The birth of The Drawing Room began with an obituary.
About five years before I launched The Drawing Room in 2018, I was reading the obit of a precious saint from our church—the historic Ashland Avenue Baptist Church. Mr. Cecil York was absolute Ashland Aristocracy, a true pillar of the church where I had attended since nine months before I was born. Though I looked up to him as a kid, and loved and respected him as an adult, when I read his obituary, I was astounded. WWII sailor. Owner of a masonry company that built several notable central Kentucky buildings. Photographer. Award-winning movie producer. Private pilot. Boy Scout leader. A 17-year volunteer at the Center for Aging. After retiring, he wanted more exercise and began delivering daily newspapers; he was twice named Carrier of the Year in his late 60s. Mr. York was a wise and winsome man who was widely known for giving the best hugs at our church. I could go on and on.
Why hadn’t I ever had a conversation with this extraordinary man? Why hadn’t I met him for lunch, asked him to tell me more about his remarkable life? Why did I wait until it was too late?
These regretful questions haunted me. A natural introvert and an awkward conversationalist, I knew myself well enough to know that unless I became more intentional about spending time with other men, I probably couldn’t scrape together six pallbearers.
People are interesting, and everyone has a story. There’s something I can learn from each one, and perhaps there’s something I can share. God built us with a need for community. I wanted to discover first-hand what I could learn from men like Cecil York—before I read it in an obit.
Because I’m more task-oriented than people-oriented (and that’s OK; God uses both types), I knew that I would have to program it into my life. So I began envisioning a group of men, and crafted a gathering to be an event that I would enjoy it. I’d find out if other men enjoyed it, too. It turns out, they did.
I looked around me and carefully hand-picked a select group of men. Some were already good friends. Others were men whom I had observed that seemed to have something extraordinary about them.
The gathering would not be a Christian event or Bible study. It would be a world study from a biblical worldview. It would be a group of men who happened to be living the “normal Christian life,” as Watchman Nee put it, who would learn from each other. It would be “A Remarkable League of Inquisitive Men.” From the throwback “jackets suggested” requirement to the rapid-fire “Pardon The Interruption” format to the venue in an actual 175-year-old drawing room, it would be a bit odd, quite unlike anything the men had ever experienced.
The Drawing Room was born.
The inaugural meeting was held on April 12, 2018, with 18 hand-selected men in attendance at our Richardsonian Romanesque home at 467 W. 2nd Street in downtown Lexington. The manly topics that evening included sports, books, politics, philosophy, science, family, film, ethics, finance, and craftsmanship. The menu featured White Castle sliders and other “frat boy” favorites.
The Drawing Room continued every quarter for two years through January 9, 2020, with 26 charter members. Then COVID hit, and we met only one more time, July 3, 2020, before my wife and I decided to relocate to Florida—better weather, better politics. But alas, in 2025, we decided for a combination of family reasons to migrate back to Lexington and simply consider our move to Florida to be the longest and most expensive Florida vacation in history.
After returning, several former Drawing Room members shared fond memories of the gatherings and wondered if it would ever return. No longer living in a suitable location to host The Drawing Room, however, I approached Dr. Jeff Parr about hosting, and he graciously and enthusiastically agreed.
So, The Drawing Room was born again, resurrected, if you will—appropriately enough!
Other than the new venue and a few new faces, we’re not changing a thing about The Drawing Room. Which is fine with me; I’ve had enough of constant change and downgrades after COVID. We briefly entertained relaxing the dress code, but men seemed to enjoy making the gathering a little special, if not a little peculiar.
We will now meet only three times a year, but that change had already been announced in 2020. Four times a year just seemed to come around awfully often, and we’re all busy men.
But the core concept of The Drawing Room remains steadfast. We’ll continue to use the same fast-paced format and explore a plethoria of topics, and, of course, we’ll eat good food. We’ll still keep the same three simple ground rules:
- Always strive to enlighten every topic with a biblical worldview.
- What is said at The Drawing Room, stays in The Drawing Room.
- Practice respect and forgiveness. We’re all big boys.
I still have a passion for learning more about people’s lives, for learning more about a million things in the world that I’m inquisitive about, and for connecting it all to the Truth found in God’s Word. That’s why I started The Drawing Room. That’s why we’re relaunching it. That’s why I hope you join us.
