On “We Leave No Man Behind,” Mann describes the impact he almost missed, the uncertainty facing faithful men and a call to pray daily, connect weekly and invite monthly.
Chris Mann enjoyed the Monday night Bible study he helped run. He looked forward to thinking about Scripture, talking about it and seeing the men who came through the door.
Then one of those men prepared to leave the state, and Mann learned how much those evenings had meant.
Ryan, a young man in his early 20s, was trying to figure out what came next in life.
He knew he wanted faith to be part of it. Before moving, he sat down with Mann for conversations that revealed something Mann had barely understood while it was happening: The group had given Ryan support, confidence and a sense of being grounded.
“I was always happy to see him. We had good conversations. I knew he was digging in, but I had no idea it meant as much as it did,” Mann said.
Speaking with host Dominic on Heroic Men’s “We Leave No Man Behind,” Mann returned to that experience as he described the work of ministry, the uncertainty he sees among men and his own experience of trying to manage life alone.
“What I thought I was doing was good, but the Holy Spirit was doing so much more,” he said.
An evening that reached beyond Monday
For Mann, the Bible study was something he enjoyed doing each week. For Ryan, it became a point of stability.
“That Monday night became sort of a foundational moment in his week,” Mann said. “Whereas for me it was an evening, for him it kind of seemed to have an impact beyond that.”
The Scripture mattered. So did the community around it.
Ryan was spending time with other men who took their faith seriously and chose to make room for it. Mann described the significance of seeing peers make that commitment, particularly for a man who feels alone in his workplace or social circle.
“Some of it was to be able to have other people who, yeah, this does matter,” Mann said. “I’m giving up my Monday night to come here on purpose. This is an important thing.”
Mann had seen good conversations and participation. Ryan’s departure gave him a glimpse of how far their impact extended.
“The Lord’s always doing things that we never see,” he said. “And every once in a while we get that beautiful little glimpse.”
Good men asking where they fit
Asked about the condition of men in his community, Mann pointed to uncertainty alongside the concerns that receive broader public attention, including loneliness and addiction.
“I think what I see is a lot of uncertainty,” he said.
He described men who feel pushed down, unsure how to act or where they belong. Some want to provide. Others want to make a positive impact. In his view, the messages they encounter can leave them asking how to contribute.
Mann acknowledged that cultural conversations have brought legitimate problems into view. His concern was the absence of a clear way forward for men who want to respond constructively.
“I think there’s a lot of good guys out there who want to do well, who want to live out their masculinity, who want to exist in the world and don’t quite know where or how,” he said.
Those questions can arise in conversations within ministry. Sometimes, he said, a man becomes aware that something in his life needs attention through a conversation, a podcast or what he understands as the Holy Spirit working on his heart.
When faith becomes a cycle
Mann said he also sees faithful men caught in a pattern of obligations: Mass on Sunday, work on Monday, taking the children where they need to go. Even attending a men’s group can become another point in that repeating schedule.
“It becomes this cycle that they go through that sort of becomes what feels right,” he said.
The challenge, in his account, is helping men look beyond those recurring responsibilities toward a sense of mission.
“Listen, there’s a level of mission and call here,” he said.
Mann described that call as larger than bringing home a paycheck or maintaining a few points of contact with faith. Through his own ministry and conversations with men around the country through Heroic Men, he said he sees men responding.
“Men are being stirred up,” he said. “That’s, I think, undeniable.”
His approach begins with helping men reconnect with meaning and purpose.
“Your life is about something,” Mann said. “There is a purpose here. There’s a mission here.”
For him, that means helping a man see more in his faith than the obligation to be a good person or obey the commandments. He encouraged men to engage with the life God has given them.
“Get plugged in, catch some wind in your sails, and see what happens,” he said.
“A pretty terrible lone wolf”
Mann’s concern about isolation came from experience.
“I was a pretty terrible lone wolf,” he said.
From the outside, he appeared to be getting things done and meeting the expectations the world placed before him. His experience inside those accomplishments was different.
“I was checking off a lot of the boxes the world would look at, but it was miserable,” he said.
Mann described himself as an introvert who can be comfortable alone. Still, carrying everything by himself became isolating. He remembered wondering whether anyone else saw the things he saw or thought the things he thought.
“I can’t be the only one who thinks this,” he said. “I can’t be the only one who sees this.”
That growing dissatisfaction helped bring him toward action. Asked whether the pandemic prompted the change, he placed his own earlier experiences in his mid-20s. He also recalled conversations during the pandemic in which other men began looking toward a new horizon.
“This can’t be it,” Mann said.
Offering what he has
Asked how he sees himself differently today, Mann answered with one word: “Surrendered.”
He described a familiar pressure in himself and other men: the belief that he has to be the one who gets everything done. Taking action matters, he said, but an effort built entirely around personal initiative carries its own limits.
“I should be taking action, and that action should be offering myself in service of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, wherever God is calling me,” Mann said.
Earlier, he said, he was more driven by particular results. He wanted to make sure things happened and worried about whether he had said something the right way.
His approach now centers on being present, listening and offering what he has.
“I’m here. I’m going to be present. I’m going to listen. I’m going to offer what I’ve got,” he said.
The possibility of getting the words wrong remains. Mann said he has come to understand that the work reaches beyond his ability to deliver everything perfectly.
“The Holy Spirit doesn’t need me to be perfect,” he said.
That sense of surrender, he said, is one of the defining differences between the man he is now and the man he was five or 10 years earlier.
Prayer as roots, brotherhood as strength
The conversation closed with the Heroic Pledge: pray daily, connect weekly and invite monthly.
Dominic described it as a way to build an identity of prayer, brotherhood and personal outreach. A heroic man, in that working definition, takes the first step.
Mann compared the pledge to a tree, beginning with prayer as its foundation.
“Talk to God daily. That’s your foundation. That’s where you’re drawing in nutrients,” he said. “That’s your core.”
He emphasized that prayer does coexist with loneliness and challenges. The starting point, he said, is surrendering one’s life to God.
Brotherhood then brings strength, resilience and help discerning a path forward. Mann pointed to people whose accomplishments involved teams, companies or movements.
“There’s always more to it than that one person,” he said. “That brotherhood really strengthens you.”
Outreach extends the commitment beyond the support a man receives for himself. Mann emphasized a face-to-face relationship and the importance of looking outward.
“At some point you’ve got to break beyond that,” he said. “You’ve got to get a bigger horizon.”
For Mann, the outreach component helps orient a man toward that breakthrough. His own Monday night experience showed how much can happen when a man makes himself available, even before he understands the effect.
“A hero is a man who strengthens others.”