ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — Nationally noted speaker and best selling author Andy Andrews got up early Thursday morning to get ready for his speaking engagement. It wasn’t one of the NFL teams or a Fortune 500 company that often calls on Andrews to come in and rev up their players or sales reps. It was a group of guys, friends Andy called them, who live right here in Orange Beach and gathered in the party room at Hazel’s for breakfast.

Recently formed, iM (Island Men) is the brainstorm of Orange Beach United Methodist Church Pastor’s Assistant Jonathan Langston and Orange Beach Police Officer Jay “Packy” Dempsy. The purpose of the gathering is to allow local men to come together on a regular basis to connect with each other and to seek God’s guidance in their lives. In fact, the iM mission statement is for local Christian men to change the word, and the Island, one grain of sand at a time.

“A lot of people in the area don’t always want to get involved with something that is church based. So we put something together that doesn’t have anything to do with a specific church, we don’t even call it non-denominational,” Langston explained. “We just call it an island fellowship of Christian men.”

Langston said that both he and Dempsy had separately been feeling the urge to start such a group, but the two cousins hadn’t realized it until they began to talk.

“About the middle of August, we had lunch together, realized that we shared many of the same ideas and concerns for the area, and by the middle of September, we had this started.”

Sixty five men, from real estate sales people, to elected officials, to retail owners showed up for the very first iM meeting to hear businessman Joe Bullard speak, and the room was almost packed for the second gathering, to listen to Andrews.

Originally, Langston and Dempsy thought about having the iM meet once every other month, but after only two meetings, and 85 men showing up, the group will begin meeting monthly in 2010.

“Men don’t normally hang out together in large packs.  We tend to stay with our small group of friends.  So the idea here is to bring together as many men who want to join us as possible.”

Langston and Dempsy are both convinced that local men joining together for motivation and prayer will do great things for the cities represented, for the churches, and for the children and families that live, work and go to school here.

“Men have less and less become the spiritual leaders in their families, but we are beginning to see a change, and this group can very well help in making that happen,” said Langston.

Andrews, who had been in Las Vegas and Birmingham earlier in the week, and who is in demand for his motivational speeches worldwide, said it was different speaking to friends.

“This is a little different for me. I have lived here for more than 30 years. Some of the men in this room I’ve seen at stop lights, in line at the grocery stores, or we’ve been in and out of each other’s houses. “

Andrews shared with the men a little of his own rags to riches story, and then talked about making right choices and decisions, and about seeking wisdom.

Andrews is probably best known for his Seven Decisions of Highly Effective People from his book The Traveler’s Gift.

The next iM meeting will be the third Thursday morning in January at 7 a.m. at Hazel’s.