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A Journey Home
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, bs 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, booz, 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.
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