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The WallBuilders Show
Fatherhood and Leadership: Reclaiming Masculinity in America's Families- with Pastor G.F. Watkins
Pastor GF Watkins joins us for a compelling conversation about the pressing issue of fatherlessness in America and its impact on families, churches, and our nation. Discover how his program, Manhood University, is transforming lives by equipping men with leadership skills that transcend past failures. With 61% of homes lacking a father figure, the ripple effects on society are profound, influencing everything from the effeminization of men to youth suicide rates. Pastor Watkins shares how historical figures can inspire the modern man to embrace their God-given roles, essential for the prosperity of families and communities.
Journey with us as we explore how Manhood University empowers men with 30 years of wisdom in men's ministry. Through initiatives like the Intense Men campout the program instills values of integrity, spiritual fatherhood, and authentic masculinity. Hear firsthand stories of transformation and the vital role of mentorship and positive male role models in guiding men toward their purpose. The episode emphasizes the importance of strong leadership and character, especially in today's complex political climate, urging men to step up and lead with honor and integrity.
Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the Warbler show. I'm Rick Green. America's Constitution goes normally here with David and Tim Barton, but today we're going to be with Pastor Jeff Watkins talking about Manhood University. It's an interview I got to do in the Tavern with Pastor Watkins. Let's jump right in. And I got G.F. Watkins, my pastor, Buddy Manhood University, GF, how are you doing brother.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:00:26] I'm doing good.
Rick Green [00:00:26] This is our place to talk about the strategies and tactics to save our nation. And there is no way to do that without godly men leading. And men. You have been training men for decades and trained by some of the greatest men America has ever seen, like Cole and others in Man. I just want people that that watches around the country to know about Manhood University and be thinking about next year potentially being a part of your full one year thing. But then also we got the big event coming up in March and potentially coming down and spending the weekend with us there at Manhood University for the intense man. So we got a lot to talk about. But first of all, just thank you for being a godly man that leads men and gets them through the junk, you know, because so many of our guys have just stepped out. They're afraid they can't be used by God anymore because their screw ups in life or whatever it might be. And so let's just start there. What do you say to men that might be joining us here in the tavern going, you know, my heart's there. I want to I want to be be a godly man, but I've already messed up too much in life. You can't use me. Yeah.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:01:31] Great question. And thank you for having me on here today. I appreciate it. And thank you for coming on on the clock with us. And I'm I'm sitting at Jordan Ranch, and that's a place in between Houston and San Antonio of I-10. And we built this thing about six years ago. And we've seen 160,000 people go through 22 bedrooms. And our goal was to build a place where we could restore man, to restore the family, to restore the church, the city, the nation, the world. But it all starts with God saying, Adam, where are you? The word Adam means man. And so if he picked the man to lead, doesn't it make sense? We should focus on giving that guy what he needs to lead? Yeah. And what I found out was that Dr. Ed Cole, who was my mentor, is that we're a fatherless nation. So we can talk politics. We can talk. But really, it's all human. I mean, human beings are are the politics. Yeah. It's just like, you know, the church is full of people. Families is what created the church. So if you if your families don't function, your church doesn't function. If your men don't function, your nation doesn't function. And I was so glad to see that several colleges begin to agree to do away with the DEI programs. Yeah, major colleges. So, you know, something has happened here, and Trump's not even in office. That's right. Yeah. Right. I mean, something switching in the heavenly is in the spiritual. I'm not calling Trump Jesus or any of that. Right. I'm just saying something has changed. And I'm for one. I'm glad about the team that has taken office and is going to begin. But I want to I want to show you something here is that we're in our nation and the world, which I've traveled the world a lot, thank God. But men are the same in Africa, that they are in Scotland, that they are in England and Peru and and in America. They're all the same. They have the same issues. And so you can teach the same truths and you can really help them out to become that leader that their wives and their kids really want them to be. Yeah, it's just that we've been fatherless so long that nobody knows what that looks like, Right?
