The Rabbit Hole


"All too often, the rabbit hole is as deep as you have dug it."

Once a month our men get together after service on Sunday's for cigars, pipes, drinks, and discussion. Our goal is to provide a men's only space where they can be challenged spiritually, physically, and philosophically. Taking one topic a month and taking it as deep as we can, being sure to look for places where we are strong and can be further encouraged, and looking for places where we are weak and need to be helped. Specific application is the goal while we enjoy good company and fine tobacco. 

Discussion

Our discussion ranges on a variety of topics such as education, male friendships, necessity of a capacity for violence, self-mastery, and Christian Nationalism to name a few. 


Currently we are working our way through the Ten Commandments which has paired well with our sermon series of The Gospel of Matthew being in the Sermon on the Mount.


We want to make sure our discussion time doesn't remain theoretical (and Devil's advocates are shown the door along with a boot), but instead push in spiritually, physically, and philosophically to actionable challenges.

Challenges

There is opportunity for testing all throughout our lives, too often we shrink back and miss the chance to measure ourselves and grow. While most of the challenges we offer in Rabbit Hole revolve around our discussion, pressing people to think more deeply or in new ways, we also try to take the opportunity to challenge ourselves in two other ways: Physical Skills and Cultivating Good Taste.


Cultivating Good Taste

God is good and he has richly provided us with everything to enjoy. Cultivating good taste is a skill in knowing and exploring God and his creation. Understanding how cigars and pipes work, exploring different cultivations and origins and types of leaf, learning how to light and carefully draw, understanding the differences of grain and process in whiskey... all of these things undermine a culture that takes no interest in the divine or the details of a highly designed and curated world from the Father.


In a culture of fast food, cigarettes, and rote stories on TV, we don't want to be men who could care little how we conduct ourselves. Caring deeply about what God has provided does not make one pretentious. These things actually have value and reflect the goodness of our Creator. We learn and challenge each other together as we partake of good gifts.


"No Christian should do anything in which he cannot glorify God; and this may be done, according to Scripture, in eating and drinking and the common actions of life. When I have found intense pain relieved, a weary brain soothed, and calm, refreshing sleep obtained by a cigar, I have felt grateful to God, and have blessed His name; this is what I meant [by the expression 'smoking to the glory of God'], and by no means did I use sacred words triflingly."

-Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Physical Skills

While most of our discussion is designed to take home action steps that result in implementing physical challenges, we also take the opportunity when we can to engage in strengthening physical skills together. From building a capacity for violence, self-defense, weightlifting, or firearms training, we find many opportunities to work hard together. And usually include some good competition while we're at it!


We are whole people, rejecting the gnostic tendencies of our culture. We work hard and develop the whole man.