The foundation you establish during this stride will greatly impact the success of the challenge. Plan to devote two to eight weeks to this stride, depending on the systems and team you already have in place.

1. The Plan for the Challenge stride is a great time to link arms with other ministry leaders in the church and engage them in the process. Keep them updated about what you hope to accomplish in the lives of the men and let them know how they can be a part of The Journey. Also, think of ways that you and the men can serve them in their ministries! Click here to download email templates to use with other leaders.
2. It’s a good idea to review Process One in the Helpful Tools section before you begin; this will help you assess your leadership team and recruit new leaders for the challenge, as needed.
3. Once your team is in place, click on the Deliver Content stride (Stride 4) and review the recommended Create event and Capture and Sustain resources. These suggestions make up the “Straightforward Plan” option for this challenge. If you’d like more flexibility, view the “Flexible Plan” option (found under Deliver Content) to choose your own event and resources.
4. Once you’ve decided between the Straightforward Plan and Flexible Plan, download and print both the step-by-step instructions and Project Plan Checklist for Challenge 2. The Project Plan Checklist is a summary of the instructions to keep you on track; the timelines are a guideline and can be expanded or compressed as needed.

These instructions and checklists come from the JBM Leader’s Notebook.

Straightforward Plan:

View/download the Step-by-Step Instructions for Challenge 2.

View/download the Project Plan Checklist for Challenge 2.

Flexible Plan:

View/download the Step-by-Step Instructions for Challenge 2.

View/download the Project Plan Checklist for Challenge 2.

It’s important to cast vision for all the men in your church and help them see that where you’re headed is bigger than just an event or a group. We provide two tools to help you do this: 1) Faith & Life Objectives Cards and 2) Assessment forms.

(You can also show the Challenge 2 promo video to generate interest and cast vision!)

Faith & Life Objectives Cards

The Faith & Life Objectives represent what you hope God will accomplish in the lives of the men through the current challenge. These are printed on a card that should be distributed to every man in the church BEFORE the challenge begins.

The card includes three objectives: one about what a man should know (Head), another about what he should love and believe (Heart), and another about what he should do (Hands).

Follow these steps before you begin the challenge:

1. Download the editable card here and use as-is or edit as needed (template is in Microsoft Word).
2. Have your pastor approve the Faith & Life Objectives.
3. If you don’t want to make edits, download a color, print-ready version here; just send the file to an online printer (such as GotPrint or VistaPrint) for inexpensive printing!* (Note: You may also order these from Man in the Mirror.)
4. Print them on business cards, whether you’re ordering from a printer or printing your own. If you’re doing them yourself from the Microsoft Word file, use the Avery template for business cards, 10 per sheet (Avery business card paper can be purchased from Office Depot, Staples, or a similar supply store).
5. Give a card to EVERY man in your church. (You may want to distribute and collect the Assessment form prior to this.)
   

*Using the alternative brand, The Revolution? Click here to download print-ready cards for Challenges 1-4.

Assessment Forms

The purpose of the Assessment form is to help both the leaders and the men of the church determine where they are spiritually at the start and end of the challenge. Therefore, there are two versions of the form–a pre-challenge form and a post-challenge form.

Follow these steps before you begin the challenge:

1. Download the pre-challenge version here and use as-is or feel free to edit (template is in Microsoft Word). The form should reflect the Faith & Life Objectives.
2. Have your pastor approve the pre-challenge Assessment form.
3. Print them on whatever paper you prefer–two to a page–and then cut.
4. Be sure to give a pre-challenge Assessment form to EVERY man in your church. Distribute these before the challenge begins and give guys multiple ways to easily return them.
5. Make a simple report of the results and share with the leadership team.

Follow these steps near the end of the challenge:

1. Download the post-challenge version here and use as-is or feel free to edit (template is in Microsoft Word). The form should closely correspond with the pre-challenge assessment.
2. At the end of Stride 4 (Deliver content), distribute the post-challenge Assessment forms to EVERY man in the church. Again, give guys multiple ways to easily return them.
3. Make a simple report of the results; if possible, keep the results of the men who participated in the men’s-only portions of the challenge separate from those who did not. Share with your leadership team.

No matter how well you promote or plan, there will always be a percentage of men that will not come to an event or join a small group or class. It’s critical that your team helps them participate in the challenge through whatever ways they are already engaged at your church.

Below are some ideas for including men on the fringe, as well as men who may be involved in other activities at the church besides the men’s-only opportunities.

Choose one or two of the ideas below!

Disciple Every Man

• Give guys who aren’t involved in the group study an opportunity to participate through individual study. Send out a link to the six-part online video series Men of Grace and Truth from Key Life with Pete Alwinson. Consider emailing a link to a new message every week or two during the challenge. (Click here to download a template email in Word to use with your men when sending out a video link. Modify the information in red to suit your needs and then copy and paste it into your email.)
• Emphasize the joy found in the Gospel and God’s call to trust Him. Send out a link to every man to the message The Quest for Joy by John Piper—available as audio and text.
• Help men think about how grace, works, and faith work together. Print out or email an article to all the men in the church to get them thinking and talking. We suggest “How Bad Teaching Gets Stuck in Our Brains,” “Faith Without Works: Are You Really a Christian?” or “Why Being ‘Good’ is Sometimes Bad.” If many of your men use Facebook, consider creating a group page and directing men there to share their thoughts on the articles. (Click here to download a template email in Word to use with your men when sending out an article or excerpt. Modify the information in red to suit your needs and then copy and paste it into your email.)
• Ask leaders of other ministries to share these resources with their men during their interactions as well.

