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By DONNAMY STEELE | Special to the Reporter

ALABASTER – The Church at Cahaba Bend, Alabaster First United Methodist Church and Helena First United Methodist Church are teaming up to co-host their sixth annual Men of God Conference next month.

The event will take place at the Church at Cahaba Bend in Helena at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 5 and at 8 a.m. on Feb. 6. Gene Ingram, men’s director at the Church of Cahaba, said the upcoming event will differ from previous years.

“Every year, we decide to do a men’s retreat, and we typically do it in January. With COVID and the pandemic and the guidelines, we usually go to the Methodist camp in Gallant, but this year we decided to do something different,” Ingram said. “The guys at our church asked ‘What else can we do?’ and so we got together with some of the other directors at Helena and Alabaster and put something together.”

This year’s Men of God conference will be the first one held at the Church at Cahaba Bend since starting the event six years ago. Ingram said COVID-19 played a part in this, but he sees it as an opportunity to provide a cheaper and more accessible conference.

“We typically have a retreat and leave on Friday and stay at the camp, but this is the first time we are doing it in this setting,” Ingram said. “We may rotate between churches in this setting in the future, but we will talk more about that in the future. Doing it this way makes a cheaper event that is local and nobody has to stay the night away.”

Restrictions and limitations brought on by COVID were beginning to affect the men’s ministry, and Ingram said they wanted to find a way to come together as a group again.

The conference provides an outlet for everyone involved so they can connect with one another and worship, Ingram said.

“What made us think about it this year for this particular one, all of the guys have been disconnected with not being able to go to church and go do things we used to do,” Ingram said. “We would get together to hunt, fish and other things we used to do, but with COVID that had been limited with limited capacity at church or not having church. We said we need some accountability partners to talk to people, communicate with each other and get together with the guys.”

The premise of the event is to get together and realize what it is to be a man of God, a leader in the church and a leader as a husband and father.

“Our speakers will open up with a message on Friday and we’ll have some fellowship on Saturday,” Ingram said. “We will also have some classes that are more so about development on how to grow in your relationship with Christ.”

The event can be viewed either at the church or from the comfort of your home.

The cost to attend is $50 for the in-person event, which will include meals on Friday and Saturday, and $25 for the virtual version.

“We will be socially distanced in person and will max it out to 70 or maybe 100 if we can section it off in there,” Ingram said. “We will also have a virtual zoom option for our talks on Friday along with all of our sessions on Saturday as well.”

The deadline to register is Feb. 2. To register for the Men of God conference, visit Signupgenius.com/go/8050849aaad29a31-menofgod or contact Ingram at geingram@dhgriffin.com.

The Church at Cahaba Bend is located at 3721 County Road 52 in Helena.