A VALIANT MAN

By Dr. Allan Meyer, Careforce Church, Melbourne, Australia – Keynote speaker at LifeWell Conference 09

Developing and maintaining a healthy sexuality is a challenge for every man. Men are sexual beings invested with a strong and relentless sexual appetite, a reality demanding discipleship even in the most benign of environments. Yet the environment in which men of today must live and survive is extraordinarily provocative. We live in a highly sexualized and eroticized world and the pressure on male sexuality is high, thus the potential for men to develop distortions in their sexuality is also high. Learning to handle the pressure of male sexuality is one of the skills a man must acquire if he is to be successful in his personal life, his home life, and in his spiritual calling.

In 1978 during my first year as Youth Pastor I was invited to be Guest Preacher in another State for a man who was a hero in his denomination. He had come to Christ at the age of 47, put himself through Bible College, and felt a call to buy a tent and evangelize outback towns in South Australia. He and his wife had planted a string of churches across the outback including the vibrant church where I was invited to minister over a weekend. A few months after my visit my Senior Minister confided in me that the man was no longer in ministry; it had came to light he was involved sexually with women in his congregation. I was shocked by two things: firstly, he really was a hero of the faith - the churches he planted through his sacrificial ministry bore testimony to his love for Jesus. Secondly, he was nearly 70 years old - and even at that age his sexual appetite had brought him undone. I was just 30 years old at the time and I wondered to myself "Don’t the batteries ever go flat - does this sexual pressure thing ever let up?"

In 1983 I was called to become the Pastor of Careforce Church (formerly known as Mt. Evelyn Christian Fellowship), the church my wife and I continue to serve to this day. My call to lead this church further underlined the need for sexual discipleship. In the late 1970’s the charismatic renewal had touched this little church. It grew from 50 to around 350 in less than a year. They purchased 8 acres of land, planned a new worship centre, and were in the middle of an exciting move of God when the minister fell in adultery. It broke the heart of the congregation, but thankfully it didn’t break their vision to serve God.

In 1992 my wife and I had founded Careforce Recovery Ministries, later to be renamed Careforce Lifekeys. It was a ministry that sprang out of our cry to find new paradigms of ministry, delivering pastoral care and discipleship to wounded people using a small group model and structured teaching process. It quickly became a potent tool for evangelism and church health. Within a few years our church tripled in size and other churches began to implement the ministry. While undertaking a Doctoral program with Denver Seminary I determined to undertake the development of another Careforce Lifekeys program to address the issue of Men’s Sexual Discipleship. The Valiant Man course was born.

In October 2004, 122 men from all walks of life, some Christians, some not, filled a room at Careforce Church in Melbourne for the first session of Valiant Man and then broke up into 13 small groups led by 26 of my best Lifekeys Facilitators, all themselves willing participants in the first program. For the next ten weeks men listened, shared, journaled, cried, prayed together and pursued the restoration of their moral and spiritual purity.

Since that time 20,000 men have undertaken the Valiant Man course throughout Australia, New Zealand and even in the USA. I’m grateful for every single life that has been touched – but there are millions yet in need of undertaking that journey. Does it make a difference? Let me share just two testimonies from men who have done the Valiant Man course:

"I’ve just finished the Valiant Man sessions. I am astonished at how good they are. If this course had been available (for me) years ago imagine the pain and damage that could have been averted."

"Early sexual experiences had created significant distortions (in me) that almost destroyed our marriage. Valiant Man has transformed our lives and I am very passionate about presenting it to as many men as possible."

People need help in many areas of life. That’s what Careforce Lifekeys is about, and that’s what the Lifewell Conference is about.

We look forward with hope to the coming conference in Adelaide and trust that as a healing and restoring ministry is released in every local church that more and more Australians will discover that they, too, can do LIFE WELL.

Make the journey towards restoration and newness of life at LifeWell Conference 09.

For more information on Careforce Lifekeys go to www.careforcelifekeys.org/aus