One Christian’s Review of “Men of Influence: The Transformational Impact of Godly Mentors,” by Bill Hendricks and Howard Hendricks

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I am an example of what godly mentors can do

I grew up in what I would call a strong men-mentoring-men church. And yet I do not recall any particular emphasis on the concept of mentoring.

Nevertheless, there were many wonderful Christian men of all ages everywhere I looked, many of whom were deeply involved in our church, especially in our Christian education and music ministries. These men had a huge influence on me.

My fifth grade Sunday school teacher, for example, recognized my deep interest in the Bible and gave me a book that provided a general introduction to the Bible. I read it over and over. It was the first scholarly book I owned.

In high school, all of my youth activities were led by men. One young man, a seminary student, took me under his wing and met with me for breakfast before church on Sunday mornings to teach me apologetics. It was exactly what I needed to defend my faith when I attended UCLA.

And then there was my youth pastor, who trained me how to lead Vacation Bible Schools and then showed me how to use those skills on trips to rural locations in Canada, California, and Mexico.

In addition to all of these mentors, I also had as mentors my mother and father, wonderful Christians who lived out their faith everyday, and my uncle, a well-known pastor in the Pacific Northwest.

Men of Influence stresses that all men can be mentors and can be mentored

All this to say that every young Christian man has much to gain from the older men in his church. And every older Christian man, no matter how “ordinary” he thinks he is, has much to give the younger men in his church.

Yet these resources in churches often go largely untapped. Teenage boys and younger men may feel too intimidated to approach someone who is older and wiser in the church to ask him to be their mentor. And many older men can feel that they do not have anything to give the younger generation.

Men of Influence is genuinely transformational

For this reason, I suggest giving every teenage boy and man in your church, whether young or old, the following book, Men of Influence: The Transformational Impact of Godly Mentors by Bill and Howard Hendricks.

“Transformational” is an overused term in Christian circles. But Men of Influence does indeed have the ability to change for good the attitudes, behaviors, and character of every man in your church who reads it. The reason why is because it will give your men a vision of what can happen when men of different generations connect to learn from each other.

Men of Influence is a rewrite of Howard Hendricks’ book, As Iron Sharpens Iron

The late Dr. Howard Hendricks was a beloved professor who taught thousands of seminary students (I am one of them) at Dallas Theological Seminary for sixty years until his death in 2013.

Men of Influence is an updated and revised edition of As Iron Sharpens Iron: Building Character in a Mentoring Relationship, first published in 1995 by Howard Hendricks and his son, Bill.

With Men of Influence, which was published in 2019, Bill Hendricks takes what was primarily his father’s work and molds it for a new generation. Bill, a graduate of Harvard, is the president of The Giftedness Center, an organization that specializes in individual career guidance.

Men of Influence is for those who want to be mentored and those who want to mentor

Men of Influence is a clear, concise, and exceptionally well-written book that is directed to two groups of Christian men. Part 1 is written “For Men Who Want to be Mentored” and Part 2 is written “For Men Willing to Serve as Mentors.”

Bill Hendricks defines mentoring with a broad brush, and this strategic vagueness allows his readers to apply his book in many different situations where two men meet together to learn from each other, be it mentoring at work, mentoring in one’s community, or mentoring at church.

Men of Influence is full of practical advice on the different types of mentoring relationships men can have, how to approach someone to start a mentoring relationship, how to start your first conversation, and the pros and cons of mentoring. 

Hendricks even includes some suggested topics to cover when mentoring. I found this chapter, entitled “Some Common Themes of Mentoring,” to be the best chapter in the book. Some examples these themes are: “A Man’s Story,” “A Man’s Work, Career, and Calling,” “Sin and Brokenness,” and “The Ultimate Question.”

In this chapter Bill Hendricks gives some invaluable advice on how to go from “top tier concerns” to the deeper emotional and spiritual issues that men face.

I especially appreciate Bill’s section on “The Story of God,” where he briefly and succinctly describes how men can discuss with each other what God is doing in history and how we fit into that plan.

The practice of men-mentoring-men is a huge untapped resource that this book will unleash for good in your church. I highly recommend it to every pastor, men’s ministry leader, and, for that matter, to every man.

This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.

For the past nineteen years New Commandment Men’s Ministries has helped hundreds of churches throughout North American and around the world recruit teams of men who permanently adopt their widowed and single parents in their congregations for the purpose of donating two hours of service to them one Saturday morning each month. We accomplish this with a free training site called New Commandment Men’s Ministry

Learn how to mobilize your men’s ministry to meet every pressing need in your church here.

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Learn how to form teams of men for every widow, single mom

and fatherless child in your church at NewCommandment.org.

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