Have a Blessed Christmas
from Your Brothers
@Washington Area Coalition of Men's Ministries
"You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart."
Jeremiah 29:13
Featured Video Clip

A Christmas Day Truce, 1914 
Sainsbury is a major UK supermarket chain. It's 2014 Christmas commercial commemorates the extraordinarily true events of Christmas Day 1914, when the guns fell silent and two armies met in no-man's land, sharing gifts - and even playing football together. Check out this powerful video tribute to that brief Christmas truce and the story behind it.
CLICK HERE 
Video Clip Bonus

Christmas Songs and Gifts 
Christian comic Tim Hawkins brings us his take on various Christmas songs and gifts. As always some funny stuff!
CLICK HERE 
Video Clip Bonus #2

Norris vs. Van Damme 
Check out Chuck Norris who parodies Jean-Claude Van Damme's notorious commercial in this Volvo Christmas commercial. We love parodies and spoofs!
CLICK HERE 
Video Clip Extra

Bowling Ball vs. Feathers 
What happens when a bowling ball and feathers are dropped in a room from the same height? Well, under normal conditions, a bowling ball crashes to the ground at a much faster speed than a group of feathers. But what happens when the room is vacuumed entirely free of air? Watch this amazing demonstration at NASA's Space Power Facility and see what happens.
CLICK HERE
 
Video Clip Extra #2

Extreme Cycling in Scotland 
Danny Macaskill is a Scottish trials cyclist with a serious flair for extreme mountain biking. "The Ridge" is a new film featuring Macaskill's daredevil as he hops on his mountain bike and returns to his native Isle of Skye, Scotland
to take on a death-defying ride along the notorious Cuillin Ridgeline. This is amazing! CLICK HERE
Featured Funny

Church Can Be A Funny Place
Church bulletins often contain some of the funniest lines around. For years, we've been a big fan of these malapropisms and want to share some of our favorite chuckles: 
CLICK HERE
Featured Quote

The Greatest Story Ever Told 
"And as He [Aslan = Christ] spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before." 
C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
Featured Interview

"De-Christianizing" the Church
On May 7, 1963 C. S. Lewis gave his last interview just six months before his death. He was interviewed by Sherwood Eliot Wirt of Decision Magazine. This excerpt is both a profound and prophetic word to every Christian man about his call to spiritual
leadership in the Great Battle.

Wirt:
Do you feel, then, that modern culture is being de-Christianized?

Lewis:
I cannot speak to the political aspects of the question, but I have some definite views about the de-Christianizing of the church. I believe that there are many accommodating preachers, and too many practitioners in the church who are not believers. Jesus Christ did not say, 'Go into all the world and tell the world that it is quite right.' The Gospel is something completely different. In fact, it is directly opposed to the world.
Featured News

Stories We're Following,,,   
Seven Revelations of Ferguson

Thoughts on Ferguson

A Prayer for Ferguson and Nation

The Gospel, Homosexuality and the Future of Marriage (videos from recent conference)

Dr. Russell Moore's (President, Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission) powerful talk at the recent Vatican Conference for marriage as the complementary, lifelong union of a man and woman. CLICK HERE Also check out Pastor Rick Warren's talk at the same conference CLICK HERE 
God's Christmas Day Invasion of Enemy Territory
In one sense, the great invasions of history are analogous to the way in which God, in the great cosmic struggle between good and evil, chose to deal with Satan's rule over the earth-He invaded. But not with massive logistical support and huge armies; rather, in a way that confounded and perplexed the wisdom of humanity.

It was a quiet invasion. Few people understood what was happening. Mary, the mother of Jesus, knew that she was with child, but she also knew that she had never been with a man, not even Joseph, to whom she was engaged. She had learned of her pregnancy and what was to be a virgin birth when an angel told her that she was pregnant with the Son of God. READ MORE 
"No Man is a Failure Who Has Friends" - Angel Clarence
"It's a Wonderful Life" is one of the all-time favorite movies. When George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart) contemplates suicide on Christmas Eve, an angel named Clarence shows up to help him see the difference his life has made. The movie's most memorable lines are from Clarence who tells George:

"Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he? You see George, you've really had a wonderful life. Don't you see what a mistake it would be to just throw it away?"

The movie ends with this inscription in a book left for George by Clarence, "Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends." One of the wonderful legacies a man can leave his children and grandchildren is having been a man rich in friendships.CLICK HERE to check out the ending video clip.
The Christmas Story From the Oval Office, 1983
We've come a long way since the days when the President of the United States would address the nation about Christmas. We now live in a culture in which it is politically incorrect to assert "Jesus is the Reason for the Season." A local Washington DC jurisdiction just recently banned references to any religious observances in its school calendars,  even though Christmas has been a Federal holiday since 1870. Check out President Reagan's stirring Christmas message about Jesus from the Oval Office on December 23, 1981
CLICK HERE (3:25 video clip)
Giveaways to Winners of Christmas Quiz
trivia men
Where do we find the Christmas story?
    A. Matthew
    B. Mark
    C. Luke
    D. John
    E. All of the above
    F. Only A and B
    G. Only A and C
    H. Only A, B and C

