November
2005 Vol. 1 No.6
A
Perspective On Men’s Ministry From:
“Why Your Church Should Have a Men’s Minister”
Patrick M. Morley
We believe the most effective way to
reach men for Christ "long term" is for every church in America to
build a purpose-centered men's ministry.
So recently, we've
conducted Men's Ministry Leadership Workshops in cities where we've
been invited to implement the Success That Matters™ Strategy.
The
question we address in these workshops is, "How can you build a
men's ministry in your church that will last?" Attendees are pastors
and lay leaders who already have a men's ministry going, or would
like to.
We open by asking "How many of you have a full-time men's
minister on staff?" So far, only one church has. In the hundreds of
churches with which we are familiar, only a small handful have men's
ministers.
The follow up question is, "How many of you have a
full-time youth minister?" At this, the raised arms sway like amber
waves of grain.
A terrific way to nail down a lesson is to overstate
your case to make the point. Jesus often did this. For example, "If
your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out." Is that literally what He
meant? I don't think so! So in the same vein, after asking these two
questions we say, "If you had a men's minister in your church you
wouldn't need a youth minister."
Of course, a youth minister makes a
wonderful contribution, and we don't want churches letting them go!
On the other hand, if for the last 50 years the church had focused
on hiring men's ministers in the same way they have hired youth
ministers, would today's father and husband be so ill-equipped for
his role as spiritual leader of his homes?
What Would Jesus Do?
Men's ministry was the
ministry of Jesus. In fact, the earthly ministry of Jesus was almost
exclusively a men's ministry! By His example and teaching, Jesus
showed the men what they were supposed to do. Jesus focused on
making disciples of men, then He left it up to them to disciple
their wives and children.
Continue reading...
Building a Sustainable Men’s Ministry Insights from
the Men’s Ministry Action Plan
Gary Yagel
CE&P and Man in the Mirror now
jointly publish the Men’s Ministry Action Plan. Here is a summary of
insights from the first chapter.
The Four Cornerstones of
Successful Men’s Ministry
• The senior pastor’s enthusiastic
support for men’s ministry. If your senior pastor does not seem that
enthusiastic about men’s ministry—don’t give up. Keep passing on a
vision for why discipling men is so critical. Informally, build a
bond of brotherhood with a few men, yourself. If this is making an
impact in a few men’s lives, other men will notice and want to get
on board. Eventually, the church leadership will notice the
difference that men’s discipleship is making.
• A man passionate about reaching
other men. (This might be you.) Men’s ministry is not rocket
science. You don’t have to be experienced or a great orator to lead
a men’s ministry. If your passion focuses on the “ends” of changed
lives, then God will help you put together the “means” to do it.
• A committed leadership team. Bill
Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ has often said,
“Everything boils down to leadership.” The height of your men’s
ministry will be determined by the depth of your leadership. (See
Get in the Game , May and
June edition for how to build and equip a
leadership team.)
• The Right Strategy. The wrong
strategy could waste years of valuable time and discourage the most
enthusiastic supporters of men’s ministry. Most pastors and church
leaders have tried some form of men’s ministry, and most of them
would say it didn’t work. The purpose of Get in the Game is to
identify strategies and principles for men’s ministry that are
Biblical and which work.
Three Insights for Successful
Men’s Ministry
• Be purpose driven rather than event
driven. Men want to be part of something going somewhere. A purpose
statement allows them to link specific events to a significant
purpose. To do this requires a purpose statement for your men’s
ministry. Such a statement helps you screen out distractions and
hone in on priority activities. Too often, men’s events are single
shots that are not related to an overall strategy. This haphazard
approach makes it impossible to build a strong ministry by capturing
the momentum of key events and building upon it.
• Be relationship based rather than
task oriented. The foundation of successful men’s ministry is
building relationships. Although men need close male friends, they
are not usually relationship-driven. Rather, they tend to be
mission-driven and achievement oriented. Men build friendships more
shoulder to shoulder than face to face. The events you plan must
keep this mission orientation of men in mind. Your events must
therefore attract men by equipping them to better accomplish their
mission or by pulling them to do something—(whether it is a golf
tournament or work project.) But, once the men come to an event, be
strategic about helping them build relationships with one another.
Events attract men. Relationships make them stick.
• Make disciples and pray for
workers. Because men are doers, a church can assume that it is doing
well in its ministry to men, because, it has so many men involved in
projects at the church. But Jesus commanded us not to make workers
out of men but to make disciples out of men. (Matt. 28:19) When it
comes to the workers that are needed to get the job done, Jesus’
command was pray for them. (Matt. 9:38) If your church or men’s
ministry focuses on getting men to be workers rather than on making
disciples, it can easily burn men out. The following article by Pat
Morley is a good refresher course on discipleship. It is well worth
your time to read it and look at your men’s ministry through this
discipleship lens.
What
Is a Disciple and How Do You Make One
Pat Morley
WHAT IS A DISCIPLE? In the Bible the
word for disciple literally means “pupil” or “learner.” When applied
to the early Christians, it came to mean someone who declared a
personal allegiance to the teachings and person of Jesus. The life
of a disciple revolves around Jesus.
