Lust, pornography and masturbation. Now that I’ve got your attention let me tell you where I spent last weekend – at a men’s conference organised by Antioch church down in Llanelli. And the themes discussed were … lust, pornography and masturbation. See – I wasn’t just using those words for the sake of drawing you in!

Now I have to be honest I wouldn’t normally be dragged by a Challenger tank and a humvee to a men’s conference – far too blokey for me. But as explained by one of the organisers, Mark Lowe, this was going to be very different to the usual stuff put on for men. Instead of rugby, war, wrestling, more war, and tips on how to develop pecs, the emphasis was going to be on emotions, childhood pain, and those hidden, sexual secrets.

Key to it all was the session led by Rob Whillier of the Isle of Wight. He explained how past pain – especially caused in our early years – can still effect us in our adult years and keep us locked-in a perpetual adolescence. Brilliant stuff. And though some had never heard this kind of teaching before nor of the ministry tool used by the Whillers – theophostic – many attendees of the conference gave testimony to what God had done in the brief ministry session that Rob led us through.

Of course, there is room for male strength in life. But instead of narrowing our definition to only include Driscollian cage-fighting machismo, we need to widen it to include being honest about where we’re really up to in our inner life. Apparently.