God emerges when men express need for each other, leader says

By Terri Lackey

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Men need men.

So says LifeWay Christian Resources’ men’s ministry specialist,
Sid Woodruff, who believes a spiritual revival among men could
occur if guys would seek out deeper relationships with each
other.

“Men tend to keep to themselves,” Woodruff said. “They are raised
to be competitive; their self-esteem is based on wins and losses.
They don’t like to expose their weaknesses.

“Men tend to internalize a lot of things they are thinking and
feeling, but they really want to talk about it,” he continued.
“When they come into contact with other men who are real and
transparent and share some of the same experiences, they can open
up to them.”

Woodruff said being honest and open moves men closer to each
other and to God and can pave the way for greater progress in
men’s ministry.

“There is no replacement for one man coming alongside another man
to help him live his life in accord with God’s Word.”

So he has compiled a men’s ministry manual, “Drawing Men to God,”
that offers churches guidelines for encouraging men to express
their needs and concerns as they begin a men’s ministry program.

After prayer, the first step in mobilizing men to “do God’s work
in the world today,” Woodruff said, is to examine the needs and
challenges men face.

In “Drawing Men to God,” Woodruff reports a nationwide survey
conducted by George Barna Research Group with a random sampling
of 2,000 men reveals:

— Approximately 94 million males are 18 or older.

— On a typical weekend about 26 million men attend church
services; 68 million do not.

— One in three men embraces Jesus Christ as Savior; millions
rely on other means for salvation.

— 85 percent of all unchurched men were previously churched.

— Since 1991, church attendance, Bible reading, Sunday school
attendance, volunteering at church and contributions to church
have all decreased among men. The proportion of born-again men
has remained unchanged.

— From 1992-96, the average church attendance among men has
declined. Woodruff said he believes these statistics reveal many
men are spiritually lost, have been deluded by the pursuit of
worldly success; are caught in cycles of pain, addiction and sin;
are confused about masculinity and have been disillusioned by
false promises of wealth and power.

Consequently, he said, men need:

— Understanding. “They want a church that seeks to understand
them.”

— Relationships. “Most men feel lonely, isolated and
disconnected. They would appreciate a church that brings them in
contact with likeminded peers in non-threatening settings.”

— Instruction for kids. “The number one need in men’s lives is
to be better fathers.”

— Solutions. “Most men require the church provide practical,
tangible solutions to the difficult problems they face daily.”

— To know God. “Many unchurched men have given up on organized
religion but not on God. They want to know God, but they don’t
know how.”

Woodruff said men need help with how they feel about themselves,
their marriages and family life, stressful job situations, sexual
matters and their friendships with other men.

“Many men’s ministry programs tend to be event-driven,” Woodruff
said, “and that tends to mean relationships with other men and
with God get short-circuited.

“You can put on great events, have great speakers and do great
things, but the real reason a man will stay involved is because
he believes other men care for him.”

Drawing Men to God (ISBN 0-7673-9077-6) costs $12.95 and may be
ordered by calling 1-800-458-2772 or at
http://www.customerservice.com/

Men’s manual takes sweat out of starting new outreach

By Terri Lackey

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–In 1857, a Manhattan layman used sweat,
stamina and sheer determination to start a spiritual revival
among men that swept the country. Today, leaders at LifeWay
Christian Resources want to make it a little easier for churches
to develop a men’s ministry program.

That’s why they’ve compiled a how-to discipleship manual —
“Drawing Men to God” — that provides a “biblically based model
for reaching men and practical tools for starting and evaluating
men’s ministry in a local church,” said Sid Woodruff, men’s
ministry specialist at LifeWay.

“We want to assist churches in the development of a men’s
ministry that meets men where they are spiritually and leads them
to become fanatical in their love for Jesus Christ,” said
Woodruff, who compiled the manual.

Quoting history from “What God Does When Men Pray” by Bill Peel,
Woodruff said that in the mid-1800s church janitor Jeremiah
Lamphier advertised a prayer meeting in Manhattan that drew six
men. Fourteen men showed up the next week and 23 the week after.
Eventually, after hard work by Lamphier, the prayer meeting grew
into a full-fledged revival that endured until the end of the
century.

“When the movement began to die down, some Baptist men acted to
keep it going and in 1926 the Southern Baptist Brotherhood
Commission was formed to fan the flames,” Woodruff said.

However, in the mid 1990s, the Brotherhood Commission was merged
into the new North American Mission Board (NAMB), and messengers
to the Southern Baptist Convention gave LifeWay the assignment
for men’s ministry. Mission education and mobilization with men
is a NAMB assignment, with the two agencies working
cooperatively.

“When I started working at LifeWay in 1997, I got with men from
all over the convention who shared the dream of developing a
men’s ministry that would integrate evangelism, discipleship,
ministry and missions,” Woodruff said. “We wanted to create a
manual that would help churches give visionary leadership to
men’s ministry.

“I believe God can use a mobilized army of praying men to bring
about spiritual revival that is so desperately needed in America
today.”

In Drawing Men to God, Woodruff writes that “a church of any size
and location can have an effective men’s ministry if it follows
several basic biblical guidelines.”

These are:

1) Partner with God, the pastor and other men and surround the
ministry with prayer. “Connecting men to God, the pastor and one
another is vital,” Woodruff writes.

2) Propose a written, biblically based purpose statement. “Search
the Scriptures together,” he suggests, “to define the goal for
your men’s ministry.”

3) Prepare leaders. “Healthy men’s ministries have a
leader-training process and do not launch new ministries until
they have godly leaders who are called and prepared to direct
them,” Woodruff writes.

4) Plan a balanced ministry that meets needs and develops
disciples. “This ensures that you understand your men’s needs and
plan a course of action that helps them work and move together
toward the goal.”

5) Provide multiple entry points and pursue participants through
relationships. “Men have different interests, pressures,
schedules, incomes and spiritual maturity. Draw men and keep them
involved through common interests and relationships with each
other.”

6) Promote times to celebrate God’s victories and to kick off new
ministries together. “Throughout the Bible, God’s people prayed
for one another and celebrated God’s victories together. Men’s
ministries should do the same.”

Woodruff said four types of men can be integrated into a men’s
ministry program. They are: 1) the lost who don’t know Christ; 2)
those who have made a profession of faith but aren’t growing in
the Lord; 3) the serving Christian or those men who have taken
the next step toward spiritual discovery and growth; and 4) the
go-to-the-world man or the guy who is comfortable evangelizing a
lost world to Christ.

“The key to men’s ministry,” Woodruff said, “is to find out the
purpose of the church and mobilize men to help carry out that
purpose.”

[Baptist News]