Pastor Matt Chewning | Act Like Men Conference | 2026

Matt Chewning starts where nobody expects a men's conference to start: with how unqualified he is to be there. He didn't grow up in church, his mom is Jewish, he got his girlfriend pregnant before they married, and his family tree runs through divorce, addiction, and abuse. Then he opens Hebrews 11 and reads the "hall of faith" as it actually is — Noah drunk and naked after the flood, Moses hiding a body, Samson who couldn't keep his pants on — and asks the room the question he asks himself: how did the gospel ever get to men like us? "It's all grace," he says, pointing to 23 years of marriage, four kids who love Jesus, and a son now pastoring students.

That grace sets up the theology, and he warns you he's about to cook. Working through Acts 19, John 14, John 20, and Acts 1, he lands on a distinction he believes most American men have never been taught: the Holy Spirit *in* you seals your salvation, but the Spirit *on* you is what gives you power. Jesus didn't come to get you into heaven, he argues — he came to make you a dwelling place, to make you the holy of holies. And yet: "We got a lot of effort. You ain't got no power." A lot of grit, a lot of repentance, a lot of best practices — and men so tired that a corrective word from their wife sets off their whole nervous system. His diagnosis is Galatians 5: we're fighting the flesh with the flesh.

He makes the flesh unforgettable with a hunting story. A hooper, not a hunter, Chewning snipes the smallest hog in Texas — "you made me kill baby Pumba" — until the guide explains why you take them young: ten females and one male become a million hogs in five years. The flesh never says "enough," and it's always growing somewhere you're not looking.

The way through is Luke 11: ask, seek, knock — and keep knocking, like the neighbor pounding on the door at midnight. Chewning says he does it every morning on his knees before his feet hit the day. This one leaves you with something to actually do on Monday.

So go ahead and press play. If what you've read here stirred something, understand that it's a fraction of what's in the room — the conviction, the laughter, the men on their faces at the altar by the end. Give it the next hour, and don't just watch it. Ask, seek, knock, and let the Holy Spirit pour over you.