Men's Ministries

How Then Should We Work? Rediscovering the Biblical Doctrine of Work

The arena was packed with over 5,000 business people attending a one day motivational conference to listen to some of today’s greatest inspirational speakers including, General Colin Powell, Dick Vitale and Tony Robbins. One of the speakers began by asking the following question, “If you went home tonight and found that a long lost relative had died and left you $10,000,000 would you be at work tomorrow?” An audible “NO” rang out from the audience.

Their sentiment is shared by many in our country today. A recent Gallup poll found that 77% of Americans hate their jobs. Another found Americans hate their jobs more today than in the past 20 years; fewer than half say they’re satisfied with their current job.2 With 50-hour plus work weeks and long commutes, workers are spending more and more of their lives at work, yet so many of them are unfulfilled and frustrated with their jobs. This is also true for many Christians for whom work often seems only a “means to an end.”

Christians today have bought into the pagan notion that leisure is good and work is bad. They have also been mislead by the sacred/secular distinction which teaches that only working in the church is “real” fulltime Christian service. This has not always been the case. The Reformers taught that all labor accepted as a calling and performed “as unto the Lord” was noble, yet this truth has slipped dramatically both in today’s Church and our present culture.

Click on the link below to read the article “How Then Should We Work? Rediscovering the Biblical Doctrine of Work,” written by Hugh Whelchel, Executive Director of the Reformed Theological Seminary campus in Washington D.C.

The link below will take you to the PDF version of the article (Acrobat Reader Required), which is posted on the RTS website.

Click here to read How Then Should We Work.pdf

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Frequently Asked Questions
about Men’s Ministry

Why have a men’s ministry?

What is the Biblical basis for men’s ministry?

Why is it so difficult to get men to attend men’s ministry events?

Why is it that a successful men’s event or ministry in my church is so often followed by a total loss of momentum?

What men’s ministry programs are working in the PCA?

How do you build a sustainable disciple-making ministry for men in the local church?

How do you obtain the pastor and session’s support?

How do you build a strong men’s ministry leadership team?

What do men identify as their greatest spiritual needs?

How can I get my men spiritually connected at the level of their walk with Christ so they are not so alone in their spiritual battles?

How can I be better equipped for men’s ministry?

What’s Happening Around the PCA? God is Moving In Men’s Ministry!

Covenant Life PCA, Sarasota: Deacon Dave Enslow will be leading a 2 hour seminar called, How to Survive the Economic MeltDown, based upon Dave’s own spiritual journey through hard financial times and the material from Pat, Morley’s new book, by this title. The seminarpresents lessons learned from the first-hand experience of best-selling author Patrick Morley.?As the survivor of an economic meltdown, Patrick faced bankruptcy every day for seven years. By God’s grace he not only survived, but learned extraordinary spiritual and practical lessons. Here is what two leading authorities have to say about How to Survive the Economic Meltdown….

“I wholeheartedly endorse this book! If you-or someone you know-got caught out by the current economic meltdown, this is must reading. It’s a roadmap to spiritual and financial freedom. It’s that good!” Howard Dayton, Chairman, Crown Financial Ministries.

“I have never seen anything like we are seeing today. There is no one better prepared to lead us than Pat Morley. He offers very practical answer to the questions that all of us are asking. You need to read this book to gain a proper perspective on what is really happening.”Ron Blue, President, Kingdom Advisors

Reaching Every Man

Does your church have an effective discipleship process for all the men in your church and community? Here is a way to find out. Rate your ministry on a scale of 1-10 in the following areas:

1. ____ Most men in our church understand what it means to be a disciple,
and its importance.

2. ____ Most of the men in our church have a best friend or band of brothers
who stand with him in his spiritual battles.

3. ____ Our ministry to men provides opportunities for men at all spiritual
levels to become engaged.

4. ____ The participation level of men in our men’s events indicates that we
are scratching where they itch.

5. ____ Our men’s hearts are captured by the desire to show Christ and his
kingdom to the world.

