I want to take this time to say thank you for your support of the God Squad in 2011. It has been an exciting year which started off with our conference in March at St. Albert the Great.  We have started trying to make improvements to our webpage with video content and finally we have  launched the new endeavor of barbecue outreach. Without your continued support and prayers none of this would be possible.

We have entered into that exciting time in the church, starting the new season with the new mass which is meant to bring us closer to Christ. We begin to prepare ourselves for Christmas physically and spiritually.  Many of you are starting to carry the boxes out of the basement to set up the advent wreaths, Christmas villages and house decorations. In the church there are penitential services that will help us prepare our soul for Christ’s coming this Christmas season.  In a men’s Bible study that I’m currently attending, the presenter lays out a challenge to be examples of Christ to our family, to our wives, and to our children.  I know for myself I have fallen short in this area.  I have come home from a long day at work and failed to engage my children who were looking for my attention.  One thing that has helped to offset the inner slug in me is at St. Peter's, they have started a parish day of prayer on the first Friday of every month. I have made several of the Fridays where there is adoration for the whole day, as well the priest is available for the sacrament of reconciliation.  Availing myself of these opportunities has definitely helped and I would highly recommend it to any man.

In closing the God Squad would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a blessed new year. We look forward to seeing you on March 16 and 17th at St. Michael's Parish for the 2012 Men's Conference.

Many of you may have heard that the God Squad has acquired a barbecue outreach trailer, and we've begun to provide cooking service for a number of events and organizations. So far the trailer and team have cooked eight turkeys for the CWL family dinner, a whole wild boar for the Knights of Columbus family dinner, and we fed 150 hungry Bantam and Pee Wee football players. The trailer will be cooking at Feed the Hungry, the Boys and Girls Club, and other outreach-type opportunities.

The purpose for providing this service is to make further inroads into the community, and to spread the God Squad message to more and more men.

Although I know a lot of people and I am not afraid to ask for help, I figure if I ask all of you to make the inquiries, it will be of much more fruitful outcome.   We are looking for sponsors for this trailer. For $500, a sponsor will have their logo on the side of the trailer approximately 18" x 18" in size. We are also looking for quality suppliers if you have contacts with wholesale hot dog, chicken, and/or beef suppliers.

We will be looking to promote the 2012 conference by barbecuing at a few parishes in the coming months.

Any leads for either cooking opportunities or sponsorship you wish to forward, please contact Sean Lynn at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

This year at the conference Sean Dalton pointed out that men often fall short in their evangelism. The Evangelism Linebacker was given as an example and as tempting as that method was, the God Squad opted not to use it. What started as a joke at this year's men's conference seems to have taken off in our discussions.  It started with a donation by a friend of God Squad Canada who also comes to visit me when I'm competing at BBQ on the Bow. I told the team I was going to send him an e-mail saying thank you for the donation to the God Squad barbecue team (I didn't send the e-mail). The team started talking about it at the wrap-up dinner after the conference that it would be an interesting way to talk to men. The God squad team in a planning session decided a couple years ago that they really wanted to start reaching younger men and this was an interesting concept to accomplish that goal.

Many of you know that I have been working with youth at risk and it has been on my heart to try and help find them a stable, disciplined environment that they can grow in. I thought it would be something like a Boys Town started by Fr. Flanagan or Bosco Homes started by Fr. Larre.  On Holy Thursday as I was participating in the start of the Easter triduum I was given an internal awareness that the church was their home and they needed to be invited to that home. Several of the God squad team floated the idea of doing a barbeque outreach past men who have attended our conferences with very positive feedback.  I ended up talking to the friend that had made the donation that I had threatened to send the e-mail to which he responded by making another donation towards the barbecue idea.

It is that time of year again for our annual God squad men's conference. This year we have chosen the theme The Power of Redemption: Our Father’s Love, the Ultimate Reality. Redemption is something that many of us struggle with saying that we don't deserve to be forgiven for what we have done. This goes for both young and old. Our kids don't think that mom and dad will ever forgive them for something that they've done wrong. Many of us can’t fathom how God, Our Heavenly Father, can forgive us for the things we have done.  Love overcomes all.  Then there is the other group who have bought into the philosophy that it doesn't matter what you have done, there is no need to ask for forgiveness saying, “ I'm basically a good person; everybody goes to heaven”. For the first group please know that God's loving mercy does not seem to have an end. It does not matter how far gone you think you are or what you've done. If you returned to him it would be like the parable of the prodigal son whose father is waiting at the end of the road. He is all too quick to come running when he sees us on our path back. To the second group, hopefully they wake up before descending, as the prodigal son did, to the point where he was in envy of what the pigs had to eat (Luke 15:11-32). God has so much better of a life plan for you but sin must be recognized, repentance experienced with true contrition and sorrow for that sin must be felt before forgiveness can happen.