Twenty years after a group of 240 men gathered on the Kwazulu-Natal farm of evangelist Angus Buchan marking the start of the Mighty Men Conference phenomenon, 2013 is shaping up as a phenomenal year for the iconic, life-changing men’s conference.
“It gives me great pleasure to say that this year, no less than 13 at the moment, maybe more Mighty Men Conferences are taking place in South Africa alone, not mentioning overseas,” Buchan told Gateway News this week.
He says he recalls, “like yesterday”, a day in 2003 when the Lord prompted him to cancel his overseas appointments and concentrate on mentoring men.
- Advertisement -
After that first gathering of 240 men on his farm, Shalom, he said: “I thought that was the end of it. How wrong I was.”
At the last Mighty Men at Shalom – in 2010 – there were 450 000 men. Thereafter, Buchan asked his spiritual sons to host events around the country and Mighty Men events began to spread across South Africa and to Namibia – and further afield to other nations including the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Brazil. There were also successful online conferences in Nigeria and Zambia.
For a while Covid put a stop to live Mighty Men gatherings but there was no stopping an international online Mighty Men conference which brought together thousands of men around the world during a time of lockdowns.
- Advertisement -
From late 2021 live conferences started to come back – slowly and small at first – but 2023 is shaping up as a record year for Mighty Men.
Buchan has this to say about this year’s developments: “This is God again, working in a very powerful way. The main objective is to draw men back to Christ. And once we do that, then everything else falls into place.”
He adds: “You know, when it’s a God thing, it does not fail. When it’s a man-made thing, it fails very quickly.”
He emphasises that the MMC events of today will follow the same pattern that God gave them two decades ago.
“Every year we have a Mighty Men leaders’ conference on this farm [Shalom]. And again, I stress, Mighty Men is not a platform for a man to exercise his own personal ministry. It’s not a platform where a man can speak about his personal theological loves.
“It is a platform where men are loved and challenged — and disciplined — to put God first in their lives, then after God comes the wife, after the wife comes, the children, after the children comes, the vision, the ministry, the occupation, and the work. Very simple and nothing will change and we will not allow that.
“It’s not a opportunity to try and get celebrities up there. Most of the speakers are ordinary men just like myself, who love Jesus very much,” he says.
Dates and venues for this year’s MMC events include:
Bushveld (Polokwane), Limpopo, March 10 – 12
Jeffreys Bay, E Cape, March 17 – 19
Newcastle, KZN, May 7 – 9
Estcourt, KZN, June 25
Lowveld (Mbombela), Mpumalanga, August 5 – 6
Ballito, KZN, August 25 – 27
Western Cape, W Cape, tbc
Carletonville, Gauteng, October 6 – 8
Central (Welkom), Free State, October 28, 29
Please help us to keep on publishing news that brings Hope in Jesus:
>> Donate >> Become a Super Subscriber
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/gatewaynews100
COMMENTING GUIDELINES
You are welcome to engage with our articles by making comments [in the Comments area below] that add value to a topic or to engage in thoughtful, constructive discussion with fellow readers. Comments that contain vulgar language will be removed. Hostile, demeaning, disrespectful, propagandistic and off-topic comments may also be moved. This is a Christian website and if you wish to vent against Christian beliefs you have probably come to the wrong place and your comments may be removed. Ongoing debates and repetitiveness will not be tolerated. You will also disqualify yourself from commenting if you engage in trolling.