Provide a way for men to put what they’re learning into action. Below are some ideas to involve all the men in the church in the challenge in a real, tangible way–to get them using their “hands.”

We recommend doing an activity during the Sustain Change portion of the challenge (the longer, more in-depth study near the end of the challenge).

Choose one of the ideas below!

Use Your “Hands”

• Email all the men in the church and challenge them to ask three people in their community, “Where are you on your spiritual journey?” Ask them to listen and reflect on how Christ meets the needs and desires that these people express. Then ask them to share with one person where they are on their spiritual journey.
• Encourage every man to take a “Spiritual Day”—to leave his schedule wide open and devote himself to prayer, worship, study, journal, rest, etc. Men who aren’t used to this can make it a Spiritual Half-Day or even a Spiritual Hour. But make it a church-wide challenge!

The engine that drives the content portion of each challenge is the Create-Capture-Sustain engine. We want to help you deliver content through three strategic steps:

1. Create Value and build excitement among your men through a kick-off event.
2. Capture the Momentum you create by providing men with the right next step BEFORE they leave the event. The suggested next step is a short-term study, making it easy for men to commit–even those who have never been in a small group. It is designed to be done in a follow-up group setting.
3. Sustain Change among men over time by getting them into relationship with other men and into the regular study of God’s Word. To do this, the suggested resource for this step is a deeper, longer study than the Capture step.

Recommended Resources

Create Value

For this challenge, we recommend the Rewired event from Man in the Mirror (six-hour event, 1 or 2-day format).

Although most of the planning is done for you, you’ll need to decide:

• whether to use a Man in the Mirror presenter or present it yourself.
• whether to do it on a Friday night/Saturday morning or all day Saturday.

(Note for paid subscribers of JBM: you receive 10% off the event scheduling fee.)

Capture Momentum

For this challenge, we recommend the Rewired: From Performance to Passion workbook from Man in the Mirror (six-week study, included with event). A group facilitator guide is also included in each workbook.

Sustain Change

For this challenge, we recommend either Man Alive book* by Patrick Morley, Multnomah (8 chapters), or Discipleship Essentials book by Greg Ogden, InterVarsity (24 chapters).

*We recommend the corresponding Man Alive DVD discussion starters for small group meetings.

Although most of the planning is done for you, you’ll need to decide:

• whether you want to do an 8-week study (Man Alive) or a 24-week study (Discipleship Essentials).

Looking for alternative resources and event ideas?

Click here to view the Flexible Plan for this challenge.

One of the best aspects of the Journey is the celebration that happens at the end of each challenge, as men experience transformation and new relationships! For Challenge 2, we recommend having a special celebration meal, open to ALL the men in the church. This can be a breakfast, lunch or dinner. Refer to your step-by-step instructions (found under the Plan stride) for details about planning  your gathering.

Be sure to rally your leadership team at this integral time and thank them for all the work they’ve done and the impact they’ve made. Share the results of the post-Challenge assessment with them, as well as your pastor.

Make it a priority to include testimonies. Ask your Sustain group leaders to suggest a few men to share who have particularly benefited from the challenge. In order to emphasize the all-inclusive nature of the challenge, ask at least one man to share who was impacted but didn’t participate in the men’s-only groups. Testimony can be shared directly by the person, read by a leader from an email/letter, or via video.

Consider giving out something to commemorate the completion of Challenge 2. On many of the options below, you can print the logo and challenge name, a slogan that you’ve adopted, etc. Note that some of them come with minimum quantity requirements, so if you’re a small church, feel free to search other sites for similar products.

Here are a few celebration “hardware” ideas:

• Order Wristbands for your men; we like to use the debossed, adult-sized ones for some of our Man in the Mirror events. You can get whatever you want on the wristbands themselves; you might choose the challenge name (“Manhood”), the program name and challenge (“The Journey: Challenge 1”), a ministry slogan (“Together on the Journey”), etc.
• Give each man a token, customized with the logo. You might have them collect one for every challenge they complete! Choose wooden or plastic tokens. (Metal ones are also available on several other websites, but most have minimum quantities greater than 2000.)
• Give every man at the gathering a dog tag with your ministry name and the challenge completed.
• Award each man with a bookmark, printed either with a Scripture that encompasses the completed challenge or the Faith & Life Objectives.
• Magnets are another option and an easy way to remind guys of what God has accomplished in their lives after the challenge ends. Print the logo and challenge name or the Faith & Life Objectives,
• Another idea for a giveaway is a window decal; this also helps your men get the word out to others in the community who might want to join your men on the next challenge. Upload one of our logos or create your own! This idea requires a larger budget so you may want to only use these for your first challenge as a way to promote the Journey–inside and outside the church; quantity discounts are available.

Click here to view a sample Celebration agenda (sample is for Challenge 3).

We want to join with you in celebrating what God is doing in your ministry! Email us a group picture from your Celebration gathering at jbm@maninthemirror.org.