Ideas for Men's Ministry (Part III)

This is the last part to my thoughts on fellowship and men's ministry. I had a few dreams about fellowship over the last few days, and independently of that, I had a thought which really struck me about the relationship between fathers and sons. I decided to write about fellowship specifically and finish this three-part email, rather than spending the time to write about what struck me about the father-son relationship (which is also interesting, but not quite relevant here - it will have to be forthcoming as a separate blog post).

Fellowship as the strengthening of the ministry.
In Acts 16, Paul the Missionary meets up with Timothy, and a legendary duo is created. They went around strengthening churches and encouraging people in their faith. In Acts 18-19, Paul continues to go around and around, strengthening churches and encouraging people. Throughout Acts, the growth of the body of Christ occurs hand in hand with the tireless work by the disciples through time spent by them with the people - (1) teaching, (2) encouraging, (3) praying.

What strikes me always about Acts is how the church is grown through those three actions:

Teaching.
This sort of dovetails with what I said in the my last email, which is about maturity and leadership. The act of teaching the Word is fellowship. To teach the Word means that you have to know the Word. And, picking up a Bible study packet every few months or reading the latest Christian-themed book now and again, isn't good enough to teach. What is interesting about Paul in Acts is that Paul never stops teaching, not even when he's in someone's home, on the road, at a market, or even when he's been arrested. Paul doesn't just refute false testimony - he gives true testimony in the form of teaching.

An idea, therefore, for a men's ministry, is to develop teachers. And the only way to develop teachers is to teach. Not only about the Word, but how to communicate the Word in a manner that others can learn.

Encouragement.
What exactly does it mean to have encouragement? Paul speaks of encouragement in terms of keeping and not losing "heart," as in 2Corinthians: "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart...For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day."

The afflictions of this world are many. We are crushed, like Paul says, we are confused, we are persecuted, struck down, blinded and tortured. And these afflictions are more metaphorical in our time, than the actualities in Paul's time, but no less real to us. As the believers lost heart constantly in Paul's time, so we do lose heart constantly in this time. So the question is, how do we encourage one another and to manifest the glory of God in our own bodies, so that we are renewed, so that others are renewed, so that we do not lose heart?

I think that Paul was able to do it because he was real to the people he visited. Whenever he went anywhere, Paul was able to encourage the people around him. He met them where they were, whatever village or town, Paul went to them, put himself in the place where the people were, and he stayed in their homes, lived with them, months or even years. In this day and age, every family is its own village / town, separated from other village / towns and each family is full of its own secrets, its own troubles, its own problems, and, on the flip side, full of its own joys, its own triumphs and its own blessings.

How can there be encouragement when each family, each man, is its own walled fortress? To encourage someone, one cannot do it from afar. That would properly be called "cheer-leading" and not true encouragement. When the cheering ends, then encouragement ends. True encouragement means going to the town / village and staying there, months or years even.

Who knows what troubles are crushing the spirits of our brothers? Who knows what burdens are better shared over the long term, months or years worth of burdens, or burdens that may never be lifted in our lifetimes? To which of those burdens are we willing, as men, to commit for the long term?

If it isn't a commitment, then it isn't encouragement. It is cheer-leading. And Paul was never a cheer-leader.

Praying.
As always, all of these things are just works by the hands of men, and are destined to fail if not done with prayer. Prayer is not just intercession. Prayer is teaching, in the form of God teaching through the Holy Spirit. Prayer is maturity in knowing that your own works and your own energy is not enough to make a difference.

And prayer is teaching, in the form of the cascade that I talked about in the previous email. We pray separately, and then we pray together and we teach and we learn when we pray, not just from God, but from each other. And again, we pray separately and then we pray together, and we get encouraged not just from God, but from each other. And finally, we pray because it is what was commanded of us. We pray together because that is what was commanded of us.

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And so would we strengthen the ministry, like Paul did, and like Timothy did, learning from Paul.

-David