Fighting Shadows

First, thank you Jeff and Jon for not only writing such an inspiring book but also modeling the principles in print. When I finished 'Fighting Shadows,' adrenalin was pumping through my body. I'm 73 and my family makeup includes many young men who I am anxious to give copies of this important book. We can all benefit from the clear, concise call to the Manhood we are created to embody. With God's Grace, pages 174-177 (Gentle Jesus Meek and Violent) will serve as my guide until I take my last breath. Thank you.

Wow! I will continue to reflect on so many of the ideas in this book. I've already preordered a copy and will probably add a few more preorders to give to friends. This book has the potential to catalyze a generation of men to serve the kingdom with power, grace, and love. I'm sure different chapters will stick out to different people but the few pages on the shadow of ambition and the call to a life of holy ambition was worth the price of the whole book. Thank you for your willingness to dive into this topic especially amidst a challenging season of masculinity in culture.

Fighting Shadows is an excellent and challenging dive for men to follow Christ by submitting to His Lordship over their lives. This is not the typical "tough guy leadership" book but rather a thoughtful look into what it means to kill sin, and pursue a Savior.

This book was an incredible practical walk through the "Shadows" that we as men face in our Christian walk. I love that it was both honest and practical. It presented a lot of very unique perspectives with an appropriate balance of Biblical wisdom and practical application!

Fighting shadows is a great book to initiate discussions about some hard topics that men in society deal with every day. The book does a great job of introducing the different topics and giving a little background and biblical perspective on each. However, the book does not go very deep and is not a robust study of each individual shadow. This is a great book for a group of men wanting to meet together and talk about hard things. Especially if the group has differing levels of spiritual maturity and biblical knowledge. Bethke and Tyson cowrite the book, but you can tell which one of them wrote each chapter because of their writing styles. This book is typical of Bethke’s level of depth, but if you’re expecting a traditional Tyson book, then this will not satisfy.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Book was released 5/21/24.

I love everything Jefferson Bethke writes, and this book is no exception. This book is biblically-based and full of truth for all readers.

In Fighting Shadows, Jefferson Bethke and Jon Tyson have teamed up to write a book together covering how masculinity is at risk and how there is a dark shadow hurting men. The books idea came from the both of them sitting by a campfire unwinding from retreat. They discussed how men are all facing confusion, fear, and shame. We are facing a generation that is questioning who they are as a man or if they are a woman. They are torn on their identity. They explored how in Ecclesiastes it stated an important question about what is good for a man during the last few years of his life and how he will spend them like a shadow. They referred to the shadows as a man caught between light and darkness. They break down the 7 lies men are encountering in today’s times. The included despair, lust, loneliness, shame, and much more. Men are faced with a lot of dark shadows that our harming us and how productive we are.



One of my favorite things discussed people with optimistic attitudes and how they have better well-being and life satisfaction. They tend to have better mental health and more resilience from the challenges in their life that they face. Physical they have less inflammation, cardiovascular health, and less like to get sick. They explained how powerful the mind is how this can help us. Another important topic was loneliness and this is affecting men in negative ways. Both of the authors admitted to losing their joy and how they struggle to feel. Jefferson shared how he last felt alive was when he was younger about 22 years old with friends. Time and distance caused us to lose connections with our friends. Loneliness can greatly weaken our immune system and cause us to eventually die. They explained how men need true friendships and we need to invest it as much as we invest in working out. They stated how critical it is be vulnerabilities, have unplanned interactions, and proximity to each other. Jefferson shared how formed a group of guys who get together to hang out around the hot tub, firepit, and grill out, and have conversations. They typically answer some of the hard questions and he included some as an example. An example is name two to three years of great years and bad years. They shared how Jesus even had a band of brothers and would reach out to the tax collectors and religious people and was a friend to all.
I would recommend this life changing book to all men and it’s for men at any age. I really believe in when they both teamed up together to write this book it helped to make the message even clearer. This book is one that men need to read in today’s times since it’s very relevant. All 7 of the lies are ones that we have experienced or will again experience and we all struggle with issues that are weighing us down. I think I liked how each chapters included the lie and truth and it helped to break down what you would be covering in the chapter. This book is one to be reread and discuss with other men and our shadows will begin to see the light.


I received this book free from Thomas Nelson for my honest review.”

This book gives a holistic and compelling vision of what a man can become if he brings his shadow side into the light and he lets God transform him. As the book unpacks there can be various shadows at play in a man’s life such as: loneliness, shame, lust, anger, futility, ambition and apathy sometimes working together to deform him as a man not just one shadow part of his life. It is easy to read with lots of great quotes, anecdotes and analogies. I expect that with the video series coming out as well that this will be a got to for men’s ministry and formation for years to come! Thank you Jefferson and Jon for all your wisdom and experience that you put into this book.

This was a very informative read for me in knowing that the struggles I have had as a man are not my own sometimes I think the enemy blinds us into thinking that our struggles are only happening to ourselves and while the struggles are specific to us we can know that we are not alone in the general battles that we face as men this book helps confirm that. I’ll highlight some impactful sections, although the whole of the book is inspiring.

The section “MEN FROM THE FUTURE” in short: I have determined to be such a man! You should to!

“THE SHADOW OF LONELINESS” is a chapter that breaks my heart for most of the men I have met including myself, to quote a line in an old Jimi Hendrix song “Loneliness is such a drag.” it’s always been about relationships and the “what else”…..by in large I believe most men today and in the past have felt isolated and lonely at one time or another, “but I’m here to say for myself at least, that it won’t be that way much longer!” Great chapter!

