Unfettered Men

So this is the first of what I think will be at least a few separate posts about the beginning of the year.  The topic of discussion is the small group biblia study I'm leading with Mr. Amazingface, Wyatt Bruton.  Although it is considered by some more boring individuals to be the Olde Campus (Upper and Lower Quads) Men's biblia study with InterVarsity, we all know that it is in fact the Unfettered Men of the Hill.  It was important to Wyatt and me that that idea remained a solid part of the group.  So in our first meeting, we talked a little bit about what we want the group to be, sort of our vision for the guys over the course of the year.  Wyatt put it best by putting it simply: we want to be a Community of Men.  That capital "M" is important, and even provided the inspiration for the title of my last post, because attempting to define Man, rather than just man, is ultimately what we want to do.  What does it mean to be a Godly Man, living in righteousness, following the words of Christ?  Now, this may sound like the premise for an IV LifeGroup, a more topical sort of environment, but it isn't!  It is a biblia study - this semester we're looking at Mark, and part of our goal is to use Christ's life as an example for how to live as a Man.  Hopefully we'll find ample opportunity to create links between Jesus' life and ours, not only in terms of general lifestyle, but also masculinity and brotherhood.

But that's not all we hope to accomplish!  See, that was only the "Men" part, but we're also a Community - pay attention here because this is where the Unfettered part becomes important.  To be Unfettered is to be completely unbound by anything that might be tripping you up - that means that we want the guys in our group to be completely uninhibited in their love for Christ and unashamed in their love for each other.  A guy need guys to talk to, to be vulnerable with.  Not all the time, obviously, just when he's got a problem with his self-esteem.  It can be extremely important at certain times, and we want to make sure we observe those times so that we can ensure that the members of our Community can be free from bindings and shackles and those things that can eat away at us.

So yeah.  Community.  Being there for each other, supporting each other, enjoying each other's company, following Jesus' example in brotherhood.  Men.  Stepping up, being responsible, taking action when action is called for, following Jesus' example in lifestyle and manhood.  That's what we'd like to see happen.  Maybe it won't happen for everyone, maybe it won't happen on the deepest levels, and that's okay.  As long as we are constantly striving to follow Jesus and better understand and help and love our brother, then we'll know that in that striving, we're doing at least one thing right.