Moody’s male undergraduate students gathered April 21 to hear pastor and Moody Publishers author Kevin DeYoung during the Student Council (StuCo) sponsored Men’s Breakfast. DeYoung co-wrote the award-winning Why We’re Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be, a book addressing the differences between evangelical and emergent Christianity. His first solo title, Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will, which released this month, focuses on action rather than hyper-spiritualization when seeking God’s will. DeYoung also pastors the University Reformed Church in Lansing, Mich.

This year’s event marks the second consecutive time DeYoung has spoken at the annual Men’s Breakfast and highlights the partnership between Moody Publishers and the Men’s Breakfast. By helping to provide a speaker for this event, Moody Publishers has created an opportunity for two different sectors of Moody’s ministry to connect and dialogue.

DeYoung spoke about pride from 2 Corinthians 11 and 12 to address the specific varieties of pride often faced by Bible college students. A graduate of Bible college himself, DeYoung was able to relate to the audience on a deep level; not just stating truths, but conveying them from the Bible, through his life and into the lives of his audience. He encouraged his audience to “think lightly of profound spiritual experiences” and “receive gratefully the gift of discouragement.”

Elaborating on the second point, DeYoung noted that few Christians walk in the “valley of humiliation.” The issue with this, said DeYoung, is that “grace flows downward,” right down to that valley of disgrace. Thus, DeYoung argued, Christians are in the best position to receive God’s grace when journeying through the valley.

This especially resonated with student Keoni Hughes, who realized that he had been avoiding the valley of humiliation at all costs. “I geared my life around things that would puff me up,” said Hughes.  Excitedly, he shared how God used that morning. “I realized that I needed a paradigm shift to gear my life around things that would force me to, like Paul, seek God’s power and grace in my weaknesses.”

—Article by Daniel Harting, Freshman, Communications/Print Media major