Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

Product Information

Eldredge says that the answer to a man's question and the healing of their wound can only be found in Jesus. Eldredge describes the journey of healing and restoration that God wants to take every man on so that they can begin to live life the way he intended for them: free and from their restored masculine heart.

My prayer is that gender roles someday die, so that each person can be fully themselves, as wild or calm, as unbound or homebody as that may be. We believe in the One True God, the Sovereign, eternal Creator of all that exists, both seen and unseen. God is eternally existent in three persons, yet one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I'm actually really okay being who I am and longing for what I do. It's what our Abba has sewn into me, and I am thankful for it.

Yes, every man in the group—including the leader—will want theguide since it includes reading material and questions for each unit. Leader notes are included within A Year with Men. That bridge too far has been washed away by our demagogues’ chaotic floodwaters. It’s time to wake up.

I have so far made the message sound fairly good in a summary that I hope is representative of the book. The problem is that Eldredge's few good insights are twisted into a simplistic, blinkered prescription that carries with it a lot of intellectual baggage and theological misapprehensions of which Eldredge seems to be unaware. Treating Bible precepts as if they are consistent, clear and are the only valid set of Biblical interpretations. In reality, even among Christian scholars, there are WIDELY varied interpretations. Ok, the below review that I wrote when I was an intellectual child still married to my first husband keeps getting likes, so I clearly need to either update it or delete it. Those of you who see this, please understand, I was obliged to find good in this thing that my then husband loved so much. I wanted to love what excited him. But you should also know: I divorced him 6 years later. And most of the reasons can be found in this book. The view of women. According to Eldredge, women are passive helpless beings waiting for men to rescue them. They seem to have no other purpose then to be beautiful for men.

This book is well-intentioned. I imagine it being given by well-intentioned parents to their come-of-age son as he heads out from under their wings to college. I imagine a well-intentioned group of men (and possibly curiously concerned wives) sitting down to include this in their Bible study. John Eldredge himself strikes me as a well-intentioned man. I've heard a lot of buzz in the last couple years about this book, mainly from peers in college, so I decided to finally take the dive. What I found was that well-intentioned though it is, this book falls short in several concerning ways. We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost—they who are saved unto the resurrection of life and they who are lost unto the resurrection of damnation. If I'm to think from a Christian perspective, I have grave concerns about Eldredge's devil blaming. I'm not saying devil doesn't tempt and trip you up. I'm saying that focusing on that is a convenient excuse for bad behavior. He'd do better to assume that humans can and must control themselves (asking God for help... fine) and if the devil adds temptation, you just have more to resist. That's part of life, so deal with it WITHOUT blaming the devil. When your wife feels insulted, it's far better to assume that YOU DID imply something (even when unintended) than to refer to the devil as causing her to receive a bad message. Blaming the devil is... well... maybe a tactic from the devil? Humans are good at doing things without even knowing it. I do that crap all on my own, whether the devil is there or not. When I hurt my wife, it's ME and I WILL NOT blame the devil for it (even if the devil contributed). A Guidebook to Waking the Dead: Embracing the Life God Has for You (2003), Nashville: Thomas Nelson, ISBN 0-7852-6309-8 [with Craig McConnell] So I'm about eleven years late in getting to the party here. I remember "Wild at Heart" being really big among guys (and some gals) 16-22 when it came out and I can see why. I'm also really glad I didn't read this at such an impressionable age. There are a few good things here: Eldredge recognizes that there is something of a male identity crisis in many parts of the Church. In other words, there is confusion about what biblical manhood and womanhood look like. He also accurately pinpoints some of these problems as stemming from the absence of a father or having a poor father. Eldredge clearly has a heart to minister to men in the 21st century Church and for that he should be commended.

The Journey of Desire: The Participant's Guide (2001), Nashville: Thomas Nelson, ISBN 0-7852-9877-0 I WANTED to like this author because I value his shattering the expectations that Christians must eliminate all danger, and tow-the-line, etc. The author rightly embraces some danger, adventure, and what I'd call HUMAN desire for those things. But the author caused me to recoil, as he LIMITED those traits to men. He overturned all in his message that I loved by disassociating women from these freedoms, freedoms that belong to ALL humans. Eldredge received his undergraduate degree in theater from California Polytechnic University (Pomona) and his MA in biblical counseling from Colorado Christian University under the direction of Larry Crabb and Dan Allender. Prior to joining Focus on the Family in 1988, [1] Eldredge served for five years on the staff of Sierra Madre Congregational Church in Southern California.

