Mentoring Our Boys –

The following are the opening remarks for the first video lesson of Squires2Knights Manhood 101.

Gentlemen. Welcome to our Manhood 101 course. My name is Jeff Purkiss. I’m the founder of Squires2Knights Ministries.

We’ve got six different men who are going to take you through the lessons of Manhood 101. Together with three other Manhood courses, this series will take you on a quest for authentic manhood. That’s right, a quest. You see, we’re going after something that can be hard to find.

Guys, we’ve got to restore authentic manhood in our culture. Virtually all our social problems can be linked to a single problem. For generations now, we haven’t really taught our boys how to be men.

You all are the next generation of men. So you guys, probably in your teens, are looking for a definition of manhood. You’ve probably never thought of it that way. And unfortunately in our modern culture this definition can be tough to pin down. Over the years our society has twisted and distorted God’s design for men. And the cultural pressures on men, especially young men, are taking them down wrong paths.

The young squire of the medieval period had a totally different experience than you do. He looked to the Knight as everything he wanted to become. And his pursuit of knighthood put him on a clearly defined path. He knew exactly what was expected of him and his mentor expected no less than the standards set for him.

A knight was chivalrous. He treated women and children with respect and honor. A knight was reverent. His faith in God was unwavering. A knight was strong and courageous. He was trained to protect his kingdom, his family and even his neighbor. These are only a few of the primary traits of a knight. And a squire, who was in training to become a knight, went through a vigorous training process for more than five years before he himself would be dubbed a knight.

If we considered a modern-day knight, what would he look like? What would he stand for? It’s hard to pin that down because our culture can’t make up its mind about a definition for manhood. We seem to have gone to two extremes. A man is all too often either an egotistical brute, vulgar and offensive. Or he’s a sensitive, new-age wimp, without backbone and without direction.

So you, as young men, have to know where you’re going on your quest for manhood or you’ll never get there. And many don’t. There are way too many thirty-year-olds today who are still no more than adolescents. They’ve never really grown up and they pretty much just wonder and flail through life.

Well I’m excited to offer you guys a biblically sound definition of manhood. Squires2Knights Ministries, or S2K, has derived 12 topics to teach and describe authentic manhood as it was designed by God. These 12 principles come from three Bible verses. We call them Knighthood Verses. Through this Manhood 101 course, you’ll easily memorize the Knighthood Verses and hopefully, you’ll take these lessons with you throughout the rest of your lives.

Posted on December 21st, 2008 by Jeff Purkiss
Filed under: Cultural Issues, Fathering/Mentoring