NOTE: This episode was recorded before recent political events, and events with my podcast.
Jared Sparks is a husband, father, pastor and the host of the Shepherd’s Crook and Sons and Slaves podcast.
In this episode, we discuss his vision for Christian masculinity and feminity, which might be the finest I’ve ever heard, anywhere.
Topics discussed:
The Reality of Pastors Moral Failings
The Intention of the Christian Life
How Petition Comes Before Submission
Trusting the Lord With Your Talents
Gravitas and Knowing Who You Are
Worship Work Protect Provide Lead Love
Calling Women Out of Fear and Anxiety
For more about Jared, please visit:
https://theshepherdscrook.co/
https://www.instagram.com/theshepherdcrook/
Listen to the Full Episode Ad-Free
Monologue Intro:
When I started the Renaissance of Men in 2020, my sole vision in life was to help men. That was a goal that I had for many years.
In fact, the reason I set out to travel in the first place was because, back in August 2015, I toured a renowned school that was offering degrees in psychotherapy.
I had been part of the Mythopoetic Men’s movement and sat in weekly men’s groups. I had personally watched dozens, or even hundreds, of men have their lives changed by discovering their inner capacity and depths, and their ability to connect with each other. I wanted to facilitate that for more men.
As a result of that tour, I made significant changes in my life that led me to set out on my around-the-world adventure in 2016. (That’s also why I went to Burning Man that fateful year, which is a story you’ve heard.) But even when I left on that trip, I still intended to return to America and become a psychotherapist to help men, albeit with a few more tattoos and trophies.
In fact, my idea was that, in my therapist’s office, on the wall behind me, I’d display photos of me climbing mountains and sailing oceans. Put that together with a pair of tattooed arms, and I felt that I could sit across from the most hardened construction worker or truck driver and say to him, “We may be very different men, but we have a lot in common nonetheless.” I thought perhaps even an outdoor man could see himself reflected in the life and journey of an indoor kid.
But when I returned to the United States in 2020, the world ended. Everything shut down, schools included. And my experience in many men’s group chats and online forums indicated to me that, even though I couldn’t be a psychotherapist, I could still reach men if I called myself a coach. Many such cases.
Besides, I’ve since come to believe that most men don’t actually need psychotherapy, not at the deepest level. They need basic things that men throughout history have needed: a vision for their lives, noble work, a family to fight for, and sometimes the opportunity to grieve.
I felt that I could offer that as a coach, without needing a degree. I don’t even think that’s wrong, either.
But then a funny thing happened: I became a Christian. And the once clear picture became not so clear after all.
In the secular world, there are plenty of examples of men who are their own authority. But as Christians, that’s the one thing we cannot do. I can’t simply say, I am an authority in Christ unto myself. That would be bad, including and especially because if we were to do that, we run the risk of providing false doctrine, which is significant. We wouldn’t be impacting anything as basic as a man’s money, his job, or his “life fulfillment.” Instead, literal souls are at stake, eternal destinies. That’s one reason why James 3:1 says, “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”
And so my life plans that I’d had for almost a decade got interrupted. Christ has a tendency to do that, I’ve heard. But for a minute there, it was a major crisis that has gone on quietly behind the scenes. Thanks to the men who supported me through that, too numerous to name.
That’s why you haven’t heard me advertise the mentorships recently, because I folded that business up. I *had to*, for the good of my clients. I set out to help men, and if there’s even the slightest chance that I could harm them out of my own ignorance, then it’s not worth it.
It’s also one of many reasons why I’m ending the Renaissance of Men. I’ll have more to say about this in the coming months, but the project is all but completed. When the brand finally falls away, which I anticipate it will do in the next 2-3 months, I will have learned what I needed to, saw what I needed to, and accomplished what I needed to. The vehicle is no longer necessary for me to get where I’m going. In fact, in some ways, the wheels fell off of it a couple of months ago, and I’ve been proceeding on foot. Maybe in some ways, you can feel it.