And Sons Magazine Podcast

To live for an adventure, to rescue a beauty and to fight a battle. Sounds like a story...like a tale of dragons, ladies in distress and war for the homeland against the dreaded enemy...like all movies...great books...great tales...stories tell of woes, foes and overcoming great obstacles. These are all great truths, but are they any truer than your own life? But, does your life seem like you are just sliding through, getting by one-day-at-a-time? That's how most of us live, to survive for the next weekend, to get that job done...all struggle, little reward, and we get to get up the next morning and do it all again. But, there is more to our lives than duty, obligation and being the nice guy. But are we as men equipped to go on adventures, strong enough to rescue the lady in distress and brave enough to fight the foes for those we love? Most are not. Stasi loves the joy and freedom that comes from knowing the passionate, stunning love of Jesus Christ and lives to see others come to know him more deeply. She loves worship music, time to bake, celebrating life, getting lost in a good novel, baths, walking in the woods, hearing her sons' laughter, the sound of wind in the trees, a good cup of coffee, the smell of the earth after it rains, a powerful turn of phrase, animals in the wild, gardens, freshly mowed grass, family traditions, cherished friendships, the Tetons, rivers, mountain lakes, the grace and beauty of horses, the affection of her dog, and most of all, her family and her God. Walking with God: Talk to Him. Hear from Him. Really. (2008), Nashville: Thomas Nelson, ISBN 0-7852-0696-5 But this isn’t your typical men’s study. We’ve built in lots of breaks for joy and activities. In between each unit, there are weeks to go out and do something fun together as well as one big off-the-grid adventure your group will undertake. Moving Mountains: Praying with Passion, Confidence, and Authority (2016), Nashville: Thomas Nelson, ISBN 978-0718037512

As a leader, you will need to buy a copy of A Year with Menand be responsiblefor securing the videos for your group to watch each week.If youchoose for your group to also read Wild at Heart, Becoming a King, and Fathered by God, you’ll also need a copy of those books. Each participant would be responsible for purchasing their own book(s) unless you chooseto do so. For any group activities, each man should pay their portion of the total cost. Even worse, in his attempt to persuade men that their chief calling is to be "wild at heart," he depicts women, not as created believers in their own right, but as passive companions in a journey that is really all about the man. Tales are told and examples are given of women who stymie their man's "wild" nature, to the detriment of both, with the message clearly being that women ought to be passive supporters of whatever makes their men feel happy and alive. In Eldredge's interpretation, gender is defined in simple, discrete, definable categories. Men are *this* way, Eldredge suggests (invariably masculine in the William Wallace way). Women are *that* way (invariably passive and subservient, like a mythological princess). On the basis of his simple-minded and reductionist understanding of gender characteristics, he then proceeds to prescribe how exactly men and women can become fully alive as Christians, which obviously only works for people who already fit his mold for how men and women ought to be. His insistence that being "wild at heart" entails pursuing a beauty makes no concession to men who feel called to become a priest or otherwise to lead a life of singleness. By suggesting linking the two and by insisting that they are essential to man's created nature and therefore his spiritual vitality, he is essentially delegitimizing or at least denigrating the faith journeys of anyone who remains single, whether by choice or not. These are issues that must enter the mind of every insecure teenage guy who reads Eldredge's book, and yet Eldredge writes as if *everyone* should look and act like a William Wallace in their conquest of some unsuspecting beauty. His wife's book, Captivated, is little more than supporting documentation of the idea that women will get everything they need, all their deepest yearnings, if only they are "captivated" by their warrior man and give his "wild" yearnings free reign. This may work for their marriage and some others, but it is a despicably small-minded view that perverts the scriptures and simplifies the complexity of gender relations. The Journey of Desire Journal & Guidebook: An Expedition to Discover the Deepest Longings of Your Heart (2002), Nashville: Thomas Nelson, ISBN 0-7852-6640-2 [with Craig McConnell] Along the way, Eldredge constantly reminds his readers that only God can ultimately fulfill these three desires and the only reason a man has these three desires is because they are a reflection of the heart of God. Everything in Wild At Heart points to God as the center for life, fulfillment, and purpose, according to Eldredge. It was just as well. Burnt out and browned off by aggressive Gnostics of his ilk, I got to know his type.Morgan Snyder has served alongside John Eldredge since before the inception of Wild at Heart almost two decades ago. Originally developing and directing the retreats and conferences, Morgan now serves as a speaker, teacher, and Director of Strategy. To prove his point about what men are and are not meant to do, Eldredge alludes often to overly-simplified conversations he has had with counterparts dubbed with good ol' pseudonyms such as "Reggie, Bob, Janet, and Dave." It's as if he writes a sentence or two articulating what he believes about a deep issue (made too simple to fit his writing style), and then decides to attribute them as dialogue to affirm his presuppositions.