A View From the Manse 2.0

 

I recently went to Iron sharpens Iron with a small group of men from our church. ISI is an annual one-day men’s conference. This was probably my sixth conference with our church. The conference is held at different churches, but is usually right around an hour from Argyle.

          We gather with other men from the area and sing praise and worship songs. Some of which we know. Some of which we do not know. We listen to a speaker talk about topics particular to men and then we go to breakout sessions of our choosing.

          The first gathered session was taught by a man named Dave Wilson. Dave was a chaplain for the Detroit Lions for nearly 30 years. He was a gifted speaker and he spent the first session talking about a REAL man. Dave used an acrostic to talk about manhood in a memorable way. He said that a REAL Man: Rejects passivity, Engages with God, Accepts responsibility, and Leads courageously. There is, of course, a great deal more that can be said about manhood and being a follower of Christ more generally. But I thought this was a good place to start and the acrostic has helped me to continue to think about it in the days since.

          For my breakout session I chose to listen to a man named Robert who’s workshop was entitled, Raising Kids into Adults of Integrity, or something like that. He has 10 kids spanning the ages of 37-12. Some of his children are in the Coast Guard, some are graduates of West Point or MIT, but, most interesting to me, they all seem to be walking with Christ. I worry a great deal about raising Godly children. And, to be honest, I feel like I am getting it wrong more than I am getting it right. Parenting continues to be a daunting task which continually has me crying out for help from the Lord.

          Robert’s advice to fathers from his own experience was this; first, spend time being loved by the Lord. Learn that you are loved of the Lord and that he has brought you in as a son. Second, spend time every day with your children in the Bible. Robert said that his practice was to read 7-10 verses with his kids every day and that way, by the time they left at 18 they would have walked through the whole Bible twice with the family. He reads it twice first thing in the morning. He looks up any words that are unfamiliar and tries to get a handle on what the passage is saying. Then he reads the passage with his wife and discusses it with her. At night he goes through the passage for the fourth time as he reads it with his kids. And then, his kids explain to him what they see in it (fifth time through the passage for Robert). Finally, Robert said the third priority for his family was his own love for his wife. He argued that this is one of the best things you can do for your kids- love your wife.

I went to more sessions than just these two, but these sessions have stuck with me the most. And others from our church attended other sessions, but they can tell you about their experience. If you are interested in attending this conference, let me or Lou know (we have recordings from past conferences available as well). Our women have If:Gathering in the late winter and that plays a similar role for our women’s ministry. We have other men and women’s events throughout the year. If you want to make sure to attend events like this in the future, please reach out to Laurie McWhorter (women’s ministry coordinator) or Lou Hoffis (men’s ministry coordinator) or pay attention to the announcements in the Pathfinder.

Bryan Fitzgerald, Pastor (bryan@argylepresbyterian.org)