Men’s conference focus encourages Alabama men to ‘stand firm’

The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham continued to show its support of innovative ministry recently when it hosted a conference that is breaking new ground in the realm of men’s ministry.
   
Held the weekend of Feb. 2, Stand Firm is a conference designed by LifeWay Christian Resources that features workshops designed to teach men how to be stronger leaders in their churches. Some 500 men attended the Birmingham conference, one of 10 planned nationwide this year.
   
The schedule of the conference followed a format of one- to two-hour workshops, culminating both days in a praise and worship service and inspirational speaker. Pastor Rick Ousley opened the conference with a welcome and a message Friday night, while a fiery challenge from Pastor Gerald Austin from New City Church, Birmingham, highlighted the closing session Saturday afternoon.
   
While most workshops dealt with topics associated with leadership, some delved into more personal issues facing the modern Christian man, such as the session on “Sexual Purity: Protecting Your Family.”
   
For first-time attendee Ralph Weaver, a member of Lakewood Baptist Church in Anniston, Stand Firm was time well spent. “I’m learning a lot of things,” he said. “This conference is helping to revitalize me and is helping me to reassess many things in my life.”
   
But the conference also spoke to men who have participated before. Wayne Bryant, who brought 20 members 200 miles from Clearwater Baptist Church in Athens, Tenn., where he is pastor, has been attending Stand Firm since its inception.
   
“We’ve been to two before this and every time we bring guys, there is an atmosphere in which God is able to work, especially with specifically men-centered issues,” Bryant said.
   
Randy Hemphill, young adult pastor at Brook Hills, said Stand Firm differs from other men’s conferences because it focuses on preparing “men to go back into their churches.”
   
LifeWay event planner Larry Mizell said LifeWay saw Stand Firm as a way to develop men’s ministries in local churches, “so when they got back from an event or a conference, they’d have the tools at hand to live out that challenge in their own churches.”
   
The Stand Firm concept began in 2000 and has grown exponentially each year in number and scope, with conferences now scheduled across the country. The title Stand Firm comes from LifeWay’s monthly men’s devotional magazine.