Book Review (and a Giveaway): What He Must Be
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 2:38PM 
Click on image to view this book at Monergism Books…if he want to marry my daughter by Voddie Baucham Jr.
Have you noticed the blog blitz around this new Voddie Baucham book? During these first two weeks in March there is a Find One, Build One Blog Tour, with many bloggers reviewing this book and several offering readers a chance to receive a free copy. I’m participating, too, and I’ll be giving away a free book to one of you. Read on to the end of this post to find out how to enter the draw for a copy of What He Must Be.
I will admit that I had a few reservations about participating in this blog tour. For one, I’m not all that familiar with Voddie Baucham and I’m not very adventuresome in my choices of books to read and review. I usually choose to read and review books only if I’m fairly sure before I start that I’ll be able to endorse it. And one of the few things I did know about this author is that I disagreed with a stand he took last summer on one issue. So I had no idea whether I would like this book or not before I started it, and that makes me a little nervous.
Secondly, I have an aversion to anything that seems like a Christian subcultural bandwagon and I had a little suspicion this book might be part of something like that.
Then there’s this: What He Must Be targets fathers in particular and, as you know, I’m not one. And there’s no father here in my home for me to discuss the book with, either.
As it turns out, I’m glad I participated and glad I read the book. If I were to sum the book up in a sentence, I’d say it’s about searching out (or raising) young men who are prepared to take on the role of Christian husband. I could have used this book a few years ago when getting my youngest son through to adulthood became my job. Young men, you know, are better at taking direction from a man, so it’s a tricky thing for a mother to raise a son to adulthood. This book could have given me something more specific to shoot for.
There were a few things I disagreed with and a few things that I need to consider more carefully before I know whether I agree or disagree. But all in all, I’d say this is a very valuable book, and as far as I know, there’s nothing else like it out there.
One small warning: In What He Must Be, Voddie Baucham assumes a complementarian position on the roles of men and women in the home. In other words, this book assumes that there are equally important but different God-given roles for men and women in the family. If you are not a complementarian, there will not be much here for you.
I’ll be receiving one copy of What He Must Be that I’ll be giving away to one of you. If you leave a comment with your email address, I’ll enter your name in a draw for this book. To make this more interesting, I’ll enter you one more time for every unmarried child in your family and give you yet another entry if you are a father. If you have a mentoring relationship with an unmarried teenager or young adult who is not a member of your family, I’ll put your name in twice more. Let me know in your comment how many times I should enter your name in the draw.
I leave the comments and the draw open until next Wednesday, March 18.
Reader Comments (13)
Oooh!! Me, me me! I, too, have been hearing lots of stuff about this book. I have three unmarried children (two boys) and we have a young friend, 18 year old boy, whom we are in a mentoring situation with. The young boy has never known his father (father wants nothing to do with him) and his mother has been diagnosed as bi-polar. Hubby and I are co-executors of his grandmother's will so that if the grandma passes away before the boy is 30, he has to seek our co-operation on certain issues.
Rebecca, I have been meaning to ask you if you are planning on having any monthly themes in the next little while?
My email address is threegirldad@hotmail.com. If I don't "win" the book, I'm buying a copy without a doubt. Love me some Voddie Baucham. :-)
I'm not currently mentoring anyone outside of the family, so I guess I qualify for four entries.
Kim,
I was just thinking that I should get back to doing that. Got any good ideas for a theme?
Rebecca
Well, spring is coming, perhaps something along those lines? Gardening tips or something like that?
Easter is coming quickly, too. Lots of good material there.
I'm not an idea person :(
Rebecca, we still have 7 unmarried children, some of which are marriageable age now. We also have 15 grandkids, and counting, so the book could be passed on to all of those moms and dads!
I'm not from the Yukon territories, but sadly we woke up to MORE SNOW this morning. It felt a little like the great white north, and here I am pining for spring. Sigh.
Perhaps a new book to read all curled up on the couch with my blankie would help. :D
Hi Rebecca. I have three unmarried children, all adults (one of them is divorced). I mentor 7 pre-teens because I am their teacher. :) My husband has three unmarried children but that doesn't count cuz I am the one responding. I mentioned on another blog that Baucham has a great video called Children of Caesar that takes on public education that is very good. I think I know what issue you disagree with and if I am right, i agree with you.
I'm a father, and I have eight unmarried children. Just send me the book!
No, I already have it. Excellent book, and whatever it is you disagreed with, I'm sure you're wrong! But seriously ... I'd be interested in knowing what that was. Perhaps I missed something.
What I disagreed with in the book? Nothing of substance, really. When I say I disagreed with a few things, I mean mostly that I'd like to qualify some of his statements a bit before I agreed with them. And some of it, I'm thinking over...thinking how that would have worked for us..if it would have worked for us.
Well, yes, he could have attempted to address every contingency (I know you aren't suggesting he should have done that), but then the book would have been ridiculously long would have failed anyway. It's really just a very general outline of the ideal situation.
It's really just a very general outline of the ideal situation.
Hmmm...if I'd read it this way, perhaps I wouldn't have felt the need to qualify statements. And now that you say this, I think this might be the way he intended the book to be taken. But the black-and-whitishness of his communication (not the right word, but that's all I'm coming up with now) made me feel like qualifying.
I'm one of those people who had to throw out all the child-rearing books because I tended to to implement things in a rigid way and feel like I was doing things wrong if I didn't. So I'm cautious to qualify things...perhaps overly cautious.
Oh..I thought you disagreed with him on an issue that was unrelated to the book. I misunderstood what you said. I disagreed with his stand on Sarah Palin and agreed with Al Mohler on his stand concerning Sarah Palin in the political realm.
I thought you disagreed with him on an issue that was unrelated to the book.
I did, and you guessed it correctly. :)