Carl writes:

It’s been a long time coming (2 years to be precise) but CVM has now got the keys for a new HQ. We are calling it ‘The Hub’ because we see it as a central resource base for all you guys out there on the ground reaching men, week in week out. From ‘The Hub’ we will be producing resources, coordinating and liaising with our group leaders, interns, area coordinators, mission specialists, directors in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and basing our events and conference management team. We also want it to be a place where we can host meetings, run training and generally be a fun place for any of our supporters who want to pop in and say “hi!”. This is why we moved CVM to Derbyshire so that we could be much more centrally and strategically located. Two years with seven staff ‘hot-desking’ just two desks in a shared parish office hasn’t been easy but we wanted to focus all our donations into evangelism. We felt strongly however that in order to do what we are called to do with more impact, we needed a base.

I need your help to get ‘The Hub’ up and running and have a few needs!

Firstly, it goes without saying that we need to pay the rent. We have budgeted for this but of course it is an additional regular expense. Could you spare from £2 a month to help us? For any new standing order set up of at least £5 we will be sending you a copy of The Code book, a ‘Men’ DVD and a copy of Cinemania. Give us £10 a month (or more) and we will give you a subscription to the brilliant Sorted magazine as well. Believe me when I say that you probably don’t notice a fiver leaving your account (the cost of a two coffees) but we really notice it coming in.

In fact just 200 men giving us £5 a month would be a real help.

We have also had to purchase second-hand desks and heavy duty storage equipment. We want ‘The Hub’ to reflect our values, and having a smart and welcoming place with reasonable quality office furniture that matches was important to us! This has cost us £3,000. Is this something you could help contribute to?

Here is a short video (click on it to play) showing where we used to work and a short tour of ‘The Hub’ and some photos (below) of what it looks like now! I hope you catch a sense of the vision and growth of our work together.

I really do believe that CVM is a movement that is about all of us being in this together and I hope you will feel part of what we are establishing here in Derbyshire. Giving to this project is really easy, you can click on this link or just call the office.

Thanks for all your support. It really is an exciting time and I hope that many of you get to drop in and see the new base at some point in the future.

Your brother in Christ,

Carl Beech

The Mo (slang for moustache) and November come together each year for Movember. It raises funds for The Prostate Cancer Charity (TPCC) and this year the whole CVM staff team are joining in. If you’d like to make a donation to our team, click here.

If you’ve not heard of Movember, here’s what it’s all about (from the Movember website):

“Movember challenges men to change their appearance and the face of men’s health by growing a moustache. The rules are simple, start Movember 1st  clean shaven and then grow a moustache for the entire month.  The moustache becomes the ribbon for men’s health, the means by which awareness and funds are raised for cancers that affect men.  Much like the commitment to run or walk for charity, the men of Movember commit to growing a moustache for 30 days.

The idea for Movember was sparked in 2003 over a few beers in Melbourne, Australia.  The plan was simple – to bring the moustache back as a bit of a joke and do something for men’s health. No money was raised in 2003, but the guys behind the Mo realised the potential a moustache had in generating conversations about men’s health.  Inspired by the women around them and all they had done for breast cancer, the Mo Bros set themselves on a course to create a global men’s health movement.

In 2004 the campaign evolved and focused on raising awareness and funds for the number one cancer affecting men – prostate cancer. 432 Mo Bros joined the movement that year, raising $55,000 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia – representing the single largest donation they had ever received.

The Movember moustache has grown year on year since then, expanding to the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, Spain, South Africa, The Netherlands and Finland.

In 2009, global participation of Mo Bros and Mo Sistas climbed to 255,755, with over one million donors raising £26 Million (GBP equivalent) for Movember’s global beneficiary partners.

The funds raised through Movember’s UK campaign benefit the The Prostate Cancer Charity (TPCC), the UK’s leading prostate cancer charity.

The money raised as a result of Movember is channelled by our men’s health partner into a number of world class and innovative education, support, research and awareness initiatives.

The success of Movember can be directly attributed to the more than 627,000 Mo Bros and Mo Sistas who have supported our cause since 2003.  Movember is sincerely grateful for their efforts and appreciate all they do.

For those of you new to Movember, we challenge you to join us in changing the face of men’s health.”

I am unique. No really, I am. Not because I’m a Joe, with an ‘e’, when in fact I’m a Joanne, not a Joseph (sorry to those of you for whom this is a surprise, it’s a source of great amusement in the CVM office when I am called Mr, mate, esq etc!), but because I am the only woman in a country of 32(ish) million women to have the CVM conference in September permanently etched in my diary, and to have the great privilege of actually being there.

I probably spend more time thinking about, planning for and answering questions about it than anyone else…. just one weekend of the year that takes over a year to organise, but the truth is, I love the conference. I do, despite the fact that I’m so tired by Saturday night that I would kill for a few minutes in a comfy chair with a gin and tonic, but in reality, there is nowhere else I would rather be.

It’s not about the worship (which is brilliant), or talks (inspired), or food (mountainous and delicious), but about being in a place with hundreds of guys who believe the same thing. It’s about something bigger than a bunch of men meeting up, it’s about a coherence of vision and purpose. We’re there not just because we follow an all powerful, gracious, faithful, magnificent God, but because we recognise the utter hopelessness of those who don’t know him, and the ongoing crisis that faces a church where men are not a priority.

Well, from the 10-12 September this year, men are the priority. Why not come… hang out with other guys, hear what God wants to say, even bring your mates who don’t believe yet – there’s room for them too. It could change your life!

We like books at CVM. We all like to read, and read widely across books, blogs, magazines etc. … There are always books floating around on coffee tables and desks here at the office and emails bounce back and forth with recommendations and suggestions.

We also toss around ideas of books to write, and if one day we ever complete all the ideas we start with we’d have a publishing house-size collection of books.

What To Read

With so many books out there we know, painfully, that there are good books and there are not-so-good books. So I thought that we could sit down and create a list of books that would be worth reading. A sort of map-through-the-minefield to help avoid some of the stuff that quite frankly is not worth reading.

So the internal-chatter has started and my list is growing and soon we will have a CVM Recommended Reading list, with books across a variety of subjects to help men in their faith.

But before we get there I thought I’d throw it out there for your recommendations. Which books have been of benefit to you? Would it be a work from C. S. Lewis? Or perhaps an older classic like Pilgrim’s Progress? Maybe there’s a study tool or perhaps a biography that you constantly recommending to friends?

Let us know!

Ever wondered who you’re calling in the office? From left to right: Karen Beech, Carl Beech, Alan Hodges, Andy Drake, Dave Lodge, Joe Mears, Rob Dean, Jonathan Sherwin.

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push back the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain,
Who is Jesus Christ.