The first fifteen responses with the correct answer will receive a complimentary copy of either The Dude's Guide to Manhood by Darrin Patrick, Manhood Restored, How the Gospel Makes Men Whole by Eric Mason, Gospel Meditations for Men by Chris Anderson or the DVD of the movie Courageous: Honor Begins At Home. Email your answer HERE.
Holiday Movie Reviews
Unbroken (Opens Christmas Day) - Angelina Jolle directed this adaptation of Laura Hillebrand's blockbuster biography of WWII hero Louis Zamperini, who competed in the 5,000 meter in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. A few years later he joined the AF and during WWII survived a plane crash, drifted some 2,000 miles over 47 days in the Pacific and then was captured and tortured for two years by the Japanese. Louie's story has been called a triumph of human spirit but in truth its really about God's breaking his human spirit and filling him with the Holy Spirit.
moviesCAUTION: Unfortunately, Jolle chose not to include Zamperini's conversion to Christ at a Billy Graham Crusade in 1949. For that account, his subsequent trip to Japan to meet his former prison torturers and Louie's years in Christian youth work, you'll have to read Hillebrand's book. For the movie trailer CLICK HERE

Exodus: Gods and Kings
(Opens Dec 12) This is a $150 million hi-tech remake of the 1956 Charlton Heston, Yul Brenner classic Ten Commandments. Christian Bale, who plays Moses, characterized Moses in a recent interview as "schizophrenic", "very troubled", "terrorist" and a "barbaric" man "who fought greatly against God, against his calling". So expect to see a different Moses than the one in Bible just as we watched earlier this year a very different Noah portrayed by Russell Crowe. Among the unbiblical license taken in the Exodus script is God speaking to Moses as an 11-year old boy. Exodus looks a lot like Gladiator with some pretty spectacular CGI-effects. CAUTION: Just because a movie appropriates a biblical title or theme, doesn't necessarily mean it will fairly or accurately present the Scriptures, whether its a classic or a remake. CLICK HERE for the movie trailer. [BTW, Hollywood's continues its infatuation with biblical epics with a remake of Ben Hur scheduled for release in 2016]  

 

When the Game Stands Tall (releases on DVD December 9) -- Inspired by a true story, Jim Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ) plays high school football coach Bob Ladouceur during a season that changed everything. As coach of the Spartans football team, Bob tells his players that winning isn't the most important thing yet he led his team to the longest winning streak in sports history -151 straight victories. When his wife Bev (Laura Dern, Jurassic Park) urges him to refocus on his family, Bob is blinded by the hype and pressure to keep the streak going. Then, in the midst of a season of crisis and tragedy when the Spartans stand to lose everything, a remarkable young player (Alexander Ludwig, The Hunger Games) helps Bob rediscover that he didn't just want to teach his boys how to be good athletes, he wanted to teach them about brotherhood and how to become good men. CLICK HERE for the movie trailer 

WACMM Conference Saturday April 18, 2015

We'll be at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg MD on Saturday April 18 for the mid-Atlantic's premiere men's conference. Nearly 50,000 men from over 1.000 churches have been encouraged and equipped for ministry and life previous WACMM conferences and events.

  

We've lined up Owen Strachan and Tony Carter - two of the country's foremost speakers on the gospel and biblical manhood - as our keynoters. Joining them will be sixteen different breakout sessions on topics relevant to men of all ages and stages. Pastor Ernest Sallee and the Iron Man Praise Band will again lead worship. The day will also be loaded with panel discussions, stage interviews, Q-A sessions and lots of opportunities for networking and camaraderie. 

 
Conference Information       
Conference Registration 

 

Invite your sons, friends, neighbors, and colleagues to join you for this memorable day. Register early to get your spot and to take advantage of some great discounts.

 

Dr. Owen Strachan 

Owen is President of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) in Louisville, KY; Assistant Professor of Christian Theology and Church History at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Boyce College; and author of Risky Gospel: Abandon Fear and Build Something Awesome. Owen and his wife Bethany have two children.  

   

Rev. Anthony Carter 

Tony is the lead pastor of East Point Church in East Point, GA. He is a graduate of RTS Seminary in Orlando FL, a member of the Gospel Coalition Council and the author of What is the Gospel: Life's Most Important Question and Blood Work: How the Blood of Christ Accomplishes our Salvation. Tony and his wife Adriane have five children.

Gospel at Work Conference - January 31, 2015 

Most of us spend at least 80,000 hours of our lives working. Wouldn't you like to know how to worship God with that time? The Gospel at Work conference, hosted by Covenant Life Church, will help you think biblically about your work. Speakers will provide practical wisdom on how to approach the challenges you face in the workplace and offer insight into God's concern for your work.

You'll also meet godly men and women from a variety of businesses for practical discussions on topics like career planning, leading in the workplace and business as a mission field. If you wrestle with questions about your work, or if you care about someone who does, this conference is for you. For more information and registration, CLICK HERE 

Freebies You Can Use and Give
free stuff
 
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Brothers!
We've packed a variety of stuff into this special Christmas edition for your reading and watching pleasure. We hope its content will encourage you, challenge you and make you chuckle a bit.

Above all, we pray it will serve to remind us all of the Father's great mercy in sending his Son to rescue us from sin and death, and from our rendezvous with hell. Because of what Jesus did for us in his obedient life and atoning death, we share the bond of brotherhood that is unique and unbreakable. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Brothers!

Locking Arms Together,

Dave Signature

Dave Brown

Director and Pastor-at-Large

Washington Area Coalition of Men's Ministries (WACMM)

Chairman, Foundation for Manhood

10309 Freeman Place

Kensington MD 20895

240.447.1363

[email protected]

www.wacmm.org

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