Men

Biblical Manhood

December 2, 2013 by Editor

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]This spring, Grace Covenant PCA of Williamsburg, VA brought together 83 men, ranging from teenagers to college students to graduate students to single thirty-somethings to fathers and grandfathers, for a three-hour Saturday morning seminar on Rediscovering Biblical Manhood. The seminar, conducted by PCA Men’s Ministry Coach Gary Yagel, was what one participant called “a great opportunity for males of all ages to get a perspective on masculinity in our current culture.” Beginning with Genesis 2, the men compared what American culture is saying about masculinity with the mandate God gave Adam to live in the garden to “work it” and “keep it.”

Other sessions included a panel of Grace Covenant members discussing In the Dance with Woman What Does Authentic Manhood Look Like? Later in the morning, fathers and grandfathers were particularly challenged to consider What a Son Needs to Grow into Authentic Manhood. After lunch, the seminar closed with a look at Jesus: God’s Portrait of Manhood.

Over the lunch break, Gary met with the Grace Covenant men’s ministry leadership team to give suggestions and encouragement that was tailored to the unique needs of the congregation.

The impact of the seminar has been multi-faceted. The leadership is already planning a future event to discuss the topics raised in their time together. One elder reported that a participant picked up a copy of the book, Intimacy: God’s Design for Marriage, and was working to apply the principles in his marriage, to include a long-overdue date with his wife. In reflecting on the day, one man commented, “The material in this seminar meets a vital need in the church.”

We praise God for his blessing on the seminar and especially for the daily efforts of the leaders who are on the front lines of men’s ministry. If you would like information about hosting a Rediscovering Biblical Manhood seminar, call Gary Yagel at 301.570.5097 or go to his website www.forgingbonds.org.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Men’s Ministry Around the PCA

February 17, 2012 by Gary

Men’s Fraternity. More and more of our churches are finding that their men are responding very positively to this video material done by Robert Lewis. Here are a few contacts with churches that have used it:

Covenant Life PCA Sarasota, FL Dave Enslow dave@nextstepsformen.com

Covenant Pres Harrisonburg, VA: Jim Blair jimblairassociates@gmail.com

Park Cities Pres, Dallas: Pete Deison pete.deison@pcpc.org

Retreat Speaking and Seminars for Men.

TE Pete Alwinson, Dangerous Freedom, www.keylife.org

TE Gary Yagel, Recovering Biblical Manhood, Winning at Home, Becoming A Band of Brothers http://www.forgingbonds.org/speaking/

TE Harvey Kirkpatrick Grace and Men Conferences http://www.thegospelman.com/

Sexual Purity Resources

Harvest USA, Seminars and printed materials http://www.harvestusa.org/

Samson Society, Regional Support Groups http://www.samsonsociety.net/

Stonegate Ministries, Seminars & printed materials http://www.stonegateresources.org/

Grace Transformed Sexuality, seminar & men’s study http://www.forgingbonds.org/store/

Men’s Ministry Coaching

Dave Enslow, Next Steps For Men, dave@nextstepsformen.com

Gary Yagel, Forging Bonds of Brotherhood, www.forgingbonds.org

Man In the Mirror

Through CEP, the PCA has entered into a partnership with Man In the Mirror. They have excellent materials. Pat Morley is a graduate of RTS Orlando, and has had a long standing relationship with Orangewood PCA. David Delk and Brett Clemmer, the number 2 and 3 men at MIM are both PCA members and involved in the men’s ministry at their churches. Their website is www.maninthemirror.org

How to Help Men Love God More

February 17, 2012 by Gary

(Excerpts from The 2011 GA Seminar “Reaching the Heart of a Man”)

A good summary of the goal of men’s ministry is to help men better love God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength. Bryan Chapel points out, “Spiritual change is more a matter of what our heart loves than what our hands do” (Holiness By Grace). So, what are the barriers that prevent our men from loving God more? There are many, but one of the most deeply rooted is the feeling that God’s basic attitude towards them (even though they are forgiven in Christ) is disgust, because of their sin. Many Christian men, who know that God loves them and forgives their sin, nevertheless feel inside that they are too dirty for a holy god to like very much.

