MTNTOUGH Podcast w/ Dustin Diefenderfer · Dustin Diefenderfer Founder and CEO of MTNTOUGH Fitness

Shane Idleman: Men Are Numb And Nobody's Talking About It | MTNPOD #148

·1 hr 9 min·4 clips

Shane says a 1999 TV sermon called “Detours to Destiny” became the turning point of his life.

Dustin starts by welcoming listeners back and setting the episode inside the show’s larger aim of bringing inspiring guests who help with mindset and mental toughness. He introduces Shane as a guest whose testimony runs from alcohol and steroid abuse into hopelessness and despair, and then into where he is now. The early part of the conversation is plain about the damage that can stack up when sex, power, money, alcohol, and steroids all get mixed together. From there, the episode turns toward men and churches. Shane says many churches do not feel like places built for the average man who wants to stand up, carry responsibility, and still feel at home. He argues that a lot of church culture can feel soft or overly shaped around women, which leaves many men feeling like outsiders. Dustin stays with that thread and asks why that has become so common. Shane answers that leadership sets the spiritual temperature of a church. He says the speaker, the elder team, and the wider culture shape who feels drawn in and who feels pushed away. The discussion keeps returning to the idea that the man is the cornerstone of the household. If a man falls, the family feels it. If the family falls, the community feels it. If the community falls, the country feels it too. Shane connects that pressure to spiritual warfare and says the enemy wants men distracted, divided, and away from places that feed them. The episode does not stay in theory for long. It keeps folding back into lived experience. Shane shares about a burnout season that got so heavy it almost made him quit. He describes the way that kind of exhaustion can force a person to ask whether he needs a new job, a new career, or just a better understanding of the season he is in. Dustin lets that testimony breathe instead of rushing past it. The conversation closes by pointing listeners to Shane’s book, I Almost Quit, My Journey of Leading Through the Landmines of Ministry. Shane also says all of his books are free at westsidechurchfellowship.org.

As heard by us

A faith-heavy but honest look at male disconnection, burnout, and calling.

Shane Eidelman's story moves from alcohol, steroid abuse, hopelessness, and despair into a blunt look at why many men do not feel at home in church.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

For when you want a faith-forward testimony about burnout, despair, and getting pulled back toward calling.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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