Monthly Archives: August 2015

ALONE at Work?

A man alone in an open-plan officeAlone at Work?

Whoever isolates himself . . .
breaks out against all sound judgment—Proverbs 18:1

Work is a place where we men are apt to live, not as our true selves, but rather as carefully crafted and false versions of ourselves. Work is a “compartment” where we try to be, not who God created us to be, but images we create all by ourselves. Why? What makes work different? Well, at work, the prevailing culture is too often (and too much) self-focused: outperform, get promoted, achieve, get ahead. It is too often permeated by greed, pride, and narcissism.

When we live according to the prevailing culture of work, we hide our true selves, for exposing ourselves would upset our plans to build our images (and our careers). So, we protect our images by cutting ourselves off. We don’t let anyone in on our fears, struggles, pain, excitement, victories, joy. This is foolish, given that many of us spend more of our waking hours at work, with work colleagues, than we do away from work, with loved ones and close friends.
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Mentoring Men–Joshua’s Men

In 2001, I initiated through The Gathering, JOSHUA’S MEN (2001-2013), which was created by Dr. Dan Reiland while he was on John Maxwell’s staff in California. JM was a year long discipleship program for men….to grow them deep in spiritual growth and develop leadership skills. The men would read a leadership/spiritual book a month and we would meet to discuss the topic, share what was happening in our lives to encourage and keep accountable and to pray for each other and our families.

jmen2001 croppedFirst class L-R Dan Specsgoor, Bob Schuemann, Mike Simon, Steve Cournoyer, Dana Binsbachar, Dennis DeMarois, Chip Schelhorn, Chuck Schumacher and Wayne Rodale.

It was one, if not THE BEST program, I did in my tenure with The Gathering…last class was 2013.

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