The Long Way Forward

Faith, Responsibility, and Endurance for Men

Many men live faithfully yet quietly—carrying responsibility, enduring loss, and showing up day after day without much language for what they hold inside. The Long Way Forward is written for those men.

This book is not about reclaiming masculinity or winning cultural arguments. It is about formation—how faith is shaped over time through presence, restraint, honesty, and love lived quietly.

Drawing on Scripture, pastoral ministry, prison ministry, and lived experience, Geoffrey Schmitt invites readers to walk a different road: one marked by endurance rather than speed, faithfulness rather than performance, and depth rather than display. Each chapter explores a facet of mature faith, including strength without hardness, responsibility without shame, silence that stays present, prayer for those who don’t talk much, friendship without bravado, aging with wisdom, mentoring without control, and remaining after failure.

Written in a reflective, companionable style, The Long Way Forward offers Scripture, teaching, meditation, reflection, poetry, questions, and prayer—making it suitable for personal reading or small group use.

This is a book for men who are still walking.

Still faithful.

Still here.

The long way forward is not crowded.

But it leads home.