For about a year and a half, I have been taking the materials from the Sexual Integrity for Men class and turning it into a book. Why would I do that? It started when I began to get requests for my class materials from missionary friends overseas. The national and foreign workers over there were struggling with pornography, and they wanted to have something they could study together to combat this. At the same time, there were others locally who couldn’t take a 10-week class on Wednesday nights, or were too far out of town, like the northeast Ohio Xenos people. There are also those who would never really come out to a class because of shame, but they might get together with another brother to study, confess, and pray.
For some time now I have thought that the venue of a class that lasts 10 weeks is too impermanent. Here at Xenos we have men’s and women’s groups that meet weekly that are the right size and place for deep relating and accountability. That would be the perfect place for our group to go over this material. If a man needs to attend the class, but is reluctant, he might find himself studying it anyway in his men’s group. Once the 10 chapters are done, the openness and sharing can continue for months and years, a lifetime. This is the place that should happen.
So what is left is for me is to ruthlessly edit the content, and decide whether to find a publisher or self-publish. I’ve had the advantage of going over the material with my own men’s group, so I know which sentences sound really bad read aloud. I also used the book as the basis for the Spring SI for Men, so I know which content just didn’t connect as well as I thought. I have a couple of people who have given me editorial feedback (there seems to be no shortage of critics) and a real editor who has volunteered as well. Things are looking up for the summer.
I’m heading to Sanibel Island for two weeks, and in between time with my wife and a couple of friends who are coming down for the second week, I will be working on editing, adding more interactivity, layout, and generally holding a gun to the head of each of the 40,000 words. I will have the introduction and chapter 1 available for download on this web site soon.
Brian
