Journey Home Men

When Jane and I were getting married, we got connected with an amazing woman for premarital counseling.  One of the things that Jane and I were super impressed with was her ability to facilitate open conversation about everything and anything.  It just so happens, her husband was equally capable as a counselor.  Both of us found the frank dialogue so refreshing that after we got married we went back for post-wedding counseling.  It was incredible what that experience of truth-telling did for establishing an honest foundation for our marriage.

Our pre-marital counselor's husband (Jeff) became a mentor of mine for a season.  One of the ministries that he has been a part of is a group called Journey Home Men.  I don't know much about how it all works, but I have regularly accessed the meeting notes from the website: www.journeyhomemen.com

In light of Saturday's message, I thought this intro to the "community" was interesting.

  

A journey home is a community based men's group that has met since the early 1990s. The name implies that we are men in movement returning to the home of our Sacred Father. We confess that we have been extended healing through the sacrificial work of Christ on the cross. We need help in walking out this healing. Though many of us find ourselves living among many people, we tend to live isolated lives. Those around us don't always see what is going on under "the mask".

 

It is our belief that we forsook our sacred responsibility in the garden where we chose woman over our Father. We abandoned our post as keepers of the rythmn of life and love. This initial act was the rejection and betrayal of love and relationship first to God as well as to woman. We fell from being radiantly alive wih great potency to the shame based ways we live life today which often looks like little kids running around trying to demonstrate whose is bigger. This often manifests in we as men being arm chair quarter backs, talkers, b.s. artists, but not men of substance, not reliable, trust worthy. We also frequently see great passivity in men who shrink back and again abandon their role as life givers by slipping into pleasing and appeasing the women we share life with. We confess this as cowardice. Being monsters or whimps is an insult to our God. We repent of the delusion that our loved ones want more trinkets from us reflecting our false potency. We acknowledge that our loved ones and our world wants men who truly know, love and accepts himself and actively engages in the lives of these folks around us. We accept that the main emotion we as men feel is fear and what we fear is that we are not enough. We will face this fear squarely, understanding and coming to peace with the reality that we are not enough but Jesus' life in me empowers me to walk out life at its fullest.

 

We believe our healing will be walked out as we confess we live in fear and are often animated by shame. We have lost touch with our hearts and our true sense of self. Our journey then is to return to the heart of our Sacred Father and there recover the lost spirit of man. We learn to stop lying to ourselves and face reality. We commit to stop numbing ourselves through sex, booze, bucks or whatever other forms of compulsions or addiction we may chose. We recognize that we can not walk this out alone. We will seek "wing buddies" that will fly in formation along side us. A true brother will support when needed and kick me when needed as well. Our desire is to grow up into the image of Christ as true sons of the Most High. We believe a man fully alive reflects both the Lion of Judah as well as the Lamb of God, the warrior-poet. We believe that the ultimate man is both tough and tender and that the toughness must precede the tenderness.

 

We walk this process out together several Saturday mornings a month. This is a non judgmental format where we are invited in to know your brokenness and you will be encouraged to stop running from the long black bag we all drag behind us. Together we will seek to find that the place of vulnerability is truly our place of strength.

 

Our Saturday formats typically consist of prayer for one another, singing songs of worship, interacting over thoughts prepared for the morning, small groups, journaling, as well as times of silence. Our anchor is the Holy Scriptures. When we come together we do so with the passionate belief that Christ is present among us and desires to heal, correct and encourage us. We believe that what was true in the garden with God is still true today. That He created us to know Him and come alive with genuine life that is rich, full, and complete.