"Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another." Proverbs 27:17
Who we are
The Intentional Man exists to call men to follow Christ, form men according to the character and standard of Christ, and send men to serve the vulnerable as an expression of love for Christ.
This is not a casual gathering. It is a brotherhood built on Scripture, accountability, and responsibility. We believe biblical manhood is not defined by culture, comfort, or status. It is defined by obedience to God, integrity in private, leadership in the home, and courage under pressure.
Throughout Scripture, we see men who failed through silence. Men who obeyed without applause. Men who trusted without clarity. Men who were refined through suffering. Their lives reveal a consistent truth. God forms strong men through responsibility, surrender, endurance, and faithfulness.
At The Intentional Man, we focus on:
Rejecting passivity
Strengthening spiritual leadership
Developing disciplined character
Building accountable brotherhood
Applying Scripture to real life
This group is for men who want to grow, not coast. Men who want truth, not comfort. Men who are willing to be sharpened.
If you are ready to take responsibility for your faith, your character, and your calling, you belong here.
Founders
Sammy Bencid · Founder
I grew up in Miami, Florida as the oldest of three, with a younger sister and a younger brother. My father was present in our home and worked hard to carry us. What was missing for a long time was the spiritual leadership only Christ provides.
In 2008, the marriage and the peace of our home came under attack. The economy crashed at the same time. My father was a broker and lost his work, his own father passed away, and our house went into foreclosure. We hit rock bottom.
That was the moment my father reflected on what the rock of his life actually was. He took his family and ran to the church and built on Jesus. He was not a perfect man, but that single decision was the greatest thing he ever did for us, and it is where I learned the verse that has been planted in my heart ever since.
"Blessed is the man whose trust is in the Lord and whose confidence is in him."
Jeremiah 17:7
I was baptized in 2011, and I have been walking with Christ ever since.
My father passed away on July 3rd. I had turned eighteen less than a month earlier, and I was three weeks from leaving for summer training at my college football program. I went anyway, but my body was there and my motivation was gone. I ended up transferring schools, and not long after, COVID shut the country down. That season is when I grew closest to Carmine. He was the first man I ever discipled. It was also the season I fell in love with fishing, which I would not realize until later was the Father's quiet way of preparing me for what He was about to call me into.
After COVID I came back to FIU and finished my degree in biology. My father had worked in the gym his whole career as a manager, and I had grown up in that scene, so I picked it back up. Today I work as a coach at a physical therapy and sports performance center, and I run my own coaching practice. Building men's bodies for a living is what I do. Building men's souls is what God has called me to.
My mother is a widow, and she is the strongest woman I have ever known. She held our family together when no one would have blamed her for breaking. She kept us in church and kept us in the Word. The reason James 1:27 is the verse that built this ministry is because every time I read it, I am reading it about her. If you take nothing else from my story, take this. Plug into your local church. Mine is the reason I am still here.
I had to step in as the man of the house at eighteen. Becoming a spiritual leader, a provider, a protector, a brother, a son to a widow, and one day a husband and a father, was no longer theoretical. It was the calling on my life. Today I am newly married to my beautiful wife and walking into the next chapter of that same calling.
The verses that mark this ministry are the verses my life is built on.
Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction.
What I see in the men around me is the same pattern repeating in home after home. Fatherlessness. Passivity. Addiction. Idolatry. Fornication. A generation of men told they do not matter, beginning to believe it.
The Intentional Man is my answer to that call.
Carmine D’Ascoli III · Co-founder
I grew up in a fatherless household. My parents divorced when I was five, and my mother raised three boys on her own. She carried a weight no one should have to carry alone. At the time I did not see God's hand in any of it. Looking back, it is the only way I can explain what came next.
By His grace, I graduated from Christopher Columbus High School in Miami, Florida. By His grace, I wrestled and played football and learned what it cost a man to compete. By His grace, I earned Eagle Scout. None of it was me.
In 2019 I gave my life to Christ as Lord and Savior. The verse that called me out was Isaiah 40:31.
"But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."
