What Is Men's Ministry And Why Is It Important?
by Dale Conrad, HZUMC Men's Ministry Director
It's getting men involved in ministry.
It's "fighting the battle for men's souls".
It's reaching, discipling and encouraging men with a credible offer of Christ and the resources to grow and follow him closer.
Jesus picked twelve men as disciples to change the world. John Wesley said, "Give me fifty good men and I'll change the world." Yet the gender gap statistics are startling. Women comprise more than 60 percent of the typical adult congregation on any given Sunday. At least one-fifth of women regularly worship without their husbands.
Where are all the missing men? The good men Wesley spoke of. Do men think that church is a women's thing? Are men bored with church? Is the preaching not relevant to a man's struggles? Has the masculinity been stripped from the church, because women have had to fulfill the duties that men have abdicated?
Here are some startling statistics from "The Man In The Mirror" by Patrick Morley, showing the effects on the culture when American men do not fulfill their God-given responsibilities:
- 66 million men in America do not know Christ
- 33% of the 72 million children in America will go to bed tonight without their biological father
- Fatherless children are 5 times as likely to live in poverty, repeat a grade and have emotional problems
- 4 out of 5 students in evangelical churches will drop out of church by their Senior year in high school
- There are 108 million men in America over the age of 15
- Only one out of every 18 men in America is involved in active discipleship
- As many as 60 percent of men have actively sought out pornography this year.
- 93% of all people incarcerated are men, and 85% of them have no father figure.
- As many Christians will divorce as non-Christians
- Most men know only enough about Christ to be disappointed with him.
"Nothing else has the power to change the world like reaching men."
How we do Men's Ministry at HZUMC:
- Through discipleship - people leading each other toward maturity in Christ. "Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." Heb. 10:24
- We study, we fellowship, we teach and we grow together through men's small groups, men's Sunday School and regular attendance at church.
- We serve together and create opportunities to serve and form "Bands of Brothers" through local work projects (Helping Hands), mission trips (Pine Valley Camp outreach) and the men's choir (Men in Blue).
- We demand accountability through mentoring relationships and accountability partners.
- We console, we counsel, we encourage and we pray with men and families in times of need, whether spiritual or physical.
- We worship, train and celebrate at events such as Promise Keepers, the annual HZUMC Men's Weekend, men's night out (follow-up after the retreat) and Men's Sunday celebration.
- We partner with other ministries such as Youth, Children's, Prayer and Missions to grow the Kingdom together.
We lead with vision and passion through the various ministries of this church body. I believe that this church has grown because of the committed men of this body. I have no doubt, and I know the truth because I have lived both. I have been in other churches and experienced the lack of commitment of men to serve and follow Christ. They are DEAD or DYING churches today!
What happens when the men show up?
Men bring strength to the church
Gordon Dalbey, author of Healing the Masculine Soul notes, "A unique and truly awesome power arises when men gather together: the power which God gives especially to men collectively, to get His work done in the world."
Men Bring Money to the Church
A Gallup study found that people who are actively engaged in their local church give three times as much as those who are disengaged. Conceivably, a church could triple its contributions just by engaging men. Note: remember the gender gap percentages.
Men Bring Their Families to Church
Here's an oft-quoted statistic in men's ministry circles: when a mother comes to faith in Christ, the rest of her family follows 17% of the time. But when a father comes to faith in Christ, the rest of the family follows 93% of the time.
In Acts 16, Paul and Silas shared the gospel with their jailer. The man was instantly changed. He immediately took the apostles to his house, where they shared Christ with his family. Before the night was through, the entire household was baptized and following Jesus. In the Bible, fathers lead their children to God, not the other way around.
Curtis Burnam, a twenty-year veteran of youth ministry, identifies a clear relationship with dad's participation in church and his children's participation in youth group. "Kids who are taken to church by mom but not dad are harder to keep in church," he says. "They tend to drop out at higher rates when they reach adolescence. They are also harder to engage when they do come to youth group."
God calls married men to love their wives sacrificially, giving themselves up for their wives and caring for them just as they care for themselves. God also calls husbands to be leaders in their households. Paul writes in Ephesians 5:22-29:
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church.
Fulfilling these roles requires spiritual maturity and men recognizing the headship of Christ in their lives. We can't be leaders of our families until we know who we are following. We won't deserve the respect of our wives until we can show our love in a Christ-like fashion, putting their needs before our own.
What would a world look like if the church began to intentionally reach more men for Christ?
What can the church body do differently that would draw men back to the church? Could we add challenge, risk and adventure to following Christ?
Could you imagine the growth in the kingdom if men began to take back the spiritual leadership in the household? Living out the biblical love and respect as Paul commands us in Ephesians.
Would this materialistic and sexually explicit culture that we're drowning in be radically different?
Is discipling worth the effort?
Praise God! I'm here to tell you that we are not the average church. We are blessed with men who have willingly responded to the call to be Godly men and who make themselves available to serve a risen Savior. But as long as I am the Men's Ministry Director, I will never be satisfied with the status-quo. To me, it's worth the effort!
"Nothing else has the power to change the world like reaching men!"
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