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(5/15/24)
PM Summer Connects: What to Expect
Hey men! If you’re planning on coming to our evening Summer Connects, you probably know that we will be hitting the ground running. Each week we’ll be discussing a book with the expectation that everyone has had a chance to read it and is ready to talk about it. In this post, I want to let you know a bit more about what you can expect from our time together.
We’ll take the first few minutes to catch up with one another and see how life is going. Feel free to come a few minutes early to get a head start on snacks and fellowship. We’ll have a few snacks and drinks available, but you’re always welcome to bring your own or something to share. We’ll close this fellowship time by praying for one another.
The rest of our time will be spent discussing the book and how it relates to our lives. We’ll talk about the big picture first and make sure everyone is tracking with the message of the book. Then we’ll explore any questions you may have and try to get a sense of the highlights—what is true, good, and beautiful in the book. Finally, we’ll talk about what we intend to apply in our lives and how.
While I would love for us all to come having read and reflected on every word, I know life usually makes that difficult. If Wednesday comes and you’re not as ready as you hoped, that’s ok—please come anyway. Here at Men at Magnify we often talk about managing our expectations by thinking through “good,” “better,” and “best.” For PM Summer Connects, it looks like this:
- Good: you’ve read at least one chapter and you’re eager to discuss it.
- Better: you’ve done all the reading and made a few notes.
- Best: you’ve done all the reading, marked up your book, jotted down questions and observations, and have had a few days to reflect on it.
The main goal of our time is to use key books as a catalyst for growth in the context of intentional community. The most important thing is growing side-by-side this summer. The next most important thing is practicing the discipline of reading well. In our age of rapid images, constant scrolling, and frequent interruptions, it can sometimes be hard to put two thoughts together. By setting aside time to read one line at a time, one page at a time, following an argument from one chapter to the next, you can help train your mind for better things. Just like diet and exercise is important to a healthy body, reading well is important for a healthy mind. And just like diet and exercise (and sleep, so they tell me) can have spiritual benefits, training your mind can, too. Because you’re a whole person, what happens in one part of your life affects the rest.
I don’t expect anyone to do the equivalent of running a marathon this summer! But I do hope you’ll stretch yourself a little to do the hard things that help us grow in the right directions. Ephesians 4:13–16 says the mature man has his head on straight. He’s not easily fooled by the latest doctrinal craze or by scheming influencers. We need mature men now as much as ever. I’m excited to see how God uses our time together to build us up in wisdom and love.
