Matthew 18:20
For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.
My son wrote this article for a newsletter and gave me permission to post it:
“I can’t wait for Thursday nights. Like a child on Christmas Eve, I’m excited, I’m antsy. All-day long, I’m watching the clock hands move at a snail’s pace, inching their way ever so slowly towards 7:30 PM.
Finally, 7:30 arrives, and my home is invaded by warriors. Like a dynamic entry, flashbangs of noise and commotion fill my entire home. No, it’s not my tactical team; warriors of another kind, Another breed. Another tribe has flooded my home.
These warriors are my three sons, my son-in-love, my dad, my dad-in-love, and soon-to-be part of this tribe, my seven grandsons. And the occasion? What’s all the excitement about?
Man-time!
Every Thursday we gather around the fire pit, light up a cigar, and unfold our thoughts into conversations that drift deep into and out of our souls. Organic conversations, free from judgment, condemnation, and shame. We laugh, we cry, we share, we confess.
Our conversations are laid upon the anvil of transparency, intentionally making ourselves vulnerable to one another. Rather than feeling the hammer of judgment, we feel the power of acceptance, love, and the value of belonging to a tribe of real manly men. Warriors who grow stronger through the willingness to share sins, flaws, struggles, temptations, weaknesses, victories, and successes. We feel safe amongst our tribe. We belong to a brotherhood of real, authentic, manly men. This is my tribe.
How different would our world be and look like if men were living out of who they were meant to be through Christ, rather than the flesh? I believe, as a Christian man, it is my role and duty to follow Godly men and to lead other men. How many men long to be free from destructive behaviors, but don’t feel they can share their struggles without being condemned? So many men who belong to a church family feel alone. They have some dark things they struggle with, but there’s no safe fire pit for them to gather around, pull up a chair, and unfold the depths of their souls with other men.
They are tribeless.
Man-Time. That sacred time together has the power to rescue and restore a man. And when men are rescued and restored, women and children will be protected.
Man-time can save lives!”
Straight from the Heart 