Today’s Christian men have a lot to feel ashamed of. Some feel shame because they lost their job and are not providing for their families. Others feel ashamed because their grown children are not following Christ. A majority feel like they are not very good husbands. If that isn’t enough to feel ashamed of, there is always lust. Most Christian men would crawl under the table if some of their sexual fantasies were flashed up on a screen for their wife and daughters to see. For some reason, sexual sin makes us feel especially dirty.

Consider how shame affects a relationship. How would you feel about meeting your boss for breakfast once a week if he thought you were a disgusting human being to be loathed?

Shame totally destroys our desire to draw near to God.

The only antidote for the toxic shame that destroys the love relationship of believers with God is the gospel. The gospel is that I am more corrupt than even my foulest sins show, but at the same time more loved and valued than I ever dared to dream. By taking that truth deeply into our hearts our desire to know and love God grows. In the words of Tim Keller, “We can only change permanently as we take the gospel more deeply into our understanding and hearts.” Tim Keller, The Prodigal God. Here are 5 truths we leaders need to help Christian men deeply internalize:

1. God never tires of forgiving us. We cannot out-sin his willingness to match our sin with forgiveness! The well of his forgiveness towards those who are in Christ is filled by the eternal spring of his mercy. Paul makes this point in Romans 8:33: “Who would dare to accuse us whom God, himself has chosen. The judge himself has declared us free from sin.”

2. Bigger sin means we have a bigger savior. When a prostitute washed Jesus feet with her tears, he made the observation, “She who is forgiven much loves much.” Our biggest screw-ups are the best opportunity to grow to appreciate our savior’s love for us and what it cost him to bear our shame at the cross.

3. We are the delight of God’s heart. “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zeph. 3:17.) Scotty Smith asks, “What would it feel like in your heart to know that God not only accepts you, but that he richly enjoys you? To know that your company is his pleasure, your fellowship his joy, your face his delight? What effect would that have on how you think about God, yourself, others.” (Objects of His Affection.) You and I love to be in the presence of those who enjoy us!

4. Loving God and being loved by Him is the answer to our deepest longings. “You cannot say that our body was made for sexual immorality. It was made for God and God is the answer to our deepest longings.” 1 Corinth. 6:13. As CS Lewis said in his message, ‘The Wight of Glory,’ “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

5. Life in Christ is not moralism. The gospel changes our view of failure. Paul wrote, “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest upon me” (2 Cor. 12:9). The gospel changes my view of the church. “The church is actually a place for people who are needy, afraid, confused, and quite sinful. But even more important than that, the church is a place for people who have been loved…and have no idea why. Each congregation is, as it were, a local chapter of ‘Sinners Anonymous'” (Steve Brown, What Was I Thinking). The gospel changes my view of self-reliance. “The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” (1Cor. 12:21). God has told us that his grace is sufficient for us but he has never promised us a private solution to our struggles with sin. The place where we find grace is in community-connection in the body of Christ. Christ disciples us through his body.

How can we help our men love God more? By helping them feast on the gospel of grace. Only those who know God will love them even if they don’t get better will ever get any better.

Note: The 2011 General Assembly Seminar, “Reaching The Heart of A Man” can be viewed in its entirety online for free at www.developingmen.com

You Were Made to Last Forever

August 17, 2011 by Editor

Download the You Last Forever postcard that can be used as a bulletin insert, visitor followup, and many other things.

You Were Made to Last Forever is an effective method for sharing the Faith with people. PCA Teaching Elder Dick Fisher has developed a number of resources that you can access easily and effectively. This program is being used effectively in a number of different settings. It is a useable resource that will enable you to better present the Gospel.

Click here to visit the website

Watch the video below to learn more about You were Made to Last Forever:

The Kingdom Misunderstood, Part 1

August 15, 2011 by Charles

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two part article dealing with the misperceptions many Christians have of the kingdom of God. What is ther ole of believers in the kingdom, how are they to impact the broader kingdom? Are there really two kingdoms?

