Previous posts in this series have been incorporated into Part 2 of my online article, “A Comprehensive Church-Based Ministry to Men.”
Let’s review
When I began this series on local church men’s ministry, I started with the idea that Jesus wants all local church men’s ministries to have the WOW! Factor. The WOW! Factor is anything that get’s people’s attention, creates admiration, and drives inquisitiveness. While it is true that Jesus utilized the WOW! Factor to get his message out to a broad national audience, in the end he narrowed the WOW! Factor down to one specific example: his love for us. He commanded believers to love each other the same way he loves us so others who recognize us as his disciples will recognize his love in us, admire his love in us, and ask about his love in us. (John 13:34-35)
After describing the WOW! Factor all local church men’s ministries are to have, I made an abrupt transition with my post entitled “The Misery of Modern Men” where I described the current rapidly disintegrating moral and social state of men in America. In response to this dire situation, Jesus wants local church men’s ministries to reach these very men with their WOW! Factor, their observable Christ-like love in action.
I went on to explain that local church men’s ministries are largely failing to reach contemporary men and the reason is because of a situation in our churches that I have labeled “groupthink.” Groupthink is what happens when we go along with the crowd when we know better in order to keep the peace. As a result, instead of manifesting the love of Christ in an observable way to secular men in our culture by meeting the needs of widows and others with long term needs in our churches, local church men’s ministries have hidden behind the four walls of their churches, making the practice of the love of Christ invisible to the rest of the world.
Next, I described a biblical solution to this problem of isolating the practice of the love of Christ in the form of “fellowship” in a church building. It is found in Isaiah 1:17-18. I call it our “protocol:” plead the cause of the widow and God will transform our culture.
After that, I challenged my readers to “break out of groupthink” by finding a widow in their church or community, or someone else with an unmet pressing need, and “pleading their cause” by meeting with them on a regular basis, getting to know them, serving them, and committing to finding resources to meet any of their unmet pressing needs.
Finally, I suggested a passage, 2 Timothy 3:12-17, as “a passage for getting there,” that is, as a roadmap for accomplishing the good works God saved us to do. I provided a cursory summary of the passage and showed how it climaxed with the topic of good works, demonstrating that everything God is doing in the lives of men, he is doing “so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
In the future, I will write posts that treat specific aspects of this passage in more depth. But before I do, I need to address some questions.
Are there other biblical passages like 2 Timothy 3:12-17 that state that good works are the goal of our salvation?
Yes. Here are two more passages that reflect the primacy of good works as the goal of our salvation.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:8-10
“Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do good works.” Titus 2:14
Therefore, because of what Scripture teaches, all local church men’s ministries must have a major emphasis on good works. In fact, the Bible teaches that one of the primary reasons for Christian men meeting together is so they can think up ideas for good works that they can do: “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together…” (Hebrews 10:24 25) Not having an emphasis on good works violates the whole purpose of our salvation.
Isn’t the protocol too narrow? Aren’t there many more good works than simply pleading the cause of a widow?
There are an infinite number of good works that both Christians and non-Christians the world over do. For example, Jesus said that even a drink of water given in his name does not go unnoticed. (Matthew 10:42; Mark 9:41)
In addition, the New Testament enumerates specific things that qualify as good works: being generous and sharing is a good work (1 Timothy 6:17-19); aspiring to the office of overseer is a good work (1 Timothy 3:1); and “bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the Lord’s people, helping those in trouble” are also good works (1 Timothy 5:10).
But our protocol – plead the cause of widows and the fatherless1 – is unique to Christians and uniquely supreme for Christians for a number of reasons.
- Our protocol to “plead the cause of widows and the fatherless” means to take responsibility to find resources to meet their unmet pressing needs (In Titus 3:14 Paul defines the purpose of good works as meeting pressing needs.). Taking on this kind of responsibility for people one is not related to is rare among non-believers, but should be normal behavior among believers.
- This good work is commanded of all believers and is repeated numerous times in many different ways in the New Testament. (Acts 6:1-6; 20:34-35; 1 John 3:16-18; James 1:27; 1 Timothy 5:3-16; Galatians 2:10, etc.)
- Pleading the cause of widows and the fatherless was the way the early church could say, “there are no needy persons among us.” (Acts 4:34)
- The early church considered meeting the needs of their widows and fatherless the highest expression of their faith (James 1:27).
- The protocol has been given to the church within the context of our New Covenant relationship and represents the fulfillment of our covenant responsibilities to love each other as Christ has loved us. (John 13:34-35)
Yes, there are many good works that we can and should be doing. But the protocol takes precedence over them all. The reason is because ignoring the protocol means that there are widows, fatherless children, and others in the church with long term pressing needs that are not being met. Not meeting their needs means that the church will be unfruitful (Titus 3:14).
What about the needs that men have? When do we address their needs?
Of course men have legitimate needs that need to be addressed in men’s ministry. But training men to obey the protocol first makes addressing those needs much easier. Here are two illustrations. The first is an exhortation Paul gives us in Romans 6:
“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” (Romans 6:12-14)
In this passage, Paul exhorts us to offer ourselves to God “as an instrument of righteousness.” Every man who has been involved with New Commandment Men’s Ministries knows exactly what this means. When we go out and serve widows and single moms and fatherless children in and around their homes, we are offering “every part of ourselves to [God] as an instrument of righteousness.” It is a wonderful, thrilling, joyful experience.
Then, in contrast to this amazing and holy experience of using our bodies as instruments of righteousness, Paul commands us to “not let sin reign in our mortal bodies so that we obey its evil desires.” The beauty of serving a widow and others with long term needs is that doing so provides a holy context in which the destructive nature of sin becomes evident and even repugnant. Serving widows and God himself gives men something to turn to as they turn from sin.
Another example is what happens when we train men in how to practice the love of Christ towards widows. We teach men that loving widows and others with long term needs as Christ loves us involves identifying with them so that we come to know and understand them, committing to them so that they feel secure, and sacrificing for them so that their pressing needs are met. We do this because in the Incarnation, Jesus Christ identified with us and committed to us, and in redemption, Jesus Christ sacrificed himself for us.
But practicing the love of Christ also applies directly to a man’s marriage and family: “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Ephesians 5:25) Just as our men in New Commandment Men’s Ministries imitate Christ by identifying with widows, committing to them, and sacrificing for them, in the same way, husbands are to work at understanding their wives (identification), never leaving them (commitment), and giving themselves up for them (sacrifice). Showing men how important these elements are in serving widows, makes it natural to stress these same elements in their marriages as well.
You say pleading the cause of a widow will attract men to Christ. That doesn’t sound realistic.
But it is true. Men are attracted to righteousness. Men are attracted to heroic behavior, as exemplified by their participation in the military, in law enforcement, and in fire prevention. And men are attracted to teamwork. Over the past twenty-five years that I have been doing men’s team ministry to the widowed and single parents, we have never had a difficult time recruiting men for this ministry. And the men involved in working with widows love to talk about it with their non-Christian friends.
Won’t focusing on widows age the church?
No. The goal of meeting the needs of widows and others in the church with long term needs will draw in men from all stages in life, resulting in a truly multi-generational ministry.
In the future I am going to look more in-depth at the process Paul describes in 2 Timothy 3:12-17 by which God takes a sinful man in a godless, sin-infested culture and transforms him into a man of God who is equipped for every good work.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
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Learn how to form teams of men for every widow, single mom
and fatherless child in your church at NewCommandment.org.
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