Real Men Life is on this week!

Real Men Life the 2008 men's conference for C3 Oxford Falls is on this Friday night and Saturday. Conferences like this are part of the reason mega-churches are so popular and successful. I'm part of the Real Men team, so I'd like to encourage anyone who can make it to go along. Friday night is free, and Saturday is only $85 if you register before Friday (otherwise $95) - writing material, drinks and food are included.

This is what the leader of Real Men, Greg French, has to say about the Life conference:

The irony of our time is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, bigger cities and less friends, wider roads but narrower viewpoints. We have larger houses and smaller families, more money but less time, more knowledge but less judgement, more experts yet more problems.

We’ve learned how to make a living but not a life, added years to life not life to years, been to the moon and back but not crossed the street to meet a neighbour.

We’ve conquered outer space but not inner space, have more degrees but less sense, talked too much and listened too little, loved seldom and hated too often. We’ve cleaned the air but polluted the soul, written more but learnt less, planned more but accomplished less, learned to rush but not to wait. We laugh little, drive fast, stay up late, get tired, read little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

These are the days of fast foods and poor digestion, big men with small characters, steep profits and shallow relationships, disposable nappies and throwaway morality.

That can be the sum total of a man’s life. The colour and meaning of LIFE can be lost because we lose our perspective about what really matters. ‘Doing LIFE well’ doesn’t just happen. REALMEN ’08 conference ‘LIFE’ will help men adjust their worlds so as to enjoy the journey and do LIFE well. Look forward to seeing you there. It will be LIFE transforming!

Greg French

Here is the story of how one man's life has been transformed, through marriage, divorce and then eventually re-marrying his wife. The key? A relationship with Jesus Christ, and most importantly, with men he could learn from and relate to:

Bless those who persecute you ...

It is great seeing a little church really living out the commandment of "bless those who persecute you" - Romans 12:14. Kinetic Church had a bunch of their stuff stolen earlier this year and went out of their way to launch a set of billboards addressed to the thief. The culmination of their campaign was this video:

from: ThinkChristian

Change your nature, not your rules

I came across this great article Why Christians do not believe in morality today by Peter Sellick, an Anglican associate deacon:

I have said before that Christianity is not primarily a system of ethics, unlike Islam. Rather, it is a practice that transforms the individual by situating him in the story of God. It is this transformation that produces the moral life which we know we could not live if left by ourselves.

...

This is because the gospel forms our desires. We find that greed and the exercise of power have disappeared from our repertoire and we look forward to becoming people of peace, not people who are for peace but a people who are by their nature peaceable.

The point is that Christianity, because it involves an encounter with God, changes our nature, which trumps any planned change in the rules we live by. As the Bible puts it:

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

Ezekiel 36:26

This is the heart of Christianity, and actually forms one of the great criticisms of it, that the church is full of hypocrites (as my pastor has said, “It's best place for them!”). The point is that the transformation has an element of continuity to it:

“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. ”

2 Corinthians 3:18

Obviously this is classic Christian theology (actually basic knowledge for any believer), but it's rare to see it so well explained, and that in a secular source. Well done Peter!

The best worship song. Ever.

OK, I may be a bit biased, but I love this one, it really sums up where we are all at with regards to Jesus:

C3 worship music

Some of the great worship music coming out of our church:

If you're a musician (specifically a guitarist), you can also check out the detailed break down of how to play the song:

For the singers, there is also a how to:

Christian cannibalism

Reverend Dr David Millikan recently pulled a stunt with his mate to see if the Reverend Benny Hinn could be made to answer an interview question put by someone who had just been 'healed' and had been able to rise from their wheelchair and walk around. Unsurprisingly they didn't get an answer to their question, surprisingly this was because they never asked it! Reverend Millikan wrote about the experience for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Reverend Millikan is a Uniting Church minister (of Balmain Uniting Church) has written about cults, helped produce TV shows on them and has generally become a media expert on them.

The Balmain church website has an interesting discussion paper written by Reverend Millikan entitled Is Jesus God?, wherein he makes a bold defence of the traditional view and scathingly attacks the views of John Spong and the Jesus Seminar. I applaud his willingness to get this debate out into the Uniting Church community, as it is certainly happening within the pews, and can only be helped by some more educated input.

