Come To The Table: Let’s Talk | 2026 Online Series

For a long time, many of us as men have been told that pain is weakness. Somewhere along the way, we learned to swallow what hurts, keep going, and never let anyone see the cracks. For Black men especially, the message has often been clear: be strong, stay quiet, keep moving.

But silence is not a badge of honor. It can become a kind of suffering that goes unseen for too long.

June is recognized as Men’s Health Awareness Month. That does not only mean blood pressure, diet, and exercise. It also includes our mental and emotional health, the stress we carry, and the weight we rarely name. In many ways, this month is an invitation to pause and ask how we are really doing on the inside, which is part of why this call to the table matters right now.

Suffering does not always look like collapse. Sometimes it looks like irritability, pulling back, staying busy so we do not have to feel, or joking all the time so we never have to answer honestly when someone asks, “How are you?”

Many brothers still never talk to anyone about their mental and emotional health, often because of embarrassment, stigma, or the belief that they should handle it alone. Yet God did not design men to live as silent islands. Scripture calls us to carry one another’s burdens, not pretend we do not have any.

This is why the Come To The Table: Let’s Talk | 2026 Online Series exists. The table is more than furniture. It is a spiritual and relational space where men can bring both faith and questions, strength and struggle, and find room for prayer, honest conversation, wise counsel, and support.

My hope this June is simple: that more of us will decide not to carry everything by ourselves, and that the people who love us will slow down, ask, “How are you really?” and stay long enough to hear the truth.

At EPIC, we are committed to making space for that kind of honesty and healing, one conversation at a time.