Rick Green [00:03:39] They don't know what the example of that.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:03:40] Yeah, yeah. They look at Trump and they go, he's mean. No, he's actually just being a leader. Yeah. Yeah. They would have said that about Patton. They would have said it about Noah. Think about the people that we work in. All mean. That's good, you know? Yeah. And you know that from your dad was that way, you know, and your grandpa and you and I get them. But a lot of people that don't have fathers in the father's world don't understand the linear direction that a real leader goes in. That's good. You know, we call it prophetic. They don't understand what that is. But some of the statistics about fatherlessness, I'll Pitts is out there and say this is what I say to men is this thing is generational. It's not just your fault or my fault. It's it's 3 or 4 generations back where our fathers didn't have fathers and their fathers didn't have fathers. So women don't have fathers either. And there's a lot of issues in that in that category. But 61% of homes in the U.S. are fatherless. Think about this, 61%. 1%. So you got little boys in 61% growing up with mom as their example. So you want to know why men don't feel adequate to be a man? Yeah, there's a big one. 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes.
Rick Green [00:04:54] 90 that also to 61%. That would explain, you know, the a feminization of men. It's not just a homosexual thing. It's literally just that's the only example they had was a woman. So their physiology, their actions there, all of that, that effeminate, you know, those feminine characterization, they just picked it up because they didn't have the other the other example.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:05:14] Well, you can look at great leaders now. I challenge all my men to do this. And this is not a putdown of anybody. Okay. This is just facts is in a fatherless world, you will have a lot of effeminate men because they don't know who to look for. Right. And unfortunately, a woman will marry him because she doesn't know what to look for. And then she'll find out a few years later. He's not going to lead me. He wants me to lead him. And that doesn't work. Which goes back into our divorce rate. Yeah. Yeah. But many homeless runaways are from the Or from fatherless homes. 90%. Now, listen to this one. 80% of rapists. Come from fatherless homes. Now, you and you and many others have daughters. And I always ask men in the meetings, how many of you have daughters and how many of you would like to stop rape? How about 80% of it? So what do we need? We need fathers. Yeah. That is the antidote to. To this kind of abuse. And so, you know, when you look at these things, the prison population, 85% of teenagers behind prison bars come from fatherless homes. That's why it's been our whole goal for 30 years. Build men, raise sons, build men and raise sons. Yeah. Good. That's how you got to do it. And it's not glamorous. It's like a it's like a football team that doesn't pass. Yeah. Yeah. You know, there's a lot of entertaining game, you know, No trick plays, none of that. We just four yards and a cloud of dust. But we will beat you. We will hold the trophy up, you understand? It just won't be glamorous, right? That's right. Turning the curse of fatherlessness, it looks like. And that's why it's sometimes difficult to recruit for it. But thank God, after 30 years, we're seeing a big, big, big difference. With the advent of intense Men of Manhood University, Jordan Ranch, the man who had Hall of Honor. These are things that have come out of a lot of toiling.
Rick Green [00:07:10] It's absolutely remarkable. And I encourage everybody, you got to go see it, not only attend one of these events and Jordan Ranch is amazing what you've done there.
