Building Male Disciples

Restoring the Masculine Spirit

I.  Men Need Vision

“Without a vision, the people perish…”  Men are reluctant to surrender to God because they don’t know what He is doing in the world, and they have no idea how they might get in on it.

Jesus had a vision.  He called it the Kingdom of God.  It was huge.  It involved nothing less than a re-creation of the world, one person at a time.  And we are His partners in this task:  “This vision was the focus of his entire life.  Everything about his life was tied up in this vision.  This vision was what kept him focused on his mission.  It was the reason he lived and died.”

If men don’t have a vision of what God is doing in a church (on the earth), they will not invest themselves.  They will see it as a club, not a cause.  Christianity becomes either an exercise in moral improvement or pointless busyness.

Where does vision come from?  God! God is calling each believer, each church, to accomplish something great, but few are listening.

II.  Men Need Purpose

Two women will go out to lunch without an agenda, but two men won’t.  Men won’t do anything unless they know the purpose.  The problem is, most guys don’t know what the purpose of church is.  Guys don’t know what church is about! That’s because most churches have not agreed on what their purpose is.

If you clearly state a unique purpose for your church/ministry (and restate it often), the men will be encouraged.

What can you do?

• Make the your mission statements short and specific.
• Once you have your mission or purpose, repeat it frequently to the body.
• Always stress the purpose when announcing events.
• When starting small groups for men, be sure they have a purpose to focus on.
• Cancel purposeless meetings. “Churches waste so much time in stupid meetings.

III.  Give Men High Standards: Ask Something of Them

Many people think the church asks too much of its members.  In reality, it asks too little.

People have no desire to be a part of something that makes no difference, that expects so little.  And, frankly, many churches have made the call to discipleship and service so shallow and easy it no longer has any impact or meaning to those involved.

We are afraid to ask men for a great commitment, so they think we’re after their wallet, not their hearts.  Most often, we draw back from challenging men to greater commitment, assuming their laziness.  We then wonder why men have so little respect for the church—even as we presume so little respect for them.  But what if we told men up front that to become a real disciple of Jesus Christ is…to enlist in God’s army and to place their lives on the line?

IV.  Promise Men Obstacles, Not Ease

Bruce Barton writes, “The higher type of leadership which calls for men’s greatest energies by the promise of obstacles rather than the picture of reward—that was the leadership of Jesus.  By it he tempered the soft metal of his disciples’ nature into keen hard steel.”

Jesus sent His disciples out “as sheep among wolves.”  He promised them arrest, floggings betrayal, persecution, and death (Matt. 10).

There is a high-octane man who will not follow unless he sees danger ahead.  Jesus knew this.  So did Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton, who posted this advertisement in 1913:

Men wanted for hazardous journey.  Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness.  Constant danger.  Safe return doubtful.  Honour and recognition in case of success.

More than five thousand men applied for twenty-six slots.  Precisely the kind of men who are missing in today’s church!  If we want aggressive, bold, greatness-seeking men, we must do what Jesus did and promise suffering, trial, and pain.  But today’s Christianity is marketed like Panadol: it’s the antidote to suffering, trial, and pain.  We’ve turned Jesus’ approach on its head!

V.  Don’t Beg or Plead

Jesus never begged anyone to follow Him.  He never waited for anyone, never sang one more verse while people decided whether to follow.  He stated, “Follow Me!” and kept going.  Those who immediately dropped everything became His disciples; those who hesitated were left behind.

Yet week after week, especially in evangelical churches, we beg men to be saved.  Problem is, the call to be saved is so familiar, men see no value in it.  Don’t misunderstand me: it’s vitally important that we call men to follow Jesus.  Men need salvation.  But instead of pleading, what if our approach was: “Do you have what it takes to follow Christ?  Many say they do, but fewer than one in four will remain loyal.  Are you one of the few, or when trials come, will you crumble?” What if we stopped begging men to be saved and started challenging them to follow Jesus Christ?  To become a disciple of Christ?

This approach is risky and should not be used with mixed-gender audiences.  But the strong call to discipleship may be the only way to pierce the hearts of some men.

VI.  Men Need to Produce Fruit

If you want to demoralize a man, give him a pointless task.  Men must be productive.  Jesus prayed we would produce an abundant crop, thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold.

Men are result oriented.  A man’s strongest urge is to reproduce.

Why do churches produce so little fruit?  Of course there are the spiritual reasons—a lack of prayer, faith, abiding, trust, etc.  But even faithful, praying churches sometimes fail to produce and abundant crop because they’re afraid to take a painful but necessary step; thinning their ministry programs.  Get rid of all ministries and activities that are not producing and being fruitful.

Thinning: The Missing Step in Fruit Production

We must take the painful step of thinning our ministries.  Why?  Men need to produce fruit and fruit producing requires pruning.  If we plug men into fruitless ministry activity (just to make them look busy), they will burn out and either go passive or leave the church.  The prophet Isaiah said: “I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing” (Isa. 49:4 NIV).  Men will not sacrifice themselves to support an institution.  But a church that’s changing the world will draw men like a beacon—a lighthouse.

VII.  Men Need Strong Pastoral Leadership

Strong pastoral leadership is not dictatorship.

John Eldredge states, “You want a team, not a one-man show.  If you have a one-man show, the men you’ll get are going to be sheep, rather than tigers.”

You attract tigers by letting them be tigers.  Isn’t this what Jesus did?  He trained seventy-two tigers, then sent them out with all of his authority (Luke 10).

The leaders job is to cast vision that creates victory, that frees people to become what God has designed them to be, and then get out of the way and let them do it.  In this role the leader (discipler) will model an open and free environment in which ordinary people are encouraged and equipped to do extraordinary ministry.  Our passion is to develop other leaders who will develop other leaders.

How to Train Your Male Disciples

1. Let men learn through personal discovery  (Example: Jesus letting Peter step out of the boat and walk on water).
2. Let men learn by hands-on experience
3. Let men learn through object lessons
4. Let men be real, not religious
5. Let men ask questions and challenge the way things are done
6. Men need simple, one-point lessons
7. Men appreciate forthrightness
8. Men need challenging teaching
9. Men need the unexpected
10. Men need great stories (plenty of illustrations)
11. Men need teaching that leads them somewhere
12. Men want you to emphasize life transformation rather than moral improvement

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