Thoughts on creating a productive men's fellowship

I'm not a man, but we've been working on getting a women's ministry going, it is slow, but effective for the women taking part in it. One thing I might suggest is a survey asking men what they might be interested in in a men's ministry. Next, a slow start doesn't mean it isn't effective, or won't be effective, just pray and wait for God to grow your minisry. How about some studies aimed just at men.

 

John,

It's hard to get done these days. And I'm sure it is probably even more hard for you since you're not in the Bible belt. Maybe not...that's just a guess on my part.

We have a men's Bible study for our SS class and we meet once a week on Monday nights. How it got started I think (I joined a year or two after it was started when we moved to the area) was the men had a fantasy football league that they played in together and they would meet and have Bible study and then watch Monday night football and talk about their fantasy football game.

Don't know if your men are interested in football, but that might be an idea.

But even with that it is still hard to get men out. We generally have four out of our 10-15 guys in our SS class.

Hope this helped or gives a spark of creativity.

Biggest thing is pray for your men that they would desire a closer walk with the Lord and closer relationship with the other men of the church.

One thing that I have finally realized in recent months is you can't do anything about motivating men to grow it has to come from the Holy Spirit. That was hard for me to get a hold of.

God's blessings to you and your family!!!

 

At our church we study a chapter of a bible book and ten play basketball for an hour or so.

 

John, I don't know exactly what you have in mind, so I will share one experience with you. I have been in a Men's small group for several years now. We started with 4 men and our Pastor - he led the group. We worked through a study written for small groups entitled "Companions in Christ" - there are many to choose from - another good one is "Experiencing God". After the initial year we reformed, the Pastor retired and left, and we added a few more men (6 of us now). We meet each Monday night from 7:00 pm until 8:30/9:00 pm, depending on how the discussion is going. We worked through A.W. Tozer's book "The Pursuit of God" and are currently working through/studying/discussing the Book of Psalms. When done with Psalms we intend to read a book by Eugene Peterson entitled "Leap over a Wall", concerning the life of David. The main thing we gain is Spiritual growth in the small group experience. Our future plans are to branch out and each of us lead a small group for men, thus growing the fellowship in our church. If the group gets too big the sharing will get somewhat superficial. It takes time to grow as brothers in Christ - give it some time. Bruce

 

We usually have our men's fellowship once a month on Sunday mornings (8:00) and have a "prayer breakfast". Our time together always included a devotional (bible lesson) addressing men's issues and challenges, and a time of prayer.

Sunday mornings works for us because there are usually no conflicts with jobs, busy Saturdays, or chores at the house. I will admit that Sunday morning is not the best time if you want to invite non-believing friends.

Make sure you have someone who can lead this consistently to keep it going.

 

We have a group that meets for breakfast every saturday. We meet at a local restaurant and are open to any and all. We probably average 10-15 men. The format is loose - alot of sports/jobs/investment talk - but we wrap up with a 15 min devotional. The plan is to have this evolve (can I use that word safely?) into a mens small group bible study during a week night.

People start arriving around 7:30- 8:00 am so that we dont eat too much of the day. With travel schedules, kids programmes etc we rarely have the same folks, but we have a good time.

 

We have read a men's book for the last couple of years. We read one chapter a week and discuss the issue of the chapter once a week. we have done wild at heart, every man's battle, ever mans Gods's man and the sampson syndrome. We try to meet once a week for breakfast. We also try to have an event once a month on sat. we try to have a fun event one month and a work project the next. I try to get the boys involved so they can see christian men work, have fun and learn man stuff from us . we have several boys of single moms and a group from the boys ranch town(childrens home). Our core group is about 12 to 15 men and we have some who come and go, but we have formed some strong relationships and realy support eachother.

 

Take a look at www.ccbt.com and their leadership stuff. I have heard it is good. I am thinking of using that for our next study.

 

Some very good posts. I have used Morley's Man in the Mirror materials. Also, as mentioned, don't let group get too large, multiply. Be flexible, if someone needs to talk it out, take time to do it.