Another Stepstone in understanding the Church
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
One of the things that we do in ministry, and in particular in teaching others about Christ is the need of repetition. It seems like people just don't get it the first one or two or three times that it is a delivered to them... I mean the gospel of Christ. But I want to get into some very important areas and needs of church growth, and to do that I need to deal with different physical areas of the church. As I work with different groups and ministries; and in particular ministries to men I realize more than ever that the key ingredient to having a healthy church is and having men actively involved in every aspect of church life. The best part of it is that there are men who are willing to be active but there are two things that are necessary for them to be at ease in the church. 1. They need to see some need that they can fulfill within the body and, 2. They need to be asked to help and not taken for granted as people.
In the hustle and bustle of this society we have lost much of the things that help men to keep track of who they are and where they are in life. Even though men can multitask fairly well after they get used it, there becomes no room for retention of some very important things for men to always keep in front of them. Things like keeping a focus on right from wrong, and a sense of order in dealing with priorities. It is this kind of thing that begins to fade away in a man's life if it isn't brought up very often. Instead of keeping the absolute truth of life in front of man as a guide line and guiding point we are being confused by too much input to deal with.
The input of information that all of us have to sort out today is so in Norma's in a regular day many times we have to just decide subconsciously what is the highest priority to think about. Now when we were guided by absolute truth it was much easier to give a good sense of priority to those things because they were guided by a belief in an absolute right and wrong. Many times men no longer have a sense of truth to be led by, because men have been stripped of their identity as men. When that happens for men it is easy to get lost in the shuffle. We have called our attempts to reach men a"men's ministry"but what we really need is an understanding of the real needs that men have to find themselves again spiritually. In doing so we will begin to do as Christ did to develop"A MINISTRY TO MEN". I believe with all my heart that that is one of the reasons Jesus concentrated so much on the 12 men that he chose. He looked for particular attributes from these men, they were, honesty, loyalty, and the love. In Christ's time it was a lot easier to know right from wrong and no matter whether a man was truthful, or upright; still most men knew what sort of man they were in their core.
Today we are finding in particular the younger man in our churches unable to identify with absolute truth. Because of many are unable to identify with what it means to be a real man. For generations now others have told young man how to fill what to believe and in general how to act. Unfortunately those who were telling these young men how to live were not there father's, and in most cases they weren't men either. Because of that much as gotten lost in the translation of who, or what a man really is, and in particularly what a Christian man really is. I'm sure you've heard about how fragile the male ego is, but it's not so much about pumping men up with a pat on the back and a hearty"that a boy"attitude. It's actually more about encouraging a man to step out from the crowd and be willing to take a shot at either what they see as a terrible failure or a great success. Men in general are not at all confident leaders even though in our social setting we are told we must be the very best to be worthwhile and respected. Most men are very unsure of their abilities. I don't believe that is uncommon among people in general, but in general men find that there credibility is tied up with their success in whatever they do. Most importantly that credibility as seen in their own eyes, not so much the eyes of anyone around them. I think that is a built in trade for most men. A little later on in this teaching series I want to get into some statistics that spoke about the lack of church attendance men have today and the reasons behind that lack of attendance that are closely tied to a lack of credibility that many men have within themselves. It's important to remember that while over 90% of men believe in God still a much less percentage are going to church which tells us they lack the ability to stand and give a witness to what they say they believe. There are reasons for that kind of behavior to. We'll talk more about that in the next blog. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
One of the things that we do in ministry, and in particular in teaching others about Christ is the need of repetition. It seems like people just don't get it the first one or two or three times that it is a delivered to them... I mean the gospel of Christ. But I want to get into some very important areas and needs of church growth, and to do that I need to deal with different physical areas of the church. As I work with different groups and ministries; and in particular ministries to men I realize more than ever that the key ingredient to having a healthy church is and having men actively involved in every aspect of church life. The best part of it is that there are men who are willing to be active but there are two things that are necessary for them to be at ease in the church. 1. They need to see some need that they can fulfill within the body and, 2. They need to be asked to help and not taken for granted as people.
In the hustle and bustle of this society we have lost much of the things that help men to keep track of who they are and where they are in life. Even though men can multitask fairly well after they get used it, there becomes no room for retention of some very important things for men to always keep in front of them. Things like keeping a focus on right from wrong, and a sense of order in dealing with priorities. It is this kind of thing that begins to fade away in a man's life if it isn't brought up very often. Instead of keeping the absolute truth of life in front of man as a guide line and guiding point we are being confused by too much input to deal with.
The input of information that all of us have to sort out today is so in Norma's in a regular day many times we have to just decide subconsciously what is the highest priority to think about. Now when we were guided by absolute truth it was much easier to give a good sense of priority to those things because they were guided by a belief in an absolute right and wrong. Many times men no longer have a sense of truth to be led by, because men have been stripped of their identity as men. When that happens for men it is easy to get lost in the shuffle. We have called our attempts to reach men a"men's ministry"but what we really need is an understanding of the real needs that men have to find themselves again spiritually. In doing so we will begin to do as Christ did to develop"A MINISTRY TO MEN". I believe with all my heart that that is one of the reasons Jesus concentrated so much on the 12 men that he chose. He looked for particular attributes from these men, they were, honesty, loyalty, and the love. In Christ's time it was a lot easier to know right from wrong and no matter whether a man was truthful, or upright; still most men knew what sort of man they were in their core.
Today we are finding in particular the younger man in our churches unable to identify with absolute truth. Because of many are unable to identify with what it means to be a real man. For generations now others have told young man how to fill what to believe and in general how to act. Unfortunately those who were telling these young men how to live were not there father's, and in most cases they weren't men either. Because of that much as gotten lost in the translation of who, or what a man really is, and in particularly what a Christian man really is. I'm sure you've heard about how fragile the male ego is, but it's not so much about pumping men up with a pat on the back and a hearty"that a boy"attitude. It's actually more about encouraging a man to step out from the crowd and be willing to take a shot at either what they see as a terrible failure or a great success. Men in general are not at all confident leaders even though in our social setting we are told we must be the very best to be worthwhile and respected. Most men are very unsure of their abilities. I don't believe that is uncommon among people in general, but in general men find that there credibility is tied up with their success in whatever they do. Most importantly that credibility as seen in their own eyes, not so much the eyes of anyone around them. I think that is a built in trade for most men. A little later on in this teaching series I want to get into some statistics that spoke about the lack of church attendance men have today and the reasons behind that lack of attendance that are closely tied to a lack of credibility that many men have within themselves. It's important to remember that while over 90% of men believe in God still a much less percentage are going to church which tells us they lack the ability to stand and give a witness to what they say they believe. There are reasons for that kind of behavior to. We'll talk more about that in the next blog. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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