Introduction

You’ve been on a menAlive Weekend or otherwise have been provoked to do something more about growing as a Christian man. It is the journey of a life time of course, but not to journey on is to go backwards, there is no parking place long-term for us as disciples.

And that is our Call Jesus’ great commission is Matthew 28 : 19,20

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you…

We need to start with ourselves.

We are the first and key project! In fact if we progress this project, all others will flow and progress from our growing relationship with God and our transformed and transforming lives.

We envisage these pages as something of a resource guide drawing from materials we and others have found useful, helpful and even provocative. These pages are a work in progress so let us know if you find material you think would add value. It certainly is not exhaustive or complete.

We suggest FIRST you get on top of the material on Time and God, Topics 1&2. These are foundational.

NON-NEGOTIABLE #1: No time = No prayer = No progress!

You could then pick where you need to go next, asking for the Holy Spirit’s guidance and where you see the priorities lie in your particular circumstance and history.

BUT All the topics are important and add to the balanced Christian Life. They are like building blocks in a wall, take any of these out and you stress the construction and limit its performance! We train for years to be skilled tradespeople, lawyers, doctors engineers etc how much do we invest in OUR Spiritual Life, the most transformative and central aspect of living?

However remember we are God’s construction. He is the master builder, we co-operate by our yes and by our application. Without Him we can do nothing.

That’s why prayer and time in his presence, building the relationship in prayer(conversation) in worship and quiet contemplation is irreplaceable and key to all else. It’s like eating if you stop eating you get malnourished, get sick and even die. Jesus was being very real when He said I am the bread come down from heaven!

We assume these resources are most useful when they are used in both:

1.Conversation with God and…

2.With others on the Christian journey.

NON-NEGOTIABLE #2: Join a Small Group “ The lone sheep gets eaten”.

See Topic 4: Other Men

The isolation of men in modern society is a key factor in some of the difficulties men face and have real trouble in overcoming Our experience is that sustained transformation rarely happens alone , we need wisdom, support and feedback from others on the journey, as well as from God. He has designed it that way.

We need a map, wisdom, method, learned behaviours we need to learn where should we journey to, how do we get there and what we need on the way We could say we need a map for the Christian man of the Spiritual life – see Topic 3: Myself