Herb: Dr. Fong, you are often a guest speaker at men’s conferences. What do you like best about men’s ministry?
Dr. Fong: It’s a strategic investment. If you can invest in one person who is going to have influence over two, three, four or five other people, it’s much better than if you try to invest in one person at a time. You switch from simple addition to multiplication. Since every man is probably going to represent a marriage and children, you gain a significant amount of influence compared to just one person who may not be related to others. So there any spiritual renovations that occur, they spread over to an entire family.
Herb: What do you feel are the main issues that men are dealing with today?
Dr. Fong: I think men are afraid. Some are afraid of their past. Some are afraid of failing in the future. Some are afraid of being left alone. Fear is a big, big issue. Scripture makes the point that the opposite of faith is fear and the opposite of fear is faith. They’re on two ends of the same continuum. So one of the biggest issues causing men not to be faithful is that fear overwhelms them.
Herb: When you think about Christian men in America today, what do you feel are the main challenges they face?
Dr. Fong: First of all, they have to set aside their fears and simply make a commitment to Jesus Christ and realize that what they have in Jesus Christ can give them great courage. Once they have that concept of what courage is all about, they can live up to their commitment, thumb their nose at fear and realize they’ve been given a responsibility to give their life to their wife, to their children so their legacy goes beyond them. Just do it and stand in the face of danger, stand in between danger and the ones that we love and carry on as a grown man will do.
Herb: You are Dean of Dallas Seminary – Houston extension. So you are training pastors. Do you feel like pastors are doing an adequate job in discipling men?
Dr. Fong: One of the biggest challenges is that every seminary graduate that I’m familiar with may know that one of the highest priorities of the Scriptures for them is to disciple. Period. They think discipleship is essential in regard to the great commission. But then pastors, like just about anybody else, get distracted. And they end up going to a church that is so program heavy that they’re always trying to figure out how to keep the programs going and that distracts them from the priority of discipleship.
There has to be almost a brand new paradigm on how to do local church if the priority of discipleship is ever going to be maintained.
Herb: Do seminaries in general have distinct, dedicated programs for ministry to men?
Dr. Fong: No. I think its just too difficult.
Herb: What do you mean by too difficult?
Dr. Fong: Successful men’s ministries are rare. There are multiple examples of failures and half baked or unsuccessful ministries that keep plodding on. It’s not hard to find them. And then the easy comparison is always made, “Well, look at the women’s ministry. It’s four times bigger than the men’s ministry and growing. And the men’s ministry is stagnant.”
So there’s a difficulty just from the outset of the results. Suddenly everyone is realizing that we’ve got to pay attention to this difference.
Herb: Do you feel like there has been any progress in men’s ministry in the last few years?
Dr. Fong: It’s difficult to say that there is any kind of shift, as far as a wave or a movement. But there is always a good number of guys who for some reason God has His hand of favor on them, and their men’s ministry is for some reason just skyrocketing. But when other men try to copy it, it doesn’t work. And when they try to franchise it, it doesn’t work. So it’s really spotty. And there’s no shortage of men who are trying. But there’s just a dearth of what the solution is. Everyone’s looking for a formula. But I don’t think it’s a formula.
Herb: If someone reading this were thinking about going into men’s ministry, what kind of advice would you give him?
Dr. Fong: It has to be a calling. If he can find somebody who can inspire them to something remarkable. If they just want that success that their mentor has, they’re not going to make it. They have to find something that God has called them to do and go after that.
Herb: You’ve written a new book on 1 and 2 Corinthians about the Corinthian church. Tell us about it.
Dr. Fong: There are a lot of very good exegetical commentaries out there. Some that are classics and you can always enjoy such as the International Critical Commentary series, some of the great authors of the past who have done an outstanding job on the Corinthian letters. There’s some very good books on how to do an inductive study on the Corinthians so that you can study the scripture on your own and not be dependent on the opinions of others. But there aren’t very many out there that are called “deductive” commentaries.
So what I’ve first done is an inductive study. It’s great to be able to do an overview of the book when you have a particular theological persuasion. So one can read in a very short section what that scripture says in light of that theological persuasion. So that was my goal with Living First and Second Corinthians. I want someone who is not just dependent on this one book for their study and understanding of 1 and 2 Corinthians, but, at the conclusion of all their studies, when they’re getting ready to preach it and they want a concise, brief explanation of that passage in light of their theological similarity, that’s what I’m looking for.
Herb: What percentage of churches have at least one problem that is dealt with in 1 and 2 Corinthians?
Dr. Fong: (Laughs) I think every church has problems.
Herb: No, I mean the specific problems dealt with in 1 and 2 Corinthians.
Dr. Fong: Every church that has people. (Laughter) There’s always division. There’s always disorder. There’s always arguing about opinions. People are self-righteous. And that gets in the way of what the truth is and what love is all about. They discard love for the purpose of opinion. So all of those are in the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians.
Herb: Reading 1 and 2 Corinthians always gives me hope because I think, if the church was this bad off two thousand years ago and it still survived…
Dr. Fong: …and be famous enough to get a book in the Bible!
Herb: Two of them! (Laughter)
Well, Dr. Fong. Thank you so much for your time and for your friendship. It’s wonderful to serve men with you.
Dr. Fong: It’s nice to visit with you, Herb.