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 hold events to check off a box on the calendar. But without a plan to capture the momentum created, the impact is short term. Here’s a plan to ensure your next men’s event is your best men’s event—and impacts men long after!

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.