Rick Green [00:08:26] Before we talk about the specific events and how they work, tell me some of the stories of the guys like that that have come through and and how that's affected them, some of the things they've said. You know, after going through because I read some of them, I've met some of them, it's pretty remarkable. And I know we've got viewers out there. And when I play this on on radio as well, some of our listeners are going to be saying, I mean, that's that's what I want. I'm hungry for that. I want to experience that.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:08:51] You're well, you're talking specifically remember about Manhood University. Right? Right. Yeah. And because I invited you to come see that when when when I first met you and you drove over. So. And the guys really love that. And that was so critical to kind of turning everything around where it's not politics, it's it's humanity, you know? And and I love that about about what you did. And the guys loved having you there. But really, to me, that's a it's a new baby. That doesn't mean it's not powerful. It what it means is I've taken 30 years of what I've seen, heard and tasted in the men's ministry following Ed Cole and a lot of other great ministers around the world. And I've seen what works. I seen what's needed, and I've seen a Jordan ranch with 160,000 people. I've seen everything. And I just put it into context to teach in four modules for one year a man. So to be young, old, black, white, brown doesn't matter. All of us need the same things. And I'm we're looking at another quarter coming up here December the 6th. And so I was looking at this is our this is our layout for our lesson plans. We're going to talk about spiritual fathers, pharaoh versus father. What's the difference? Affirmation. We're going to teach men how to affirm. Other men are their sons. We're going to talk about integrity. We're going to talk about how to mentor. Men don't know how to mentor. God was a coach. I've got a degree, a master's degree in educational psychology, to be a teacher and a coach. And yet they never taught us how to coach, how to mentor. They just they didn't teach us how to coach, really. They just gave us a degree and said, go throw the ball out there. But, you know, we have to teach these coaches that come to Jordan Ranch, we have a program where we pay. In other words, coaches don't pay anything, is free. We pay for them to come here and we teach them about mentoring, marriage and money. That's any coach in the state of Texas. And we partner with Chick-Fil-A, which is been a great blessing for us. But these guys get to learn how to mentor these guys. They're athletes. We're going to talk about succession because people don't know how to do that. The majority of pastors and I mentor a lot of them. They never thought about how this works. They'd never thought about when I get to be 70, 80 years old, how I'm going to turn over the work.
Rick Green [00:11:12] About how they're going to pass the torch.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:11:14] They have no answer. And so when they get there, they're looking to hire somebody. But that's called a hireling. And you inject them into this body of people that's known you for 40 years. It doesn't take. Right. It just doesn't work because that's not you. It's not your DNA. And so that's why so many don't work. What we do is we show you how to start 15 years before you're ready to go and you start training your successor and how to pick him. And then we have a program called All In, and it's based on our book Test Me, where we take it to churches and they increase in their their generosity and up to 40% in five weeks without any new members, without any hard sell. It's just a few things that you can do. And there are biblical. And then all of a sudden, God's blessings start working in your business, in your home and in your church. And we help pastors to understand. I mean, how would you like to have what, let's say whatever your budget is, you know, for Patriots Academy? What if you could increase by 40% in five weeks? Would you take that deal?
Rick Green [00:12:17] I'd do that deal. Yeah, let's do that deal.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:12:20] Most people would. And that's what God has given us a lot of revelation about working with men to understand this. So we offer that as a free program to pastors and churches because we have a heart to see them grow. Most pastors don't do what their vision is because of a lack of resources. So I loved that program. It's called All In. And the whole church.
Rick Green [00:12:41] I was going to say. So you do that separately from men had university then, so you bring peace.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:12:46] Yeah, but we teach it within manhood. Yeah. So these are pods that we have 40 men. This class, they will go out and teach it to their churches. Gotcha. Okay. They go around the world teaching manhood principles. And if we don't have a job, we don't feel too good about being the head. That's what the welfare mentality. So we get depressed. That's what happens to men. You know, Adam was given a job before. He's given a wife. Yeah. In the first ten minutes of talking to a guy, he'll tell you about his job poorly. How much he makes a woman tell you about her home and how many kids she has. It's two different mindsets. They're not wrong. It's just the way we think.
Rick Green [00:13:21] Yeah. Manhood University. When you sign up for that, you have about four weekends a year that you come in and spend with you physically. And then throughout the rest of the year, you're still reading and working on things and growing.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:13:33] It resumes every week.
