‘How’s church?’ I asked. He is usually an upbeat kind of character so I was expecting a fairly positive reply. But that is what I did not get. The response from my friend was that basically he was struggling. ‘There’s simply no depth of fellowship among the men there. The preaching is sound, but the pastor is always in his study and the kinds of issues I face with my job are simply not addressed either from the pulpit or in personal conversation.’