From boys to men

With a trembling coffee mug filled with water, I walked into a classroom of ninth-graders in the fall of 1999 completely unaware that my life would never be the same. I was in graduate school and accepted a part-time position teaching the Old Testament at Philadelphia-Montgomery Christian Academy near the City of Brotherly Love. I don't usually use language like this, because it is the worst of "Christianese" and is terribly cheesy, but my opportunity to walk closely with eight young men from that year for the last 11 years is definitely "a God thing" and has profoundly influenced my life and career.

What we initiated is probably only possible within the context of a Christian school. A ninth-grade history teacher and I decided to create a "Men's Bible Study" for our students because we noticed that the feminization of church was churning out a generation of "nice guys" who were not capable of leading, had no sense of why God created them to be men---other than have a family and a nice job---and were oddly passive. The ninth-grade boys would walk the halls with heads bowed and shoulders slouched as if they were carrying 80-pound weights in each hand as their bodies were carried along by an airport terminal moving sidewalk. As teachers, we decided to do something because these guys represented the future of the church.

We announced that there was an open meeting for a men's Bible study to talk about what it meant to be a Godly man. We envisioned that the room would be bustling with boys from broken families and fatherless homes who knew they needed help. To our utter surprise, after a couple of weeks of conversations about piety, purity, and perspiration over the complexities of life, what remained were about eight guys who were sons of pastors, elders, and churches leaders. Solid families. Godly families. Churched beyond belief. Confused, passive, and without vision.

We met every Friday during the school year for three years straight during lunch. We frequently got together during the summers as well. Unlike youth ministry, the other teacher and I were with these guys every day in the classroom, in the hallways, at sports practices, etc. I moved away after their junior year, but these young men continued to meet for accountability and prayer on Saturday nights on their own initiative during their senior year of high school. To this day, I've never encountered high school guys with the sort of dedication. High school senior guys meeting on Saturday nights for Christ? Who does that?

Since 1999 I have had the privilege of remaining in close contact with these men. For example, last weekend, some of us met up for a reunion weekend at the Jersey Shore. Now averaging 25 years of age, I couldn't be more proud of the men that they've become. I've been blessed to walk with them through the soul-searching college years, a few weddings, new questions and confusions about their faith, major career decisions, and more. Over the weekend I told them how much I have been blessed because of their presence in my life. Nearly all of my research and writing about the church being what God intends her to be is a derivative of my walking through life with them since 1999.

I had no idea that walking into a classroom to teach students about the character of God in the Old Testament 11 years ago would lead to me having stuffed clams and fried Oreo's on the boardwalk in Seaside Park, N.J., in 2010 with the same men who are now showing me that God precepts are true, alive, and active. Christian community is amazing.