Customer Reviews

Samson and the Pirate Monks: Calling Men to Authentic Brotherhood

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The thing that makes this book so very different than all the other Christian men stuff out there is that it gives a real how-to. This how-to is not "now go and do this and this," rather it guides the reader in how to form a vibrant community of men. Larkin has real-life, every day experience in this important thing. He doesn't write from some ivory tower. He is living what he is writing, every single day, in a real-life fellowship that he helped to start. Read this book, and then use the tools.

Thank you Mr. Larkin for your willingness to share so much of your life's struggle. This book offers liberating truths that are most feared by our old Adversary! By removing the veil of secrecy, we truly can move toward greater freedom in Christ. The writing style is masterfully elegant and ever-intriguing, and as is promised on the cover it's never boring. Only someone who has walked down such a difficult path--and has experienced the grace daily offered to us--can speak with such honesty and joy at the same time. I recommend this book to anyone who has ever heard this lie in their mind: keep your mouth shut, this sin is too big!

I can't say that I have ever read of a modern man's confessions -and renewal- through such an interesting process, that is, Christian men regularly sharing intimate details of their lives with each other, and doing so without a leader. "Group counselling" always has a trained leader. Larkin's group is simply a group. And everything is held in true confidence. I am now participating in one of these groups, and it is having a quiet but profound impact on my life. The book reveals only the tip of the iceberg.

Nate Larkin has not only written a book... he has illuminated a dark hallway. The dark hallway is the role of men and friendship in a Christian context. Nate starts this book with his own journey and he does not mince words. His story is painful & powerful because of its "no holds barred" honesty -- which is too often missing in "Christian testimonies." Larkin then proceeds to show how his story and the lessons he learned prompted him to seek a better way. A better way for Christian men to find friendship and fellowship in a sanitized, feminized Christian/Evangelical world.

Nate co-founded the The Samson Society to fill the tremendous need he saw in the Church for men to really connect; really listen and really be heard. The Samson Society provides that missing element, not just for Christian men but for any 21st Century Man wondering who he is, where his friends are and how to develop relationships in this isolated, plastic, cyber-ridden existence we call American Society in a post modern age.

Hats off (pirate hats) off to Nate for his writing, his courage and his example. But be warned -- if you buy this book and love it as much as I do... you could quickly become a bore for talking about nothing else!! I travel a lot in my job and I think I have spread the gospel of Samson just about everywhere I have been in the past 6 months.

Grab your sword and come aboard, mate! Arrrgh!

This book is more or less a field guide so readers may better understand and start a local chapter of the Samson Society.

Larkin opens his book with a gripping story of his journey from preacher's son to seminary student to porn addict. At one point, he even describes a scene on his way to a church event where he picked up a prostitute, trading a $20 bill he planned to leave in the collection plate for a moment of sexual pleasure. His confession is well written, a page-turner, but what story like this isn't? I found myself reading a little further than I normally do before closing the book for the night because I wanted to see what would happen next. I needed to know how bad this could get and how it would all come crashing down.

As Nate took me, the reader, into his recovery process, he made many good points about men, being men, and how the men of the Bible operated. The ones who did well in life had friends. They were in strong relationships built on trust. And they went out into the big-bad-world in pairs--never alone. My mind is racing around some of these ideas.

Part Four, the last eighty or so pages becomes something of an instruction book for setting up local chapters of the Samson Society. It's not the strongest way to finish but still well written.

(On a technical note, I found the fancy pirate font used for the chapter and sub-chapter headings difficult to read, but this is an issue of the publisher and not likely anything Larkin had control over.)

I enjoyed Samson and the Pirate Monks, especially the first three parts. There're many things in those pages that have changed me in some way. Even though it doesn't end strong, I'd recommend the book to friends; but even without the recommendation, my friends will hear about this book because it will burn through the American Christian Church at the speed of a California brush fire.

(Note: this review is based on the audio version of this book.) The very idea of cracking open your life in the presence of a group of men - most of whom may be total strangers - is counterintuitive to say the least. In our post-modern American culture we Christian men still think that the rugged individualistic lifestyle we've been taught is going to help us find peace. A casual glance at the shell-shocked men sitting dazed in most church congregations proves otherwise. Having come to know Nate Larkin personally and attended Samson Society meetings for just over a year, I can attest that the methods he proposes here do in fact work.

Coming together, admitting our need for true accountable brotherhood (and not the artificial accountability that so often fails in most mens' groups), sharing our struggles and victories, and simply being authentic together, we are finally doing what we've been trying to do all our Christian lives - becoming more like Christ. There's something marvelously powerful in exposing your weaknesses within the safety of a Samson group that actually gives you strength. Learning that another brother is going through the same things as you disproves the all-too frequent lie that you are alone and outcast. Forming real and lasting friendships based on a common thread of humility and genuine care helps us all rise above the surface-level Christianity of today and gets us back to the heart of the gospel we all knew was still available to us.

I commend Nate on this stark, funny, sobering, powerful work.

As a Christian leader I teach often on community and the importance of fellowship. The truth is that the real me is more isolated than not. The answer found in this book is the simplicity and power of brotherhood. The pursuit of honest relationships is often messy and complicated. This book paints a compelling picture of real friendship based in truth that makes brotherhood worth the effort. Friendship may be the Pirate Monk's greatest treasure! More valuable than gold... (John 15:12-15)

I believe this book represents the "front-line" battle most men, especially in our culture, face today. Perhaps the battle is even more intense in Christian ministry, because we often connect our livelihood to upholding a shiny image. But that is all it is ... an image. A golden calf of our time. I believe this book will inspire a new level of honesty and authenticity in our culture. God is moving the hearts of men toward a new freedom that comes through a community of brothers. Brothers who are flawed and weak, but together become a force to be reckoned with!

Through his own transparent story of a journey done in secret, Nate reminds us that this trek doesn't have to be traveled alone in isolation, self-rejection or a fake-it-till-you-make-it type hypocrisy. It reminds us of the importance in hearing other's stories and the sharing of your own because as brothers our stories often intertwine. Nate invites all men into a brotherhood discontent with sterile authenticity, but rather a brotherhood which will share life together at all passages.

This book speaks to the soul of all men. Nate Larkin uses some great personal insights and shares from his heart and the hearts of other men who are courageous enough to admit that they need relationships with other men to help them negotiate lifes twists and turns. Do yourself a favor and read and maybe re-read this book.