Over the last ten years, several graduates of RTS Orlando, along with a third PCA member, began to conduct extensive research into churches that were effectively discipling men, to determine why they were so successful. They saw time and again that the churches with effective long term processes that produced Godly disciples followed the same principles. For example, they targeted the hearts of men, not their behavior. They thought of discipleship as a relational process that moves men down the discipleship path, so they were intentional about capturing the momentum from their events and building upon it. Instead of expecting the pastoral staff and elders to “disciple” all the men, they built strong lay men’s ministry leadership teams, making Eph. 4:16 the foundation of their discipleship approach. “From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

These three men, Pat Morley, David Delk, and Brett Clemmer found these key principles to be so consistent in successful men’s ministries that they put them into a book and designed training to make these valuable insights available to men’s ministry leaders across America. The book is called, No Man Left Behind. The insights are also taught in 20-hour regional seminars by the same name, and in a 4-hour Reader’s Digest version for local churches and presbyteries called, Reaching Every Man.

This 4-hour Reaching Every Man training is now available to PCA churches and Presbyteries “to equip the saints for the work of ministry” at a very reasonable price-just $38 per man and $28 per man in groups of 4 or more. This allows our PCA churches to bring 4 men for a little over $100. Thirty-five men already attended an REM seminar at Covenant PCA in Harrisonburg, VA, and PCA churches in Baltimore, MD, Gainesville, FL, Ft Worth TX, and Tucson, AZ are in the process of trying to get an REM set up for their men’s ministry leadership teams. For more information on how to bring this training to your church or presbytery go to www.pcacep.org/Men, or contact Gary Yagel gyagel@forgingbonds.org 301.570.5097.

Does Men’s Fraternity Belong In a PCA Church?
Interview with TE Pete Deison, Park Cities PCA

Article originally part of “Get in the Game”
a periodic email communication from CEP

(Note: Men’s Fraternity Is a 3 year men’s discipleship curricula, designed by Robert Lewis, pastor-at-large of Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Arkansas and author of Raising a Modern Day Knight. The first year curricula is entitled The Quest for Authentic Manhood. The material, which includes a weekly video clip, can be taught by the local church pastor in a large group setting, can be taught in a small group setting by watching the DVD, or can be listened to on CD by individuals. Pete Deison has been on the staff of Park Cities PCA in Dallas for over 10 years as the Minister of Discipleship.

GITG: Tell us about your experience with Men’s Fraternity.

Pete: It has been great. Just last week we ended the fourth year and we’ve had over 200 of our men involved. We started with The Quest for Authentic Manhood, and then repeated that a second year, which is what they suggested. Then we went on to Authentic Manhood: Winning at Work and Home, and concluded with The Great Adventure series. This is excellent material, which addresses topics men are interested in from a Biblical perspective.

GITG: How was the material presented?

Pete: We met at 6:30-7:20 AM Tuesdays in a large group setting but then broke into small groups for a 30 minute discussion. Tim Tinsley, our Evangelism pastor, and I have shared in teaching the material, with Tim covering the majority.

GITG: On a continuum of spiritual maturity, where is this material targeted?

Pete: We had men of all age groups and spiritual maturity participate. But it is especially helpful as a pre-evangelism tool. The material starts out man-centered as a pre-evangelism door to attract men, but then takes them to the gospel.

GITG: What were the weaknesses of this ministry?

Pete: “The program doesn’t provide material for training the small group leaders in follow-up.It is designed for the leader to facilitate only. In my opinion some follow up material would be helpful. It was left up to the discretion of the leader.”

GITG: What about the strengths?

Pete: We have seen many men come to faith in Christ, many men’s lives changed, and many marriages saved. In fact, when we put Robert Lewis’ lecture up on our website, we found that many of the wives were going there to find out what we were talking about. Also, Lewis’ discussion of the “Father wound” gave our men a vocabulary to start to talk more about some of the wounds to their hearts that are obstacles to whole- hearted surrender to Christ.

GITG: This material is broadly Evangelical, but not particularly Reformed. How did you deal with this issue

Pete: First, anytime you use anyone else’s material you need to present it through your own Biblical lens, which in our case is Reformed. Second, we actually met with Robert Lewis to gain his permission to teach the material from a Reformed point of view. He was very happy to do that. Third, we made adjustments at a few points along the way-but had no problem with the core of the curricula. Fourth, we realized that though initially the material seems man-centered, because it is targeted to lost men, the material is quite God centered.

Believe me, we had our skeptics when we started-but just last week, one of our elders came to me and said, “Pete, I’ll admit that I was skeptical about Men’s Fraternity coming into it. But coming out of it 4 years later I’m looking forward to continuing because I’ve seen so many lives change.”

(If you have further questions, Pete can be reached at pete.deison@pcpc.org)