuel—God with us. Join us for this special BGS Christmas podcast. Through the generosity of Penguin Random House Publishing, it’s our joy to take you into a generous portion of The Carpenter’s Gift . Written by David Rubel and whimsi...
Dec 06, 2022•22 min
The difference is not in what people suffer, but in the way they suffer. In the same fire, gold glows and straw smokes. – St. Augustine Suffering is brutal. Suffering is lonely. And suffering is a sacred space of masculine initiation. As we mature, we are made ready to walk through suffering redemptively, allowing it to transform us rather than destroy us. In The Problem of Pain, C. S. Lewis wrote, “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our p...
Nov 23, 2022•48 min
In the larger-than-life, spiritually transformed people I have met, I always find one common denominator: in some sense, they have all died before they died. They have followed in the footsteps of Jesus, a path from death to life. – Adam’s Return In his account of the Larger Story, Matthew writes, “Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said: 'You’re blessed when you’re at the ...
Nov 08, 2022•48 min
However quickly or slowly the call of God comes, it is always accompanied with an undercurrent of the supernatural….If a man or woman is called of God, it doesn’t matter how difficult the circumstances may be. God orchestrates every force at work for his purpose in the end. If you will agree with God’s purpose, he will bring not only your conscious level but also all the deeper levels of your life, which you yourself cannot reach, into perfect harmony. – Oswald Chambers How do we steward the kin...
Oct 26, 2022•1 hr 8 min
Get into the habit of saying, “Speak, Lord,” and life will become a romance. (1 Samuel 3:9) – Oswald Chambers Friends, Jonathan David Helser teaches, “In the Garden, it all began with a kiss. God’s first moment with us is…messy." And though we started out as dirt in the cherishing hands of the Trinity, our God invites us into more. Over a lifetime of maturing, we are intended to become the children, the friends, and, finally, the lovers of God. The Helsers have consented for decades to the movem...
Oct 11, 2022•1 hr 27 min
He opened the door of the birdcage to let the eagle fly to freedom. But the eagle had been in captivity for so long it no longer believed it could fly, and it chose not to fly. It was then he realized the bird was not in the cage. The cage was in the bird. – Jonathan Helser Friends, Jonathan David and Melissa Helser have become the kind of people who bring with them, wherever they find themselves, the atmosphere of the Kingdom of God. Through their pain, they’ve grown into their possibility. The...
Sep 28, 2022•1 hr 18 min
God loves you unconditionally, exactly as you are and not as you "should be.” – Brennan Manning, All Is Grace The best teachers are foremost, always and forever, committed students. Jonathan David and Melissa Helser are unapologetically committed, life-long students of Jesus and his Kingdom. Risk-takers, worship leaders, and courageous parents, the Helsers blaze a path for people to encounter God—exactly as they are. For decades, they’ve invited generations of God’s sons and daughters to come as...
Sep 15, 2022•1 hr 31 min
Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am. – Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation Our stories do not define us; the Author of them does. It’s a profound truth and reality that takes many tears, much blood, and many years to fully participate in. Tommy Colwell is one of the men heroically participating in this reality. Through the ups and downs, the triumphs and tragedies, the breakthroughs and dead ends...
Aug 30, 2022•57 min
So take seriously the story that God has given you to live. It's time to read your own life, because your story is the one that could set us all ablaze. – To Be Told, Dan Allender As we share our stories, engage our stories, and begin to partner with God in the restoration of our stories, we experience an increasing measure of what Saint Paul scandalously discloses in Romans 8: None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or ...
Aug 16, 2022•50 min
Without God, we cannot; without us, God will not. – Saint Augustine Since we are the sons of God, we must become the sons of God. Since we are the kings of Jesus, we must become the kings of Jesus—kings to whom he is glad to entrust his Kingdom. It brings an honorable sobriety to come to the realization that our heart—our healing and our wholeness—is not about us, nor is it primarily for us. It’s primarily for others. As the sons of God, our will is insufficient as the fuel for transformation. Y...
Aug 02, 2022•1 hr 5 min
You’re right where God wants you to be when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you, there is more of God. – Jesus of Nazareth, to his closest friends Your reliance on your talent and gifting must die before they can ever be truly free. It is impossible for a man to fully know the love of God until he has experienced the love of God apart from his gifting, his performance, and his successes. To fully rest in love, we must experience the relentless affection of God—not only when we are r...
