by C.Lau
Men’s Fraternity at Island ECC is a diverse community which is growing even further. One regular attendee is Jay Spreitzer, who kindly shared his experiences to show the core values and goals of what Men’s Fraternity hopes to achieve. First, Jay kindly shared how he joined and what this entailed.
Men's Fraternity got my Attention
“I saw an advertisement of Men Fraternity on morning announcements from the videos and I thought it looked interesting so I thought I would go and check it out. I have been going for about two seasons. I started going to the church in April 2017 and probably a month after that, I started to go to Men’s Fraternity.”
“The first track that I did was the workplace one and the second one that I did was about your family and children and basically being a father. I have kids but they are grown up so I got to offer some of my experience in those sessions of some of the things you had to deal with as the children grew up and seeing them as successful children afterwards. That is a different aspect of it so actually I thought it might have been helpful for the group even though I do not have small children anymore.”
Jay then shared what the benefits of attending Men’s Fraternity entailed.
“It has been really useful as you get a lot of different perspectives from the different men who attend and discuss different issues for their family and even just talk socially and learn about what they are doing in their life and it is actually quite friendly and social and it is not like you are sitting in a classroom and it is not like you are going to an actual church service; even though they have a different objective each week. It is quite enlightening and energizing and it is involves getting up and socializing and having fellowship during the dinner and a lot of people are just getting off work so it is a good chance to connect with people and go to Men fraternity to experience.”
“I have seen value in just what we learn about each time we go to Men Fraternity and the experiences, we can apply to everyday life all the time.”
Jay encouraged men to try and make the effort to give Men’s Fraternity a go as ultimately it is a relaxing environment.
“It maybe the case where some think they are just getting off work and they do not want to deal with something, they just want to relax and really your kind of relax is there. It is a good chance to open up on your life there and it is easier to relax there by talking to everybody; for example, talk about something at work which happened and you could open up to another guy who might be able to relate to you. There are many people at work at professional levels who have gone through the same thing in their work life and just like that first session I attended in the workplace, you can get a lot out of it and you can relate it to your work life and professional life at the same time.”
The topic of work is a key issue as it dominates so many lives and he discussed the importance of maintaining values at work at all times.
“Too much pride in work can be a danger and it is something to watch out for. On the other side of that , balance of it, for example in the work place, you might be challenged to do something; you may see a lot of corruption in the workplace and you have to ensure that you still following the same Christian aspect of it in your work life as it can be difficult as you are looking to balance that especially if you are working in areas where there may not be that many christians in the workplace.”
Community and Friends
Deep friendships can be made and Jay explained why these friendships are important and why men should open up more to their peers especially in times of trouble.
“Sure, especially Alan and Alex and a whole bunch of other people and there are many people who attend and there are others who I see every week and I see them and connect with them.”
“I think it is because men are not as touchy feely towards their emotions as women might be so one of the things we talked about before in a track was crying and men generally fawn about from that and don't show too much emotion. Guys are just reluctant to show that emotion especially so in Hong Kong as many want to show strength more than anything else.”
“You do not have to commit to anything. Come in early and socialize and get to know people. It is a really nice socially at the start and you can make great friends and a good way to get to know people in the community so I would say, come on out and continue on with the journey. There is also a rotating track so if you miss a week then it is not a big deal and even if you want to socialise, once you get to know people then you will come back each week.”