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by Patrick Morley, David Delk and Brett Clemmer You’ve got men, you’ve got a church. Add a testimony, some pancakes, and prayer and – poof! A men’s ministry. Right? Not necessarily. This book is based on over 30 years of combined ministry experience, of training classes at the Leadership Training Center and thousands of interactions with men’s ministry leaders. It is filled with practical strategies and real life stories from leaders like you who are discipling men in the local church. You can reach men. You can get them to grow closer to Christ. They can help you change the world. This book will show you how. Click here to see what others are saying about this book. Get the teachings that inspired the book together in this great combo kit!
Do you long to be close to God? To walk in His ways? To capture His joy and excitement for your life Some one once said, "Life is in the details." This certainly hold true when in comes to our spiritual walks. Many times the difference between the man who has a faith that is alive and vibrant and the man who feels alone and apart from God is linked to how they approach the regular disciplines of their spiritual walk. Spiritual Disciplines for the Man in the Mirror is a 12 part series by Pat Morley that addresses the details of a life with God. Topics include:• A Man and the Bible
Order the book $15.19 Order DVD set $39.20 Tired of doing small groups that are all talk and
little action?
When you complete this 12 session series, your men will:
This 12 session curriculum alternates between dynamic teaching from Pat Morley and practical "spiritual skills" that will help your men put the Great Commission into action. One week you will watch a 30-minute message by Pat Morley and discuss it. The next week you will discuss a passage of scripture, optional readings, and the application exercises. This format will help your men actually apply what they are learning to their daily lives.
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March/April 2007 Vol. 3 No.2 "Overcoming the Performance Orientation In Men" Excerpts from No Man Left Behind (Chapter 4) How are men successful in the world? We quickly figure out that we have to dress a certain way, have a certain job, make a certain amount of money, live in the right house, or have a good family. The focus is on external things that we can do or see.So, we take a man from this world’s system and plop him down in church. He wants to be a "successful Christian." He looks around and decides he needs to dress a certain way, use certain phrases, attend church a certain number of times, give money, serve on committees, and join a men’s class. Often, we take a man from one performance-oriented culture (the world) and move him right into another one (the church). In both of these scenarios a man is basically relying on his own strength to be his god. We end up with men who are focused on whether their external behavior matches some ideal, but who are disconnected from a heart of faith. Men know how to play the game, and if you let them, they will follow your rules to perfection. The only problem is that in ten or twenty years, like Lou (who suddenly had an affair), they will realize that their hearts are dead. We must get beyond a performance orientation. A man’s actions will eventually reflect what is happening in his heart. Just like you can’t treat cancer by putting a Band-Aid on a man’s skin, you can’t help a man become a disciple by fixing his behavior and ignore his heart. Christianity is not about behavior modification; it is about heart transformation. Click here to order No Man Left Behind from the PCA bookstore40 of "The Most Important Things to Know" by Patrick Morley A few years ago I started a list of "the most important things to know" about men’s discipleship ministry. I realized the task was way bigger than I first thought, but here’s how far I got with my list. Though it’s far from comprehensive, I do think it reflects many of the felt and real needs of men today. And at the end there are a few ideas to help men do something about it. How Men Are Doing and Why
(To finish the article, click here to link to A Look In the Mirror # 147) Called to Sexual Integrity "The Process By Which Our Sexuality Is Redeemed" By Gary Yagel Christians are those whose sexuality is in the process of being redeemed--set free from the corruption and slavery of our sinful nature. Sexual purity is therefore only possible as the gospel transforms us. This transformation process can be thought of as a spiritual combustion cycle consisting of repentance, faith, and obedience. (From Steve Childers, DMin Course, "Spiritual Dynamics for Leaders") Since our sexuality is so deeply rooted in us, this redemption can take a very long time. There are no simplistic answers or easy steps to sexual purity. Such purity is the result of our growth in holiness, what is called our sanctification. That is why real sexual purity only comes from the Biblical growth process of repentance, faith, and obedience. Although these three concepts may seem familiar to us—we often make little progress in our sanctification because we have such a superficial understanding of what they mean. So, let's begin with "repentance," (METANOIA). True repentance engages our head (affirmations), our heart (affections) and our hands (actions.) Repentance begins with overcoming rationalizations and mentally agreeing with God’s verdict that what we have done is wrong. Here are some of the common excuses for sexual sin that must be exposed to God’s Word: "I can’t help it if I like the shape of the female body," (see Job 31:1), "the Bible says pre-marital sex is wrong, so anything but intercourse is okay," (see Ezekiel 23:3, Song of Songs 2:7), "I have to indulge in lustful fantasies and "self-pleasure" to relieve the sexual pressure that builds up every few days," (see I Cor. 10:13), "I look at porn as a necessary outlet because my wife isn’t interested enough in sex." (see I Cor. 7:5) Steve Gallagher points out that sin causes us to suppress the truth and rationalize. "There exists an interesting correlation between a person’s involvement with sin and his awareness of it. The more a person becomes involved in sin, the less he sees it. Sin is a hideous disease that destroys a person’s ability to comprehend its existence. It could be compared to a computer virus that has the ability to hide its presence from the user while it systematically destroys the hard drive." (At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry.) Repentance requires us to bring our sin into the light. "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives." I John 1:8-10. Exposing ourselves to the light means submitting ourselves to God’s judgment concerning our behavior, i.e. agreeing with God’s verdict. True repentance engages our mind—agreeing with God’s verdict; but it goes beyond the mind to engage the heart. Repentance of heart means grieving over our sin, recognizing that the root sin is spiritual adultery (looking for satisfaction to another god), and learning to hate sexual sin. James describes a repentant attitude when he says, "Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up," James 4:8-10. A central part of grieving over our sin is realizing that our sin is personal. We have grieved our God. We have wounded him by our rebellion. It is his face into which we have spit in our defiant rebellion against his law. When David committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband, Uriah, he clearly sinned against two humans. Yet, it is his personal betrayal of his God that looms much larger in his mind. "Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight….Hide your face from my sins and blot out all of my iniquity," Ps 51. Just as our sin is a personal offense, so our redemption is at a personal cost to our God. It is the blood of his own son. Peter writes, "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." I. Peter 1:18-19 Repentance that transforms us begins by agreeing with God’s verdict about our sexual sin. But it goes way beyond that, causing a deep inner sorrow over the wound our rebellion has inflicted on the heart of the God who loves us. In the next issue, we will continue looking at repentance of heart, as we consider the sin that lies beneath the sin of sexual impurity and examine how to train our hearts to hate evil, which is what Paul commands in Romans 12:9
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