A New Project For Men's Ministries

          Women's ministries thrive in churches across the country. No matter the size of the church, Women find strength in each other. There are groups for women with small children, women who have special talents, make quilts, and enjoy deeper studies in the Bible. Women's study guides, and women's devotionals, and specialty books for women line the shelves of bookstores. But try to find a good group study guide for men, and the picking is much slimmer.
          Gut Checks For Guys is a nine week study series that helps men grow in Christ, as well as grow between brothers. A Gut Check is something that affects us down deep. When we feel something in our gut, called splankna in the Bible, in changes us.
          Gut Checks change who we are, and how we deal with life. They stirs us and force us to look at our behavior, beliefs, and actions. When men talk to other men about being men, then Godliness is the result. We become better disciples, more loving husbands, greater models for our children, and better employees on the job. When men dig deep and open their lives to each other, real Christian growth takes place.
          This book includes videos from unusual sources, opportunities to laugh, chances to set goals. It allows men to begin laying the groundwork for deeper relationships with other men. Gut Checks For Guys can be used with individual small groups, or in a large group setting, through whole group activities followed by table group discussions.
          Take a look at the table of contents, and consider whether it will be valuable with the men's ministry program in your church. Before it goes into full publication, 2t2 Ministries would like to have a men's group volunteer to try the book on.  Will your men's ministry be the one to take the Gut Checks For Guys challenge?

Chapter 1      Feeling It Down Deep

            Compassion, Not Particularly A Manly Topic

            Opinions Define Religion, Passion Shapes It

            What Is Manliness

           

Chapter 2      Check Your Priorities

            How Hobbies Become Obsessions

            Knowing When to Slow Down

            Making sure the main thing stays the main thing

Chapter 3      Fantastic at Faking It

            The Fake It till you Make It Syndrome

            Don’t let others see Our weakness

            A Call For Integrity

Chapter 4      Keep It Real

            The Freeing Effect of Truth

            Honesty Does not Equal Failure

            My Weakness may be Your Strength- That makes us Both Better

Chapter 5      I Don’t Want To Talk About It

            Stress

            The Need For Relationship

            Doctors are for Men Too

            Mortality and Estate Planning

           

Chapter 6      The Real Difference Between Men And Women

            Men Talk Results, Women Talk Process

            Men Want Action, Women Want Attention

            Men Gather Things, Women Gather Relationships

Chapter 7      Real Men Don't Ignore, They Adapt

            Listening to Our Bodies

            Changing Careers

            Altering the Way We Do Things

            Pacing Ourselves    

Chapter 8      Yes, We’re Open

            The Freeing Effect of Openness

            Openness with your spouse (Don’t keep her guessing)

            Finding others with similar needs

                       

Chapter 9      Where Will You Be On Father’s Day?

            Man Up

            Show Jesus to Our Kids

            Representing Jesus in the Workplace

            Making Time for Ministry

Making Your Own Shift

          Jerry Harris preaches to a remarkable church in Quincy, Illinois.  In addition, the church has a number of satellite Churches; each one is successful and growing. But, something hit Jerry one day.  He writes about it in his book Shifted: The Crossing Story.

            “If we look out on the faces of our congregations, how many actual disciples do we see? How many are personally convinced that they are disciples but are sorely mistaken? How many of them believe this fallacy because of the bar we have set them? Real Life (Real Life Ministries, led by Jim Putman) chose Matthew 4:19 as their definition of discipleship seeing Jesus calling His own disciples. “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” There are three criteria that help define discipleship in this divine statement. Am I genuinely following Christ? (follow me...), being changed by Christ ?(...and I will make you), and living life on mission for Christ ?(...fishers of men.) _This is the question I honestly wasn’t asking myself or confronting others with until this point. ”Are we making disciples”? The difficult truth for me was that with all my education, experience, and success, I really didn’t know how to mobilize a church to make disciples of Jesus Christ. The best I was providing was an environment for them to figure it out for themselves.” Jerry goes on to explain how they developed a Relational Discipleship approach at The Crossing.

            The statement that caught my attention was, “The best I was providing was an environment for them to figure it out for themselves.”

Is the development of a spiritual life solely the job of our preachers and the leadership at our church? Can we blame others because we are not growing?

Churches are constantly exploring new ways to maximize the growth of their members. But you don’t need to wait for the next great program to come along. The reality is that the body of Christ does create an environment where you can develop into a mature believer. There is no reason to sit back and wait for the next program to come along. Take hold of your own spiritual growth. Make the most of every worship opportunity and grow.  How?

            Worship is an art. It takes practice, and an understanding of how to worship is essential. The Art of Worship helps you understand how to make the most of your worship experience. This book is a must read for every believer.

            If you have ever been board with church, wondered if you were missing something, or felt like your faith has gone stale, then The Art of Worship is for you.

            Look for The Art of Worship, at the beginning April from your favorite book seller, and begin to make sense of your worship.

Leaning In To Our Trials

            Kayaking is an amazing sport.  While it may look easy to do, it’s really not.  The kayak is long and narrow, and tipping is easy.  Experienced kayakers are able to tip their boat, and turn it back upright without any trouble.  Inexperienced kayakers, however, struggle when they tip. The natural tendency when tipping is to lean in the opposite direction in an attempt to straighten the kayak. Try this and you are guaranteed to end up drenched.  Leaning our upper body in the opposite direction forces our lower body into the tip.  Working against it, actually speeds up the process of tipping over.

           Experienced Kayakers know that leaning into the tip forces the lower body against the tipping kayak. This brings the kayak back toward center. The boater can even slap the face of the paddle onto the surface of the water, which will add force against the tipping boat. The principle to remember when trying to keep a kayak upright is to work with the tipping kayak, not against it.

            A spiritual trial is a lot like paddling a kayak.  Getting started is not that difficult, but when a cross current hits, we struggle.  When struggles come, we feel like we’re going to tip. The natural tendency is to lean away from the trial, to fight it, and stay as far away as possible.  However, God wants us to learn from our trials. He wants us to get stronger, and to learn to stay upright. The key to learning from a trial is to lean into it. Don’t fight it. Work with it. Though it seems counter intuitive, it is actually the only way to restore our spiritual journey.

            James wrote, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4).   Leaning in is what brings the perfect results. Don’t fight your trials.  Work with them and you will gain endurance, and ultimately you will become perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.