The first time I entered a church for a ‘typical’ Sunday service, I was scared. Don’t get me wrong; I had been to weddings, christenings and remembrance services before, but going to church for no reason was something different.

It all happened around eleven years ago, and by this point, my wife Shelly had become a Christian at Holy Trinity Church in Ripon.

Unbeknown to me she had been taking our two children to Sunday school. However, this particular Sunday she was going shopping and wanted me to take them to church instead.

To be honest, I was reluctant to do this, but for our children’s sake, I agreed.

I can remember planning a strategy of how not to spend much time in church. My plan was to drop the kids off quickly, head to the nearest pub to read the paper, and pick the kids up afterwards.

I thought it was a foolproof plan but didn’t count on a fiery blond-haired woman welcoming me when entering the church. I entered the building with much unease. It didn’t help that my two children Tayla and Curtis ran off downstairs leaving me to be led by one of Shelly’s friends to a seat inside. I couldn’t refuse. It was so awkward. I would have felt more at home entering an adult shop or a casino in all honesty.

During the nest two months I witnessed the change that God had made in Shelly’s life. I knew I had got to the point where I also wanted to give my life to God. The walk towards God wasn’t an easy one, and the decision to follow Jesus wasn’t easy either, but now I wouldn’t want to be on any other path than the narrow one.

I soon learnt one of the most popular teachings in the Bible for myself. As the angel said to Mary: “Do not be afraid” so did the Lord whisper that same thing to me. Everyday I am discovering more and more what it means to live with God on my side. The Bible says that because I gave my life to Jesus, God is now “For me and not against me.”

I am sure that many more guys would jump at the chance to know more about this God.

Why not join us on the 21st of this month at the Forum Hall, Wythenshawe, Manchester, for a National Men’s Day in partnership with New Wine. It would be a great place for any blokes to take their first steps with their creator. It will also be a cracking event for Christian men to develop their walk with God.

Get yourself booked in here.

See you there guys.

Deano.

So, I’ve been thinking about it.

I can remember on numerous occasions fighting with my step dad when I was younger. It was just something we did. A bit like the family in the film ‘Police Academy’ where the dad and son are always trying to get one up on each other. I think it may be a way to masculinity and trying to find each other’s strengths and weaknesses through the process. I know with each time I fight with my son, he is getting stronger, and I have to come to terms with that. But we do have an unwritten code that we don’t punch each other in the face.

Lets be honest, its perfectly fine to have a man wrestle from time to time. And its probably very healthy to test each other. I love the story of how Jacob wrestled with God, and would not let go until he was blessed.

The fights between me and my son take place in a safe environment. I know that he isn’t going to start scrapping with Tom, Dick or Harry on the street, just as I didn’t when growing up, but I also know that he can defend himself when needed.

However, I need to tell you that as a Christian man, there is one fight I cannot avoid. Paul the Apostle called it the “Good Fight”. The fight for faith. The fight to discipline my own faith, and protect the faith of those around me.

So my challenge to you guys is simply this. In 2012, what will you be fighting for?

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

As the guys say in our typically bizarre Boxing Day film, why not do something epic today and reserve your place for the CVM Gathering! Take full advantage of the Early Bloke booking and get the whole weekend for just £65. Hundreds of guys from across the UK will meet for banter, laughter and solid teaching on what it means to live LIFE IN FULL.

(CVM Men’s Camp is June 29 – July 1 @ Lynt Farm, Nr Swindon)

Don’t miss out on the discount and book now for The Gathering 2012

Here’s what some guys thought last time:

“Great bunch of speakers, very down to earth and practical but with a real live Jesus message.”

“Fantastic! already getting more guys geared up for next year.”

“I thought the whole things was a blast from start to finish. What an ACE idea to have the teas & coffees going all day for free. That’s a cracker of a facility and was so good to just have the place and space to catch up with folks not seen for ages. Nice One! I’ll be back despite living 12 hours drive away!”

“As a Vicar I found I could relax and really chill out, I loved every main session and laughed so much. Minsitry can take it out of you and CVM stuff always builds me back up. To be honest I think you did very very well and I can’t wait to tell others. In fact that is what I have been doing ever since with every man I meet – I say “Do you know what I did last week?” and tell them.”

See you there guys!

Narrator.

A  rival to the throne
Somewhere unseen,
Unknown.
This would mean
All little boys must die
Who had been
That same night
Of visitation,
Under the flame-bright
Night sky
Of that star’s illumination;
Strange light

To identify
The World’s light
And those who’s plight
Became a dark abomination.

What’s a score
Of babes, or more?
Small thing
For a king

From hell to face,
A simple case
Of damage limitation.
It was just a few
And rather little
Boys that died,
A mere mini-genocide.

But guided by another dream,
It would seem,
The star King
Had by then gone,
With father Joe
And mother Mary
Already become one
More refugee
Family.

So in fact
The killing proved unnecessary.

But, fooled and ignored!
As king
From hell.
No lesser thing
Could so bring
Fear-blown pride
From its hide
And make it ring

The death knell
From a sword.
Yet a diff’rent sound
Was really made
As the blades
Cut each round
Angelic head
From trunk and limbs.
Just sounds of dripping
As they bled.

