Know what you are buying. This is not a book. It is the participant workbook for an eight-session video study, published by Lifeway Church Resources in January 2023.
The good news, and it is a real difference from most Lifeway studies: the video access is included. Each copy carries a unique code that unlocks Tony Evans’ teaching video for all eight sessions. You do not have to buy a separate DVD or a leader kit to run this. That is unusual and it is worth saying plainly, because plenty of study workbooks are close to useless on their own.
The eight sessions
The session titles tell you the shape of it. No More Hiding Behind the Past. No More Holding Back. No More Weak Leadership. No More Going Through the Motions. No More Compromising Your Integrity. No More Sifting Through the Rubble. No More Half Stepping. No More Standing on the Sidelines.
Evans works through men in Scripture and uses them to press one argument: the circumstance you have been treating as the reason you cannot move is the thing God intends to work through. He is a preacher and it reads like preaching, which is either the appeal or the problem depending on your taste.
What is actually in the book
Printed content for the eight sessions. Personal study to do between group meetings. Scripture for each session. A “How to Use This Study” section, tips for leading a group, and a guide for D-Groups, which are the smaller accountability groups Lifeway builds its men’s material around.
That last piece matters. If your men’s group has been looking for a way to break into threes and fours for real accountability rather than staying a large circle that talks about football, the D-Group guide is the part to look at.
Honest notes
This is designed for a group. One man working through it alone will get value from the personal study sections, but the format assumes eight weeks of other men in a room, and it is weaker without them.
Evans writes with a lot of confidence and a fairly defined picture of male leadership. Our position at CalledToBetter is that men and women are equal in worth and dignity before God, and that Scripture describes distinct roles for them, without our defining those roles past what the Bible states plainly. Evans goes further than that in places, particularly in the leadership sessions. Take the challenge, which is good, and weigh the framing.
One correction to the earlier version of this review. It quoted “reviewers, like Mike Middleton and Patricia Perkins,” presented as though they were part of a CalledToBetter review team. They are not. Those were names lifted from the retail listing. There was no team, and that passage has been removed.
Who should buy it
A men’s group leader who wants a full eight-week study, with video, without assembling a kit. Churches running D-Groups. A group of men who have been meeting without a plan and need one.
Order one copy per man. The video code is per copy, so sharing a book means someone does not get the videos.
Skip it if you want something for solo reading. Buy one of Evans’ regular books instead.
No More Excuses Bible Study Book with Video Access on Amazon