Being God’s Man by Walking a New Path is by Stephen Arterburn, Kenny Luck and Todd Wendorff. All three wrote it. This page previously credited Arterburn alone, which is the common shorthand and still wrong.
Arterburn founded New Life Ministries and hosts the New Life Live radio programme. Kenny Luck founded Every Man Ministries and was men’s pastor at Saddleback. Todd Wendorff holds a Th.M. from Talbot and served as pastor to men at the same church. It sits in the Every Man series, the same line as Every Man’s Battle.
It is a workbook, not a book
This is the thing to understand before ordering. The Every Man series volumes are eight-week small group studies: short readings, Scripture to work through, questions with space to answer, and a group session built on top. It is designed for a handful of men meeting weekly and holding each other to it.
Bought by a man planning to read it alone on a plane, it will disappoint. Bought by four men who commit to eight weeks, it does a real job.
The subject
The thesis is that following Christ is a change of direction rather than an improvement of the existing one, and that most men try to add faith to the life they already have and cannot understand why nothing shifts. The study is aimed at getting a man to name what he would actually have to stop doing.
Paul is the recurring figure, and the study leans on the completeness of his reversal: not a man who got better, but a man going the opposite way.
What we removed
A quotation presented as the book’s own line and a reader’s endorsement. Neither could be verified against the text, so both are gone.
Limits, honestly
The Every Man series is from the early 2000s and this volume shows its age. The illustrations, the assumed working life, and the register of the men’s ministry culture it came out of all sit in that period. Some men find the tone motivational in a way that wears; others find it exactly right. It is worth reading a sample to see which you are.
The series’ framing of masculinity is also of its moment, heavy on battle and warrior language. Called to Better holds that men and women are equal in worth and dignity before God and that Scripture describes distinct roles for them, and we do not go further than Scripture plainly does. Where this study is talking about repentance, obedience and honesty, it is on ground almost every Christian shares. Where the warrior framing starts doing theological work, hold it more loosely.
Depth is limited by design. Eight weeks of short entries cannot do much exposition, and this is a study to prompt conversation rather than to teach a text.
Who it is for
A group of men who want a structured eight weeks with low reading demand and high honesty demand, particularly where some of them are newer to faith. It is accessible, it moves, and it does not require anyone to have read a theology book.
A man looking for individual devotional reading, or for serious teaching, should look elsewhere.
Being God’s Man by Walking a New Path on Amazon