Bubba Jennings » Mission Church Prayer Church Leadership Church Planting

How do you rally the men in your church to repentance, mission, and leadership as you pursue a replant? Here are some practical ways to bring your men together and call them to action.

As we discussed in the last post, you will need to recruit men for leadership and service in your church replant. Though the ladies are often better than the guys at stepping up and serving, it’s critical to rally and lead men to mission with you.

One of the best ways to rally the men in your church is to call for a special meeting. There are several ways to do this.

Men’s Prayer Night

When I replanted Mars Hill Federal Way, one of the first things I did was call an all-men’s prayer night. I knew that before any change could happen, men needed to see the opportunity before us and be unified to change together. That first men’s prayer night was a major turning point for the church replant. Men talk about it to this day.

An effective prayer night should include six parts:

1. Worship music that calls men to action

This sets the emotional tone of the gathering. Keep the music simple—a dude with an acoustic guitar will suffice. Put it in a key that the men can sing, and stay away from touchy-feely songs. The point is not to impress people with the band, but to unify the men through song.

2. Passionate preaching

Men need to be led from the Bible. This happens by the lead pastor opening God’s Word and preaching passionately. By the power of the Holy Spirit, men’s hearts will be set on fire for Jesus. Also, through preaching, the Holy Spirit will convict men of things they should stop doing and things they should start doing.

3. Call to repentance

The greatest sins of most Christian men are sins of omission (failing to do what they should do). Most Christian men don’t care enough, love enough, and do enough—they become passive. Men must be called to repent of sins, especially the sin of passivity.

4. Call to action

It’s not enough to call men to repent; they must also be called to act. Soldiers need marching orders. Most men are waiting for someone to challenge them to action. They long to be led to make a difference. What they lack is an invitation. Give them one. Do you need elders? Ask anyone who feels called to talk to you. Do you need community group leaders? Instruct those who are interested to talk to their community group leader. Do you need security in your parking lot? Challenge someone to take it on.

5. Prayer for the mission

Have the men break into small groups to pray together. First, lead them to pray prayers of repentance. Then, lead them to pray for specific parts of the mission, like community groups, or more leaders, or student ministry. Lastly, lead them to pray for God to reveal how they can personally help advance the mission.

6. Blessing

Close the night by praying for all the men. Pray that they would be the men God wants them to be by growing, changing, and doing the will of God. Then bless them in Christ Jesus.

Men’s Training Day

As your church grows, you will have some men who are new Christians and others who are untrained Christians. They need to learn what godly masculinity is and what it means to be a man of God. Do not be passive and allow culture to define manhood for the men in your church. Lead them by opening the Bible. Teach and train men how to be faithful Christians, loving husbands, pastor dads, and fruitful providers.

Through preaching, the Holy Spirit will convict men of things they should stop doing and things they should start doing.

Plan to have a men’s training day twice a year—once in the fall to gather new people who moved to your city over the summer, and once in the spring right after Easter. Divide the training day into three parts: a main morning session, breakout sessions, and a main closing session. The two main sessions should focus on biblical manhood and be taught by pastors.

Offer several breakout sessions that happen at the same time and are taught by known and trusted leaders. Break-out sessions should be practical how-to topics that equip men for life, such as how to date your wife and improve your sex life, how to be single and faithful, how to love and lead your family, how to buy your first house, how to kill the sin of lust, how to study the Bible, and how to build a business.

Men’s Advance

Once a year, get all the men to go away together for worship, Bible teaching, practical equipping, and community-building. A men’s advance is like an extended men’s training day, with main sessions focused on biblical manhood, leadership, and mission, and breakout sessions focused on popular how-to topics (like those listed above).

Do not be passive and allow culture to define manhood for the men in your church. Lead them by opening the Bible.

What is great about a men’s advance is that you can cover a lot of ground. In one weekend, men are called to mission and equipped for battle while building relationships. For most men, they will do more relationship-building in this one weekend than they will do for the entire year, so can be a game-changer in creating brotherhood among the men.

Regardless of how you get the men together, the goal is the same: Call them to fight the good fight and advance the mission.

 

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Stay tuned for more posts in this series in the coming weeks as we cover the practical details of replanting a church, including how to raise funds, develop leaders, recruit volunteers, and more.

 

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