But that has left me with a problem, which I can hear you thinking: There’s still so much work left to do with men. The job isn’t done. Not by a long shot. Yes, more men have stood up to try and be better men, and for that, I’m grateful. But if many of those men have begun to model themselves in the form of Andrew Tate or Jordan Peterson, is that really an improvement from the vision of family, fatherhood, and virtue I tried to promote with the Renaissance of Men? No, it’s not. Something is better than nothing, for sure. But it falls far short of the ideal.
So the question for me has been, to whom can I entrust the needs of men? Yes, of course, there’s Christ. I get that. But the Christian faith was never meant to be, “Me alone with my Bible.” Attitudes like that lead directly to the worst slanders of the Protestant faith. And if you, as a man, think being alone with your Bible is enough to grow as a man, you are at great risk of being very wrong. And it’s entirely likely you will be, especially if all you read is the red letters today, and you skip the Old Testament, which is very common.
So where can I send Christian men to become better Christian men, when many fathers have failed them, and pastors aren’t far behind in their cowardice to confront real issues of masculinity?
Well, I would want to send them to men who are further down the path than I am: men who are husbands, fathers, and established business owners. Men with a few failures under their belt that taught them grit and resourcefulness. Men who are educated in the faith, articulate, passionate, courageous, and even fearless in their promotion of the manly vision of the Christian faith, and the blessings that represent to women.
Remember, I am giving up a vision I’ve had for my life for over a decade. There were moments in my life that I had nothing else but this vision, the promise of the man I could be for my brothers. I can give it to God, sure. But I’d like to entrust it to godly men, as well.
And praise God, just in time, he answered my prayers again.
Which brings me to my guest this week. His name is Jared Sparks, and he’s a husband, father, and host of the Shepherd’s Crook podcast, which ministers to pastors, all of which I knew about and are no small feats in themselves. But it turns out he’s much more than that.
Jared also has the best and most concise vision for Biblical masculinity that I’ve heard, and you’ll hear about it in this show. He runs retreats, which I’ve heard nothing but good things about from close friends and brothers, and he’s beginning a rite of passage for his sons, who he also hosts a podcast with called Sons and Slaves. Plus, for the ladies I know are listening, Jared’s wife Jordan hosts a popular podcast called Fruitful and Fearless, covering topics of biblical femininity.
Putting all these pieces together, I hope you can see that it would be a relief to my heart to have spoken to Jared on this show because his works mean I can say to men, “Go talk to that guy. Listen to what HE has to say. Follow his model, sit under his preaching, let him point you in the way to Christ, and God’s design for men not just with his personal experience and wisdom, but with his biblical fidelity as a pastor, as well.”
Now naturally Jared, who’s probably blushing right now, is not alone in this. There are many faithful models from Michael Foster to Nate Spearing to Matt Reynolds, Brandon Lansdown, Doug Wilson, and the Moscow crew, etc. So it’s not all on our good friend Mr. Sparks, nor would either of us want it to be.
However, as I prepare to step back from the only post on the only wall I’ve ever wanted, in favor of a better post that only I can man, on a wall I wouldn’t have dreamed of a decade ago, I’m grateful to know that far more talented and capable soldiers are there to take my place. And Jared is about to show you what that means.
In our conversation, we discussed:
- The Reality of Pastors' Moral Failings
- The Intention of the Christian Life
- How Petition Comes Before Submission
- Trusting the Lord With Your Talents
- Gravitas and Knowing Who You Are
- Worship, Work, Protect, Provide, Lead, Love
- Calling Women Out of Fear and Anxiety
If you enjoy the Renaissance of Men Podcast, thank you. Please leave us a 5-star rating on Spotify and a 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts.
If this is your first time here, welcome. I release new episodes about the Christian counterculture, masculine virtue, and the family every week.
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And please welcome this week’s guest, from the Shepherd’s Crook and Sons & Slaves podcasts, Jared Sparks.
Jared Sparks: A Vision for Christian Men