The Lion Within Us - Leadership for Christian Men · Chris Grainger

648. Fighting For Your Family With Craig Thompson

February 18, 2026·1 hr 12 min·6 clips

A pastor admits his own selfishness nearly destroyed his family during their adoption journey.

The episode opens with a promotional ad for the Lion Within Us men's retreat in April 2026. Host Chris Granger introduces Craig Thompson, a pastor at Malvern Hill Baptist Church in Camden, South Carolina since 2007, who has four children — Wyatt, Aubrey, Brooklyn, and Sloan — and a wife named Angela. Thompson mentions hunting behind German shorthaired pointers as a hobby. He explains the origin of his book 'Fighting for Your Family,' tracing it to a failed premarital counseling session 20 years ago in which a counselor told them they had everything figured out and didn't need help. Thompson and his wife were left to self-educate through books and mentors, which sparked a passion for marriage strengthening. Several early deaths in the family and the adoption of their two youngest children intensified this. The adoption experience revealed to Thompson how selfish he truly was, discovering that his own flesh — not Satan — was his primary spiritual opponent. He introduces a central image from the book: the home can be either a cross where a man comes to die daily in service to his family, or a castle where he comes to reign and be served. He confesses that despite preaching the cross model to others, he had been living the castle model. Thompson then addresses the pattern of making a spouse the enemy rather than the real opponent. He argues that the enemy wants nothing more than to divide families, and that men damage marriages not by wanting to lose the war but by prioritizing winning individual arguments. He outlines three fronts of spiritual warfare facing families: the battle with the flesh (impatience, anger, passive aggression — things you cannot blame on the devil); the battle with the world (screens, social media, and explicit content entering homes, particularly through fantasy novels popular with teenage girls); and the battle with Satan and the demonic (deep oppression that seems to come from nowhere). He notes that most men spend too little effort battling their own flesh, which leaves openings for deeper spiritual attacks. Thompson identifies spiritual passivity as the biggest barrier to male leadership at home — men try once, fail, and outsource everything to their wives or to professional pastors. He also criticizes the contemporary church for describing Christianity using feminine terms and aesthetics that disconnect from ordinary men, noting that the original disciples were rough blue-collar workers, not polished professionals. On the positive side, Thompson describes servant leadership as 'wooing' rather than commanding — getting out front just enough to create a safe space for a wife to follow, like a NASCAR draft. He offers a practical example: calling his wife with a specific dinner request removes one of the roughly 400 decisions she makes daily and is experienced as an act of care. The episode closes before covering sanctification in the family, which was beginning to be discussed when the transcript was truncated.

As heard by us

A plainspoken push for men to lead spiritually and take responsibility at home.

This piece makes a direct case that men should not hand off spiritual leadership, and that family faith depends on personal responsibility. It moves from brotherhood and isolation to the call to step out of the noise and get sharp, then brings the focus back to leading at home…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

For when you want straight talk about leading your family in faith.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Lion Within Us - Leadership for Christian Men