Why would a young man choose to follow Jesus in 2019?

Why would a young man choose to follow Jesus in 2019? 

I’m not talking about the guys who grew up in church; it makes sense that those who grew up with an inherited faith might end up clinging on to it. But what about the rest of them - regular guys, growing up in a complex, post-Christian world, with a million demands on their time and a million suitors for their attention. Why would they follow Jesus? What would it take for the Christian faith to make sense to them?

I was one of those young men, two and a half decades ago, and I made that decision. Now in my early 40s, I have a teenage son, and I pastor a youth group containing a number of young men; my hope is that all of them will make that same choice too. My hunch is that if they’re going to do so, then there’s something that needs to happen. And it’s the most ridiculously simple thing; the most unsurprising, uncomplicated and un-radical-sounding idea. They need to be presented with the real Jesus.

That’s why I chose to follow him, and ultimately, that’s the only reason they could choose to do so too. Because Jesus - the real person who walked this earth as God incarnate - is the greatest man who ever lived. The trouble is, we don’t always do a brilliant job of presenting him as such.

It’s no secret that masculinity is facing a bit of a crisis. Young men are presented with scores of mixed messages about who they are, how they’re meant to act, and who they can and can’t be. The construct of the masculine gender has been polarised and weaponised, and the most extreme opinions on what men should be like are voiced the loudest.

Growing up in the midst of that maelstrom of influences, what young men need more now than ever are strong role models to follow. And here’s my point - Jesus is the greatest example of masculinity that a man could ever seek to imitate. He had character in spades; he was in touch with his emotions. He knew how to have healthy friendships; he understood the value and the limitations of money. He was engaged in his culture and society; he was passionately spiritual. On every front, in every way, Jesus is the role model.

When we present this 360-degree Jesus to young people - male and female - they get to see that he’s a person worth following. So that’s why I wrote The Man You’re Made to Be: to help young men (and any women who might want to sneakily browse a copy) to understand who Jesus really was, and why he’s the antidote to our current brands of toxic masculinity. I hope parents and grandparents will give it to their sons and grandsons; I hope it’ll find its way into the hands of young men who just want to make a bit of sense of their world.

I don’t know about you, but I long for the men around me to understand that they are made for so much more, and so much better than the broken version of male-ness that the world is offering. Jesus is the way to that.

Martin Saunders has been a man for over 40 years. He’s a youth specialist and serial creator of resources and events for both youth leaders and young people. He’s part of the leadership team of Youthscape, a national charity working for the positive transformation of all young people. 

Martin's book The Man You're Made To Be draws on personal stories – mainly about the sorts of mistakes you don’t have to make – and pointing at a role model who provides a much better blueprint for growing up well as a man, this is an entertaining, easy-to-read way to ask the biggest questions: who am I, and why on earth am I here?

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