“THE SHADOW OF SHAME” This chapter is a topic that is the most alarming and revealing to me in the book, I have never done any deep introspection into my feelings of shame this is a subject of deep psychological evaluation for me. The section of this chapter “GOD DELIGHTS IN YOU” has me weeping at this very moment (seriously) The God of all creation is NOT ashamed of me! He is NOT disappointed in me! He DELIGHTS in my presence!!! I admittedly forget these truths in my shame but these statements are the most profound and overwhelming truths I can think of in life it is no wonder the enemy tricks me into thinking the exact opposite on occasions! I will definitely be reading and meditating on this chapter over and over again I have yet to grasp it as intimately as I want!

“THE SHADOW OF AMBITION” no one has ever accused me of being ambitious but this chapter has me convinced to be a man of holy ambition and to ask the right questions. “THE CRYSTALLIZATION OF DISCONTENT” section bottom of pg. 122 and through pg. 124 is currently where I am and where I’ve been for a while, I feel that ambition (holy) has already been in action for some years now and the Holy Spirit has been directing me on this trajectory of “holy ambition” (After all I read this book!) I have a lot to learn still, I’m diving deeper!

“THE SHADOW OF APATHY” “The CALL” section of this chapter has been admittedly a subject of convolution for me most of my life but really only in the specific sense, my wife and I our in a season of change real soon like in a month or so as of this writing we are planning to move out of state for the first time in our marriage and in our lives! Culture shock is inevitable, but we are feeling “called” to go, we do have some specific things we think God is leading us to but a little foggy on the details but the CALL is our priority and I do NOT want to surrender any fierceness in this and I want to resist being lethargic in my (our) response to the Lord, this section has been extremely timely for me as we move forward in this venture I appreciate this chapter immensely!

Overall; every man who values the relationships God has entrusted you with, and who has the desire and intensity to be more like Jesus I implore you to give this a read!

I would love to meet Jeff someday perhaps sooner than later on a retreat or conference as schedules permit, and one day I hope to reconnect face to face with Jon again, we attended church together albeit briefly a long time ago, I saw something in him back in the day and I had a suspicion he was destined for this kind of kingdom work!

Thanks so much Jeff and Jon and to all the men (and women) who have helped shape your lives through friendship and prayers, I am now refusing to drift the rest of my days!

-Mike,
…a man from the future.

This is a very timely book and I hope it will be read by many men. And wives and girlfriends might like to read it too

Bethke and Tyson have an easy writing style that makes the content flow well. But, be assured, the content is at times disarming in a good way as the two men share some of the concerns they're seeing amongst men in their churches and communities. I believe every man who reads this will be able to identify with one or more of the 'shadows' the authors write about. Each 'shadow' is given a chapter and the authors identify which one of them is 'sharing'. The 'shadows' are as follows:

- Despair
- Loneliness
- Shame
- Lust
- Ambition
- Futility
- Apathy

The authors provide some background on the cause of the 'shadow', anonymous examples as evidence, encouragement using Scripture and other sources as to how to resist the shadow and come into the light.

It's a book that is relevant to all ages of men and is one that would be great for men's groups to work through together. I think the book would be even better with a Discussion Guide and/or Bible Study material that could assist individuals and groups to work through the material in a structured manner plus giving guidance to leaders. I'm hoping such material might be a subsequent release.

I do hope this gets read widely.

I received an early ebook copy from the publisher via Net Galley but this had no bearing on my review. I've also pre-ordered the book and plan to purchase copies for friends as well.

This book was impressivley simple, rich and inspirational! Both Jon and Jefferson's voices come through in this piece the melding of their voices and expertise creates something new and needed for men in this era! This book is a must for any men's ministry or formation pathway! Inviting men to be formed by the best man that ever lived is always a recipe for success! The chapter that impacted me the most was the one about friendship! I think putting that one first was a great choice since men's friendship circles are small if not, non-existent!

I didn’t realize how many shadows I was fighting.
As with all of the content and books Jon Tyson and Jeff Bethke put out, the excellence of Fighting Shadows is bar none.
On every page I am being challenged to face my most limiting and defining beliefs and behaviors. The depths of which I wasn’t quite ready to examine.
Fighting Shadows gives men an opportunity to open their hearts and minds to work out how to move forward wholly and in community with other brothers. We need this book.
Jon and Jeff, thank you for the time and care you have poured into this. It’s sincere and thought-provoking and I can wait to put it into action with the men around me.
Highly recommended isn’t strong enough. This book is necessary for men in this modern era to break through the shadows and rise together stronger, healthier and spiritually whole.

Jon Tyson is one of my favorite pastors, and I just recently finished another one of his books, which I loved. So when I found out he was writing a book on being a Godly man, I was very excited. I even preordered the book and jointed the launch team, so I was able to read an advanced copy for the sake of reviewing it. I must admit, I had never heard of Jefferson Bethke before reading this book, but I enjoyed his portion of this book just as much as I enjoyed Tyson's. First of all, the topic of this book is so important and relevant to today's wester culture. We live in a society that calls any masculinity toxic or rejects masculinity all together. This book offers a solution to that issue- being a Godly man- by first confronting the 7 big issues men face today and then giving solutions on 'fighting those shadows.' On top of that, it is presented in a very compassionate, caring, and loving way. Both Tyson and Bethke are incredible authors who are passionate about this topic, captivating storytellers, humorous, and so much more. They use great cultural references and relevant stories to really engage the reader. Unlike some books on this topic, Tyson and Bethke never come off cheesy. They outline a clear, practical, and necessary shift men must take, and everything ties together very well. They cast a convicting and inspiring vision. It's a deeply personal and practical book. They use beautiful writing to convey their timely message. This book is a must read for all Christian men today, as there is so much Godly wisdom and insight into being a Christian man in today's culture.