However, I wonder if he is guilty of the same pre-judgement he accuses Spong of in his approach to Benny Hinn. Here is a relevant excerpt from that discussion paper:

“It is interesting to consider why there is such squeamishness about the miraculous. After all religion is the birthplace of the miraculous. It is the meeting point between human beings and the transcendent. But these radical theologians argue that the stories of Jesus healing the sick and commanding the winds and the sea are inventions by the early Christians. They wanted Jesus to look like the person they came to believe he was. Godlike and capable of miraculous things. After all they lived in a pre-scientific age where miraculous things were commonplace.

But I find this enormously patronising. There is no evidence that the early Christians were doing this. In fact the evidence points to them being careful to make sure their accounts of Jesus were accurate. There was no advantage in them inventing these stories. They experienced the same difficulty that we do in explaining the role of miracles in the life of Jesus. Look at the ambiguity in John’s writings concerning what he calls “signs”. He cannot bring himself to use the word miracle. Throughout his gospel he returns to this several times. One on hand he sees miracles as a emerging naturally from the divine powers of Jesus, but at another level he is conscious of how they confuse the picture of Jesus. He knows how easy it is for people to become dazzled by the miracles and see this as the most important thing. This was a major difficult for Jesus, often he told people not to tell others about him healing them. His own disciples thought that Jesus was doing to sweep all before him with fabulous feets of power. But he didn’t. This I believe is what is happening at Hillsong and other charismatic churches. They have turned the Gospel into a miracle sideshow.”

My own bias is apparent, I go to one of these churches, and so fall under the 'miracle sideshow' banner. I wonder how Reverend Millikan reconciles that attitude with Jesus' empowering his disciples to heal? Here's some quotes from the NIV translation.

Matthew 10:1
He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

1 Corinthians 12:7-11
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

1 Corinthians 12:27-31
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.

Here's a photo of some members of the Balmain Uniting Church from their website. I think they look like very nice people, but I wonder how narrow their definition of a 'Godly' church is? And given the rather desperate spiritual state* of many people living in Balmain, I wonder how effective they are in reaching their neighbours?

*based on my personal observations, not the Bureau of Spiritology's predictions - i.e. I'm generalising, don't panic of you live in Balmain (unless you;re neighbours are smoking weird incense-stuff).


For Reverend Millikan to attempt to 'trick' Reverend Hinn into some sort of reaction to his allegations is underhanded and probably reveals an ethical sophistry on Reverend Millikan's part that is unnecessary should he ever attempt to have a sincere private conversation about the gift of healing with Reverend Hinn or any other Charismatic minister. It is his decision to make this a public quest to 'prove' something about Reverend Hinn that makes this most disturbing, and one wonders whether he might not be better spending his time building his own flock, rather than attacking the ministry of another.

Having said that, I recognise that the area of healing and miracles is a problematic one for many people. I myself have my doubts about many of the healing ministries seen on television, and I would be reticent to go to a 'healing crusade' - but then again I am healthy and well. Give me 6 months to live, or confine me to a wheelchair and I would probably seek out any Christian ministry that could help, as well as doing a lot of bible study on healing myself (and some fairly desperate prayer). There is also a school of thought that the gifts of healing are intended to precede salvation, that is, that they are a part and parcel of the saving work of the Holy Spirit and intended to convince unbelievers of God's reality and power. Certainly that is part and parcel of Reverend Hinn's ministry, and in that context he probably simply sees himself as doing the work of an evangelist using the gifts that God has given him.

Real Men 2008

CCC's Real Men conference for 2008 is titled "Life", it will be on 25th-26th July 2008. Here is the promo for it:

Losing the culture wars?

It seems that Christians are increasingly becoming aware that we are losing the culture wars, beaten back by the sexual revolution, anti-creation science teaching in schools and the post-modern tendency to see everything as relative and DIY mysticism as a healthy spiritual path.

Time magazine has an article about Christianity's Image Problem, Michael Craven questions whether Christians are the problem and the tepid success of Christian movie brand Fox Faith makes some wonder if Christians are even paying attention. I found this comment about Fox Faith's difficulties most interesting:

Media guru Phil Cooke, president of Cooke Pictures, said Fox Faith faces unique challenges from “a branding point of view” due to the diversity of the Christian community.

“While the general culture looks at 'Christians' being a homogenous group of people, we [Christians] track along a wide range of extremes in our thinking, our attitudes toward culture, and our doctrinal perspectives,” Cooke said. “The Passion of The Christ, which pretty much set this 'faith-based' fascination off in the minds of Hollywood, was a traditional story of the Passion, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. It told a story that the main thrust of the Christian community can agree on, and as a result, hit the box office jackpot. But once you drift from that central story that is the core of our faith, all bets are off.”