Introduction

I begin by introducing you to Bill and Mary Wright. Bill is a 34 year old husband and father of two children, Terry 10 and Susan 7. Mary is a stay at home mom and has home schooled her children for a couple years, though they are presently attending a Christian school that meets in their church. Bill and Mary are active church members and clearly demonstrate a love for the Lord that is obvious to others.

Bill is a member of a successful law firm. He teaches a young adult Sunday school class in his church and is very active in civic events. He is on the church’s board of officers. You might call the Wright’s the quintessential Christian family.

Bill majored in political science in college and later entered law school. Presently, he is an active member of the bar. For several years Bill has had a desire to become more involved in politics. His friends have suggested that on a number of occasions, so has his wife Mary. He represents the more conservative line of political thinking and is certainly an advocate for rule of law in our country.

Read entire Equip 3rd Quarter, 2011 (Acrobat Reader required).

But as Bill thinks about this, he wrestles with a dilemma. He is a Christian and believes in church and state separation; therefore he wonders how he can be a good Christian and involved in politics at the same time. He has been taught by the system to think of religion as belonging to the private area of his life, including family and church, but politics is more for the public arena. He does not want to compromise his Christian faith by involving himself in an area that would require him to keep his religious beliefs, his Christian faith, to himself.

Bill’s situation reminds me of another occasion when I was teaching a seminar to leaders from several churches. The topic for the day was making kingdom disciples. I spent some time developing the point that there is actually more involved in making disciples than is often reflected and practiced by many today. I was explaining how being a Christian involved more than merely having a personal relationship with the Lord, than reading the Bible, praying, and witnessing. My point was that Christianity is a way of life, a total way of life, which many Christians fail to understand, especially today.

Christianity is a way of life, a total way of life

In trying to be as clear as possible, I said there is a sense in which you are no more spiritual when teaching a teenage Sunday school class on John 3:16, than you are teaching an eleventh grade mathematics class. The Bible teaches God’s special truth in what we would call the spiritual realm and the mathematics class teaches God’s truth in that broader realm. I continued–the only way you can know what John 3:16 means is for God to teach it to you and the only way that you can know that 2 plus 2 is 4 is because God is the author of all truth. Both are true because they come from God, as the God of all truth. Jesus commanded us to “make disciples” and we do that according to him, by teaching to observe all things whatsoever he has commanded, and by necessary inference, he has taught us. (Matthew 28:19 & 20).

If we see God’s truth wholistically, we are to be spiritual in everything that we do, 24/7 both in an out of the church. I am aware in saying this, many Christians do not understand this discipleship process. Their paradigm has been based on a wrong view of the church and kingdom, as well as discipleship itself. We will show this later, but for now, some see the church and kingdom as two separate entities while others see them as one and the same. While we believe neither of those are representative of the Bible’s teaching on the church of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God, it is so important to understand what the two are and how they are related, especially as they impact our worship and service of God.

On another occasion I was speaking at an annual convention of Christian school leaders. On the program was a young man who had also been influenced by the teachings of Francis Schaeffer. At that time he was serving in a staff position in Washington, D. C. He said in his address, that we would be pleased and amazed at how many of our members of Congress attend regular Bible studies. (This was several years ago). But then he said, you would be disappointed to see some of those same people move into the legislative hall and fail to incorporate those biblical truths into the issues with which they were dealing.

There is a false scenario that has penetrated our western world, including many of our churches, and it has caused people to see life from a dualistic, even fragmented perspective, thus creating Bill’s dilemma and keeping that 11th grade math teacher from seeing himself as a disciple maker in teaching math.

My purpose in this series of articles is to understand and evaluate the fallacy of Bill and Mary’s thinking about politics, and their misunderstanding of the church and Christianity, the false dichotomy reflected in the math class, and the failure of those politicians in Washington to know how to apply biblical truth to their civil responsibilities.

I want us to consider how the above examples have grown out of a wrong paradigm regarding education, especially Christian education and disciple-making but especially a wrong paradigm of the church and the kingdom of God (“The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all” Psalm 103:19; “Your Kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.” Psalm 145:13).

