M. K. Gantt connects concern over young people leaving the church with a call for husbands and fathers to reclaim family responsibilities.
NEW YORK CITY, NY, UNITED STATES- In Old Paths and Ancient Markers: Guarding the Treasure of the Gospel, M. K. Gantt places fathers at the center of a concern facing churches: young people departing from the faith. The book argues that efforts to reach them must confront an underlying problem: the absence of men from the spiritual leadership Gantt believes God has assigned them within their families.
Gantt challenges churches to distinguish between attracting young people back to church and winning them to Christ. That distinction gives the book a focus beyond church attendance. It focuses on the formation of faith, and it asks readers to consider fathers’ responsibilities alongside the efforts congregations make to reach the next generation.
The book’s stated aim is to restore husbands and fathers to a calling Gantt describes through three roles: Provider, Protector, and Priest of the household. For men examining their responsibilities toward their spouses and children, this framework makes the home the immediate setting for the book’s appeal to renewed spiritual leadership.
Gantt also addresses the forces shaping children’s minds and hearts, naming public education, universities, the internet, social media, music, and Hollywood. The book contends that families have allowed these influences to take a place men should not surrender. Rather than treating the problem only as a question of America’s future, Gantt directs attention to the future of individual families.
Jeremiah 6:16 provides a biblical reference point for that appeal, instructing readers to seek the ancient paths, follow the good way, and find rest. Gantt invokes the passage to discuss violence and unrest, framing a departure from those paths as a spiritual concern. This scriptural emphasis links the book’s call for responsibility to its concern for peace and rest.
Chapter 9, Pursue, Overtake, and Recover, addresses men who have experienced loss or given up. Drawing on King David, the chapter challenges them not to abandon the effort to save their marriages, families, and children, regardless of earlier failures. This emphasis gives men facing setbacks a clear entry point into the book: in Gantt’s account, past mistakes do not justify quitting that effort.
Pastors are another intended audience. Gantt hopes they will read the book, find implications for their own ministries, and recommend it to their congregations. For those considering how to address fatherhood and family responsibility in a church setting, the book brings those subjects together through its emphasis on biblical calling, perseverance, and the spiritual influence of men at home.
“This is not a theology book. It is a practical guide to recovering our families and our place in it.”
— M. K. GANTT
M. K. Gantt is the author of Old Paths and Ancient Markers: Guarding the Treasure of the Gospel. Gantt’s message emphasizes restoring husbands and fathers to their God-established family calling.
Available now. Get your copy here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086B9VCWW
