“No Man Fails On Purpose”
Excerpts from No Man Left Behind

MANY IF NOT MOST, of our cultural problems-divorce, abortion, juvenile crime, fatherless ness-can be traced back to the failure of a man. Ironically, it’s a man who got up in the morning hoping to succeed.

The signs are all around us. We live in a country where every third child is born out of wedlock; where 24 million kids don’t live with their biological fathers; where about half of all marriages end in divorce. We can read these statistics and just blow by them. Or, we can consider what they mean for our country and our churches. Wouldn’t you agree that there must be something systemically wrong with a culture that allows these things to happen?

These are all symptoms of deeper, systemic issues. Treating symptoms is necessary and good, but you can’t cure a disease by treating the symptoms. So, while there are many sociological and psychological studies to explain why we have so many problems-the systemic problem-is that we have not properly discipled our men. The only way to solve systemic problems is with systemic solutions.

If most of the major societal problems we face can be traced back to the failure of men, why aren’t men in the church doing any better than men outside the church?

We are not discipling men to be followers of Jesus Christ. Our churches are not effectively helping men understand what it takes to be a godly husband, a godly father, and a godly man. Of the 42 million men (in America) who profess faith in Christ, only an estimated 6 million men are involved in any kind of ongoing or intentional discipleship program. That is one in seven of the men who profess faith in Christ and only one out of eighteen men in America.

A spiritual reformation of society starts with a spiritual reformation of men. Jesus discipled twelve men and they changed the world. If you will disciple the men of your church to follow Christ, what will happen? Marriages will improve, then families, then the church, and finally the world.