Leadership Tips

Leadership Tips is for pastors, associate pastors and especially for that core leadership group of lay leaders at the conference and local church level who work with men in the local church. It is a monthly e-mail message sent as an attachment. It communicates ideas, tips, and resources from the best in ministry to men. If you would like to be included, send your email address to men@iphc.org.

To see Leadership Tips, click one of the links below:

Vol. 1, No. 10: How to Make Major Decisions
By Patrick Morley

How often this year will we be faced with making major decisions? Check out this article on how to go about it.

Vol. 1, No 1: Build A Winning Ministry To Men
by Patrick Morley

The key to a growing Men’s Ministry is the management of momentum: churches must learn to create it, capture it, and sustain it.

Enthusiasm and success can often lead to excess.  I have seen this in my own church and in hundreds of churches across the Northeast.  A team of men put something on for the men in their church and the men actually come!  Wow!  The organizers are surprised (shocked) at the turnout, and they immediately organize several other similar events.  Sooner or later the men stop coming and what was once a true entry level event for men associated with the local church has turned into a small group of the same men. 

The most common example of this is the monthly Saturday breakfast.  In 1994, I called 110 churches all over the New England Region and asked them two questions. 

The first question was, “Do you have a men’s ministry?”  102 out of 110 churches said yes.

My second question was, “What does it look like?”  78 of the 102 said ‘men’s breakfast’.  Most of these were one Saturday per month.

When I had the opportunity to dig a little deeper I found that in most cases, fewer than 20% of the men in the church on Sunday morning would ever come to one of these monthly breakfasts.  Because New England churches are relatively small, this meant that many of these monthly breakfasts had 10 or less men.  A few observations on the Saturday morning breakfast followed by a few suggestions:

Observations: Ten or less men is a large ‘small group’ and not an entry level event for men. Once a month happens quickly in a man’s schedule. These breakfasts are cooked by a couple of good guys in the church who are willing to get up a little early.  (white toast, eggs of some sort, bacon, coffee) There is usually very little content and most months are not connected to the previous month. It is hard to plan and prepare something very good every month.

Suggestions: Let the monthly group of men meet monthly but don’t promote it. Have a quarterly breakfast that you really promote to every man. Find a gifted cook, male or female, or better yet – go hire a caterer! Bring in speakers and develop an annual theme. Find a different champion for each quarterly breakfast.

*  Note how a small adjustment brings the following changes:

-     you do less breakfasts
-     the breakfasts that you do host are better
-     there is less ongoing labor involved
-     the monthly men can continue to meet under the radar
-     a true entry point for men is born

Serving with you,
Brian Doyle

Vision New England Men’s Ministries
998 Farmington Avenue, Suite 101
West Hartford , CT   06107
Office phone (860) 233-8136
www.VisionNewEngland.com

Reprinted with Permission.