Too soon for a rebrand?

Is it rebranding, if there wasn't really a brand in the first place?

Three weeks into the newsletter, and I’ve got over a dozen subscribers.

Honestly, that’s better than I anticipated. Most of you I know personally, which makes sense. I hope to grow the subscriptions substantially; the goal is 100 subscribers by Christmas. Mark it on your calendar!

Now about the name change.

I didn’t like “Today You Are A Man.” Too brash, too bold, too pretentious. “Manners make the man,” the saying goes - and if anything, double that for online.

But beyond that, it didn’t really communicate what I’m trying to say here. Of course you’re a man! If you’re reading this, you likely are one; if you’re reading this as a woman, then the title is . . . weird.

Instead, it’s “Thoughts for Men.” For men, by a man, with the idea of helping other men become better men, better Christians, and better leaders.

That’s another change. I’d always intended to feature a Christian worldview, but there’s no sense trying to downplay that at all. I am a Christian, involved heavily in local Christian work, and this newsletter reflects a lot of what I’ve learned about men and masculinity in today’s world.

A friend recently asked if I’d read the book Wild at Heart, by John Eldridge. He described it as “one of the first ‘masculinity’ books,” at least in recent years. I do remember reading it, way back in grad school. And I agree - it certainly seemed to kick off the recent wave of interest in Christian masculinity. A blurb on the cover talks about “reclaiming” masculinity; over the intervening decades, I’d say masculinity has been reclaimed more times than I could count.

That got me thinking of another book with a somewhat similar focus.

J.C. Ryle’s Thoughts for Young Men was perhaps the OG men’s-help book. It’s short, challenging, and pulls no punches when it comes to advising Christian men to get their lives in order. It’s a book that I’d recommend every Christian man to read, over and over, for as long as you think of yourself as young.

I hope this “Thoughts for Men” newsletter might someday have a fraction of that impact.

News and Notes

Community is a big deal. Church, local village, even your neighbourhood - all are vital.

But occasionally, community is something much, much smaller.

I came across this story in Men’s Health and thought it illustrated the point. On the surface, it’s much ado about nothing; “famous movie star helps out another, slightly-less-famous movie star.”

But notice the core idea. A more experienced man sees a potential danger point that the younger man might not even know is there. Then he uses his knowledge, not to try to force his own authority or lord his own experience, but to give the younger guy all the extra resources he might need to meet the problem on his own.

Sometimes, that’s what community is all about.

Action Point

Let’s riff off the story above:

• What are your areas of experience?

• Are there other men who could benefit from the knowledge you have?

• What are you doing to share said knowledge?

Take those three ideas and combine them into one:

• How are you building your own community on a one-to-one basis?

Let me know your community-building story in the comments.