Andrew Lim has taken on the daunting task of organising a men’s conference for Sydneysiders left aimless by the women’s EQUIP conference at Darling Harbour on May 27. This is his blow-by-blow, week-by-week account of the bridges he crosses as he brings the TRAIN men’s conference from fantasy-land to reality.

TRAIN arriving on platform: prepare to embark!

Well, the marketing and advertising and promotion for the inaugural TRAIN Evangelical Men’s Conference are chugging along nicely. Only 2,000 invites left out of the 12,000 printed. It’s snowballing and going viral! Awroight!!

Now to the nuts-and-bolts of the day.

Lined up a great interview with a SPECIAL MYSTERY GUEST. I can’t wait! The content’s going to be gritty, honest, and real. I think it’ll be immensely helpful to us Christian blokes as we train ourselves for godliness. (No, I can’t tell you who it is…)

Negotiated a phenomenal deal for Chappo’s book “A Sinner’s Guide To Holiness” for sale on the day. Excellent hardware for the Christian life! I’m flabbergasted at the price we’re able to make it available for! Bring your cash with you. It’ll be well worth stocking up a coupla-dozen of these babies.

Scratched my head RE morning tea. How much food and drink do I need for how many guys? No pre-registration means no idea who’s going to turn up on the day and how many. Oh well, here’s my internal dialouge: “Buy non-perishables, Andrew, so if there’s leftovers, they can be used for other church events.” “You’re absolutely right, Andrew, and make sure there’s lots of it. Better too much than not enough when it comes to feeding blokes.” “Yeah, that’s right.” “You know, you’re a handsome intelligent man with a lot to offer.” “Why thank you, mate, tell me more…”

Seriously considering overflow possibilities now. Who woulda thunk it? Who knows, but WHAT IF more than 700 guys turn up? The Chapter House can seat another 500-600. Could set up a live video link. Who’s got the tech nous to do that? Maybe someone in evangelical cyberspace who could volunteer their expertise to serve their fellow brothers in this way…

Been thinking also about some of the presenting problems for Christian men. In fact, the genesis of this whole project stems from frustration and joy: Joy at seeing Christian women with the grit, gumption and initiative to start and develop the EQUIP women’s conference into the must-see event on the calendars of thousands of women folk. Frustration at the deafening silence of Christian men in response.

Fire up, muscle up, and get up off our collective couches, gents! There’s training to be done!!

Andrew is Sydneyanglicans.net's resident digital scholar and the pastor of the new Asian Bible Church (ABC), a congregation of St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney.

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