Jul 19, 2022•1 hr 24 min
Sometimes we don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are….What happened wasn’t about you, it was about me. – Superintendent Eric Marsh, Only the Brave Brothers, As we mature as kings who offer more love and strength to those entrusted to our care, Jesus invites us even deeper: Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face...
Jul 05, 2022•1 hr 15 min
You are a soul made by God, made for God, and made to need God, made to run on God. Which means that you are not made to be self-sufficient. – Dallas Willard Change in the rate of change is the quiet killer of our generation. Change is the constant. Habits were meant to root our masculine soul in the life of God. They were meant to be an onramp of constancy in a changing world. Our masculine soul matters immensely to God, to those entrusted to our care, and to our particular role in the story Go...
Jun 21, 2022•1 hr 5 min
All you need is 20 seconds of insane courage, and I promise you something great will come of it. – Benjamin Mee, We Bought a Zoo It was Francis Schaeffer who boldly invited disciples to "do the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way,” instructing that “we must take the lowest seat at the table until God makes it impossible to do otherwise.” As we live into more and more of the reality of sonship, one of the foundational ways a man can practice taking the lowest seat at the table is to wholeheartedly purs...
Jun 07, 2022•55 min
Attachment begins in the first few months of life, but it is the continuous presence of a mother in the first 18 months that is the first step in building a deep and lasting sense of emotional security in a child. This security forms the basis of a child’s sense of self for the rest of life. Bonding is putting the pieces together and attachment is gluing them into place. – Erica Komisar, Being There “Are you glad to be with me?” It was Mom who first and foremost was to answer our unspoken questi...
May 24, 2022•1 hr 13 min
A 30-year old-man is like a densely populated city. Nothing new can be built, in its heart, without something else being torn down. – Mike Mason, The Mystery of Marriage The theme of "dying before we die" is Jesus’ steady and consistent invitation to his closest companions. “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my ...
May 10, 2022•40 min
There are many people who think they want to be a matador, only to find themselves in the ring with 2,000 pounds of bull bearing down on them, and then they discover that what they really wanted was to wear tight pants and hear the crowd roar. – Terry Pearce Over 20 years ago, I found myself navigating a man’s world but largely feeling like a boy. Balancing a young marriage, young children, and a young career had punted me into the deep end. Though I was thirsty for God and his Kingdom and doing...
Apr 25, 2022•1 hr 5 min
I will not abandon you as orphans….I am coming back for you. – Jesus of Nazareth Friends, there is much to hope for in the face of our apparent waywardness with God and our nagging discontent. God is coming for us. In his book Renovated, Jim Wilder explains the very simple and profound path to re-attaching ourselves to God and finally becoming the kind of people who can heed the supreme command of Jesus to love God with all our heart, mind, and strength. “...having received love, you will be tra...
Apr 12, 2022•50 min
Christianity has tended to focus on right beliefs and right choices as the keys for personal growth. But biblical evidence and modern brain science show that our character is shaped more by whom we love than what we believe. – Jim Wilder, Renovated What if coming home to a new and secure attachment to God is the primary definition of salvation? What would it be like to come home to God as our primary and single source of life, joy, strength, and stature? The writers of the Old and New Testaments...
Mar 29, 2022•38 min
All of life is a coming home. Salesmen, secretaries, coal miners, bee keepers, sword swallowers, all of us. All the restless hearts of the world, trying to find a way to go home. It's hard to describe how I felt then. Picture yourself walking for days in a driving snow. You don't even know you're walking in circles...the heaviness of your legs in the drifts, your shouts disappearing into the wind. How small you can feel. How far away home can be. Home. The dictionary defines it as both a place o...
Mar 15, 2022•42 min
There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places. – Wendell Berry There simply is no distinction between sacred and unsacred work in the world. The ache and longing in a man to have purpose and meaning expressed in his daily work is universal. It is intrinsic to our design, marred in the fall, and contested terrain in every masculine soul. So often we spend precious energy and time hoping for "the next job" in order to engage in the work of God. Rarely does it com...
Mar 02, 2022•52 min
Now I have had most of the life I am going to have, and I can see what it has been. I can remember those early years when it seemed to me I was completely adrift, and time when, looking back, at earliest times, it seemed I had been wandering in the dark woods of error. But now it looks to me as though I was following a path that was laid out for me, unbroken, and maybe even as straight as possible, from one end to the other, and I have this feeling, which never leaves me anymore that I have been...
Feb 15, 2022•1 hr
