Wednesday, December 5, 2012

LEADERSHIP: Men's Ministry Ideas

1 Corinthians 16:13
Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.

Does every church need a men's ministry?  YES!  But men do not want to sit around and make crafts or chat about their feelings and share recipes.  They do need to study the Bible and they want to have some fun.  Some of the things I've seen around just for the men are:

BIBLE STUDIES

Men's Breakfast Bible Study or Men's Morning Bible Study
A lot of churches do this because it seems to work for a lot of men.  Options might be to have a study every week and/or once a month or quarterly have a guest speaker.  Some guys may not come every week but might come for the guest speakers so be prepared to be flexible.  You can meet at church and allow them to bring food or at a local establishment.

Burgers and Bibles - a night out for the guys to get a burger and have a Bible study.

Meat and Potatoes - ladies can have wine and cheese at somebody's house and men can have meat on the grill and a Bible study.

Some things don't work if they're every week but some do.  You have to know the guys in the congregation.  I'm not sure (since I'm not a man) but some suggested topics might be what true masculinity is, defining success, dealing with guilt or feeling guilty for not living up to expectations, male sexuality, working toward a healthy marriage, being a man of integrity in the workplace, what being a leader looks like at home, at church, and in the world, the evil we do and the good we don't do, the prayer of a man, and God's purpose in my life.  A survey is always a good idea for topic suggestions.  Then again, study the Bible itself and not a topic.

OTHER IDEAS for FELLOWSHIP (Men want to have some fun!)

Sports Ministry - We all know most guys love to play sports and they like to remain active so start a church co-rec team for basketball, softball, bowling, or whatever.

Golfing - Put some foursomes together.  Many pastors love to golf and a lot of talking and bonding goes on traveling from hole to hole.  Come up with questions to ponder every hole or two.

Fantasy Football - I wouldn't recommend serious gambling but it sure would bring some guys together.

Picnic Pranks - My dad was always the first one to do something unexpected at the church picnic.  The one I'll never forget is the huge sling shot he made to shoot water balloons a long distance.  We were at the park and he had two 2x4's connected to a bucket with thick rubber straps.  We LOVED chasing after those balloons!


SERVICE
Men like to do manly things to serve together - everybody get together to help fix widow Marshall's deck or anything else some shut-ins might need.  Of course, it can't be looked at as one more thing on a "honey do" list.  I don't want to clean somebody's house but if a group of women got together one Saturday afternoon to help clean the houses of shut-ins I'd be in!

REMEMBER
Focus on the Bible and the church's mission.  Plan ahead so they know what's going on and stress that they DO NOT have to make a full year commitment.  Having shorter studies with good attendance beats a long study with dwindling attendance.

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