No note from steel was rung,
The only note heard sung’s
A mother’s scream
As over roofs it skims.

In this history
This mystery
This partly gory story,
Of joy and dreams,
Of lies and schemes,
Of fools and wise
And starry skies,

There’s one thing more,
Deep and terrible
That even wise men
Back then
Never saw.

Before this Truth,
Despite all schools
Of all wisdom’s worldly rules,
All wise become as fools.

That by this birth
The king of life
He came to Earth
To hell on Earth,
To bring a life
That’s otherwise unknown to you and I.

But to bring this life,
An innocent must die.

What followed a good meal of ribs in barbecue sauce was a nice glass of Baileys and some good friendly chatter. As Carl and I sat there on one side of the pub, parallel to us was another duo of mates. They were debating giving up smoking and suddenly we became involved in the conversation. As time went on, not only did we get an offer from one of these blokes for a drink, but ended up talking about life and the challenges brought on by the recession.

The conversation moved from politics to religion, which should rarely be brought together over a few tipples of the strong stuff. But things didn’t go the way you think they might have.

One of our newly made friends began opening up and telling Carl and I about how he was struggling to make ends meet He explained how he was having to downsize his business and make a real lifestyle change. He was finding it hard as the main breadwinner to have failed to bring in enough to keep his family in the life they were accustomed to.

He soon concluded his thoughts with: “It’s all about the money”. Carl and I simultaneously replied “No its not, it’s about family’.

We didn’t pull any punches in mentioning that we were Christians and that we ran a national men’s ministry. We carried on making our faith known and being open to the Holy Spirit as I shared my failings in business as well.

And as a man’s man, I decided to talk to him about Mary Poppins. When I was in London with my family a while back, we caught the West End show of the Disney feature film live on stage. And what jumped out for me whilst struggling to make ends meet and being in so much debt, was that I could take refuge in a scene from this show. The scene is when the father loses his job due to the children causing havoc at the bank and then realizing that they are about to lose everything. But suddenly, the reassurance of the mother comes in the middle of a particular harrowing moment. She quite boldly exclaims that: “As long as we are together, that is all that counts”.

This scene helped me through the time of uncertainty. And amazingly, it somehow hit home for the bloke in this bar who was struggling. He opened his eyes to the fact that there was more to life than money and material things.

We mentioned Jesus on numerous occasions that night and now have to leave it with God to follow it through. But hopefully, with Carl and I unashamedly making Him known with everything we do and say, we planted a seed in this chap’s heart. We now pray that something has happens because we didn’t back down from the basic stuff of Jesus. We hope that what we said, even though it included a scene from a fairytale, changes his life. Only God knows. But we do that know that Jesus loved to use stories to point people to the truth, so let’s not be afraid to do the same.

Cheers.

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 problem I have when I get closer to God and venture out to do that great commission; is the target on my back gets bigger. (And what selling point is that to my mates?) Recently I’ve been wondering what actual benefits are we to gain in this life by accepting that a) Jesus died for us, and b) God loves us and has a better plan for us?

If I’m being honest, I want it to be easy to follow God and to focus on Him alone. But it’s not easy. When I am following Him, puny distractions always seem to come my way. And when I look back on these distractions, I see that they are like chaff, here today and gone tomorrow. The problem is that these distractions often prevent me from doing what I believe is right.

What I am learning more and more is that following Jesus will always mean enduring hardship. Though it seems topsy turvy to think like this, I cannot deny what I see in Scripture. And yes I’d like to see the hidden benefits within the great commission, but the verse just seems to be pretty straightforward. Matthew 28:19 Jesus said: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you to the very end of the age.”

So where does that leave us? My boiler still breaks down and affects my family, my washing machine packs up at the same time and I’m no longer thinking about the Great Commission, but I’m left wondering ‘why God?’

There are so many teachings on what it means to follow Jesus in the modern world leaving us with no choice but to revisit the original source more than ever.

Reading it aloud I can’t help but think that maybe the great commission is as selfless as it sounds. Maybe the whole thing is not about me at all, but about him. And even as I ponder this I recall how God provided me with a deposit for a house when I needed it, and how God provided me with a job when I needed it and how God provided a way to pay off all my debts when my business failed…when I needed it.

It’s funny how God doesn’t forget me in this adventure, which is quite simply all about him.

Deano.

This was translated to me to get my life in order and start giving God the first part of my day and not waiting till the end of the day when I was tired and full up on God’s gifts that He had given me. So I got up earlier, not easy at first, and started praying, and then reading the Bible and using a study. It got easier as do many things after time of perseverance and effort.

It was a strange time of spiritual growth, not only with me, but with a core group of friends that I had made where I was based. We had just set up a church for the contractors from a shared belief that it was needed due to the fact that the Military had their military chaplaincy and we didn’t want to take more resources away from the ones who were doing the nitty gritty stuff.

