The book’s title and subtitle are a bit misleading, however. From it, I expected to read another treatise on the importance of accountability groups to create bonds of male friendship. But my misgivings quickly vanished. Yoder rightly observes that most men’s groups are not even close to being honest; his delineation of why accountability groups are a farce is a refreshing and important perspective. No, this book is less a narrative on how to strengthen bonds between men, and more about the important conversations in which men can and should engage. The bond of brotherhood becomes a natural byproduct of that dialogue.

To that end, Bond of Brothers is a helpful catalyst for meaningful conversation. Yoder ruminates on a variety of topics apparently gleaned from his own bond of brothers dialogue, referred to simply as “Dinner and Conversation.” That they engaged each other’s souls is never in doubt. The longing for a father affirmation; the deceit of sports; conflict in marriage; sorrow; mid-life uncertainty; the irrelevance of church; it’s all there, in unvarnished transparency. Each of these important “conversations” is throughly seasoned with personal story and biblical truth to make it a valuable conversation catalyst for your men’s group.

“No man who reveals only his strength is showing his complete manhood,” Yoder writes. By this measure, Yoder is a man’s man, offering in his book not only wisdom for life but a good dose of his own shortcomings along the way. By the time I had finished this book, I felt that I knew something of the man Wes Yoder. As I set the book down, I found myself longing for another conversation with him.

Share/Save

Maturity. It’s something we like to think we have in abundance–at least more than the other guy. The apostle Paul measured maturity in some surprising ways. Spiritual maturity comes from the intentional exercise of three habits. This 35-minute presentation examines the maturity trifecta found in Philippians 3:12-4:1. It was delivered as part of the “True Lives: You Can’t Fake Know-How” series at IronWorks.

Share/Save

Fifteen years later, AT&T’s vision of the future is now passé. For each of those You Wills, we already have — with two differences. First, most of the experiences with technology we enjoy today are much better than AT&T envisioned. They could see only dimly what the future would hold.  Second, by and large, AT&T was not the company to bring it to us. Their vision was largely delivered by companies that weren’t even around in 1993. In fact, the more cynical among us would argue that it wasn’t even really AT&T’s vision — they merely borrowed from others for the expedience of marketing their brand.

Notwithstanding the commercial motivations for the ad, it occurs to me that this video holds two reminders for us bold adventurers as we dream about and work toward the future. First, no matter how we envision it, as long as we remain yielded to God’s leading, our future will always be better than we can imagine. The Apostle Paul reminds us that God “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Eph 3:20). Second, as was the case with AT&T, we are not the only ones building that future. He is working His dream out through the members of His body in ways He chooses and we can’t conceive.

Just as it sounds silly to hear AT&T promise to be the sole deliverer of technological wonders, it’s equally silly for us to believe that we are to deliver God’s dream alone as well.  While each of us have our own path to walk, we best do so in the context of community. Because dreams shared by many make a better future than dreams imagined alone, that’s really good news.  It also makes our encounters with others more stimulating.  Someone we will soon meet may carry the seed of our dream into the future.   And the dreams of someone we already know may be the inspiration for our next adventure.  The key is the willingness to release our dreams into others and to receive theirs for us in return.

SOUND OFF:  Have you been inspired recently by encounters with others that have given new perspectives on your dream?

Share/Save