Men Gathered (left-click on images to enlarge them).
Over 100 men gathered for breakfast and a “Main Event” meeting at Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C., at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 15, 2012.
The Main Event gathering served as the launch of an extended version of a new Grace Church ministry called “Fight Club,” according to Ryan Peterson, a young father, husband and former tennis instructor who serves as Grace Church’s spiritual development pastor.
In advertising the event, Peterson wrote, “For too long, the church of America has made men into ‘nice guys,’ and we are inviting men into an adventure to fight in the front lines of a real battle we are facing every day.”
He says that battle “begs men to become ‘Heroes’ to their families, ‘Leaders’ in their places of influence and ‘Forceful Men of God’ to advance God’s kingdom, forcefully.”
Buck Mims, pictured, opened the meeting.
Buck Mims welcomed attendees and thanked Gold’s Gym of Southern Pines for loaning some equipment for the event. A large punching bag, boxing gloves and barbells “graced” the church’s podium, adding to the “Fight Club” theme.
Mims introduced Peterson. Attendees sat at large roundtables brought into the church sanctuary.
Ryan Peterson laid out statistics for attendees.
“Forty-eight percent of males of ages 18-34 play video games an average of three hours per day,” Peterson said.
He said some men continue living like 13-year-olds. He called them “posers” – “boys acting as (and saying they are) men.”
“They have a hard time getting into relationships with men … and women,” he said, adding that some men “look at porn, rather than discover what their wives’ hearts look like.”
Peterson said that many women, today, are asking men to marry them. He noted that three women are raped each minute in the U.S.
“There’s $3,000 every second spent on porn [in the U.S.],” he said. “There are 28,000 people per second viewing porn. What if our Bibles were getting 28,000 hits per second by men? … We need to get more addicted to God’s word than to pornography.”
He said that God’s answer for this nation is the Church.
“Let’s make sure our lives affect those around us,” Peterson said. “We have a fatherless nation, right now. Many boys are in jail because they had no father figures. … We have to have the humility to know it’s not about us.”
He said men in America have lost “identity” and are “passive.” He advised that men “need to find out who we are, despite what we do.”
Peterson referred to Genesis 1:26 NIV: “Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’”
“We are made in God’s image,” Peterson said. “There is an image of power.”
He talked about Satan tempting Eve to become like God.
“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it” (Genesis 3:6 NIV).
Referring to the last words in that verse, Peterson said Adam was “with” her; he explained that the Hebrew word for “with” means “elbow to elbow.”
He inferred that Adam might have stopped Eve from falling for Satan’s temptation, but Adam “sat there, passive.”
Peterson painted the U.S. as “a nation of passive men with identity problems.”
“Satan tranquilized Adam with passivity,” he said. “Thankfully, there’s a ‘Second Adam.’”
He read Matthew 3:17 NIV: “And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’”
“Jesus got his identity way before he did anything,” Peterson said. “Go before your ‘Father in heaven’ and listen to who you are. You and I need to hear our names before anything else happens.”
He said Satan tempted Jesus after Jesus was baptized and led by the Spirit in a wilderness. He questioned Jesus’ identity by emphasizing the word “if.”
“The tempter came to him [Jesus] and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread’” (Matthew 4:3 NIV).
“Satan is up to the same thing [as with Adam],” Peterson said. “Jesus was secure in being the Son of God. Before Satan comes, you and I need to know who we are.”
He said Jesus was tempted after he fasted for 40 days.
“When you’re at your weakest point is when Satan hits,” Peterson said. “Satan will attack your identity, so you will become passive, tranquilized. … In the Garden, God asked [Adam], ‘Where are you?’ That’s the same question God’s asking, today. Stop hiding behind your fig leaf. … ‘Where are you in your relationship with me?’ God is asking. … There is a battle that rages.”
He referred to Exodus 15:13 NIV: “In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling.”
“What if we were more dependent on the Holy Spirit than our own thoughts?” Peterson asked. “Are we living as warriors or as routine men?”
He said God is a warrior (Exodus 15) and that Paul referred to Christians as “soldiers of Christ.”
He quoted Jeremiah 51:20 NIV: “You are my war club, my weapon for battle – with you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms.”
Peterson said, “God says, ‘I want to use you.’ Before we can ask others to follow, we have to follow. … You and I have to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.”
He referred to Paul’s statement found in 2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
“Walk more in His power,” Peterson said.
He talked about putting on “the whole armor of God” (Ephesians 6:10-20) and said there is a (spiritual) war going on.
Nine men - some tell about involvement with "Fight Club."
He invited his audience to watch scenes from “Gladiator.” The audience watched scenes from that movie, and then Peterson invited nine men – men he has been leading in Bible study – onto the stage. (A tenth man had already departed to attend college.)
Some of the men told what being in the “Fight Club” meetings for a year with Peterson had meant to them.
One man said, “God didn’t design us for our wives to drag us to church.”
Another man said the group meetings led him to be baptized in water, something he had not done after his years-age conversion to Christ.
A man said the group had helped him with his problem with anger. “I’d take it out on my wife; God’s definitely dealing with me,” he said.
A grey-haired father said he was the “OG” (old guy) in their group. His son, 19, who is now attending college and leading a Bible group at that college, participated last year in the Fight Club group with his father. The father, who noted that he’d been a Christian for 30 years, said, “This group’s something I’ve never experienced before in Christianity.”
Peterson referred to Philippians 4:13: “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” He asked the men in his audience to sign up for more Fight Club groups he wants to help organize at Grace Church.
### ------------- The below photograph shows Rick Payne, who attended the Sept. 9, 2012, Fight Club meeting. Rick has served a long time as head deacon at Grace Church in Southern Pines. Rick recently suffered a stroke and is recovering. Rick is definitely a Fight Club type of guy, a tender but tough-when-needed Christian man who is admired by many.
Rick Payne poses at the Sept. 9, 2012, Fight Club meeting.
