Lead Pastor Blog I.I

I am heading off to a conference this weekend entitled: “How to Have an Effective Men’s Ministry.” Two other “men” from the church are joining me on this adventure. I must say I am excited but I am trying not to get my hopes/expectations too high. God has been at work in my heart over the past year about stepping up to the plate when it comes to this aspect of church life here at Cornerstone.

I have always had the blessing of having some kind of structured or casual ministry to men in our various locations. The structured part can be an actual men’s bible study and the casual part is the just hanging out together part. I love both of them.

When men seriously want to dive into God’s Word I am stoked to share that part of their life journey with them. When guys want to hang out and watch some sports or attend some sports function I enjoy that as well. I had some very interesting guy friends in my last place of ministry. I love the fact that on one occasion I thought for sure one of my unchurched friends was going to tear my head off because I was telling him he was too slow as we were golfing. It was one of those days where I wasn’t much acting like a believer and this guy was frustrated with me. The cool thing is that in the long run it did not affect our relationship in any way other than I learned not to get him upset because he was much bigger than me.

He said what he needed to say and I took note of his growing anger. I had first become friends with him as one of our more “fringe” type guys took me out golfing and introduced me to this guy. Over time we set up golf dates without our mutual friend and I knew at that time our friendship had reached a new level. I had a number of different conversations with the same guy while we were golfing or sometimes after we had finished golfing and went for dinner together. He asked about my beliefs and shared with me some of his doubts as well as his convictions. He actually asked me some questions about the Bible. I remember walking up the 17th fairway asnwering his questions and thinking this is so cool and natural. Not forced evangelism but rather true friendship stuff going on as the Holy Spirit led.

If this conference has some great ideas about that kind of men’s ministry I will know the time and effort will have been well spent. We are going to be raising the bar as far as what we are doing in this aspect of church life here at Cornerstone. We want to challenge our guys to go deeper in their walk and have more fun in their relationships. One of the key factors in seeing a men’s ministry grow is laughter. Get a bunch of guys together there had better be some belly shaking laughter or else it’s not going to last very long.

So, that’s about it for now. Trust the Lord is throwing some crazy ideas into that cranial cavity of yours we call a brain. Wrestle and have some fun with it.

Blessings……..Russ