I knew we were on to something when the Quincy Herald Whig published a picture of a team of men from a local church’s men’s team ministry on its front page. The picture was of the team serving as pallbearers, carrying their care receiver’s coffin out of the church after her funeral. The men had “carried” her faithfully for years, serving her one Saturday morning each month for two hours. Now they were carrying her one last time and the city took notice.
What a testimony!
Another team in that town served a single mom on welfare with three children. They helped her find a job and got her qualified for a Habitat for Humanity home. Then they recruited and organized all the volunteers, and built her a brand new home.
Another team served a single mom who was disabled with Crohn’s disease. One of her team members, who was also single, wound up marrying her.
In another town, a team of men helped their care receiver earn extra income by building out her basement as a rental unit.
In still another town, a care receiver’s mother spent an hour after her mother’s funeral thanking the pastor for their men’s team ministry and its service to her mom. Then she wrote the men’s ministry a large check as a thank you…and has done so again and again on the anniversaries of her mother’s death.
In yet another town, a men’s team ministry has led six people to Christ as a result of their faithful service.
Want to build a men’s ministry your community can’t ignore? Get your men out of the four walls of your church and into your community serving those in need. Some churches do it with free oil changes for widows and single moms. Some do it with food banks and school adoptions. Some do it with men’s team ministry (my personal favorite!). One church in inner city Los Angeles gets gang members saved and then has them stand out on corners holding large signs above their head that read, “I’m a former gang member that Jesus Saved!” Another church has their men go out and sweep the gutters in their neighborhood. That same church also has their men go door to door on Saturdays asking if there is anything the homeowner needs help with.
Whatever you do with your men, get them out the doors of your church and into the streets serving people. When you do, those streets will never be the same again.
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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