January 30, 2008 - Where it all started... McCreary's Irish Pub (Franklin, TN)
To be honest, this has been the most difficult blog entry to write. Thoughts have been stirring and an unsettled spirit continues to saturate these words... the men that we just spent time with champion a cause that contradicts so much of what is natrual. Honesty... brutal, raw, vulnerable honesty. It's rare, and extremly dangerous. What if these words reflected all that is going on behind the scenes right now? What if this blog entry was a glimpse into the messed mind of one screwed up man? Don't worry, it won't go there... but that doesn't mean that it shouldn't. It just means that this is not a safe place. And that is ok... as long as there IS a safe place somewhere. The Samson Society IS a safe place... and Nate Larkin and the Samson Soceity are blazing a trail of honesty and safety for the church. Men are being radically freed... (video)

(Nate Larkin - author of Samson And The Pirate Monks)

Please check out the Samson Society website - www.samsonsociety.org. Our schedule opened up at the last minute so we found Nate Larkin's contact information and asked him on Tuesday if there was any chance we could meet him on Wednesday. With only a day's notice Ray Ware and Nate Larkin rallied a group of six men to get together with us in the back corner of Merridee's Breadbasket in Chattanooga, TN. We heard their story, and there are questions that have since risen to the surface - When is the last time I admitted the FULL extent of my humanness to someone else? When is the last time I admitted the FULL extent of my humanness to myself? The deep splinters lodged in the darkest shadows of the soul continue to remain hidden because there is a lack of safety for confession... especially for pastors. This doesn't excuse the perpetuated secrecy that has quietly dominated the scene, but it does reveal insight to why vulnerable confession is so difficult. The guys from the Samson Society said, "the most isolated guys in the church are the pastors!" And a lack of safety is the reason. What does it mean to be a safe place? With language that reflects the brutal nature of their honesty these guys talked about how safety comes when men contain the explosive nature of confession. They didn't leave any room for imagination on what they share with eachother... and as one man admits the darkness of his own sin, other men are invited to admit theirs. "It is a place where men can say what they have never said... what they have desperately wanted to say but have been scared to do so." The Samson Society invites men "to be known, to be loved, and to be accepted." What is it like to be fully known?

Hear from Nate Larkin. We asked him what he would say to the Catalyst audience if he had a few moments to share his heart... you do not want to miss the next two minutes of insight from Nate Larkin: