00;00;00;13 – 00;00;24;08
Wendell
And today, we’re going to jump into what is one of the core pieces of mid-semester catalyst, which is a training on how to build and an effective and engaging ministry to men. It’s a simple but difficult six step process to work through. And we’re going to have the next three podcasts today. Two more committed to this topic of six steps.

00;00;24;19 – 00;00;35;00
Wendell
Today, we’re going to take a couple of steps and then the next two, we’ll finish it out Dale, can you set the table? Why is this such a critical factor of what we’re trying to do?

00;00;35;10 – 00;01;06;29
Dale
Well, again, of all the the issues that face men’s ministry in any church nowadays is the fact that very few churches actually have an effective men’s ministry. In fact, only about 1% of men in most churches are actively engaged in the local ministry to men. So a lot of guys may go to church, but they may not come back even for additional time with other men and connecting with them and praying with them and studying with them and holding those accountability relationships there.

00;01;07;10 – 00;01;29;22
Dale
But, you know, it’s really I think here’s the telling tale to only about 10% of churches in America really can sustain a ministry to their men over the long term. Of course, there’s always churches that try to do things like pancake breakfast and maybe a fry, hamburger fry or something or some sporting event and everything else. They try to at least engage their men.

00;01;29;23 – 00;01;55;28
Dale
But going through the long term, that’s the challenge. And, you know, the statistic that we’ve heard for the past couple of decades is still true today. While all roles in the family, the children, the wife and the husband are all important. We know that if we go after that, that man in that home. 93% of the time, when a man comes to faith in Christ, the family will follow.

00;01;55;29 – 00;02;00;09
Dale
That’s how crucial our ministry demand is in the local church.

00;02;01;13 – 00;02;25;05
Wendell
Well, well-stated. Thank you. You also mentioned the very few churches that North America really have this clear strategy and intentionally grow their men. I know, I know. They want to in nine out of ten times, probably. But the ability to put a strategy together to make that happen is is often lacking. So, again, that’s what we’re going to talk about in the next three sessions.

00;02;25;28 – 00;02;45;21
Wendell
Today, we’ll take step one and step two. Step one is aligning with the pastor’s vision. And step two is developing a men’s council or a men’s leadership women’s board, whatever you want to call it. We call it a council. So that’s the term we’re going to use called forward. So they’ll instill pride in, you know, step.

00;02;45;21 – 00;03;09;16
Dale
One, like you mentioned, you have to align with the pastors vision for the church. You never want to step between a man who’s been called to a position of authority in the church. When God gives them that not only that calling, there’s normally something connected with it. And part of that is the vision that that person may have, not only for his own individual ministry, but certainly for that of the church that he leads.

00;03;09;16 – 00;03;28;13
Dale
And I think I think that’s why this is so important. If you overlooked step number one here in aligning with the pastor’s vision, you’re really going to be out of step with the not only the pastor, but certainly the church as well. So you want to really capture the vision of the pastor and you want that to permeate your.

00;03;28;18 – 00;03;54;04
Dale
Your ministry to men for so many reasons. Here, let me give you just a few of them. You really don’t want a silo ministry where it’s only men and they have nothing to do with the rest of the church. They have to have ways to serve and to lead in the church through the men’s ministry. Secondly, you do want your pastors support and some involvement for what you’re doing and you want your pastor to know that you’ve got their back.

00;03;54;19 – 00;04;20;09
Dale
When a pastor feels like this is a competitive kind of a ministry to him, he’s always going to question that. So it never, never should be that this is always a complementary ministry. Where you understand his vision and he knows he’s got some, you know, kind of like old David’s fighting men. He’s got guys in his church that are standing with him and will have his back and defend his message and his vision as well.

00;04;20;16 – 00;04;39;06
Dale
You know, way too many pastors have been through a rough patch, maybe where they had some strong leaders in their church and they ended up having to do some church discipline as a result. And you never want that to be the case with your kids ministry leadership. Be on the same page. That’s an important, important part of that.

00;04;40;04 – 00;05;15;27
Dale
You know, Wendell, I think you know about pastors. You know, pastors want their church to grow in every way possible spiritually, numerically and with the influence of the community. But to do that, you really need some key things in there. Don’t you? You need some key things. For instance, great communication. Great communication. You have to have not only that connection with the pastor, but make sure that he knows when he send you a text or ask, asked for some time, maybe as an appointment or asked you to pray about something.

00;05;16;02 – 00;05;46;02
Dale
Do it, follow up, be with them and make sure that you are responding to his needs and and supporting him that way. And also, I think that’s the way that you get that tangible support back from him as well. And, you know, one of the key things may be to build that is to get a get some guys and build the kind of a prayer support team where that can be the kind of the catalyst point for maintaining that ministry with the pastor.

00;05;46;11 – 00;06;01;26
Dale
Tell the pastor, look, a couple of us guys are getting together. We’re praying for you. Give us a couple of things that we can pray for you. We’re going to make that a matter of something So, you know, you’ve got Erin and her basically on each side of your arms holding you up and trying to influence you through that.

00;06;01;26 – 00;06;30;06
Dale
So, you know, starting that just in a a humble but a servant leadership way and putting yourself at the at the door of the pastor, but at the same time at the beck and call of the pastor the responding needs. I can tell you this, most any pastor in the United States will feel encouraged if he knows he’s got guys that he can depend on that are a phone call or a text away or a prayer away as well.

00;06;31;17 – 00;06;53;03
Dale
I think the last thing that I would put into this, too, is it’s important to focus the men’s leadership on all aspects of the church. Just don’t become something that is myopic and tunes out everything else. That’s going on because the work in the Ministry of the church can and should be impacted by godly men of the church in leadership roles.

00;06;53;03 – 00;07;18;09
Dale
Certainly But even just their presence, their support, their encouragement, their prayer, all of that comes down to not only for the pastor, but certainly for the men’s ministry, but the church as a whole and the church at large. And when you align with the vision of the pastor of the church, you bring that added horsepower to what is being focused on.

00;07;18;09 – 00;07;29;27
Dale
And everyone basically pulls in the same direction and in the same way in the same the same format. So that’s a key part. Just to start with that connection with the pastor.

00;07;30;21 – 00;08;08;15
Wendell
You know, the one key story of a of a church, they were all about 150, 875 on any given Sunday, but they have more than 20 men involved in key leadership roles could be over children or teach in a Sunday school class or any number of things. And that is really transform that church over the last two and a half years to have these men step up to key leadership roles within the event they’ll have between 50 and 75 guys every every time and sometimes more than that of a church of 150 roughly.

00;08;09;02 – 00;08;29;21
Wendell
So that that’s tremendous engagement but the big thing is not the numbers, although the numbers matter. The big thing is the transformation of the church. And that is what has been so inspirational to me as they pull key leaders together to take key leadership responsibilities. And the churches is doing extremely well.

00;08;29;22 – 00;08;46;11
Dale
Transfer models so much for the church when they see men engaged in active, not passive, not just sitting in the pew or quietly singing, but actively engaged in and supporting the other ministries of the church. I think that’s such a key model. Well.

00;08;48;04 – 00;09;15;03
Wendell
One more comment here. Step two will a new man, a visitor who’s a man, comes into the church and sees all these men working. What does he feel like? He feels like this is my place. These are my peeps. I’m not visiting. I’m not visiting a church with my wife or my kids or by myself. But I’m I’m enjoying an opportunity where so many men are engaged.

00;09;15;11 – 00;09;17;27
Wendell
This is a place I can hang. You know, he sees that.

00;09;17;27 – 00;09;36;25
Dale
And it’s such a key model for everything else that will do but you’re you are spot on. When the when when a person visits a church for the first time, you’ll know if the men are engaged or not. You can well, you’ll see it not only by by volume or by numbers, but you’ll feel it by the sense of the heart of the church as well.

00;09;36;25 – 00;10;10;24
Wendell
Yep, yep, yep. That’s great. All right. Step two and this is a key to sustaining a long term ministry. The first of all, is the impetus for the pastors vision is still so eloquently described, but this one sustains a long term ministry. The average church has a ministry to men that lasts about 18 months, and then there’s turnover it’s hard to build much in 18 months, but the reason that happens so often, especially in smaller church, is because whoever has been appointed or volunteers tries to do it themselves.

00;10;11;10 – 00;10;16;10
Wendell
You you’ve seen the one the one man barely able to deal. He’s got all the instruments all over.

00;10;16;13 – 00;10;20;16
Dale
Pretty busy person and a lot of noise, but not a lot of music.

00;10;20;24 – 00;10;46;26
Wendell
Ha and a lot of perspiration is less overtime and open houses and other things like that as well. What did working his tail off? That’s for sure. But that’s how a lot of guys jump into that. They say, Oh, that would be so much fun to be the leader of men and my church. And they jump in and they’re the one man band and then they start to lose focus.

00;10;46;26 – 00;11;06;17
Wendell
They try to do everything we have to recruit for every event. You have to have people cover and everything, and unless you have a team together, you are going to burn out pretty soon. They’re tired. They said, You know what? That’s just too much energy. Had to take to do that. I’m not going to do that. They start to get discouraged.

00;11;06;17 – 00;11;37;18
Wendell
They start to say to themselves, No one cares anyway, really? So why should I be doing that? And then they begin to back out and eventually they fall off. But the key is to build this. This Council where you’ve got key leaders from various aspects of the church who you can draw around you. They’re respected by other men in the church, or when they speak, the guys will listen they’re approved by the pastor, and they’re involved with developing a long term strategy for the Ministry of Men.