For me that hits the nail on the head. Christians are losing the culture wars because we are not a simple monolithic block. Different parts of the Christian faith succeed in different areas.

The Catholic church is still very well regarded for its third world missions and charity works, whilst in the first world many look so the Salvation Army or other Christian organisations for hope and mercy. Some Australian denominations like Christian City Church and Hillsong are well known for their emphasis on modern cultural elements in their worship and services, whilst also encouraging their congregation to be involved in the world of media and business. The Anglican church is well regarded for their intellectual rigour and emphasis on academic study, whilst also reaching out to their local communities.

Of course the fact that different groups of Christians have different effects upon the world should not be a surprise to us:

“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.”
1 Corinthians 12:12

The culture wars (if you like to see them that way) are really going to be won one fight at a time by the Christians on the ground. One day the church may be “chief among the mountains” (see Michah 4:1) , but that day is not yet come.

Amazing Grace (Movie)

The abolition of legalised slavery in the British Empire in 1807 was one of the great turning points for Western civilization, and was directly because of the powerful conversion of John Newton, a former slaveship master turned Anglican rector, who counselled the British MP William Wilberforce after his own conversion experience to serve God by staying in politics and fighting slavery and general sinfulness.

John Newton is most famously remembered for his heartfelt hymn, Amazing Grace, which captured the essence of his conversion experience.

A new movie called Amazing Grace has been made about William Wilberforce and John Newton and will be released in Australia on 26th July.

Modern Slavery
Unfortunately the abolition of legal slavery in most countries around the world has not stopped the trafficking of human beings. Stop the Traffik is a global organisation setup to help raise awareness of human trafficking and call on the UN and member governments to do more to combat this massive problem. They are using the Amazing Grace film to raise awareness for the plight of people in bondage.


For more good information on this topic check out the Anti-Slavery Project, which is supported by the Community Law Centre at the University of Technology, Sydney, and the BBC UK's Modern Slavery in-depth feature, which provides the following shocking statistics:

Australian Pentecostals < Buddhists

Amongst the various interest census facts reported by the SMH was this one:

“Though Pentecostal churches grew 26 per cent in Australia and 48 per cent in NSW, they remain numerically small, with 219,000 adherents, about half the numbers of Buddhists.”

That is a mixed result, it is brilliant that Pentecostal churches are growing, disheartening that they remain such a small part of the Christian faith in Australia and weird that there are more Buddhists - although given the loose definition of 'Buddhist' (likes Richard Gere, meditates, read a couple of books once, is a vegan), it is perhaps not so surprising.

Creation Science Wiki

CreationWiki is an interesting attempt to harness Web 2.0 for the benefit of creation science:

“The CreationWiki is a free encyclopedia of creation science being assembled by the international creationist community. We encourage all creationists to get involved with the development of this valuable resource.”

The nice thing about this resource is it places in one place on the internet a lot of very helpful creation science information, including competing views and theories and alternatives to many of the consensus views in secular science that might cause Christians to doubt the literal truth of the bible. Whilst the articles are reasonably well fleshed out, some of the real benefit are the links to outside resources and papers that allow users to delve much deeper into the science if they need to.

Merry Christmas!

I wish you all a Merry Christmas for 2006. May your families be kept safe, and your bellies be protected from too much good food. May the weather be perfect, and the company pleasant.

Also, Happy Birthday to Jesus, the Christ, our saviour and king.

“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Flat Earth Myth

Whilst reading the comments on one of Andrew Bolt's posts and came across an interesting link to an article entitled Myth of the Flat Earth by historian Jeffrey Russell.

Russell points out that claims that the Church Fathers believed or promoted the idea of a flat earth, particularly in opposition to Christopher Columbus, are absurd. He claims that most Christians since the 3rd century believed in a spherical Earth. The flat earth myth began in the 1830s in Paris. So why did this myth catch on?

“The answer is that the falsehood about the spherical earth became a colorful and unforgettable part of a larger falsehood: the falsehood of the eternal war between science (good) and religion (bad) throughout Western history. This vast web of falsehood was invented and propagated by the influential historian John Draper (1811-1882) and many prestigious followers, such as Andrew Dickson White (1832-1918), the president of Cornell University, who made sure that the false account was perpetrated in texts, encyclopedias, and even allegedly serious scholarship, down to the present day. A lively current version of the lie can be found in Daniel Boorstin's The Discoverers, found in any bookshop or library.”

