Helping young men discover their identity in Christ

There comes a time in every boy’s life when he starts to question not only who he is, but who he will become. God has a plan for each of us, but so does the enemy, so as teens and young men we are forced to make a choice.  A major issue in our country, and many others, is that there is a lack of teachers, mentors, and disciplers to guide these young impressionable minds; and there is always someone or something trying to distract them from God's call on their lives.

                Alex and Stephen Kendrick, with Troy Schmidt, have a lot to teach young men about becoming the man that God wants them to be. Their book, inspired by the movie Overcomer, has a lot to say about sin, holiness, making wise choices, doing the next right thing, and in general becoming an adult who knows who he is, and is willing to share how he got there with the world.

                Revealed: Discovering Your True Identity in Christ for Teen Boys and Young Men (B&H publishing, 2019) is an easy read, in fact given the age group that this book is intended for, I’d say that it’s too easy of a read—if I remember myself correctly in my teens and early 20’s, I probably would have seen this book a bit condescending, and looking down on my generation as not being smart enough to read at a slightly higher grade level.

                But the Kendricks do make a lot of good points, and I want to commend them for the (in my opinion) too brief sections on writing/sharing their testimony and the need to obey the Great Commission.  All too often it seems that we ask people to make a decision to follow Christ, and then forget to tell them what that involves. In other words, instead of raising the bar, we lower it to the point of hardly being a ripple over which we need to step.

                Yes we want people to understand who they are in Christ, yes we want people to attend church, read their bibles and fellowship with other Christians; but we also want and need them to boldly proclaim their faith. The Church needs them to be willing to go to the nations, making disciples, baptizing, and teaching all that Jesus taught about the good news that is the Gospel. And the authors get points for remembering to point that out as a main key to Christianity, and discovering our identity in Christ.

                I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.