Your pastor is the guardian of your flock
Every pastor has had the following experience: someone in the church gets really excited about a certain parachurch ministry, comes to him, tells him about it, and then expects him to start it immediately. But like any shepherd wary of wolves trying to fleece his flock, he reacts with cautious hesitation. Then the parishioner gets upset because his pastor doesn’t share his enthusiasm. He may even leave the church because his pastor “didn’t catch the vision.”
Laymen need to understand that when a pastor reacts this way, he is fulfilling an important role: protecting his congregation from malicious predators. Listen to how Paul describes this role in Acts 20:28-30.
Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.
Keeping this protective function in mind when introducing men’s team ministry to your church leadership will go a long way toward helping you gain their confidence and support.
All pastors will have legitimate questions about any new parachurch ministry
Knowing what concerns your church leadership will have about men’s team ministry and what questions they are likely to ask will enable you to help them make informed decisions. Here are some of those questions:
- Is it legit? Your pastor needs to know if an outside ministry is properly organized and administered, how long it’s been around, and what kind of background its leadership has. New Commandment Men’s Ministries was founded in January, 2003, as a Colorado 501 (c)3 non profit corporation (ID: 05-0556506). It has a board of directors that meets quarterly and it has filed all appropriate documents with the IRS. More information about New Commandment and its President, Herb Reese, can be found at NewCommandment.org. New Commandment Men’s Ministries is a member of National Coalition of Ministries to Men (NCMM.org) and has been peer reviewed by dozens of men’s ministries across the nation.
- Does it have street cred? One of the first things that comes to a pastor’s mind when hearing about a new ministry is whether or not churches like his have implemented it successfully. New Commandment has helped 1,000 churches begin men’s team ministries to their widowed and single parents. These churches range in size from less than 50 to over 50,000. Chances are good that a church like yours has started a men’s team ministry.
- Is it a franchise ministry? A franchise ministry establishes local chapters in churches, such as AWANA, MOPS, and BSF. Each chapter observes the franchise ministry’s standards of practice. New Commandment Men’s Ministries is not a franchise ministry. We simply offer churches a men’s team ministry model that they can chose to modify any way they want. Some churches call their men’s team ministry after our name, but that is not a requirement.
- What kind of results should I expect? No pastor will champion a ministry that he thinks might flop. Pastors want to have a reasonable expectation of success. Fortunately, we can say that we typically see 10% to 30% of all the men in a church get involved in their men’s team ministry. After two years, 90% of churches that start the ministry continue to maintain it.
- Who will lead it? Most pastors are overworked (and underpaid). A natural question that comes to any pastor’s mind is, “Will this be more work for me?” The answer is no. Or at least, it doesn’t have to be. The majority of laymen with no extensive training in ministry can lead a men’s team ministry in their church. All of our material has been developed with this goal in mind. This means establishing a men’s team ministry in a church results in less work for the pastor because his men are meeting the needs of the neediest people in his congregation on their own, a la Acts 6:1-7.
- How does it mesh with my church’s beliefs, values and ministry plan? All pastors have a vision of what their church can and should be. We work with pastors to help them incorporate men’s team ministry into that vision. With regard to doctrine, if your church holds to basic core doctrines of historic Christianity and regards the Bible as authoritative, it will have no problem with New Commandment. We have worked effectively with churches in dozens of denominations. (A doctrinal statement is available on request.) In addition, the men’s team ministry model we teach is very basic and easily modified to fit into an already existing men’s ministry.
- Will it be a hard sell? Pastors don’t want to have to prod their people to do one more new program. But when set in the context of God’s heart for the widowed and single parents, starting a men’s team ministry becomes extremely easy.
- Is there a hidden agenda? No. With New Commandment Men’s Ministries, what pastors see is what they get. Helping churches meet pressing needs so it can eventually say, “There is no needy person among us” is our only goal.
- Will it increase the church’s exposure to liability? This is a normal concern any pastor will have and should have. The answer is that all ministry increases a church’s exposure to liability. A church’s proper response to liability exposure is to take steps to mitigate that exposure (such as doing background checks on all volunteers in men’s team ministry) and to make sure it has adequate insurance coverage. Most churches have insurance for off-site church activities.
- What’s the cost? Nothing. All of New Commandment’s training on its Meeting to Meet Needs online training site is free and all published material can be downloaded and duplicated free of charge.
Understanding a pastor’s protective role and addressing potential concerns up front will go a long way toward helping a church properly implement a men’s team ministry to its widowed and single parents.
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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