Rick Green [00:13:35] Every week. Okay, so you're online every week. So it's basically a year of learning really how to be a man, how to lead, how to be effective and lead your family effectively. And you won't start that again until next fall. You've got a full class right now going. We do. But I wanted folks at home to know about it so that they can be thinking about doing that next year. What you do have coming up that that we can all still join in on is is in March the weekend where you're going to have several thousand guys there at the ranch. Pretty much every square inch of the ranch covered right with and a lot of great speakers and incredible time. That one you've been doing for 18 years.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:14:11] This is the 16th year. Yeah.
Rick Green [00:14:13] Yeah.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:14:14] As long as we have the ranch.
Rick Green [00:14:16] So Main had university.com for the one year program and then tents men.com. Yes. Upcoming weekend March 13th to the 15th. So plenty of time to plan and you've got openings for that one week.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:14:26] We're just going to go our goal is we own 85 acres. We have men that come out and they camp in the woods. And then at night they come up to this massive stage with big I mean, this is full on concert stage, but it's under the lights and it's only men. So we go deep, we talk straight. And most of the time, guy, we'll have about 500 guys give their life to Christ. That's been our experience the first night. And out of those 500, about 350 will get baptized in our really nice pool. And it's usually their brother, their dad, their pastor that does that. And so it's all on video. And if you go to intense msn.com, you can see several of the last 5 or 6 that we did. And we'd love to have guys to come. And you don't have to be your dad. You can bring a boy from the neighborhood, you can bring a bunch of Boy Scouts. We had one church, about 400 youth one time, used to have another guy bring 100 from Miami, Florida. He came up for like six years in a row. Wow. Well, they come from all over, you know? So you'll meet people from Africa and Peru and Australia, and they come in here and then we worship God at night. But during the day, we play football, basketball, paint ball, you name it, we're playing it fishing, zip lines, anything you can do outdoor, we're doing it. So, so when you look up Rick, did you know that on any given Sunday morning, your congregation consist of 80% female and 20% male?
Rick Green [00:15:49] No kidding.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:15:50] Yeah. And the reason why is because most pastors present. Now, I'm not trying to offend you. Just hear me right? Most pastors, because of a lack of knowledge, present a feminine message. Yeah, because they're crowd is feminine. And if they want to pay the bills, they better appease that crowd. I mean, come on. It's just. It's just common sense, right? And so you got a bunch of guys going and going. I don't know. I'm not sure that's what I'm here for. I'm. Yeah, you know, I want a story about Braveheart or Gladiator. I want to hear a little bit about, you know, some of that. Yeah. Yeah. If not, then in congregational settings, I as a man, I tune out very fast because I can't relate. And I don't know what you want me to do with this. You know, and that's. That's sad. So we turned everything around. And if you go to Powerhouse Church or one of our 12 churches, you'll see a 5050 divide on on Sunday morning. 50% men, 50% women. Yeah.
Rick Green [00:16:45] I've noticed that. You know, I think I introduce you to I can't remember if you met Jimmy or not, but. But even even the promos, even the opening, when he's getting ready to go in and preach, man, it's like Roman soldiers and all kinds of cool. Now, now I can understand why I love it so much. It's because. Yeah, he's talking to us guys, you know, and speaking our language, I guess, is a way to put it.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:17:05] Yeah, that's my. My dad was my coach and my, you know, then he became my principal. And so I was raised in in a very manly home. And I love my dad for that. I appreciate that. And then I met Edwin Lewis Cole. You know, when I left, I was a high school football coach. I love that. Become a principal. And I met Dr. Cole when I was in the ministry, and he connected the dots of what my dad didn't really understand about honor and integrity. And he taught that in a in a yeah, in an athletic way. But Ed Cole taught it in a spiritual way and connected the dots. So it really made a lot of sense when I read Maximize Manhood. Yeah. And so everything we do is we train men, you know, with, with our books like Alpha.
Rick Green [00:17:50] Male for those, for, for, for our younger guys that may not be familiar you know the whole they might hear Promise Keepers or something like that maybe they heard of that stuff before. I mean, Dr. Cole was such a critical part of that entire movement and and essentially the intellectual force behind so much of that as well. But but hold of your book again, that's the alpha male one.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:18:11] Yeah. And this is one of our books is called The Alpha Male. You read down here. It says And the women who get them.
