Quite often, in our discussions with pastors and men’s leaders, we hear a common concern about men’s ministry. It usually goes something like this:

MdMen:              So, what kinds of opportunities does your church offer men?”

Pastor:                  “Well, we have a monthly breakfast that a few men come to, and there are a couple of good Bible studies going on. But, we only get a handful of men that participate compared to the number of men that attend our church.”

Most churches tell us that only ten percent of their men are involved in men’s ministry. Why is that?

 

There could be several reasons why a church struggles to attract men to their men’s ministry activities, but the of the best understandings of this phenomenon is explained by what is referred to as “The All-Inclusive Mindset” found in the No Man Left Behind Model developed by Man in the Mirror and found in the book No Man Left Behind written by Patrick Morley, Brett Clemmer, and David Delk.

All Inclusive IllustrationThe All-Inclusive Mindset says that your church should take advantage of every opportunity to disciple men, no matter where they are.

Think about it. If the “win” for your church is to disciple all of the men, it doesn’t make sense to think that every one of them is ever going to show up to a men’s only event.  Instead, it is much more encouraging to look around the church and notice that there are a lot of men involved in non-men-only activities like running the soundboard, ushering, parking cars, singing on the worship team, or teaching in the student ministries. Each of these places where men already are provides a great discipleship opportunity.

If you look at it this way, men soon begin to understand that they don’t need to attend one of the men’s only events to be a part of the church’s men’s ministry. It frees them up to serve where God has placed them and offers a wonderful environment for discipleship.

So, this Sunday, rather than bemoaning the fact that only X number of men attended Saturday morning’s pancake breakfast, celebrate the fact that there are multiple opportunities to help men to grow where they already do show up.

To learn more, go to www.maninthemirror.org/nmlbmodel