Yes... we have a man group.

It meets at the Horse Brass Pub here in Portland, which may be known to you from Don Miller's Blue Like Jazz... though we were there first :)

Western Seminary is just a few blocks from the Horse Brass (another reason you should all consider Western!)... and when we were students, some of started hanging out. First it was Wed. nights, then Sunday nights for a long time... after a few years, it sort of just settled on Monday nights. It was always just a few of us- Time Schabel, Johnny V, Stephen Black, Bernard Maurer, and then me. Here and there there were a few others, but that was the main core of things. We did it through the last year of Seminary (those were some great nights) and then they had to go on without me as I wandered through Europe and North Carolina for 3 and a half years.

When I came back to Portland in 2001, man group was waiting for me (though we didn't call it that). At that point, it was the Brass, until the weather got nice, and then it was the outdoor deck of the Goose Hollow Inn.

Bernard moved, Tim and his wife had babies and things got a little shaken up. We still managed to get together, though, most Monday nights. I began bringing Chris along after we got on the church planting route.

And then, some of the women from our little church plant started hanging out on Monday nights. They got together, and while a few of us were doing our thing at the Brass or the Goose, it really wasn't "open"... so these women, they asked us, "Are husbands are just sitting at home... um... could they come too?"

And things just took off from there.

Last night we had 18 men at the Horse Brass pub. It was wild. I was away for a few weeks, doing Theology Pub at a different (less smoky location), we had a couple of open mic nights at the Lab... but when I came back last week, I'd noticed something had changed.

The thing with man group was that it was often deep and meaningful. Not always, but often. Truth be told, a big part of the reason I came back to Portland (rather than going to Seattle or somewhere else) in 2001 was for Monday Nights. They could be seriously touching, in a manly sort of way. I guess it's easier to talk about your feelings when you are holding the masculinity totems of a cigar in one hand and an alcoholic beverage in the other...

But when we "opened" it up, and guys without a lot of history with each other started coming, getting to that place seemed a lot harder. I think for a couple of months there, man group was a little tougher, a little less meaningful. I really mourned what had been lost.

That's changed. I guess this group of guys has hit a "critical" mass with each other. I'm amazed at the level of depth and the personal story telling going on around those tables... It's a good thing.

And I know it's making a difference for some guys- it's a doorway into evergreen for some, it's a place of healing for others... for some guys, it's a ministry. They are there, greeting new people, coaxing the stories out of them- a worthwhile way to spend a monday night.

So, yeah. 18 guys last night. There was one service we did on a Sunday, shortly after we started where we had only 16 people (it was Mother's Day). And now, 18 guys, sitting in a pub, smoking, drinking, opening up, talking about God. Wild, wild scene.