When both of them were born, I gave them a cuddle within minutes of their birth.  Both occasions were profound moments. I heard a still small voice that I knew to be from the Lord. I had a distinct sense from God that He was telling me that they were in effect on loan to me. My job was to raise them and to show them Jesus through the conduct of my life and by sharing with them the things that we saw God doing in our lives.

Now, don’t get me wrong. The kids have heard us row as well as seen us make up.  They’ve seen me get it wrong and they’ve heard me apologise to them. I’ve prayed with them and at times neglected to do so because I’ve been away or taken my eye off the ball. I’ve shared the stories of what Jesus has done in my life and heard them beg me to tell them another story…only to go for chunks of time when I have let it slip. In other words I am doing my best but I get it wrong plenty of times. One thing I have done is pray for them frequently and for a variety of things, including any future husbands they might meet. (I’ve been praying for that since before they were born!)

As part of our commitment to our kids development spiritually, Karen and I started to lead the Sunday school group they are part of.  (As an aside I really do believe we need more men leading kids work so I’m putting my time where my mouth is).

During one time of preparation for Sunday my eldest sat and read the Bible with Karen. For some reason, this gripped my daughter and she took it upon herself (she is 13) to read a page of the Bible every night from Genesis until she finished it. I tried to show her that there might be a more interesting way to do it (worried of course about lists of skin diseases and laws in Leviticus being a bit boring etc) but she’s a single-minded kinda kid and she wouldn’t hear any of it.

Several nights ago Karen find her quietly lying on her bed with tears running down her cheeks.  She had just met Jesus despite only reaching Exodus.

The word of God has power to change lives.

My eldest daughter has always been a character: a free thinker, artistic, willing to challenge and not one for the status quo. Turns out Jesus was well able to work with that, despite my at times, prayers of angst.

I share this to encourage you blokes; Keep praying, keep modelling Jesus, keep your heads, spend time with your kids, let them see you being men of God, take your share in the responsibility you have for pointing beyond yourself to Jesus and remember, despite your fragility and weakness, God is sovereign and your kids are precious to him too.

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!

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

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I have some great memories of Christmas as I was growing up.  I was walking the dog early this morning and I had a vivid memory of playing a king at the infant school nativity.  I can remember being dressed up in a blue velvet robe and plastic crown on my head and thinking I looked the business. I can remember feeling excited that it was Christmas … because that meant Quality Street, presents and staying up a bit later …

When I was 18 I met Jesus, that was in April 1990. That year Christmas seemed very different to me.  Sure, it still meant presents, time standing still, family and a great meal … but the underlying reason for the day was for the first time right at the forefront. In fact that year was the first time I went to church on Christmas morning.

I don’t know what this year has held for you … I don’t know what’s in front of you.  But whether it’s been good, bad or truly awful, the one thing we can be sure of is that Jesus is amongst us.  We live with a great promise of hope.

Isaiah 9 says;

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light!

For to us a child is born

To us a son is given

And the government will be on his shoulders

And he will be called

Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Have a fantastic Christmas and a brilliant 2012…. And keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, the bright morning star …

In other words: keep looking up!

In truth I’ve actually spent more years as a bible teacher/pastor than as an evangelist. As a pastor I had a deep concern to introduce all types of people, from all walks of life, ages, stages to Jesus and to see them grow in faith and understanding. That concern hasn’t changed. In fact over the years its grown to be a burning passion and one of the driving forces of my life. In turn its generated some of my greatest frustrations. But then, as a much wiser man once said to me; “make your frustrations your friends and they won’t eat you up!”

For the last seven years I’ve been working in a much more specialist field and work predominantly with men and almost exclusively in the area of evangelism by seeking to mobilise, equip and resource the local church to reach all types of men. We also try to tackle some of the ills in society that men perpetrate and create. Because of this I face some tough and somewhat stretching challenges. In the following, for “we” I’m meaning you, me and the church.

• How do we reach the itunes generation whilst keeping in touch and empowering. with men who don’t know what itunes is?
• How do we reach the builders and the geezers (not necessarily one and the same) without being labelled as being a ministry just for blokes?
• How do we reach the gay community?
• How do we reach the retired men in our community?
• How do we create a brand and an image that is accessible to all, or is that even possible.
• How do we reach the businessman on his second sunseeker yacht.
• How do we reach the white working class young men that the middle classes love to call “Chavs”
• How do we reach the opera lovers as well as the drum and bass fans.
• How do we reach the long term unemployed.
• How do we reach the misfits and the so called “geeks”
• How do we reach the man I see every day, chain smoking outside the working mens club who has chronic liver problems.
• How do we reach the family guy as well as the single man, the grandad and the divorced and struggling.
• How do we help the church reach disabled men?

Over the last few years I’ve been asked what we are doing for every single one of these examples and more and to be honest with you all, its a constant source of frustration and angst. We recently had a long meeting as a team, addressing some of these questions and hopefully we will stay balanced whilst trying to address the lack of balance in most churches outreach activity. So far we’ve managed to resource a group reaching the over 50s, developed some resources for the itunes brigade, fathers, students, builders and geezers and dabbled in working in the business community. We’ve produced resources for footy and film fans (and I don’t even like football)

Theres so much more we want to do but with very limited resources, people, time and crucially money there is only so much we can do at a time. With the church having been largely chronically unsuccessful at reaching “blue collar men” and the itunes generation, we have been trying to deal with this lately but how successful we are being remains to be seen!