Given Pope Benedict's recent speech about the place for theology in the sciences, the false view that science and religion must be opposed is a common one. For my own part, when I found my faith in Christ, I did not lose my interest in science - but I came to see that science (as I understood it) did not trump faith, but supports and is informed by it.

[UPDATE: Interestingly Daniel Tammet comments on how a recent interview with Richard Dawkins showed the same sort of erroneous either/or thinking about science and religion.]

Faith, Reason and the University

Pope Benedict's controversial speech to his old university now has an official transcript, translated into English. It makes for an interesting read if you like debating theology and what shape Christianity should have in the 21st century. The controversial quotation is less interesting than it first appeared when you can see the context of the remarks:

“It is not my intention to discuss this question in the present lecture; here I would like to discuss only one point - itself rather marginal to the dialogue as a whole - which, in the context of the issue of "faith and reason", I found interesting and which can serve as the starting-point for my reflections on this issue.

In the seventh conversation (διάλεξις - controversy) edited by Professor Khoury, the emperor touches on the theme of the holy war. The emperor must have known that surah 2, 256 reads: "There is no compulsion in religion". According to the experts, this is one of the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under threat. But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Qur'an, concerning holy war. Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the "Book" and the "infidels", he addresses his interlocutor with a startling brusqueness, a brusqueness which leaves us astounded, on the central question about the relationship between religion and violence in general, saying: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached". The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. "God", he says, "is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably (σὺν λόγω) is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death...".
The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature. The editor, Theodore Khoury, observes: For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality. Here Khoury quotes a work of the noted French Islamist R. Arnaldez, who points out that Ibn Hazm went so far as to state that God is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God's will, we would even have to practise idolatry.

At this point, as far as understanding of God and thus the concrete practice of religion is concerned, we are faced with an unavoidable dilemma. Is the conviction that acting unreasonably contradicts God's nature merely a Greek idea, or is it always and intrinsically true?”

Benedict's conclusion is an interesting one, and I think makes a very good point. He teases out a point of view that I had not actually understood before - which is that the setting of boundaries on the definition of "science" is a philosophical issue grounded in Greek philosophical concepts. It will be interesting to see if controversial quantum foam ideas of process physics will affect this debate (in layman's terms - they replace the platonic ideal with an ongoing process). Here is Benedict's conclusion in his own words:

“And so I come to my conclusion. This attempt, painted with broad strokes, at a critique of modern reason from within has nothing to do with putting the clock back to the time before the Enlightenment and rejecting the insights of the modern age. The positive aspects of modernity are to be acknowledged unreservedly: we are all grateful for the marvellous possibilities that it has opened up for mankind and for the progress in humanity that has been granted to us. The scientific ethos, moreover, is - as you yourself mentioned, Magnificent Rector - the will to be obedient to the truth, and, as such, it embodies an attitude which belongs to the essential decisions of the Christian spirit. The intention here is not one of retrenchment or negative criticism, but of broadening our concept of reason and its application. While we rejoice in the new possibilities open to humanity, we also see the dangers arising from these possibilities and we must ask ourselves how we can overcome them. We will succeed in doing so only if reason and faith come together in a new way, if we overcome the self-imposed limitation of reason to the empirically verifiable, and if we once more disclose its vast horizons. In this sense theology rightly belongs in the university and within the wide-ranging dialogue of sciences, not merely as a historical discipline and one of the human sciences, but precisely as theology, as inquiry into the rationality of faith.”

Free Christian stock photos

I came across this interesting collection of Christian stock photos the other day, and thought I'd share.

Media not interested in real miracle healings?

The Herald Sun's Bryan Patterson makes an interesting admission on his Faithworks blog:

“The Christian press sometimes follows up miracle claims with doctors reports. Years ago, I worked on a mainstream newspaper that did just that after a healing service and in most cases the doctors said they could find no rational explaination for pyhsical healings.

The mainstream media is sadly not so keen these days to investigate religiou miracle claims, especially when they involve Christians. I wish they were but it just ain’t so. And yet they probably occur at gatherings every day.”

