We see repeated headlines featuring young men running wild on city streets. A fascinating story of wild elephants in Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa, seems a rough parallel. The solution may not even be a surprise.
Kruger National Park in South Africa features thousands of square miles of wild country filled with elephants, lions, rhinos, and more. In the 80s, Kruger restored their at-risk elephant population and offered to send dozens of young males to Pilanesberg National Park.
A decade later, rangers began finding dead rhinos, violently attacked. Eventually 50 mutilated rhinos were found. Upper body scars indicated elephant attacks. Game cameras found the culprits—gangs of young male elephants roaming the park, attacking and killing.
Rangers realized these young males were coming into “musth,” a season when a male elephant’s testosterone surges, his aggression rises, and his strength outruns his maturity. The rangers brought in some older bull elephants from Kruger and within weeks, the mysterious killings stopped.
Those young males were strong, but untaught. They had not been mentored into adult life.
What changed? The young males needed fathers. True of that story—and true in our world.
Young men today need what those rampaging elephants needed—mature masculinity in front of them. They need strength that has been disciplined. They need presence. They need order. They need an older man to show them what power is for. They need to be fathered.
Raising up the next generation into Christlike manhood doesn’t happen by accident. It doesn’t always happen sitting in church pews. It takes order, consecration, and the love of Christ.
Paul said to the church in Corinth, “For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers” (1 Corinthians 4:15).
An instructor gives you what he knows. A father gives you who he is.
An instructor gives knowledge from his mind. A father gives love from his heart.
My dad, Ed Cole, said it this way, “Being a male is a matter of birth. Being a man is a matter of choice.”
And one of the greatest choices a man can make is to become a father in spirit — to stand in front of the next generation and say, “Follow me as I follow Christ.”
Today’s generation does not need more information. It needs fathers.
Men who may or may not be biological fathers of the young men or boys, but who carry the spirit of a father. Men who bring order, courage, conviction, love, discipline, and blessing. Men who do not just correct behavior but call out destiny.
Sure, we honored fathers on Father’s Day. But we need intentional discipleship of our men, if we want to be successful disciple-makers of young men. We need engaged grandfathers, mentors, pastors, coaches, teachers, and spiritual fathers to stand in the gap for a young man who needs someone to show him the way.
Start your men’s discipleship group. We’ll show you how. We’ll coach you, help you, walk you through it.
A man’s presence is vital.
A man’s voice is crucial.
A man’s blessing makes a difference.
Because when fathers show up, the killing stops, the chaos breaks, the sons stand taller, and the future changes. God placed your men here for that ... to build a legacy and change the future of the world through the power of Christ.
Now available. Get your copy of Seven Keys and start building men who stand.
The time-tested principles Paul Louis Cole has used to cultivate strength in men from England to Egypt, Nepal to Nebraska—in prisons, military units, government offices, and churches both large and small. Strong men make strong families, strong families make a strong church, and this book shows you how to build them
