David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men. (1 Sam 22:1-2)
The Cave Project is a special application of our ministry to a need we feel is vital to Gen Z.
This Project targets men who find themselves in positions of leadership or responsibility, but who need community to care for them as they are caring for others. Often our society's attitude toward men is that if they are "real men" or "true leaders" they shouldn't need anyone else. Yet this false belief is neither biblical nor is it natural. Everyone needs a friend. Everyone needs a family.
When natural families are working well, this happens pretty fluidly. People check in on each other. They send texts. Grandma makes a box of cookies and puts it in the mail. There's a place to put your feet up at night, and there are empathetic or appreciative faces of people who know what you're going through.
However, often the hard work of caring for the most "distressed" souls is done by those who have a similar story themselves. In other words, often the leaders and care-givers in men's ministry are those who themselves still suffer a lack of healthy family connections. This wears leaders down and often burns them out. When leaders are operating beyond their capacity, they are prone to their own relapses. This hurts everyone.
Many men's ministries - particularly residential ministries - are maxed out just providing funds, housing, and programs for the men in their care. At an organizational level, men's ministry often carries gaps in maintaining the health and wellness of leadership.
The Cave Project is an effort to address that need.
What The Cave Project Offers Your Men's Home Leaders
Individual Life Coaching
Healthy leaders are people who aren't afraid to address where they themselves still need to grow and heal. Our Life Coaches encourage leaders to operate out of true maturity rather than having to fake it. Coaching allows men to get strong from the inside out so they don't break under pressure.
THE CAVE PROJECT CONTRACT:
One hour of one-on-one life coaching per week for each of your in-home leads.
Life Model Training
The Life Model explains what happen in the brain when there is trauma or a chronic lack of relational joy and emotional maturity. Addictions and relapses often stem back to these needs, and we train leaders to care for men in ways that rebuild foundational relational brain skills. This leads to greater joy and greater emotional capacity.
THE CAVE PROJECT CONTRACT:
Once-a-month community building for men's home leads, with Life Model informed training.
Healing Communities
Relationships matter to men, and men matter to relationships. We connect men through training workshops and joyful real-life interaction. We believe men have much more value than just the paycheck they earn, and we walk alongside as men strengthen their relational skills so they can show up for the people they love.
THE CAVE PROJECT CONTRACT:
Regular in-person visits from Roman to your men's home to build relationships and boost morale.
Support For Organizations
We value every organization that seeks to bring wholeness to men. The Cave Project is not a competitor but a resource to increase the overall success of men's homes and men's ministries. We honor your programs and your policies and enhance the care you already provide to men by providing care to their leaders.
THE CAVE PROJECT CONTRACT:
We can contract with men's homes in our area as well as nationwide. Call Roman Bravo to get started!
What does The Cave Project have to do with Gen Z?
We see The Cave Project impacting Gen Z in the following ways:
1. Gen Z is now entering their 30s. Gen Z is no longer the "youth" generation; some of them already have children of their own and are getting serious about their own recovery from addictions, trauma, and consequent lack of emotional health. Many men in Gen Z find themselves in need of men's ministry such as the kind we are targeting.
2. The Gen Z story calls for a relational approach. Since many of the addictions in Gen Z are rooted in the technology and history of the past 20 years, addictions for Gen Z men can frequently be traced to a lack of emotional, relational, and social maturity. While this is true for any generation, it is disproportionately true for Gen Z men who seem to have had all the necessary economic, educational, and relational advantages. As more and more Gen Z men seek the kind of relief and healing that your men's ministry is set up to provide, we offer a robust understanding of Gen Z that heals and resets the negative impact of several decades of isolation.
3. Many of the older men in recovery or sober living homes have Gen Z children. And Gen Z children are now adults, and are seeing their own need for reconciliation and relationship with their dads. We come alongside in the process to support the Gen X and Boomer fathers of Gen Z, so that our mission to Gen Z can be completed full-circle in the healthy and healing communities that we all depend upon.
About the Cave of Adullam
The Cave of Adullam is the biblical location where David trained his men (who were originally outcasts, debtors, and distressed individuals) into an elite army of warriors (1 Samuel 22:1-3).
David wrote Psalm 142 from this cave:
1 With my voice I cry out to the LORD;
with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD.
2 I pour out my complaint before him;
I tell my trouble before him.
3 When my spirit faints within me,
you know my way!
In the path where I walk
they have hidden a trap for me.
4 Look to the right and see:
there is none who takes notice of me;
no refuge remains to me;
no one cares for my soul.
5 I cry to you, O LORD;
I say, “You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living.”
6 Attend to my cry,
for I am brought very low!
Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are too strong for me!
7 Bring me out of prison,
that I may give thanks to your name!
The righteous will surround me,
for you will deal bountifully with me.