It all started on a Friday evening a few months back. I was at church, waiting for the Clay study to begin. Pastor Steve handed me a brochure. I looked at it & then exclaimed: “The Perfect Man? Huh?” Pastor Steve’s response was something along the lines: “Yes, DT. The Perfect Man. I want you to try to be a perfect man.” To which I would have said: “Oh, I dunno about that”. I did chuckle a bit; I didn’t believe being “the perfect man” was an attainable goal for me. I remembered Pastor smiling & nodding his head, his way of affirming what he said to me earlier.
The brochure I was given is a Men’s Training Event (MTE) brochure. MTE is an annual convention held at The Tamborine Convention Site at Mt Tamborine, where Christian men get together to study, learn from, & be challenged & inspired from the Bible. It runs from Friday evening/night to Saturday evening (i.e. just 1 night stay). It started in 2001, which I did attend. I also attended MTE the following year (2002), & somehow managed to miss out on the next 4 conventions (between 2003-2006) before making my return this year (which means this year’s my first in 5 years). As I alluded above, the theme for this year is “The Perfect Man”. Pastor Steve has been encouraging me to attend MTE. And I did. And I’m glad I did.
There were 5 sessions, all made up of talks. This was a little different from the last MTE I attended in 2002, where (if I recall correctly) we had a mixture of talks & workshops. For me, the talks were really intense & challenging. Very very intense! All 5 talks were delivered by 2 speakers - Keith Birchley (who works on University of Queensland with Evangelical Students) & Phil Campbell (pastor at Mitchelton Presbyterian Church). Birchley's talks were drawn from the book of James, whereas Campbell covered the book of Judges. Both have contrasting styles. Birchley's style was more elaborate, prim & proper, & "formal". Campbell's was a bit more "laid back" & less "formal". That's not to say 1 is better than the other. It's just that both present the talks differently, which is good as we get exposed to different styles. Those who were there at MTE might know what I mean.
Ok, that's the talks. What about the rest? Campsite was ok, not bad. Food was allright - well, breakfast was great, lunch not so. Morning & afternoon teas were adequate. As for sleep, well, I didn't sleep well (only 1-2 hours!). I think it's mainly because of the loud snoring on the scale of "construction worksite equipment" (& I won't name names in this regard). But maybe it's also because I wasn't feeling tired so had no inclination to sleep. Maybe also because something's subconsciously bothering me. I dunno, & anyway, it's already passed, & it was only for 1 night....
I managed to purchase a book from the book stall - it's called "Disciplines of a Godly Man" by R Kent Hughes, & it comes with a complete study guide. The book was highly recommended by a few people, including Pastor Steve. I made jokes at the book title with a couple of people, saying that I'm not that godly so I have to get myself up to a godly level & only then I will use the book to discipline myself.
Well, as I said, I was glad I attended this year's MTE. I've been challenged & left with many things to think about. People have asked me about MTE, what was it about. So, over the next few posts, I will try & summarise the talks so they (if they visit my blog!) will get an idea. I will also put in some personal reflections from each talk. Like I said, they were intense & challenging. Watch this space, read my subsequent posts & u may find out why.
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