Iron Sharpening Iron

"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." (Proverbs 27:17 - NIV)

(I apologize in advance for the length of this. I've been stewing over it for a while...)

The Lord has lately really been impressing on my heart the need for other men in my life to which I can be accountable. Friends who know me well enough to know when I'm struggling, and that have the guts to call me on the carpet when they may see me heading down a path I shouldn't be going down. The above verse from Proverbs, while taken out of context, is clear to me in that us men need other men in our lives to foster our spiritual growth.

That being said, what are we doing as the "Church Universal", and the American Church in particular, to foster these relationships among our men? Oh sure, there are random friendships that develop among men of a particular body of believers, but I don't feel like the church is doing enough to stress the importance of these relationships or, to go a step further, offer effective means of fostering them and bringing them about.

I look around in our churches today, and see that while some churches are doing something, by and large men's ministry has been put on the back shelf, or worse yet, done away with altogether. We have taken men's ministry and reduced it to a Prayer Breakfast every once in a while, and an occasional mundane Bible Study that frankly has no appeal to my generation and younger. I would like to propose a new approach, although it's not new at all in that organizations such as Legacy Outfitters and Ransomed Heart Ministries have been using this for several years.

I hold to a philosophy that says that men are unique creatures in the way that we approach things. This shouldn't be news to anyone, yet the church has tried to approach men's ministry in the same way that we've approached ministry for women, children, youth, etc. "If you offer it, they will come." I don't think that this is true for men. You can't take a group of random men, put them together in a room, tell them that they are an "Accountability Group", ask them to set up a regular meeting, and expect them to just start spilling their guts. This may work for women, but it DOES NOT WORK FOR MEN. You're going to end up with a group of guys that can't wait to get out of that room and never come back.

No, I feel that while Bible Studies and seminars have their place, they are not going to bring about the type of "iron sharpening iron" situation that we need to make us more Godly men. That is going to take men spending time together participating in common interests, fostering relationships in the process. Let's not make this any more spiritual than we have to. Do we have to get together and ponder over the views of eschatology or the five points of Calvinism to grow closer together as men? Or would playing a round of golf, or cooking for a barbecue or going on a hunt do the same thing?

I would even venture to say that you would be much more successful in getting men to buy into this if you offer something in which they can pursue something they love at the same time. It's not about golf or hunting or cooking... it's about the resulting relationships, and the friendships that normally occur when men spend time together doing something they love.

That being said, I have shared some of these ideas with others in my church, and lo and behold, I'm now the chairman of the Men's Ministry Committee (funny how that works in a Baptist church). My plans are to share my heart with the committee and pray that God has prepared these men's hearts for the work before us.

I'm sure I'll be blogging more on this in the future, so I'll shut up now. Just keep me in your prayers as I begin this endeavour. I don't see this as just another committee appointment. I see this as my place of ministry for the time being, and I expect God to do great things if we be humble and sensitive to His leadership.

Until next time... B