Whether you’re setting church ministry goals or reflecting on personal areas for growth, we’re here for New Year support. This week, we’ve pulled together articles and tools to help get you where you want to go in the coming year, for God’s glory.
By the Man in the Mirror Team
As we enter into a new year, we are grateful that we’ve had the opportunity for 35 years to serve men who want to grow and disciple others. It’s a privilege!
As you are prayerfully reflecting and setting new goals, we want to come alongside you and support you however we can.
Below you’ll find recommended tools and articles from Man in the Mirror to help you:
- Lead a small group
- Mentor someone or start a mentoring program
- Start men’s ministry at your church
- Strengthen your church’s existing ministry to men
- Start a men’s Bible study
- Disciple men at church through an event and small groups
- Grow in your faith
- Grow as a husband or father
- Refocus your heart and mind on Christ
Each new year is a gift from God, and we want to help you use yours for His glory.
For deeper personal reflection, we also invite you to journal through this short guide that was created by Patrick Morley in 2020. We hope these resources are helpful to you—
“This year, I want to…”
Lead a small group
How to Make the Best Men’s Small Group
Jesus used a small group to create momentum. Jesus launched His divine plan to redeem mankind by making disciples out of a small group. Impressive. The question, of course, is why would he do that? Why a small group? And how can we make your best men’s small group?
From Ho-Hum Small Groups to Life-Changing Relationships
We’re wired for small groups. So how can we take them from bastions of boredom and obligatory spiritual growth activity to exciting opportunities to develop true, intentional, spiritual friendships? Here are four ways to get out of a rut.
Sharing Your Testimony: The Power of Story in Ministry
You want men to experience deep faith and authentic relationships. Giving them the opportunity to tell their stories is one of the most powerful practices your ministry can implement. Why? Sharing our testimonies connects us in three ways.
Why Fraternities Thrive and Men’s Ministries Don’t
What drew me to my fraternity was that I found something there that I couldn’t find in my student ministry group: brotherhood. Here are 10 lessons my fraternity taught me that should change the way we think about men’s discipleship.
Mentor someone or start a mentoring program
The Power, Promise, and Practice of Mentoring
Are you longing to put your faith in action and make a difference? Is God prompting you to invest in someone else? We want to demystify and discuss the ins, outs, and life-changing nature of mentoring men.
Invite another man to engage in meaningful conversation as you go through this journal together, designed to help you set aside time for honest self-reflection on five key areas: health, origins, relationships, vocation, and soul.
4 Sacrifices of a Disciple Maker
You’ve read Jesus’ words to go and make disciples but may be asking, “Am I called to that? Am I qualified? Where do I start?” We have the answers for you. Before you begin, however, you also need to know the costs of being a disciple maker.
The Christian Man Mentoring Experience
The Christian Man Mentoring Experience takes the guesswork out of the mentoring process so that you can focus on what matters most: becoming the man God has created you to be and helping someone else do the same. This 12-week mentoring experience is based on The Christian Man book by Patrick Morley and used with a downloadable Coaching Guide.
Start men’s ministry at my church
How to Start Men’s Ministry in 5 Steps
If you want to know how to start men’s ministry, this is for you! Based on our experience with thousands of churches, here are 5 steps to start—or restart—your men’s discipleship program out on the right foot and get guys moving.
GO: Jumpstart Your Ministry to Men
The GO Box is a proven combination of training & resources to jumpstart your ministry to men. In as little as nine weeks, your church will recruit new leaders and cast vision, plan a simple event, kick off your men’s ministry, engage men in small groups, and connect them to long-term growth opportunities. (Special offer for blog subscribers: save 50% on GO Box through January 2022 with coupon code GOBOX50.)
Strengthen our ministry to men
Built to Last: Discipling Men in Your Church
For most men, only in the local church will they find consistent opportunities to grow in their faith in relationship with others. Is your ministry ready for them? Here are three sustainability principles for discipling men in your church.
Overcoming Obstacles in Men’s Ministry
We surveyed hundreds of men’s ministry leaders and pastors around the country about their ministry needs, challenges, and successes. Once we collected all the responses, two needs rose to the top of the list: how to get more men engaged in spiritual growth and relationships, and how to have a stronger leadership team.
3 Lessons from the Coach’s Playbook
Our ministry is forever indebted to a men’s leader called “Coach K.” As we like to say, discipleship changes everything, and he centered his life on that truth. We know his legacy lives on in the men transformed by these three powerful lessons.
Is the Reach of Your Ministry Wide and Deep?
Making disciples is helping men who don’t know Christ become followers of Jesus. Your ministry must engage men at each stage of this journey. We call it the Wide-Deep Continuum, and every man in your ministry has a place on its path.
The “No Man Left Behind” Model: Team Training
The No Man Left Behind Model has helped thousands of leaders in churches just like yours. This customizable team training is offered in multiple formats to help you create a thriving ministry to men.
