Men's conference, Abundant Life Chruch, Bradford

I recently attended the Excel men’s conference at the Abundant Life Church in Bradford. Not the normal destination for a delegation of Anglicans!

Well, you need to see beyond the commercialism – each worship song preceded by an announcement that it is on the new DVD in the church shop, each sermon preceded by the announcement that it is in the preacher’s new book, which (you’ve guessed it) is for sale in the church shop, should you wish to read it all again.

Underneath all that, there was some really good stuff. The theme was “I am not my father”. Many men have had poor experiences of parenting by their Dads, but we were exhorted to break the cycle of generations and live as sons of God, and if we are parents ourselves to not repeat the errors of our forefathers. Great for those that need it, but actually my dad was very good, and my sons don’t seem to have any real complaints about me. Well OK, number 3 does, but we recognise it and are working on it.

Another theme was risk: be bold and all that stuff, don’t just follow the rut, but be prepared to make mistakes as you stretch beyond the rut.

Another theme was that of remaining masculine in a feminised church. It was suggested that one main reason many men ignore the faith is because the church is simply not manly enough. I know where they are coming from and they have a point, but also much of becoming a manly Christian is actually about taking on a metaphorically female role in relation to Christ – submissive, loving, etc. So I would treat their teaching with caution.

There were also a lot of frankly sexist jokes. Eg showing photos of a car breaker’s yard and suggesting it was the car park during the previous women’s conference. Fair enough, they were trying to be ‘blokey’, but I think this was out of order.

There was a lot of effort to ‘masculinise’ the church. There was a Ferrari on the stage. (for sale at £86,000). In the warm up to the evening sessions there were hairy chest competitions, a thai boxing demonstration, weightlifting, etc. In the adjacent building were scalectrix, Wii, strength tests, sumo wrestling, a laser shooting range, ropes to climb, etc. And of course shops. Again, much good, some probably crossed a line.

At one point while walking around in the dimmed rooms I nearly collided with a good looking young man coming the other way. We apologised simultaneously, dodged simultaneously, laughed together, and I found myself really liking him. It was of course, my own reflection in a mirror wall, much to the amusement of people that saw me!

Overall verdict – a good conference but with reservations, and in the end I personally didn’t feel I learned anything that I wasn’t already doing. Not sure I’ll feel the need to go next year.