Who is this for?
Men. Pure and simple. It's for guys who go to church and guys who don't go to church; single dudes and married dudes; gay and straight. If you're a man, I am writing this for you and I hope you gain something from it.
Bad Ass Dudes of the Bible? Really?
Yep, really.
Why choose that as a blog name? Couldn't it be construed as offensive to some Christians?
Honestly, that is kind of the point. My goal is to turn this into a book for guys who are on the fence about Christianity. The types of guys who might go to church with their wives or girlfriends, but for whom there's never been that deep connection with God.
If this blog were a book, I'd want it to be the type men will read and relate to but that your average Christian bookstore wouldn't want on their shelves. I believe in Men's Ministry, and feel the best way to reach men for Christ is to show them real-life examples of men in the Bible who were bad-asses (because that's awesome), but who were also real men with real struggles.
What qualifies you to write about dudes in the Bible (bad-ass or otherwise)?
I am an ordained Presbyterian pastor serving my church in North Chattanooga. In seminary I began being interested in men's issues and took a class called "Men in Difficult Times" by Jack Balswick. We focused on the difficult time men are having today as our roles in the family, society, and the church are in a state of flux and it becomes challenging for us to find our way.
Instrumental to my thoughts about this are several men's groups I've led and been a part of in Pasadena, CA and Virginia Beach, VA. Also influential for me is the work of Brett Clemmer from Man in the Mirror, Patrick Arnold's amazing book Wildmen, Warriors, and Kings, Iron John by Robert Bly, as well as many male mentors and friends who have journeyed with me.
As a pastor are you even allowed to use language like 'bad-ass?'
I'll admit that the language here may be a bit salty, but it will not be used for shock value and certainly not gratuitously. Men, in and out of the church, need to be able to talk about things in real terms, not the soft and 'appropriate' language that has made men feel uneasy and unwelcome in many of our churches.
The men we'll be looking at in the Bible are also not the most refined, and some of the situations are not exactly dinner appropriate: David collecting the foreskins from his fallen enemies as a wedding offering to his fiancee's dad or Solomon's sexual exploits with his 300 girlfriends. My goal is to look at the Bible and hold up the businessmen, accountants, leaders, soldiers, prophets, and other men we find there. Some of them are nice and polite stories, but most are not. I pledge entertainment and honesty in the telling, and am hopeful the men reading this will find themselves in those presented.