00;11;38;00 – 00;12;02;06
Wendell
Now, you start however you start could be small groups events, et cetera. But what you want is a long term strategy. All of our next sessions, we’ll talk about an assessment, but that assessment is critical to understand what the needs are. So you can build that long term strategy. You guys who, again, have the respect of others, not afraid to get their hands dirty and are willing to join with you for the long term.

00;12;02;06 – 00;12;05;09
Wendell
That’s a real important piece of it, for sure. Yeah.

00;12;06;02 – 00;12;18;25
Dale
One of the key things I found in ministry that was helpful to make sure that you have jobs that are there for the guys that are not the super saints, the guys that aren’t the, you know, 15 or 20 years in Christ kind of people.

00;12;18;29 – 00;12;19;05
Wendell
That.

00;12;19;16 – 00;12;45;17
Dale
Bring make sure that there’s a spot in there for a guy because again, you don’t need to necessarily have the gift of evangelism to flip pancakes or do not. And, and so if you can bring a guy in that can handle the kitchen part of it or something, there are other people that will be ready to teach, but it’s sharing the load and giving the jobs out to the people that are there and encourage them to be part of a ministry that can accomplish more together than they can individually.

00;12;45;22 – 00;13;15;02
Wendell
And any men. Well, so let me just give four real quick practical steps to build a men’s council. First one is to understand the strengths that you want the council to embody. So what is it you want from that council? Not all the participants, but the council. And what do you expect of them? The Bible outlines some pretty clear things there, but you don’t have to have everybody still describe as spiritually mature, but they have to be spiritually committed.

00;13;15;05 – 00;13;41;23
Wendell
Right. And that’s a real key for the council. Yep. Determine the level of commitment the amount of time you’re expecting. So if you’re asking them to get involved at a pretty high level, what does that mean? Is an hour a week, 2 hours a week? Is it 5 hours a month? They all happen to be in two different weeks, try to outline so they have a good idea so they can balance the rest of their life, their family, their work, any hobbies that they have outside of what you’re trying to accomplish and then the culture.

00;13;41;23 – 00;14;00;08
Wendell
What is it you’re trying to create? You don’t want the council to be a bunch of alpha dogs running around as head of the pack. You want them to be servants. That’s the that’s the culture. You want them to serve the men, the women, the children of the church, but specifically of the men’s events that’s a real key factor.

00;14;00;10 – 00;14;17;03
Dale
You know what? I got a key point here. This culture part, it it will permeate everything that’s going to be done from this point forward once this council is in place. So setting that culture correctly and accurately in agreeing with each other on what it’s going to be is a key part.

00;14;17;23 – 00;14;40;26
Wendell
Yep. And then you have the opportunity to speak to each other about it, make sure you’re you’re making it happen, and then invite your leaders to share what they hope to experience by being part of this council. What role might they want to play going forward? It’s important to understand what their expectations are as well, not just yours to them, but there’s yours as a key leader to try to make that happen again.

00;14;40;27 – 00;15;24;25
Wendell
Open, honest dialog with the leadership team creating that culture that servanthood making sure each person follows through on their commitment as as they can. I want to wrap with one verse and then a couple of questions. Here’s here’s a verse out of in seasons 411 to 13, it says So Christ gave himself apostles, the apostles, the prophets, evangelist the pastors and teachers to equip his people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach the unity of the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God become mature, attaining to the full measure of the followers of Christ.

00;15;25;15 – 00;15;48;16
Wendell
That’s ultimately what you’re trying to accomplish in your ministry. Tim, in that verse right there, you’re trying to understand the knowledge, your faith in the Son of God become mature, attaining to the full measure of the fullness of Christ, which is that you take, go and make disciples, not just become one so a couple of questions to wrap up.

00;15;49;07 – 00;15;52;29
Wendell
How would you describe the ministry to men in your local church?

00;15;54;06 – 00;16;15;22
Dale
Boy, that’s a good question for anybody. The answer, you know, it is good to be honest with the needs of men and ministry that in their church will begin with that and kind of do that that moment where you kind of break it down and really try to understand what how would you describe it, where would you be, what are the heights, what are the low points, what are the meanings yeah.

00;16;16;06 – 00;16;40;25
Wendell
Where do we begin on this good evaluation? Has your pastor been able to share their vision for the church with the men’s leadership? Council? That’s a really important factor. Again, they’ll outline it very clearly on why that’s so critical. But don’t overlook that stuff. You don’t want to create a rift. You want to create unity, and you want to support the full body of the full body that that you’re part of.

00;16;41;20 – 00;16;54;17
Wendell
If you’re not already, would you be willing to get involved with your local ministry to men? That’s always the question, right? Is like, what am I going to do with what I just heard? Yeah, I guess I need to step forward and some of.

00;16;55;00 – 00;17;06;13
Dale
The bottom line is I think everybody would really like to see what it is to have a good, effective men’s ministry in the church. The question is, are you ready to help be part of that change in transition in your church?

00;17;07;18 – 00;17;09;28
Wendell
That’s always the right question. That’s good.