Articles designed for equipping leaders to take you beyond “men’s ministry” and into discipleship relationships to change the lives of men, their marriages, their families, their workplaces, their communities, and the world.
Today, pastors are more accessible to their parishioners than pastors at any other time in history. Before a pastor’s feet have even hit the floor in the morning, they have emails, texts, and voicemails waiting for them. Yet, we still hear phrases like, “Pastors only work one day a week.” Or “Pastors don’t know what it’s like in the real world.”
There are different levels of relationships among men in the church—the guys who play at the pickup game during open-gym night don’t have the same type of relationship as the two men who deliberately enter into a 12-week mentoring program. Both relationships are important, but they are inherently different in terms of purpose and depth.
Possibly the most important aspect of sustaining momentum is to make sure your men really feel like somebody cares about them. Look for leaders who are eager to show men the love of Christ, not their own Biblical knowledge.
It’s ironic. The more we try to influence behavior, the less real lasting change we see. Such an approach will simply burden men down and wear them out.
From the big momentum building men’s event, to the next step, to…what, exactly? Once you get your men and your men’s ministry off the roller coaster, how do you sustain spiritual progress?
Often the ministries and programs of our churches are like skyscrapers in New York City. Each of them exists without clear connection to other church programs. So getting a man who attends worship to join a couple’s small group or a men’s bible study is like asking him to jump from one skyscraper to another.
Before you can get off the roller coaster, you have to know how you got on in the first place. If a roller coaster men’s ministry is the problem, what’s the cause? In our experience, there are two different “traps” that men’s ministries fall into.
How many times have you seen a ministry expend all of their energy planning “the big event,” only to pack up and go home after the closing “amen?” This is the classic event-driven men’s ministry.
Many churches struggle with a “roller coaster” men’s ministry. The big event attracts new men. Four months later, the leadership team is wondering where they all went.
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 event impacts men long afterwards!
Here are ten ideas for you to ponder over the summer. Consider discussing them with your men’s leadership team before your Fall kickoff. Or pull a few men from your church together and use these ideas as conversation starters about the urgent necessity to reach men with the gospel and to disciple them.
On Saturday, June 8th we held our third No Man Left Behind LIVE simulcast, with 60+ men’s leaders in attendance at five locations. Since last September, we’ve trained 430 leaders from 120 churches throughout the country using this live broadcast format, with incredible results. Why men’s ministry training? Our desire at Man in the Mirror […]
Since 1986, Man in the Mirror has worked with more than 25,000 churches and millions of men. We help churches create an environment where the Holy Spirit inspires men to engage in life-on-life discipleship.
1375 State Road 436
Casselberry, FL 32707
407-472-2100
