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Reaching the Disconnected Male
How to move men on the fringe into active, focused discipleship.
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Notice the circle at the center of the diagram. An effective men's ministry begins with a clear understanding of your purpose for men in the church. Everything revolves around this. The first step is to write down what you're trying to accomplish and why. (You'll gain the most acceptance by involving in this process the men you want as leaders for your new ministry.) For example, if your purpose statement is "To reach and equip the men of our church to be spiritual leaders for their families, church, work, and community," you probably wouldn't focus on service projects. Instead, you would focus on discipleship groups. At the church Larry and his family attended, a core group of motivated men had been gathering and praying for the Lord to bring men to their upcoming momentum-building conference. This small group of men had recently been galvanized by their pastor with the clear purpose of reaching other men in their church. The goal was to offer these men on the fringe an opportunity to re-evaluate their lives and priorities. Larry was a prime candidate. Draft the design teamNow it's time to begin building your leadership team. All you need to get started is one man with passion to reach other men. Best if it's you, but you can also select a layman. But here's where many pastors err. You need to put one of your best men on this—someone the other men respect. You need to give him a budget. And you need to give him support from the pulpit. Don't let a man elect himself to leadership if the others think he is (there is no way to say this delicately) a loser. Most meaningful change takes place in the context of relationships. Men's lives change as they rub up against other men's lives. With this in mind, one way to explore potential candidates for the leadership core is to call four or five on the phone—those you think have potential—and inquire about their needs. Ask questions like: 1. In what area of your life do you feel the most pressure? 2. If our church could do one thing for you, what would you want it to be? 3. What is the most valuable experience you've had at the church in the last year? 4. What is the worst experience you've had at the church in the last year? 5. What men in our church would command the respect necessary to help lead a men's group? Gather the results and then meet with them (for maybe one hour) to explain what you've learned and invite them to help you address these areas in other men's lives. Encourage these men to invite a few others to begin meeting together regularly for Bible study, prayer, and eventually, strategic planning. In Acts 4:13, we see that each leader was to live his life so others could tell he had been "with Jesus." Your leadership team must be more than a planning committee; it must be a living demonstration of what you want to reproduce. |             | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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