Rick Green [00:18:17] Yeah, that's good. That's good. Hey, I can't skip this. There's good grilling and food and fellowship around the fire that weekend as well, right? I mean, that's a big part of mutiny.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:18:28] That's. That's half the deal is driving around between 2000 men and seeing what each group cooks. That's what's so cool about it. You know, it's on 85 acres are spread from the top to the bottom. And I love that part about it, you know, just meeting and greeting people. And they used to have a group, like I said, the one from Miami would come and mainly, you know, Cuban descent and they would come out here and they would bring a huge pie, a bowl. Are you familiar with that?
Rick Green [00:18:59] No.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:19:00] That's a big, big is a Hispanic dish pie area. And they cook it in this big walk like thing. Wow. And they would cook it with rice and seafood and sausage and everybody would, you know, come over there to get get some of that. But you just get all kind of different stuff. And you and you make a bond out there with guys from all over the world. They're seeking after something that's authentic. And I think this is the largest father son Christian camp out in the United States every year.
Rick Green [00:19:28] Wow. Wow.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:19:29] And it's right here.
Rick Green [00:19:29] And these kids coming up now, these guys that I work with, you know, they're hungry for transparency and authenticity. You know, the the shell game, the the the plastic, you know, religion that they might have been around or seen. My might might be their only experience with with the church and with godly manhood. And so coming to something like this where they can see it on display not only the talks, but just the iron sharpening that happens around the fire.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:19:56] Absolutely.
Rick Green [00:19:57] Yeah. Just incredible. Okay. So that's that's intense, man. That's March 13th. 14th. 15th.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:20:02] Yes.
Rick Green [00:20:03] Still time to sign up. The website is intense men.com. I was just looking on that myself and at the at the schedule and it looks amazing and and I haven't been through the weekend but I've seen where it all happens everybody I'm telling you this this is a first class facility and I've gotten to know Jeff enough over the last year to know that I want to send men to this and bring them into this. So we're going to we're going to have a good time. I'm looking.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:20:25] Forward. I want you to come so you can address the men. That's what I'm about in this area.
Rick Green [00:20:30] Absolutely. Well, and to sit around the fire with a bunch of those guys, I love that stuff. Yeah. I want to. Before I let you go, man, just your your temperature on everything or how you see, you know, where we are and kind of going into this new season for America and the importance of men getting a hold of their purpose and what God's called them to if we're going to save the country. We kind of started with that. But, you know, just kind of a almost a challenge even to guys out there to start seeking that out.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:20:57] Well, thank you, Rick. I I'm 64. I've been in ministry 30 years. I was a an athlete in college and then I was a coach after that. And so I've seen a lot of things. I've traveled the world a lot. I've been to Africa over 23 times, you know, And I just I'm starting to see things from that perspective now, you know, from from that age and. What happened with Trump being elected is a good thing. It's a God thing. It's a necessary thing to right the wrong those. Basically what was happening was like, have you ever met families where the kids run the family? Yeah. You know, because the parents want to love them. They want to give them everything they entitle them. And. Right. If you like your hair blue, make it blue. You know, put your ear, wear whatever hole you want to put it. They try to appease them, to show them their love. That's not love. And what we have now, not just Trump. Matter of fact, I think he could be the lead. He's he's the glue that might hold the team together. But the team, if you look at the team that he's surrounding himself with, those are people of character. Those are people that understand what is right and wrong. And I say like, this is like the adults have taken back the White House. Yeah. And even those people that are against that are going to be blessed. That's right. Even the people that are crying out against it, they want to have their own deal and want to, you know, want to take that have the right to kill their baby and stuff. Like, let me tell you something, when you grow up, you're going to appreciate this. Yes. And so many men, you know, come back to me and they say, you know, we all remember you when you started that church. I thought you were too hard, you were too straight. You were this. But that's the best church I went to in my life. You straightened me out even though I left and came back. And then, you know, my dad was is news. He's 87. He's turning 88. He was an all-American athlete at five foot ten or maybe 11 at Baylor as a guard. Now, you got to be tough to be a guard. And I mean, but he's still that way. He still thinks that he can do all that is still alive and become a best friend. But, you know, he was my principal of my high school by the time I got into high school and I took him back to my 40th anniversary reunion, scuse me. And I took him in and we had, I don't know, 60, 80 people there from our class, a class of 900. And he was the meanest, toughest guy on campus. I mean, his job was to watch over drugs. You know, his job was to. But you know what happened? I set him at the table. I didn't know what was going to happen. I just said, come on, I'll take you with me up here. You're my date, you know? And do you know what they. Nobody want to talk to me. They all went to talk to that guy.
