Tony Evans Tells Men: 'No More Excuses!'
On Saturday, a crowd of about 2,000 men will converge on Tony Evans' Dallas megachurch to hear him teach on biblical manhood during the "No More Excuses!" Men's Conference.
Evans' messages at the conference will be based on his book, Kingdom Man, which encourages men to seek a biblical standard of manhood instead of merely settling for the status quo. Evans will teach at all four sessions of the conference, which will take place at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, and will speak on topics like: a man's personal life under God, leading a family, being held accountable as part of a church and leaving a legacy for future generations.
Evans spoke with The Christian Post on Friday and explained why the topic of biblical manhood is so important to him.
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"It's close to my heart because I think the breakdown in the culture is tied to the breakdown in manhood," he said. Many men have forsaken their God-given responsibilities, he says, and as a result our society has suffered.
Evans says men often have a number of different excuses as to why they aren't behaving or leading their families in a godly way. Some men, for example, didn't have a father around when they were growing up to teach them how to be a man. Others blame the way they are on the pressure society places on them, or on racism. And others think that men should be totally independent of everyone and everything, including God, an idea Evans says stems from a "false definition of manhood."
"Our conference is designed to, even if those realities are there, to not use them as excuses for not progressing to where God wants you to be," he said.
Evans believes that men are ignoring the "high calling" God has placed on their lives because they have neither a good definition nor example to follow. The media has contributed to the creation of a distorted view of manhood, he says, so it is up to churches to restore that proper biblical image.
"I think...the models have been so few and far between that men don't know. And so a clear definition needs to be laid out and then they can decide whether they will follow it or not," he said.
But it's not just for this generation of men that Evans is fighting for. He is also trying to promote biblical manhood for future generations as well, which is why teenagers between grades seven and 12 are also being invited to attend the conference.
"I wanted the boys to hear what their fathers were hearing, so they ... know what they should be seeking to become, and so that they can begin to look for it in their dads," he said.
Evans recently appeared on several media outlets, including CNN and National Public Radio, to speak out against President Barack Obama's decision to support same-sex marriage. He told CP that having more kingdom men in the U.S. could help to remedy the issue.
"We have contributed to the problem," he said. "So we must reverse it, not only in our denouncing of that as a legitimate definition of marriage, but in the modeling that we set for it."
Evans will be the primary speaker during the "No More Excuses" conference, but his son, Jonathan Evans, will also speak from a "young man's perspective" and will offer a challenge to those in attendance. Jonathan is a former NFL fullback who has worked side-by-side with his father in his ministry.
The conference begins Saturday at 8:30 a.m. CT, and will wrap up in the early afternoon. Instead of putting a price on attendance, the cost of admission is a donation to the church's food pantry.