Through this time also, I was getting a sense of God telling me that He had more for me. Its strange when you are happy in what you are doing and quite happy that things were in the right place that God then spurs you on or moves you on. You see I had been in touch with Carl Beech, who heads up Christian Vision for Men over a course of two years with an intention of meeting up to discuss men’s ministry. But with me being away four times a year, only being in the UK for about eight weeks a year and Carl being on the road most of the time, this was proving difficult.

The time had come though when we had booked into Spring Harvest as a family and then found out that Carl was going to be there the same week. It was also apparent that the seminar that my wife and I wanted to go to was in fact the one that Carl was co running with Tarn called the ‘doing zone’. Brilliant, this meant that we could meet up over a beer and catch up.

I attended a blokes seminar and waited behind to catch up with Carl. After a greeting mans hug, the next words that came from Carl mouth were ‘when are you coming back from Afghanistan’ in which I replied ‘December this year, why?’. The following conversation was nothing in which I would ever imagine but the exact plan that God was sharing with me previously. Those words were ‘CVM has some vacancies, would you be interested?’.

The following days/weeks after many discussions and prayers were exciting and to cut a long story short, I can say that I am now a member of the CVM team. Amazing, I am now working for God and for something that I have great passion about, to see men saved through the power of the cross and what Jesus sacrificed His life for.

What I am trying to say and what I have found with my walk with God is that when you are trying your hardest to be with God and trying your hardest to impress God, this is the time when you need to learn that you have much to learn. When you are looking you are not in the right place, but its in the ‘not looking’ and just ‘being’ when you find that God wants more for you and when its time to move on with what God wants you to do.

This is the place where God ultimately wants you to be. ‘Love God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.’ Luke 10:27

So I’m at this Christian men’s conference … sitting at the back, watching with interest. Let’s be honest, there is something great about hanging out with just blokes to hear the message of Jesus. It’s encouraging. Fact.

At one stage, my new friend Alex, a Welsh guy who works for a Christian men’s movement called CVM, asked whether the men in the room believed they could reach 1,000,000 men with the message of Jesus.

Many men in the room raised their hands, some even cried out their confirmation like protein-filled falcons. However, Alex and I chatted after the event, and I got hear about the response from his point of view.

Not all men raised their hands. In fact, quite a few mouthed the word “no”, while others simply shook their heads.

It was amazing to look back in hindsight and remember almost every man singing with real gusto the songs and hymns about how amazing and powerful God is, how good he has been to us in gifting us with salvation. Yet when it comes to seeing people transformed by the world-changing message of Jesus, some doubt the entire thing.

This is a large hurdle we face in men’s ministry in the UK. Most blokes in this country are lost while many Christians think the message of Jesus is only relevant for the church. They say they believe that God is powerful and gracious enough to save their soul, but as for saving another man, they are not so sure. I guess Christian revivals are limited to China, Africa and India then.

The other strange thing is that during the event, one of the worships songs was called “Mighty To Save”, in which all the men declared that their Saviour can “move a mountain” and that “he alone is the author of salvation”.

I re-read the message of Jesus and I still believe God is mighty  and think that if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in me [Rom 8:11] then I’m more than a conqueror [8:37]. If God can save me, he can save you.

Believe.

Do you remember ‘Celebrity Deathmatch’? Don’t worry if you don’t, it just means you’re sophisticated.

‘Celebrity Deathmatch’ was a programme on MTV a few years back that had plasticine models of celebrities fighting each other in a wrestling ring. It was stupid of course but to the Philistines amongst us it was funny. Think about it; who wouldn’t want to see Simon Cowell and Tom Jones in a no-holds-barred fight?!?

Ok, only me then.

As I observe the Christian community, I am often reminded of Celebrity Deathmatch. Christians continue to slug it out with each other over all kinds of differences; this stream pits itself against that stream; this church is better than that church. Maybe even, “our men’s ministry is better than their men’s ministry”.

You’ve got to stop sometimes and ask; is this really what Jesus died for?

I had the pleasure of attending a planning meeting recently for a new men’s event in the South West of England. There were about 20 men representing all kinds of churches and theological persuasions. They were meeting together because they had a heart for seeing men live full on for Jesus. Not only were they debriefing a recent event they’d held for over 500 men, but they decided that night to up the ante and go aim to reach 1000 men next. Awesome.

Their united vision for declaring Jesus overrode any difference of opinion they might have had about secondary and tertiary issues. What an incredible example they set for me and you.

You know, I think that even when the things that currently divide the Christian community get sorted, new things will just take their place.

I’m not advocating ignoring the issues, but rather getting perspective on them. The eternal destiny of people around us and the spiritual direction of the country we are in have to be tier one priorities.

Sadly, it’s often men who are the loudest, most aggressive and most destructive when it comes to division in the church. For my part, I’ve seen enough Christian Deathmatch to last me a lifetime, and to be honest, I’m sick to the stomach.

We need a new generation of men who can disagree wisely and work together powerfully. Men who put their arms around their brothers rather than throwing jabs at them. Men focussed on the main battle and not distracted by side skirmishes.

What those men are doing in the South West can be done anywhere. So why isn’t it?