I know of several people who have experienced genuine, document, miraculous healings - yet I've never seen the mainstream press do anything but try to deny them. Individuals in the media may disagree, Michael Willesee recently spent his own money to create the documentary Signs of God to try to prove the evidence of stigmata and healings. However, he did that after he largely 'retired' from the business, and financed it himself.

When Michael Willesee was interviewed on Andrew Denton's Enough Rope he was asked if proving miracles would really help people believe:

“ANDREW DENTON: So you believe that by a logically and scientifically-based proof of the miracles of God, this will regenerate faith?

MIKE WILLESEE: With some people. I don't think for one moment that the world's going to turn on its axis and say, "Okay, now there's a God because Mick told us." Some may be converted, some will at least open their hearts to the possibility that there is a God and that he's a loving God. He's a God of love. If I get that message through to a limited number of people, then I'll have done my job.”

That is a great quote, and very much my attitude as well. However, miracle healings are not ever a certainty. I and others that I know have gone to a healing service, only to find ourselves challenged in our faith and without a clear answer from God as to why we've not been healed. My current feeling about this is that God grants miracles like that as 'signs and wonders' to set the unsaved free and bring people to Him. Having become a Christian, there is less need for someone else to heal you - after all Peter points out that we have 'everything we need':

2 Peter 1:3
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

James also says something similar, but is even more specific about healing:

James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

So we can expect less public miracles and more private ones, answers to our own prayers - perhaps before others hear of it. Nevertheless, Christian's still get sick and die. Perhaps the ultimate answer to that is 'so what?' As a Christian dying should never be what we fear, as it ushers us into the next world - God's promised second creation, or heaven, or whatever you want to call it (the eternal city?). Eternal life is a given, it is thr address that we should all be uncertain about.

For more evidence that public healings and miracles were intended to help people have faith in God, there are several verses:

Romans 15:18-19
I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done — by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:4-5
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

1 Corinthians 4:18-19
Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you. But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.

1 Thessalonians 1:4-10
For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. nd so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, or they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

However you feel about miracles and healings you need to realise that the last thing we need in this world is a form of godliness, but not a real demonstration of it:

2 Timothy 3:1-5
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God — having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

On the other hand, not every 'miracle' is one, and some things that are altogether natural, such as childbirth, should rightly be regarded as miracles, despite not meeting the definition of one.

Daniel Tammet: Autistic Savant and Christian

Daniel Tammet is a very interesting young man, who is a high-functioning autistic savant. He is fairly well-known due to a number of TV and documentary appearances, and his ability to handle numbers and language is truly amazing.

I came across his blog today, whilst researching autism (my son has a friend with Asperger's Syndrome) and noticed he has blogged about being a Christian.

“I think many people are surprised to hear that I believe in God and that I am a Christian. I think this is because many assume that autism and belief in God are somehow incompatible. In fact other autistic writers, such as Temple Grandin, have written about their own spiritual beliefs and practices.”

Real Men 06: Influence

Before I begin this post, I just want to say that Brad has had a successful operation and despite some early missteps, is on his way to recovery!

I don't want to take this blog too far off-topic, but I spent most of today at RealMen 06: Influence, this year's edition of the annual men's conference run by CCC Oxford Falls. As always, it was a struggle to make the time, spend the money and physically get myself there - but as always, it was well worth the effort. Some of it was so good, I decided it was worth talking about a little bit here.

Whilst there was a well-known international speaker, Frank Damazio, it was two of the Aussie speakers that really made my day ...

Melbournian Allan Meyer ran an awesome session on helping men maintain purity in their sexual world. He was funny, but more importantly he really helped men get a handle on how to avoid sexual temptation (outside of their marriage of course!). From his own doctorate studies he has developed the Valiant Man program:

“This 10 Session Program with study and devotional guide is designed to fortify and restore the moral and spiritual integrity of men. Valiant Man challenges all men to fight for their own personal, moral and spiritual vitality and help other men fight for theirs.”

Based on today's session, I expect the material in that course would be life-changing for many men.

At the other end of the spectrum, Perth native John Finkelde was very naughty (one session not recommended for women!), and immensely funny, but he was also worth listening to as he covered how to supply your wife's emotional needs, most especially by ensuring you “spill your guts” occasionally. But he had me in tears at several sections, sometimes because of his great humour, and other times because of his raw honesty in sharing his own battles with us. His church (CCC Hepburn Heights) also runs their own blog.