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 4. 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 4.

View/download the Project Plan Checklist for Challenge 4.

Flexible Plan:

View/download the Step-by-Step Instructions for Challenge 4.

View/download the Project Plan Checklist for Challenge 4.

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 4 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

• Challenge men who would like to be mentored—or to mentor—to enter into one-on-one mentoring relationships. Consider holding an information session at the church, or a casual lunch, where you help men pair up at the end, as desired. You may want to show clips from the Bible Study video series, What Happens When Men Mentor Men. In preparation for this meeting, send out the article by email, “Mentoring Younger Men.” Focus on the call to action at the end of the article.
• Check out The Christian Man Mentoring Experience and consider ordering a church pack with The Christian Man book and the free Coaching Guide to start a churchwide mentoring program using these resources.
• Invite your men to subscribe to the daily email from All Pro Dads. Men can sign up to receive daily advice, videos, and updates on how to be a better dad.
• Email your men a link to the audio series Family Shepherds by Voddie Baucham, Jr. on www.FamilyLife.com for helpful tips on everything from leading your family to how to discipline your children.

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 or two of the ideas below!

Use Your “Hands”

• Challenge every man with children to start a family devotion—at least once per week. Print out or email the article, “How to Lead a Family Devotion.” Or create your own how-to!
• Ask every father/grandfather to write a letter about the faith lessons he’s learned, and then give it to his children/grandchildren. Ask men without children to write a letter to someone who has impacted his life as a mentor and thank him.
• Throw a field day for all the children in the church without dads in their lives; encourage people to invite others from outside the church, too. Ask the men in the church to be team leaders, game referees, activity planners, etc. You may also want to do or give something special to the single moms dropping their children off.
• Consider starting a mentor program for youth in your church without a father figure in their lives. Much goes into starting a program like this, but it is often life-changing for both the men and the youth. There are several resources that can help you start a mentoring program; one is Christian Association of Youth Mentoring (www.caym.org). If you don’t want to start a program at the church, help plug interested men and teenagers into a local YMCA or Big Brothers/Big Sisters program.
• Hold a father/daughter dance at the church. Make it a fancy evening and have fathers/stepfathers give formal invitations to their daughters/stepdaughters. Include dinner and fun activities.
• Hold a father/son campout or adventure trip and plan games and team-building exercises.
• Include the women in the church! Have a church-wide competition, where wives nominate their husbands for “Favorite Dad” or “Favorite Grandpa” by submitting funny pictures and stories. Keep it light, showing silly pictures on the screen before weekend services or printing the stories in a special issue of the bulletin.
• Challenge the grandparents to throw a “Spoil You Rotten” weekend with grandchildren. It works like this: invite each grandchild over individually for a weekend or overnight visit. Give them special attention that includes their favorite activities, favorite foods, etc. This special time can be used to pass on spiritual lessons, too.

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.

Note: For this challenge, we recommend offering two types of groups for the group studies: one on fathering and grandfathering and another on mentoring and being mentored.

Recommended Resources

Create Value

For this challenge, we recommend the Dads That Make a Difference seminar 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

Fathering and Grandfathering Groups: For this challenge, we recommend the Dads That Make a Difference workbook from Man in the Mirror (four-week study, included with event).

Mentoring Groups: The Christian Man Mentoring Experience, which includes The Christian Man book by Patrick Morley (chapters 1-4) along with the Coaching Guide.

OPTIONAL: The Christian Man video Bible Study by Patrick Morley, Man in the Mirror (sessions 1-4, available for free download).

Sustain Change

Mentoring Groups: The Christian Man Mentoring Experience, which includes The Christian Man book by Patrick Morley (chapters 5-10) along with the Coaching Guide.

OPTIONAL: The Christian Man video Bible Study by Patrick Morley, Man in the Mirror (sessions 5-10, available for free download).

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 4, we recommend having a cookout, open to the whole church, including the youth. Provide games for the younger kids and team-building exercises for the older ones. 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, representing both the fathering and mentoring groups. 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 4. 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.