Men’s Ministry Around the PCA

May 23, 2011 by Gary

Upcoming General Assembly: Three Ways to Assist You to Build a Strong Men’s Ministry

1. Come by the PCA Men’s Ministry Exhibit (booth 331) to meet Harvey Kirkpatrick of the Gospel Man Fellowship, Dave Enslow of Next Steps For Men, and Gary Yagel the PCA men’s ministry coach.

2. Attend the Wednesday morning seminar led by Gary Yagel, Reaching the Heart of A Man. Description: Jesus had no problem attracting men. Fishermen dropped nets full of fish to follow him but sometimes we can’t get the men of our churchto drop their remote controls to be involved in our ministries. This seminar examines how God has hard-wired the masculine soul and how we can present Christ’s call to discipleshipto boys and men in a way that more fully engages their hearts.

3. Pick up a free copy of the men’s small group study, Grace Transformed Sexuality, at the PCA Men’s Ministry exhibit booth. Here is what is being said about this study: “I’ve been going through GTS with some of my high school guys. It is the best thing I’ve ever read on this topic. I need 15 more copies.” Derrick Harris, Youth Pastor, McLean Pres. “This material is excellent, excellent, excellent, excellent!” Chris Braddy, LtCol USMC Ret, Ruling Elder, Crossroads PCA, Woodbridge, VA.

Grace and Men Conferences: (Formerly called Gospel Man Conferences.) Grace and Men regional conferences were held in Gainesville, FL in February, in Atlanta in April, and in Annapolis in May. Regional conferences schedule for 2012:

Feb 4, 2012: Newark, NJ/NYCity: Nate Larkin : Grace Presbyterian Church

Jan 20-21, 2012: Orlando, FL: Nate Larkin & Ray Cortese: Orangewood Presbyterian Church

Apr 27-28, 2012: Atlanta, GA: Scotty Smith & Tullian Tchividjian: Perimeter Church

The Gospel Man fellowship has begun to offer a downsized conference to the local church, called, Grace and Men to You. The first was held at Covenant PCA in Chattanooga, TN in February. Such conferences work well in house or in the form of a retreat. For more information, visit the Gospel Man website.

New Reaching Every Man Trainer: Dave Enslow, the Executive Director of Next Steps for Men, has become a Field Network Trainer with Man In the Mirror. He has led the men’s ministry at Covenant Life Pres in Sarasota, FL for many years and is a highly qualified trainer and presenter of the PCA-approved seminar, Reaching Every Man. This excellent training is designed to equip your whole men’s ministry leadership team to build an effective, sustainable disciple-making ministry to men. Over 250 leaders from 8 PCA presbyteries have taken this training. For information about this training, visit the Next Steps for Men website.

Raising A Modern Day Knight: On Saturday night, Feb 26^th, eight Christian Dads and their pre-teen sons met together for an informal ceremony to challenge the boys to grow up to be godly men. Each Dad gave public praise to his son for the young man he is becoming. The boys were challenged to live by a four-part code of honor: live pure, speak truth, right wrong, follow the King.The boys were then given a certificate to mount on their wall with their name and the call to authentic manhood.This call is to reject passivity, accept responsibility, and lead courageously.This was the follow-up action taken after the video series, “Raising a Modern Day Knight” at McLean Pres this past fall. Imagine the impact of this event in the lives of twelve boys, motivating them to pursue godly masculinity!

RTS Orlando Seminary Class on Men’s Ministry: Dr.Pete Alwinson, the founding pastor of Willow Creek Presbyterian Church in Winter Springs, FL has been teaching a course on effective men’s ministry for MDiv students. Pete is on the board of Man In the Mirror and has grown a substantial church on a model that stresses the discipleship of men.

More and More Churches Using Men’s Fraternity: More and more PCA churches have been showing the Men’s Fraternity DVD series, beginning with The Quest for Authentic Manhood. Here are just a few of the many PCA churches using it:

Covenant PCA, Harrisonburg, VA

Evangelical Pres, Annapolis, MD

Broadneck PCA, Arnold, MD

Park Cities PCA, Dallas, TX

To find out more about this ministry and how it fits into the PCA, read this article.