Is Pilgrim Endurance Only Serving Men? No.

“My hope is that Pilgrim Endurance will be a training ground for men to grapple with their suffering in a way that allows them space to join in the communal healing so deeply needed.

… to show up as healed and as grounded as possible.”

6/25/21 EDIT: We are no longer only serving men, but this blog post will remain as a discussion of the deeper mission for Chris’ work with his male athletes.

This question has been on my heart since the beginning, and I want to share with you as clearly as I can.

First, let me share that I think there is nothing about this coaching ministry that would only benefit men exclusively. I would LOVE to see a woman with a call to this work offer it to women. I would also love to be corrected when I say that I know of nobody doing this work other than Pilgrim Endurance. With that being said, I have two main reasons why I began Pilgrim Endurance focused on men.

Primarily, it is that my life experience is male. I have less value to contribute to certain parts of life for people who don’t identify as male. I want you to have access to the most valuable resources you can, and for almost everyone on earth, that isn’t me. I will be the first to tell you that I’m trying to focus Pilgrim Endurance on a narrow group of people. I think that’s the best way to serve them, in the same way that I think the best training plans are personalized to each individual. 

Just as important as what I think I have to offer the world is my conviction that Pilgrim Endurance needs to respond to the reality of the world we live in. I’m talking about trends of world-wide political instability and pandemic. I’m talking about a country grappling with slavery, discrimination, and injustice. I’m talking about an economic order that produces people with more money than they could spend in a lifetime at the same time as people who die from a lack of resources. I’m talking about more people leaving religion quicker as time goes on. I’m talking about people feeling lonely, passive, and discontent despite connections with family, work, friends, and faith. I’m talking about people surviving and creating beauty in the midst of all this.

My hope for the men I serve through Pilgrim Endurance is that it will be a training ground for them to grapple with their suffering in a way that allows them space to join in the communal healing so deeply needed.

I am convinced that there is much work to be done and that I must start where I can. Because I can’t fix it all, I have the freedom, no, the responsibility, to do something to respond to the ills of our world. I am choosing to do that through Pilgrim Endurance because I believe that I have something of deep value to offer here. That value comes from the combination of what God provides me and how I develop those gifts. I’m aware of the suffering that comes from hierarchies of men above women, of whites above all others, of heterosexual over homosexual, of rich over the poor, of the credentialed/those with degrees over those with practical experience, of fit/able bodies over disabled bodies. The heated arguments that sometimes arise around these and other hierarchies can serve the status quo and make the dynamic worse. 

My hope for the men I serve through Pilgrim Endurance is that it will be a training ground for them to grapple with their suffering in a way that allows them space to join in the communal healing so deeply needed. I recognize that many of the people engaged with Pilgrim Endurance will benefit from one or another of these systems, and that the deepest way towards healing those systems is through preparing people to show up as healed and as grounded as possible. That’s why Pilgrim Endurance’s vision is an honest community of men, no longer isolated in their running and spiritual lives, who embody simplicity, devotion, and public virtue. I am convinced that when we do our work, we will be better prepared to engage these harder dynamics, to hold tension where needed, and to take steps in a new direction.

I think men are in a privileged position in our time in this world to do the work in front of us. I have my own responsibility to be a companion on that journey. If Pilgrim Endurance excludes you for whatever reason, I encourage you to reach out and say so. I am open to these conversations. I also encourage you to keep searching. Finally, consider this: You may be the answer to your own prayers. Your unmet desire may be the motivation you need to begin down a path of providing a resource you wish you had access to. It has been for me.