Maximized Manhood: A Guide to Family Survival

Currently reading the book now. This book immediately dives into some tough subjects that all men deal with. It’s given great insight on so many different topics that a lot of people won’t anymore. This book allows you to take a hard look at yourself and how you are deciding to live.

God wants us to turn from the world and put Him first . Walk in Love .. always

For any younger man- this book is a great road map

Good book. We used this for our men's ministry at church.

I read these book when it first came out and it helped me then to realize that I couldn't do it alone. I needed God's help. As I read it again along with the Curriculum For Men guide it reinforces, strengthens and mend the foundation of Christ-like manhood that I must stand on. It guides me to the proper scriptures in THE BOOK, the Holy Bible, that I need to study and meditate on. It articulates clearly the attributes of Christ-like manhood, reinforced by God's Word, and my responsibility to obey it. I highly recommend this book and Curriculum that is available with it.

This book made such a difference in my life, I bought 2 more copies. I bought one for my brother and one for the young man my daughter is dating. the book has excellent information on being a good husband, friend and man in general. I was raised as a non-Christian, so when I became a Christian I had no idea how to behave the way a man should. I wish I had found this book much earlier in my walk with Christ. All the information in this book is in the Bible,often as allegories, so it's not always immediately visible. Cole simply brings it all into one concise, easy to read and heartfelt location.

I am currently going through the entire commisioning cirriculum in my church, will be commissioned in just a few months. This series is great for ALL men, to remind us that Christlike and manhood are synonomous. REAL men love Jesus and will go through this to be trained to walk and love just as Jesus did, to make an impact to change the world. You may not be able to change the entire world yourself, but one man CAN make a difference and change the world around him! Remember, our purpose in life is to serve Him with everything we have, and this series (9 + books) will show you how to do this.

Sometimes I think the men’s ministry movement in America over the past forty years has been more about making disciples of James Dobson than making disciples of Jesus Christ. That is, current men’s ministry has an almost exclusive “focus on the family,” an emphasis one simply does not find in the gospels, in the book of Acts, and only as a subordinate emphasis in the epistles. In fact, when it comes to Jesus’ ministry, one could conclude that he was downright hostile toward the family as an institution.1After attending six Promise Keepers conferences, over one hundred and fifty other men’s conferences, reading dozens of books on men’s ministry, talking with a plethora of men’s ministry leaders, and leading a men’s ministry myself for eighteen years, I can summarize the modern men’s ministry message over the last forty years with these three key terms:Salvation: A man’s need to be saved from God’s wrath through faith in Jesus Christ.Personal Piety: A Christian man’s walk with God.Marriage and Family: A Christian man’s relationships with his wife and children.That is it. God saves men. God sanctifies men. And then God turns them loose to be great husbands and dads. In other words, current men’s ministry sees having a great marriage and godly children as the ultimate goals of a man’s salvation.The late Dr. Cole, who is often called “the father of the modern men’s ministry movement,” has had a central role in this family emphasis in men’s ministry as the ultimate expression of a man’s faith. The title of his book alone — Maximized Manhood: A Guide to Family Survival — explicitly equates “maximized manhood” with a Christian man’s family. First published in 1982, at the beginning of the men’s ministry movement, and with over a million copies in print, Cole’s Maximized Manhood has had an important influence on all men’s ministry.Now, before I go on, let me say that being a wonderful husband and a good father are excellent and necessary applications of a Christian man’s faith. And Dr. Cole’s book, Maximized Manhood, is a masterful example of how men need to do just that.I highly recommend Maximized Manhood and if you haven’t read it, you need to. Praise the Lord for all of the books, all of the conferences, all of the workshops, and all of the men’s ministries that are dedicated to helping men be good family men.But the Bible teaches that being a complete and mature Christian man who is living out his faith consistently involves far more than personal piety and being a good family man.Consistent Christian living also involves good works, a subject modern men’s ministries almost always completely ignore. For example, the term “good work(s)” occurs only once, and that in passing, in Maximized Manhood, (Kindle Edition, Location 2509). And yet the subject of good works occurs over and over again in the New Testament, especially in the epistles.In the Apostle Paul’s mind, a “maximized man” is a man of God – a “perfect” or complete man — who has been “thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17). He wrote that performing good works is the reason why we have been saved (Ephesians 2:10), and that the purpose of good works is to meet pressing needs in the church (Titus 3:14).Jesus taught that good works are central to a believer’s testimony (Matthew 5:16), that they express love to one’s neighbor (Luke 10:25-37), and that even our seemingly inconsequential good works will be rewarded (Matthew 10:42).James, Jesus’ half brother and the head of the church in Jerusalem, taught that our good works validate our faith (James 2:18).Peter taught that our good works will cause even those who slander us to glorify God (1 Peter 2:12).John taught that the absence of good works makes our expression of love for believers in need meaningless (1 John 3:16-18).These are just a few of the dozens of references to good works in the Bible. Given this kind of emphasis, no men’s ministry can be complete without including substantive teaching on a practical theology of good works: what they are, who they are for, what they are to accomplish, and why they are important.As a starting point, if I were to summarize the biblical teaching on good works and combine it with current men’s ministry teaching, this is what it would look like:Salvation: A man’s need to be saved from God’s wrath through faith in Jesus Christ.Personal Piety: A Christian man’s walk with God.Marriage and Family: A Christian man’s relationships with his wife and children.Love One Another: A Christian man’s good works that meet pressing needs in a local body of believers so that his church can say, “there is no needy person among us.”Love Your Neighbor: A Christian man’s good works on behalf of the needs of his neighbors so that he can say, “I am loving my neighbor as myself.”Now that is maximized manhood.

This is a great book for mentoring men.Witty, wise and practical. You'd wish someone spoke to you about these things before!Highly recommended!

Good book

I am not yet a father or a husband but I am a Man of God who can a test to the truths spoken in this book. With great pleasure I thank the Lord for leading me to this wonderful truth. To God be the glory.

This is a book that is a challenge carefully packed into a paperback. It challenges men to be men, and especially to follow the standard of manhood that God sets before men. Written over 20 years ago, it is still totally relevant today!

Excellent. A must read for anyone who want the best from their relationship!