As you may know, I have two daughters Emily and Annie. When Karen was pregnant we spent months thinking about what we would call them – obviously there were a few names we had to avoid with Beech as a surname! (Please don’t email in with suggestions such as “Sandy”!)

Jesus’ parents didn’t have to spend any time deciding on his name as an angel told them to call him Jesus (Matthew 1 v 21). Actually, in the bible, Jesus has over a hundred different names or titles! The one I like best, and the one that we sing about a lot at this time of year in carols, is a name he was given over 700 years before he was born. The prophet Isaiah said he would be called “Immanuel” (Isaiah 6 v 8).

Immanuel means “God With Us”

This year there are men all over the UK who know for the first time the reality of Immanuel – that God is with them! The reason they know this is that someone told them the truth that Jesus came to save them and they believed it. Each of these decisions is a miracle and that’s what CVM exists to see happen.

Here are a couple of amazing quotes from messages we have received recently:

“My husband went to a CVM event. I knew he was different as soon as he got home. I slept next to a Christian man that night for the first time in our marriage…”





”A paramilitary guy met with Jesus after your talk in Northern Ireland. He gave everything over to Jesus that night and since then has taken his family to church every week.”

Some other words in Isaiah that have a massive impact are: “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?” (Isaiah 6 v 8). At CVM our answer to that is “send us!” The CVM team has spent this year travelling up and down the UK telling men that Jesus came to save them and we have been helping other men and churches tell their friends and contacts the same. The reason more men in the UK know Jesus as Immanuel this year is because this men’s movement, that I count you a part of, is willing to say “Send Me!” In the last 12 months, this movement has connected the message of Jesus to thousands of men all over the UK through CVM events, groups and evangelistic resources.

This Christmas would you be able to send us a gift to help us keep our small team on the road telling men about Jesus and equipping and inspiring churches, individuals and groups to do the same. Please make a off donation or set up a direct debit via JustGiving.

Thank you for supporting us. My hope and prayer for you this year is that you will know that God is with you and that you would be willing to say “Send Me!”

Happy Christmas from all of us at CVM. God bless and strengthen you!

Your brother in Christ,

Carl Beech

BARMAN: “Let me take you to your rooms, so what are you doing in town?”

ME “I lead a Christian mission agency that works mostly with men. We’re running a conference tomorrow.”

BARMAN “So what do you do?”

ME: “Well we tackle all sorts of issues that men face in life and help them unpack how the message of Jesus can help them.  We support churches all over the UK etc etc.”

BARMAN: “Fair enough…” (looks blank and uninterested and starts talking about how many stairs there are.)

And that was that…

Later that evening after a curry we went back to the bar for a drink.  By this time it was absolutely heaving and stuffed full of men and women in party mode. Sitting outside with a glass of something, it was my team members who started to notice something was a bit different about the place.  A quick web search later on the phones and it turns out that the place we were staying was, although ‘straight friendly’, the pre eminent gay bar and hotel in the town. After a moment of laughter at the situation, we were asked to move inside as the licensing requirements meant that after 10.30pm no one could drink outside.

You have a choice in these situations.  To quote The Clash, its a case of “Do I stay or do I go now.”  We decided to stay up for another drink and eventually it was just Dean and I standing at the bar for another hour or so. Picture it, two youngish straight leaders of a national mens ministry, the night before a mens ministry conference, in the company of 100 or so gay men and women.

Heres what I saw and the questions I left with;

1) It was a friendly, totally unthreatening and pretty chilled out crowd.

2) There was a genuine sense of friendship and comradeship amongst the men and women there that was way beyond the superficial we see and experience in many of our christian communities. Genuine belonging.

3) I could sense deep within me the love of God for every person in there but also a sense of lostness.

5) I felt the Holy Spirit challenge me to focus some attention into the issue of reaching the gay community with the message of Jesus.

6) I was left asking myself why as a specialist evangelist to men, I hadn’t ever gone into a gay bar to talk to blokes before with a colleague or two or investigated seriously, what CVM should do. I suspect Jesus would have done so by now?

And that got me thinking about the complete ambivalence of the obviously gay barman who showed me to my room, when he found out I was a Christian. I suspect he had not heard the message of the pearl of great price. The story about amazing treasure of the gospel that causes people to radically change their lives, giving up everything for it, if thats what it takes.

I suspect he hadn’t heard it because he hadn’t met someone yet who could articulate it to him in a way that he would get it, or perhaps even demonstrate it by the conduct of their lives. I’m not saying there aren’t those people, more that he hadn’t met one!

So I’m thinking.  What is good news to the gay barman, in the seaside town, in the town’s foremost gay hotel and bar? And furthermore, whose going to take that message to him?

Shalom.

Carl Beech

• Lead a child to Jesus and 3.5% of the time the whole family will come to Christ
• Lead a mother to Jesus and 17% of the time the whole family will come to Christ.
• Lead a father to Jesus and 93% of the time the rest of the family will come to Christ.

Now, without wanting to get reactionary and all over the top about it, let me just ask this question; If this is even remotely true, why is men’s ministry so often a bolt-on extra in church life rather than at the central core?

It follows that, if we are passionate about evangelism and concerned to have healthy churches that are great for women, men and children, we would do well to give these stats some serious airtime and consideration.  More than that, we should be prepared to rethink so much of our church culture.

Carl