So here at CVM we have been long-time supporters of encouraging men into men’s groups, and I thought that now would be a great time to just write a few blogs about it: why we are so focussed on it and how you and your mates can benefit from them. So, without further ado – let’s go.
Christianity’s hand sanitisers
I’ve have written about this before in a few places, but I discovered Christianity with a heavy dose of sanitiser.
‘Safe spaces’ after church where guys would mill around looking awkward and, whilst holding an awful cup of tea and a stale custard cream, talk through a mask of ‘everything is fine and I am wonderfully happy.’ In reality, maybe work was awful, they felt miserable and alone and were internally screaming for some help to get off the treadmill of life, and to uncover and mine something awakening and primal, wild and unsafe about the call to follow Jesus.
The Christian faith can so quickly become safe and sanitised, especially now, and I think we are seeing the results of years of this more powerfully today.
For years we have seen a church culture of ‘come and have church dispensed to you from 10:30-11:30am each Sunday.’ What happened was, that when the dispensary was closed (no one saw that coming) an online dispensary opened up and people rushed to it, for a while. Then, when it was allowed, some rushed back to get the doors of the dispensary re-opened again and to fill the socially distanced seats with a handful of people, and normal 10:30-11:30am service resumed.
As I have moved around the UK a bit, and from personal experience and conversations, I am hearing a story that’s becoming more and more common. Of a group of people whose roots didn’t hold when the dispensary closed shop. They didn’t find water within their own root system, they didn’t discover life in the bible or in personal prayer and intimacy with Jesus, so they just stopped showing up. They have become a group that hasn’t reconnected, online or in person either, a group that love Jesus and so desperately want to connect with him each day and with his people, but they just don’t ‘get’ the dispensary anymore and are looking to connect differently.
Now I am not having a go at church here or hopefully not over-simplifying things, but I am trying to articulate what I am seeing and feeling personally. I see this stuff too with men, men who have found that they no longer want safe and sanitised, they want real, life changing intimacy with Jesus that carries weight, impacts them deeply without gloss, veneer or frill. But, this isn’t just about helping Christian men find a place to grow as Christians, CVM men’s groups and vision are about rescue!
Forging a fire in the bellies of saved men to reach their mates, their family or work colleagues who don’t know Jesus. I personally believe that in working with the UK church, supporting and equipping men’s groups, we build a church that is far from being safe and sanitised, but on fire and rescuing a culture changing number of men from the road to hell.
That’s one reason why at CVM we really want to encourage guys to be in a men’s group.
If you want to know more about setting up a men’s group, some tools and ideas to kick things off then you can get in touch with us here at CVM.
You can partner a men’s group with us and get plugged into the movement of CVM to introduce 1 million men to Jesus.