Since that day, God has rebuilt the relationship between my father and me. He set my eyes on what He was calling me to. That call brought me into the United States Marine Corps, where I met my wife at my first duty station in Hawai'i. I serve as a Sergeant. I am a husband and a father of two. My passion is to preach the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ to every man who will hear it.
This ministry is part of that calling. Sammy was the first man who discipled me. The brotherhood we share is the reason The Intentional Man exists in the form it does.
Weekly Bible studies for men seeking disciplined faith, leadership, and responsibility before God
What we believe
We are a non-denominational ministry. We do not chase trends. We do not soften Scripture. We hold to what the Bible plainly teaches.
Scripture. The Bible is the divine Word of God. It is inspired, inerrant, infallible, and the final authority for what we believe and how we live. It is not a guidebook. It is not a self help volume. It is not a collection of good ideas. It is the truth.
2 Timothy 3:16–17 · Hebrews 4:12 · Isaiah 40:8
God. There is one God, eternally existing in three Persons. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Deuteronomy 6:4 · Matthew 28:19 · 2 Corinthians 13:14
Jesus Christ. Jesus is fully God and fully man. He lived a sinless life, died on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for sin, rose bodily on the third day, ascended to the Father, and reigns now as Lord. He is the standard of manhood and the only Savior of men.
John 1:1, 14 · 1 Corinthians 15:3–4 · Philippians 2:5–11 · Acts 4:12
The Holy Spirit. The Spirit indwells every believer, convicts of sin, empowers obedience, and continues to give gifts to the Church today. We do not believe these gifts ceased. We do believe they are to be exercised in order, in love, and under the authority of Scripture.
John 14:16–17 · John 16:8 · 1 Corinthians 12:4–11 · 1 Corinthians 14:40
Salvation. A man is saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Not by works. Not by religion. Not by family name. But faith without fruit is no faith at all. A man is known by his fruit. Genuine faith produces repentance, obedience, sanctification, and a life increasingly conformed to Christ.
Ephesians 2:8–9 · James 2:17 · Matthew 7:16–20 · Romans 8:29
Manhood. A man is made in the image of God. He is called to lead with humility, love sacrificially, provide faithfully, protect courageously, and walk humbly with his God. Marriage is the lifelong covenant between one man and one woman. The husband is the spiritual head of the home, modeled on Christ, who led by laying down His life. Fatherhood is a sacred trust. Sonship is the foundation under all of it.
Genesis 1:26–27 · 1 Corinthians 16:13 · Ephesians 5:25 · Ephesians 6:4 · Micah 6:8
Heaven and Hell. Both are real. Both are eternal. What a man does with Christ in this life determines where he spends the next.
John 14:1–3 · Matthew 25:31–46 · Revelation 21:1–4
The Return of Christ. Jesus Christ will return. Bodily, visibly, and in glory. He will judge the living and the dead and make all things new. We live ready.
Acts 1:11 · 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 · Revelation 22:12
The Mission. The man who has been found by Christ does not stay where he was found. He goes. He makes disciples. He feeds the hungry. He clothes the naked. He visits the widow and the orphan. He lays his life down for his brothers. This is not optional. This is the mark of a man who belongs to Christ.
Matthew 28:18–20 · Matthew 25:35–40 · James 1:27 · 1 John 3:16–18
What we reject
We name these clearly so no man wonders where we stand.
We reject the prosperity gospel. The teaching that Christ exists to make you rich, comfortable, or successful by the world's measure.
We reject soft on sin teaching. The idea that God's love means He overlooks what He has called evil. He does not.
We reject theological liberalism. The abandonment of biblical authority in favor of cultural opinion.
We reject feminism's redefinition of manhood and womanhood. The teaching that the roles God designed are oppressive rather than holy.
We reject the feminization of men. The cultural pressure that tells a man his strength, his leadership, his protection, and his convictions are liabilities to be neutralized rather than callings to be sanctified.
We do not reject the men inside these teachings. We reject the teachings, and we call the men out of them and into Christ.
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."
Romans 12:2
If this sounds like the brotherhood you have been looking for, write to us. We will tell you when and where we meet next.
Reach out
If God is stirring something in you, write to us. We do not sell anything. We invite men into formation. Tell us where you are and what is on your mind. We will respond personally.