Brower pens 3rd book

Although Briarwood Christian School principal and head soccer coach Shawn Brower never intended to write books, he has now published three books.

After spending time teaching Bible at Chattanooga Christian school, coaching boy’s soccer and being a dad of three boys, he had gained a lot of knowledge along the way and wanted to share it.

The inspiration for his first book, “We Became Men: The Journey into Manhood,” published in 2012 came after he took students from Chattanooga Chiristian School on a class retreat where he had discussions with high school seniors about manhood.

After returning home from the retreat, he wrote down 16 topics, which would become the  chapter titles of the book.

“I never set out to write a book,” Brower said. “I just had all these thoughts and put them down on paper. A lot of it is just life experience and things that were shared with me by older wiser men. I got done and my wife asked me what I was going to do with it, and a friend told me to see if [a publishing company] wanted to pick it up.

Brower sent it to a few companies and it turned out someone did want to publish his book, P&R (Presbyterian and Reformed) Books.

The book is divided into four parts: base camp, the journey begins, essential trail conversations and moving toward the summit.

His latest book, “Stand To: Finding Masculine Courage in a Stand Down World,” is a continuation of We Became Men. The introduction picks up where it left off.

“The first one was for teens, now they’re reading this one and many are married and have families,” Browser said.

He chose to use the military command “stand to” as the title of his book, which means a state of readiness assumed by ground troops at dawn and dusk in wartime.

“I just couldn’t land on a title,” he said. “I was reading ‘Extreme Ownership’ by Jocko Willink and he was describing this whole idea of stand to. I was like that’s my title. I feel like it’s fitting for where we are. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all that’s happening in culture and society that you just want to turn off the news and retreat or throw in the towel and say you’re done If there was ever a time we need to step up, stand to, in grace and humility, it’s now.”

He said there are specific things God has called men to do, but some are withdrawing, stepping down, and even canceling themselves out. The idea is that instead of a work around, the only way out is a way through. At the end of each chapter, there are discussion questions that encourage readers to do something.

The first chapter was written by Brower’s oldest son, Josh. Even though he had completed the book, After reading a 40 page paper he had written for an assignment at Covenant College entitled “Becoming Men: A Biblical Guide for Redefining Masculinity.”

“I already had my writing done for the most part and then I read his paper,” Brower said.  “I decided we needed to write one more chapter and make it the first chapter and we used a lot of what he had.”

Josh, 23, played soccer at Briarwood Christian School, was an All-American and also  played in college. He is currently the co-director of the high school youth ministry at Lookout Mountain Presbyterian and is in seminary school.

“It’s funny because as a five-year-old, he would go on soccer retreats with me, and then he read through ‘We Became Men’ several times and led groups in it. He’s a product of it and living it out. To see it come full circle, as a dad, that’s super cool.”

While Brower does have a few thoughts about a fourth book, he said he was also glad when this one was complete.

“The best thing about writing is when you hear from someone out of the blue who contacts you about what something you wrote meant to them,” he said. “I may be touching someone’s life or influencing them in a positive way and don’t even know who they are.”

He recently heard from a former student who he had to ask to leave school about a month before graduation. 16 years later, he wrote to Brower and said he had finished reading the book and thanked him for what he did all those years ago because it started him off on a good journey and he is living that out.

Brower is in his sixth year as principal of the upper school at Briarwood Christian. He continues to coach the varsity men’s soccer team. He has earned five state championships and three national Coach of the Year awards. Brower also had a book in between these two sharing advice on his 28 years of coaching. “The Huddle: Becoming a Champion for Life focuses on building championship teams.”

Visit browersbooks.com for more details about the author and his works.