Here’s a good working
definition: A disciple is someone called to walk with Christ,
equipped to live like Christ, and sent to work for Christ. Calling,
equipping, sending. Let’s look at these three aspects of a
disciple’s life.
A Disciple Is Called To Walk With Christ
There are 108,000,000 men in America 15 years of age and
older. Regrettably, 66,000,000 of these men have made no profession
of faith in Christ. That’s sad, because many of them (like me) would
gladly receive Christ if engaged in a credible way. What’s even
sadder, though, is how many men think they have tried Christianity,
found it wanting, and rejected it, when in fact they have never
properly understood it.
First and foremost, a disciple is someone
who has believed in Jesus—his life, work, death, and resurrection.
The first task of making disciples is evangelism—to call men to walk
with Christ by grace through faith.
A Disciple Is Equipped To Live
Like Christ
A lot of people who reject
Christianity see Christians and say, “If that’s what it means to be
a Christian, then I want no part of it.” Isn’t that a criticism too
dangerous to leave unanswered? It may do more harm than good to
invite a man to become a Christian if we have no plan to help him
truly know and follow Christ.
When we don’t disciple (train and
equip) a man who professes Christ, he will almost always become
lukewarm in faith, worldly in behavior, and hypocritical in witness.
The second task of making disciples is teaching—to equip them to
live like Christ.
A Disciple Is Sent To Work For Christ
Why do we
equip men to live like Christ? So they can enjoy Christ by knowing
Him better, but also “so that the man of God may be thoroughly
equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Jesus prayed,
“Father, as you have sent me, so I am sending them” (John 20:21).
Every man wants to give his life to a cause, to make a difference,
to do something with his life. When we disciple a man, he will
eventually want to make that difference for the glory of God: to
“bear much fruit” and do “good works that will last” (John 15:8,16).
Once a man has been with Christ, experienced the joy of His grace,
the warmth of His love, the cleansing of His forgiveness, and the
indwelling of His Spirit, he inevitably comes to a point when he can
no longer be happy unless he is serving the Lord.
HOW DO YOU
MAKE ONE?
Continue
reading...
Interview with Dr,
Dan Doriani,
author of The Life of a God-Made Man
GITG:
What has been your involvement
with men’s ministry at Covenant Seminary?
DD: I was involved with men at
Covenant for the Tuesday morning prayer time from 7-7:45. That group
was not intended to be a discipleship group. I was involved with a
discipleship group called, “Things Men Do.” This group grew out of
my time playing basketball with guys from the seminary. We had a lot
of sports-oriented guys.
GITG: What was the format for “Things
Men Do?”
DD: I would throw out a paragraph
from Scripture that we would then discuss.
GITG:
What kinds of things did you
discuss?”
DD: We’d talk about things we weren’t
talking about elsewhere—pride, as a student, the excessive passion,
addiction, and desire to live vicariously through sports like
basketball.
GITG:
Your book has a chapter
entitled, “A Man and His Play.”
DD:
Yes. We talked a lot about the
male love of sports, the good aspects of that and the perversions of
play.
GITG:
What are some of the
perversions of play?
DD: Some adults don’ play enough.
They work so hard and worry so much that spontaneity has drained
from their lives. Some adults want to play all the time. Students
fail in college because of their video game addictions. Adults lose
their jobs for playing computer games during work. Some men play too
hard. They have to win when they play to prove themselves. A loss is
a blow to their fragile ego. We can also play for the wrong reasons.
People play to escape, to get away from work, to get away from home,
to flee their meaningless lives. They live for the weekend. Play
becomes an idol, as they find an identity in low golf scores or
rock-climbing skills.
GITG: What about the vicarious nature
of sports?
DD: Yes there are countless men whose
soul withers and dies (temporarily) because a teenager who attends
the nearby university and suffers from an excess of human growth
hormones misses a foul shot in the final seconds of a basketball
game. Someone needs to shake these pitiable men and tell them the
truth. “Those players don’t know you. They don’t care about you. If
they did know you they would not be your friend. Stop worrying about
the speed and strength of strangers. Wake up, get up, dust the
potato chips off your expanding belly, go outside and put some fun
in your own life.”
GITG: What suggestions do you have
for redeemed play?
DD: 1) Get out and play. 2) Lighten
up. 3) Enjoy yourself. 4) Get involved, body and mind. 5) If you
can’t play, at least be playful.
GITG:
Obviously, you’ve done some
thinking about play. What final thoughts do you have about play and
Christian men?
DD:
Playfulness should be a way of
life. It means not taking everything too seriously, not acting as if
everything rides on us. The best players know who they are—the sons
of a playful God. Redeemed play is play without guilt because we
know we don’t need to justify our existence by our good works. We
know our heavenly father will provide for us; so we can play, at
least occasionally, like his little children.
ITEM Discipleship for the Man in the
Mirror (Softcover) Patrick Morley For the man or woman interested in
a more serious, in-depth self-examination of their lives. It has has
been called a textbook on the Christian life and a primer to help
you understand what to believe and how to live it
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