• A Man and the Bible
• A Man and Creation
• A Man and Prayer
• A Man and Worship
• A Man and the Sabbath
• A Man and Fellowship
• A Man and Counsel
• A Man and Fasting
• A Man and Stewardship
• A Man and Service
• A Man and Spiritual Warfare
• A Man and Evangelism

To build a sustainable ministry to men, you’ll need a solid foundation.  That foundation starts with your focus.  Yes, men need to be godly fathers, caring husbands, good stewards, and servant leaders.  But what is the core issue?  And how can we communicate it to men so they feel valued and inspired?  Laying the right foundation can help disengaged men to connect with the ministry of your church.

The Bible tells us, “Go and make disciples--baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).  Sometimes we get this confused with, “Go and make workers--browbeating them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus said, “Go and make disciples.”  That’s interesting, because he could have said anything.  He didn’t say, “Go and make worshippers.”  He didn’t say, “Go and make workers.”  Nor did he say, “Go and make tithers.”  Is Jesus interested in worshippers, workers, and tithers?  Of course.  But he knew we get worshippers, workers, and tithers, by making disciples.

Discipleship is the portal priority through which all the other priorities of the church can be achieved.  Only by moving through the discipleship gateway can people truly affect their church and their church affect them.

For instance, how can a man worship a God he doesn’t know?  Why would a man want to share his faith if he didn’t understand the Great Commission?  How could a man be a good steward if he didn’t understand and believe that everything he has is a gift from God—his time, talent, and treasure?  As we disciple men’s hearts, they start to live out of the overflow of their relationship with Christ.  Therefore, we can organize these efforts by putting discipleship in the center and drawing arrows out to each of our priorities.  (see the diagram below.)  These are the outcomes of staying focused on discipleship.

How can a church implement discipleship as the portal priority?  The items around the outside of the box represent activities or methods, which a church engages in to help build disciples.  (The next diagram illustrates this principle.) Remember these activities are not ends, in themselves, but rather focus on helping people learn or live out what it means to be a disciple. 

For more information on how to keep discipleship the portal priority in your men’s ministry, see our next Issue of “Get In the Game” or order No Man Left Behind, from the PCA bookstore by clicking here.

Spiritual disciplines are the regular practices men cultivate when they want a closer walk with Christ. The spiritual disciplines can help us break a cycle or get out of a rut. Disciplines are the spiritual habits by which we cultivate a deeper relationship with the Lord of heaven and earth. We perform the disciplines because we want to please God, to lead peaceable lives, to be godly husbands, to raise godly children, and to be men of God.

An athlete who lifts weights as part of a training regimen probably doesn’t lift just because he loves pumping iron. He probably wants to improve his strength and endurance (and possibly his appearance). Similarly, disciplines are not ends in themselves – they are means to an end.

Nothing you do will ever make you good enough for God to love you. Instead, He loves you because He made you, and because Christ died for your sins. Therefore, spiritual disciplines do nothing to improve your record with God. We don’t perform the disciplines to make God happy (or avoid His wrath), or to earn favor or merit with God. All the merit we need, we already have in Christ. We place our trust in God – not in the disciplines.

Nevertheless, disciplines demonstrate to God how serious we are about following Him, and they also help us see how serious we are as well. When all is said and done, spiritual disciplines are the designated means for us to grow in this relationship that we have with Jesus. God is always speaking, so if we don’t hear Him, it’s not because He has suddenly gone silent. It is more likely we aren’t listening—or perhaps don’t know how to listen.

Genuine success in overcoming sexual impurity only comes through our abiding relationship with Christ.  Sexual integrity is a matter of the heart and it is only through our connection with Christ that the spiritual fruit of a pure heart is produced.  “I am the vine; you are the branches.  If a man abides in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5).  He is the source not only of our justification, but of our sanctification, i.e. our growth in holiness. 

The classical understanding of how this union with Christ leads to our growth in holiness is that it takes place through repentance, faith, and obedience. These three Biblical concepts may seem familiar to us.  But a careful examination of each of these aspects of sanctification yields the rich, practical, Biblical insight our men need to overcome the sexual lust that overpowers them. 

True repentance engages our heads (affirmations), our hearts (affections), and our hands (actions).  It begins by bringing our sin into the light, confessing it, mentally agreeing with God’s verdict.  But, true repentance goes well beyond mental submission to God’ standard; it engages our heart.  We become grieved over our sin because it is a personal offense against our God.  It is his law that we have broken, his authority we have defied, his name we have dragged through the mud. 

Not only that, but in a deeper sense, our surrender to sexual temptation reveals that we really don’t believe I Corinthians 6:13, “But you cannot say that our physical body was made for sexual promiscuity; it was made for God and God is the answer to our deepest longings.”  Ed Welch points out, “The true nature of all addictions is that we have chosen to go outside the boundaries of the kingdom of God and look for blessing in the land of idols.  In turning to idols, we are saying that we desire something in creation more than we desire the Creator.” (Addictions:  A Banquet in the Grave.) Increased consistency in defeating sexual temptation will never come until we address the sin beneath the sin—the way we look to another God to satisfy out heart longings.

Heart Repentance means to:

I.  Recognize how inadequate your idol is to truly satisfy your heart.

“Lord, I have foolishly made this good thing absolute.  What is this compared to you?  It can not bless me, and love me, and help me like you.”

II. Recognize how dangerous your idol is to you.  It enslaves and will never be satisfied.

“Lord, why am I giving this such power over me.  If I keep doing it, it will lock me in chains.  With your help, I will not let this idol jerk me around, as if I were a dog on a leash.  This will not be my master.  You are my only king.”

III. Recognize how grievous this idol is to Christ.

“Lord, I can’t imagine how repulsive this idol is to you.   In yearning for this more than yearning to please you, I have trampled your love for me into the mud.  I have  gone after another lover and said that you are inadequate to meet my needs.”

Besides tracing sexual sin back to its idolatrous roots, repentance of heart means training our hearts to hate evil.  In Romans 12:9, Paul writes, “HATE WHAT IS EVIL; cling to what is good.”  Most men neglect this command and vital aspect of genuine repentance; so we will look at it in detail in the next issue of “Get In the Game.”