Beyond: One definition defines this as, “Outside the understanding, limits, or reach of.”

Isn’t that the statement of what we typically try to avoid? We’re instructed to do our jobs, keep our heads down, stay in our lanes and to contribute…but don’t disrupt. What if the very thing I am contributing to isn’t benefiting anyone? What if I told you that in order to be an agent for positive change, you sometimes have to go against the grain? What if I saw injustice with my very own eyes? Would I have the courage to intervene?

Now, what if someone looked at my life and noticed an area where I could make a change or take a step forward and stretch myself to do just a little more? What if I was doing the same repetitive workout time after time? Should I expect a different result? Or what about punching the clock at work; was I always just saying “good morning” and moving on from a potential conversation with a coworker? I think you get the idea. It’s easy to stay in our lanes and go unnoticed.

But deep down inside of us there is that desire to be a disrupter, to be a change agent.

I want to…Get stronger

I want to…Be a better husband

I want to…Be a better father

I want to…Give more

I want to…Help more

I want to…Be a better leader

I want to…Be more faithful

This is where I invite you to join me in going BEYOND. Beyond our comfortable conversations, beyond our typical faith, beyond our everyday relationships and yes, beyond our normal workout. BEYOND will be designed to break us down in order to build us up better. Just like muscles, we get stronger after being torn. Does every man need a workout like this? Absolutely not. But I know there are other men like me that need something different, something really difficult, something that smacks them in the face and wakes them up to realize our blessings and how we need to do what we’re made to do.

So here are the details. BEYOND is a Black Diamond AO that will meet at existing AO’s on different days of the week. We will open with the workout at the existing AO and close with their COT. We’ll start on a Tuesday, then the following Wednesday, then the following Thursday, then the following Friday, then that next Monday, then the following Tuesday and so on. The dates are as follows:

Jan 9 (at Block Party / Walter Elisha Park), 17 (at The Coopj / Nations Ford H.S.), 25 (at a Thursday AO)

Feb 2, 5, 13, 21

March 1, 9, 12, 20, 28

I will work to build out the Q schedule 2 months in advance and will work with the scheduled Q to build the topic and let them take control. The requirements are that it has to be hard; not 200 burpees kind of hard but hard that I don’t care how strong or fit you are, you’re feeling it the next morning. There also needs to be a relevant message that is hard for some of us to stomach because it forces us to look in the mirror. It can be faith based, service based, relationship based or something different. It simply needs to be based on us getting better as men.

Thank you for this opportunity to go BEYOND in my own life and for letting me walk with you in going BEYOND, in yours.

Maximus