Start here, because it will save some men money: Play the Man Participant’s Guide is not a book. It is the workbook for a four session group study, and it is close to useless on its own.
An earlier version of this review said the guide “stands alone” and is rich enough to read by itself. That was wrong. The guide’s own homework assignment for each session is to read a portion of Mark Batterson’s Play the Man before you meet. There are also video notes pages, which are blank until somebody plays the DVD. Buy this by itself and you have purchased a set of discussion questions and empty journaling pages.
What you need to run it properly
Three pieces: the main book, the DVD study, and one of these guides per man. Baker Books published all of it. The four sessions are Rewilding, The Seven Virtues, Be a Man, and Rite of Passage, each video running about fifteen minutes.
Each guide session gives you the reading assignment, space for video notes, discussion questions, personal reflection questions, and blank journaling pages.
Whether the study itself is any good
The material comes out of Batterson’s argument that manhood has been domesticated and needs deliberate recovery. He builds it around seven virtues, and the book’s title comes from the martyrdom of Polycarp, the second century bishop who reportedly heard a voice say “play the man” as he went to his death. That is the emotional center of the whole thing and it is genuinely stirring.
Batterson also pushes hard on a rite of passage for sons, which is the most concrete and most argued over part of the study. Some men find it exactly what they were missing. Others find it forced. Your group will probably split on it, and that is fine, because it produces the best conversation in the four weeks.
The discussion questions in the guide are decent. They ask men to commit to something specific rather than just share feelings, which is the difference between a study that changes a Tuesday night and one that changes a year.
The fair criticism
Four sessions is short for the size of the claim. Batterson wants to reframe how you understand being a man and then hands you a month. Groups that finish it usually want more, and there is not more.
The rhetoric runs hot in places. If inspirational writing puts you off, the video sessions will test you more than the book does.
Worth your time?
Yes, if you are launching a men’s group and want something with a clear arc and a defined end date. Four weeks is an easy ask, and men who will not commit to a year will commit to that.
Buy the book and the DVD alongside it. On its own, no.
Play the Man Participant’s Guide on Amazon · The main book