Coaching from a Local Man in the Mirror Area Director
Our local Area Directors are trained and committed coaches focused on one thing: helping churches reach and disciple men as effectively as possible. Find an Area Director near you.
Start a men’s Bible study
Use the Man in the Mirror Weekly Video Bible Study
You can start a Bible study group for men, using our free video library. You’ll be joining a network of thousands of men who want to grow as disciples and disciple-makers. No experience is required. Here’s how.
3 Reasons You Can Believe the Bible is the Word of God
The most scrutinized and authenticated, scientifically and academically studied, carefully documented and transmitted piece of literature in history happens to make the internal claim to be the written word of God. Is the Bible true? And can you stake your life on it?
Disciple men at church through an event and small groups
3 Secret Ingredients to Your Best Men’s Event
Churches don’t set out to hold events to check off a box on the ministry calendar. But without a plan to capture the momentum created by the event, the impact is often short term. Here’s a plan to ensure your next men’s event is your best men’s event—and impacts men long after!
Host our most popular men’s event: Success That Matters
Help the men in your church overcome inertia, reflect, connect with other men, and be changed. The Success That Matters event provides men with a clear biblical direction for their life.
Choose from five Man in the Mirror events
Reach and disciple your church’s men through an interactive men’s event and follow-up groups. Each of our five events includes planning and promotional tools, a presentation of the gospel, and curriculum for long-term growth.
GO: Jumpstart Your Ministry to Men
The GO Box is a proven combination of training & resources to jumpstart your ministry to men. In as little as nine weeks, your church will recruit new leaders and cast vision, plan a simple event, kick off your men’s ministry, engage men in small groups, and connect them to long-term growth opportunities. (Special offer for blog subscribers: save 50% on GO Box through January 2022 with coupon code GOBOX50.)
Grow in my faith
Are you on the run? You’re in good company. Most of us face tremendous pressure. The problem is we make mistakes under pressure. And when we’re running, it becomes harder and harder to stop for self-reflection to take stock of our lives.
We can’t love God with intensity because we are good or strong. We love God because He reached His loving hand down into the slough of human progress and pain to capture our souls through the grace of Christ.
How to Discover Your Personal Ministry
God’s plan is for every follower of Christ to have a personal ministry, or “good works” that He has prepared for us to do. Most Christian men I’ve met have it in their hearts to serve God. They just need someone to show them HOW.
In our hurried, task-driven lives, we too often trade reflection for production. We want everything on our own terms, and God is no exception. Here are signs you’ve bought into a counterfeit Christianity and become a cultural Christian.
As Christians, we share the same, one-size-fits-all goal: to abide in Christ, to love others as Christ loved us, and to bear fruit. So why do so many of us feel stuck right now? And could there also be a one-size-fits-all solution?
Grow as a husband or father
The Strongest Man in the World
There is no neutrality when a man remembers his father. For better or worse, a father has incredible influence. Dads, here are four ways to bless your children that can create a completely different trajectory in their lives.
Spiritual Leadership: The Prophet, Priest, and King
For a lot of men, there are few terms as confusing or intimidating as when we’re told to be a “spiritual leader.” What does it even mean or look like on a daily basis? We want to demystify this concept so that you can start leading today!
Whether you’re looking for a better work/life balance, wondering how to spiritually lead your family, or struggling relationally at home, a good starting point is recognizing that if you have a family, your family is your first ministry.
I have always viewed family devotions as a requirement of all good Christian dads, and if I wasn’t doing anything, I felt guilty. But mere obligation is a poor motivator. Passion, on the other hand, drives us to overcome obstacles.
Refocus my heart and mind on Christ
In this series, we’re exploring the voices in your mind fighting for control of the conversation: the voice of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Now we come to the one that is exponentially more powerful than the first three combined—the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Division in the Body of Christ
Jesus destroyed the division between Jew and Gentile. But today, many of us are rebuilding a dividing wall of hostility, brick by brick. In levying new regulations on one another, we sacrifice peace, unity, and wisdom from above. What’s a better way?
Mary, Martha, and Men’s Discipleship
Men are running to keep up with the demands of a culture that requires more energy than they have to give, and ministry leaders are no exception. In a simple story of two sisters named Mary and Martha, we find a better way—one that transforms everything.
The world is not alright, but the world is also not our home. We are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. And the attitudes of our hearts reveal the citizenship of our souls.
We are bombarded with crises, information, and questions. Because of this, we feel compelled to take a side or have an opinion. Yet we rarely stop to consider whether the issue is something that God’s calling us to engage—or if He is, how. How do we focus on what really matters?
Life moves quickly, sweeping us up along with it if we don’t stop long enough to consider the deeper questions behind why we do what we do. This failure to examine what is motivating us has the power to throw our lives wildly off course.
Still don’t see what you’re looking for?
Please call one of our ministry consultants at (407) 472-2100 if you’d like help with your ministry plans.
From all of us at Man in the Mirror, we pray this year is full of growth, joy, and hope in Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
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