Rick Green [00:23:41] Wow.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:23:41] Years later, 40 years later, after my husband, all the crazy little, you know, in the 80s kids, all of them that were afraid of him, called him names, didn't like him. Well, they all wanted to come up. And the first three guys, they sat at the table and what witnesses and I'm just studying it. The first three guys started crying. Wow. And one guy said, Mr. What? I thought he said, you know what? He said, I didn't like you very much. He said, Do you know who I am? My dad goes, I don't know. He didn't remember any of it. He said, You got a great mind. But he did. Thousands of kids. Yeah. And he said, You kick me out of school. Wow. And I didn't know where I was going to go from there, you know, because people hold grudges. Sure. Yeah. And you think about this every day. He says the best thing that ever happened to me in my life. Wow. He said I'd be dead right now if I. If you had to give me that wake up call. And I said that to say this. That's a dad. Dads have to understand that they're not always going to be liked, but they need to be righteous and they need to go with God. Even if mama don't like it and the kids don't like it. They are accountable. Hebrews 1317 says that there are we are accountable to God for those he puts under our tutelage. And we need to take that seriously to get this country back to where it used to be. And sometimes that means we have to say the word no. Yeah. And you won't be popular for. And they'll call you names and they'll throw fits and you'll have to sleep on the couch and all that stuff. But you got to men have got to be men. And what we're trying to do at manhood, you is teach them how to do that in love. Yeah, because that's what Ephesians says, right? To speak the truth in love. So people would grow up. Yeah. But it's not. It's not easy. I'm telling you, it's difficult. It is. And I was speaking to a young man today that had an issue in his marriage, and it was a very controlling situation. He said, I just had to get out. I just I was never right. I could never do this. And I said, well, you don't have the right to get out. You're a man. You're the tip of the spear. So let me help you figure it out. But you're going back into the battle. Yeah. Now you see what I'm saying? We all need that, coach. We need that.
Rick Green [00:25:52] Guy, man, in our life, you need you. Absolutely. And men. And we need other men that we can, you know, sit around the fire with. We can have those conversations with that we can call. We need that coach that's been through it and knows how to how to lead and can see the police come in. And then we need other guys that we can that we Well, fact, you said we're going to be accountable for it. I mean that's that that's the thing right now is to recognize God's blessed us with a country that we're going to be accountable for, families, that we're going to be accountable for our communities, our businesses. We're going to be accountable for those things. So let's do let's lead Well, man, let's be godly men. Let's be. Let's go to Manhood University.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:26:24] Hey, man, Everything right? Yeah.
Rick Green [00:26:26] I appreciate you, brother.
Pastor G.F. Watkins [00:26:27] Thank you so much, man. Appreciate it.
Rick Green [00:26:30] Well, thanks for joining us today, folks. That was Pastor G.F. Watkins talking about Manhood University during an interview we had on the tavern. You can see the entire interview at our website, Patriotu.com. That's PatriotU.com. Thanks for listening to the WallBuilders Show.