It’s a beautiful thing when men meet together to pray. For many years I have participated in a monthly gathering of local pastors who get together to pray for each other, for our churches, and for our city and nation. We have supported each other when times have been hard, and we have shared each others’ happiness when life has been easier.
We represent different faith traditions, but we are united in our reverence for Christ and the gospel. Each month we meet in one of the churches and pray as expressed in the familiar hymn: Before the Father’s throne we pour our ardent prayers; our fears, our hopes, our aims are one, our comforts and our cares (“Blest Be The Tie That Binds” by John Fawcett, 1782).
The benefits are real. Praying together builds trust and respect among the ministers. It lessens the possibility of professional jealousy and undermines the unholy tendency toward competition between churches. We know and love each other. We really do. It’s a beautiful thing.
It’s a beautiful thing when friends get together to read books and discuss what they are reading. I belong to a readers’ group inspired by the men in the circle of friends that included C. S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. They called themselves the Inklings and they met regularly in the Eagle and Child Pub in St Giles’ Street in Oxford, England, from 1933-1949.
At our meetings, a member brings a book for each of the other participants to read during the coming month. We come to the next meeting prepared to discuss the book, and related topics suggested by the theme of the book. There is food, banter, laughter, and deep friendship.
Our group is called the Penlights. We have been meeting for over thirty years. Our leader solicits personal letters to the group from the authors whose books we have read. These are shared at the midsummer meeting. These letters, often from well-known writers, usually express delight in knowing we have read his or her book in this context of friendship.
John Eldredge wrote, “A boy has a lot to learn in his journey to become a man, and he becomes a man only through the active intervention of his father and the fellowship of men.” Many men today live their lives in isolation. They do not know how lonely they are. It was for good reason that Jesus and Paul joined their disciples into teams of men and taught them to pray together, to learn together and to encourage each other in living for God. It is a beautiful thing to share life with men who do this.
