We want to hear your Fight Night experiences!
Which night did you go to?
What did you think of it?
What was the guest band/artist like?
Did God speak to you?
What did He say?
What happened in your small group?

Went to the Mitcham one…just checking it out really since I’ve gone through the Fight DVD myself but when the lead vocal from Antiskeptic spoke, I was just blown away. It was like he got into my skin and named the one I’ve been trying to hide for ages: Fear! I also felt that God spoke to me tenderly. He told me that I am good. That I could go back to the innocence, to that place where my heart is tender and is cared for, where I could dream dreams and where I am not afraid. I needed to hear that because much of my sexual struggles all got to do with keeping fear and shame at bay. A group from Lilydale sort of adopted me because I just randomly rocked up at the place. The first guy who shared just jumped into it and that was pretty cool as it set the precedence for us to be real. We ended the time with praying for each other and man, that was tops!

that’s awesome man! So good to hear!
I think you’ll find though that the band at Mitcham was Selahphonic not Antiskeptic! lol!
Sweet to hear that the Lilydale guys took you in as one of your own for the night - that’s what it’s all about hey - being part of the wider team!

yeah, just realised that it was Selahphonic

Hey guys!
I’m Todd that runs the games and one of the groups at the Fight Nights. Just wanted to say that you guys are so inspirational in the way that you were so real on the Fight Nights. We’re really keen to hear how you are all going after the nights thus far! Look forward to hearing from you!

This a serious critique, not hate mail, please take it as that:
Why do you have to link your attempt to help other people to religion? People of whatever faith may have problems with online addictions, and they all deserve the same help and support, don’t they?. This is an addiction, a psychological and not a religious issue and I must say I find it manipulative to link the two. Reminds me of the missionaries in the colonies who sort of “sold” development, healthcare, schooling in exchange for the conversion of indigeneous people. And why sell your dvd? If you are related to the church, couldn’t they fund it in order to make it available to low-income persons as well? Church funds so many caritative projects, couldn’t they fund this too?
Plus, wouldn’t you agree that a big part of why people aren’t able to cope with their addiction is because they don’t reveal to anybody else, stay alone with it, and suppress it? And then again, don’t you think it is especially hard to talk about online SEX addiction because talking about sex has long been a taboo imposed by (Christian) morailty?
What I’m trying to say is, don’t be so exclusive. I know that online addiction is serious from my own experience, and everyone deserves help!

Kind Regards,
Fabian

Hey fabian,

thanks for your comment - appreciate your thoughts on this.

I don’t know if I can respond to all that you’ve said or asked about but a few thoughts might be useful in giving you some background into our approach. The catalyst for us producing The Fight was my own experience and journey through addiction over several years. In that journey I found that while understanding the pyschological aspects of addiction was really helpful and gave me great insight into my struggle, that it was only my connection with God that actually brought me to a place of experiencing some level of freedom. So, it made sense when we were putting the resource together to include both the pyschological and spiritual aspects of the journey.

As far as why we don’t give the resource away for free, a resource of this size costs alot to put together and we actually found ways to put it together for about one third of the cost that it should have been (through donations and sponsorship and through a production company that charged us way less than normal). We did that so that we could make the price as low as possible. You’ll find some programs available that are a similar sort of resource that cost more than three times as much as The Fight. Sales from the resource actually enable us to speak about these issues throughout Australia and in other parts of the world - a big part of the reason for the events and speaking we do is to actually help Christians break out of the isolation/taboo associated with talking about these sorts of issues. That’s actually one of the reasons we’ve put the resource out in the first place, to help churches and people in them start talking about sex and porn and these sorts of issues instead of these issues being avoided or ignored.

We agree that everyone deserves help and we have had several people who would say they don’t share our ‘faith’ views who have used the resource and found aspects of it helpful. While everyone deserves help, we recognise that as a very small organisation with very limited staff/resources at our disposal, that we are not able to provide everyone with the help that they need. We get an incredible number of emails from people looking for help and we do our best to provide encouragement, access to other resources, etc but at the end of the day, we can’t do it all, so it helps us to have a focus - our focus at this time is largely within Australia and largely within the Christian community. I hope there comes a time in the near future where we’re able to expand our focus far beyond and find ways that will assist many more people outside of those areas of focus.

I think what you’ve said is valid and I hope that what I’ve said in response gives you some more insight into where we’re coming from. Thanks for taking the time to offer your critique.

adrian

it’s late… I should be in bed… but I’m wired…

tonight was our only melbourne fight night for 2008 and it was well worth the wait…

we only just fit all the guys into the venue…

the rego desk was absolute mayhem…

so stoked to see so many guys come…

and even better to see courageous acts of unmasking, abandoned worshipping and small group discussioning… such a privilege to have opportunity to invest into the lives of guys like this…

jamie coyle is such a gun… he shared heart on his sleeve… as always… inspiring…

our small team and the st hils crew… champions… thanks fellas…

to all who were part of the night… praying for you all right now… for strength for the battles that lie ahead… for equipping as you work through The Fight resource… for friendships with other blokes that will watch your back and whom you can fight for… for greater connection with Jesus who has won the ultimate victory and is the ultimate source of all hope, life and freedom…

run the race… stand firm… pray for your brothers around the nation who are also ‘in the fight’… you are inspiring…

adrian

I was at the St Hils Fight Night. It was great - very encouraging, both to hear you talk Adrian, and to get to open up in conversation on the night with other guys from my church. I feel like my shame and guilt has lost most of its power to crippled my ability to fight well. I hate my sin, but I realise I don’t have to be ashamed to run after God and grow as a person, and experience more freedom in Jesus. I feel stronger.

hey soljer - we were totally stoked with the night at St Hils! So much awesome feedback from guys about how it has opened things up for them, (feedback about the time in small groups was really strong!). I love your last three words, ‘I feel stronger’. If we could hear that testimony from each guy who went to an event I would be so pumped! It’s so encouraging man to hear that you feel less weighed down by shame and that you have a renewed desire to run after Him! He is where we need to be hey!

Keep at it mate!

God encourage soljer today to run hard after you and to persist in that, regardless of his victories and failures, may he persistently and consistently look to you!

19th June @ New Hope Baptist Church, Blackburn North.

At first I thought it was incredibly confronting. Jamie talked about how his life seemed like a superstar on the outside but was a completely different story behind the scenes.

It was really encouraging to be told upfront that a lot of us are in the same situation.

Our little group also gave me so much hope. One of the leaders opened up for the first time to the group, and it did inspire me to make a change. I hope it had the same impact on the rest of the boys.

But there’s always that notion that “Boys have to be tough” which makes it hard for some of them to be open with their feelings. Time will tell.

Thanks for the night, Adrian.

hey tom,

thanks for your comments - great to hear what you thought of the night! We were so stoked to see 160 turn up and so many saying afterwards and on their surveys how impacted they were and how good their small group time was!

We are really praying that God will continue what was started and that many guys who started to open up and be honest about their struggles will continue to do that with each other in the weeks, months, years ahead!

Bless you heaps mate!

Adrian

there’s an interesting article about porn addiction to be found here:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/lifeandstyle/lifematters/the-porn-ultimatum/2009/03/04/1235842454092.html