Dennis Rainey

Mentoring Parenting Masculinity

A Call to Courageous Manhood

Boyhood is a time of daring adventure, exploration, action and personal growth – that’s why adventure is a fundamental part of Trail Life’s mission. Adventure is a terrific way to capture the heart of a boy and teach important life lessons. Boys need godly men to lead the way. A boy without a mentor showing him the ...
Read More

Stephen Ashton

Mentoring Masculinity

Christmas Masculinity

Christmas is a remarkable opportunity to talk with boys and young men about the example of Christ. What did it mean for him to become a man? What character traits did he display? What was unique about the life he lived? What implications does his life have for us as men?
Read More

Bill Holland

Mentoring Parenting Masculinity

Mentoring, Fatherly Affirmation, and Trail Life USA

As a young man in high school and college, I stopped going hunting with my dad because I was just too busy, I got married and had kids. Classic adult excuses, but I just didn’t think about hunting until one fall day in 2011. Visiting with my Dad one day, out of the blue he asked if I was interested in going elk ...
Read More

Stephen Ashton

In The News Mentoring Parenting Let Boys be Boys Masculinity

A Boy’s World: Raising Strong, Godly, Courageous Men

These days there is a lot of pressure to “civilize” boys, to make them less strong and aggressive. Today we we want to talk about the uniqueness of raising boys in this culture, where there is confusion about masculinity and femininity, where there is confusion about what it is supposed to look like.
Read More

Stephen Ashton

Mentoring Masculinity History

Theodore Roosevelt: A Letter to Boys on Manhood

No one can be a good American unless he is a good citizen, and every boy ought to train himself so that as a man he will be able to do his full duty to the community …[to] act in a way that will give them a country to be proud of.
Read More

Bryan Davis

Mentoring Parenting Masculinity

Gillette’s Toxic Masculinity Pitch: A Trail Life USA Advocate Responds

The Gillette company recently posted a short film that entreated its male customers to battle against bad behavior often associated with men. Of course, this is an important message. Men should always act against such evils. Yet, Gillette’s video has received a lot of criticism, especially from men. Where did Gillette ...
Read More

Ryan Sanders

Parenting Masculinity

Discipleship: Four Truths for Discipling Your Son

Whether you know it or not, you’re in a battle. The battle does not end. It doesn’t stop because you’re busy. I’ve heard it said, “If the devil can’t make you bad he’ll make you busy.”
Read More

Matt Gidney

Troop Adventures Masculinity

Troop CA-0110: Adventure, Worship, and Fortitude in the California High Sierra

A chill swept through the morning air as the Trailmen laced up their boots. The crew from Troop CA-0110 stood on the edge of Agnew Meadows, eyes cast toward the distant peaks that stretched across the California High Sierra. Their journey would take them over fifty rugged miles, pushing them up to 11,000 feet, testing ...
Read More

Stephen Ashton

Masculinity History

Jim Elliot

"Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." —Jesus (John 15:13)— "Forgive me for being so ordinary while claiming to know so extraordinary a God," chronicled Jim Elliot in his journal. "We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a Power the Twentieth ...
Read More