Men Who Are Cultural Christians

A man who is a cultural christian is one who does not yet have an authentic relationship with Christ, but is still involved in the church. He may be a 'fringe' guy who comes to Sunday mornings most of the time, and maybe social or recreational activities. But they are not intentionally growing in their faith. They may have made a decision to follow Christ at some point, but Jesus is not their Lord.

At Willow Creek, these are the activities I think that target Cultural Christians:

• Sunday morning services
• Ironman
• Men at Work
• Adventure Trips

This doesn't seem like very much. There's probably things you would expect to see here that I would categorize more as a Biblical Christian activity - things that help men who want to grow spiritually.

Event vs. Process - Cool Video

The group over at Growing Leaders put this video up on YouTube. It's a great take on the importance of a Process after an Event.



Thank you to Mike Griffin from Equipping Leaders for Asia for referring me to it.

Men who need Christ

Part of our homework for February was to go through the activities of the church and define opportunites to reach/engage each type of man on the spiritual continuum. As a reminder, those types are:
Men who need Christ
Men who are cultural Christians
Men who are Biblical Christians
Men who are Leaders, and
Men who are Hurting.

Here's a starter list for men who need Christ (remember, this isn't just specifically men's activities, but where there would be an opportunity to reach a man who is at this point in his spiritual journey):

• Student Ministries
• Monthly Paintball
• Preschool dads
• MOPS husbands
• IronMan retreats
• Gym nights (soon!)
• Campus Outreach
• Stephen Ministries (someone who is served)
• Men at Work recipients

Guys, got any more? Add them as comments.

Mission, Vision, Purpose and Values

We came up with the Mission, Vision, Purpose and Values statements below in 2005. I'm posting them below to remind us of where we are starting from and where we are trying to get to. The key thought in these statements is a fundamental belief in the necessity of Christian relationships to foster spiritual growth. If anyone else has any thoughts about what these mean and how they should influence our thinking, or changes/additions you think we should make, please comment!

Brett
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wcironmen
Brothers in the Great Adventure

Mission
Building people in truth and love

Vision
We envision a day when every man in our church is growing towards maturity in Christ, engaged in an authentic Christ-centered relationship with one or more men from the church, serving God and building the Kingdom by being a spiritual leader in his family and a servant leader in this church, and reaching out to our community and the world to show the love of Christ.

Purpose
The purpose of Willow Creek Ironmen (wcironmen) is to help the men of our church become disciples – men who are called to walk with Christ, equipped to live like Christ, and sent to work for Christ. (1 Tim. 3:15-17). We will do this by helping men develop authentic relationships with Christian men that will help them:
1. Find the true meaning of the gospel through relevant teaching and shared experiences,
2. Become leaders in their households and in the church, and
3. Be living examples of the gospel in the marketplace, the community and the world.

Values (This area could use the most help!)
Spiritual Growth, Relationship, Servant Leadership, Service/Missions
Mark 12:30-31 (Great commandment) – We believe in helping men love God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength. We believe in the power of authentic relationships, that men need brothers to go with them through the journey.
1 Cor. 13 – We believe in confrontational grace. We will deal with conflict in a biblical manner. We believe that the gospel is bigger than our problems with each other. We will endeavor to be slow to anger, and quick to forgive.
2 Timothy 2:2 – We believe in leadership development. We will find faithful, available and teachable men to train up and support as they find God’s call for them in our church and in the Church.
Matthew 28:18-20 (Great Commission) – We believe in building disciples in our church, community and the world.

Homework!

Every loves homework!

For next meeting, we asked the guys to write down all the activities they could think of that men could participate in the church, and then pick the type of men they think it targeted best:
Men who need/don't know Christ
Men who are cultural Christians
Men who are Biblical Christians
Men who are leaders
Hurting Men

Also, reads chapters 1-8 from No Man Left Behind. Most of it is a review of what we talked about, but chapters 3 & 4 are important for next month's discussion.

It Takes a Long Time - Article from Man in the Mirror magazine

Here is the text of an article I wrote for the Equipping the Man in the Mirror magazine (about to change its name from The Fourth Seed.) Read about how many of the 14 objectives we had set 3 years ago in our last planning process we actually accomplished. Hint: think about a batting average that might get you sent back to the minors.


It Takes a Looong Time…

We just started a strategic planning process for our ministry to men at church. We’re meeting once a month for three months to set our strategy to disciple every man. My pastor and two other staff pastors are participating, along with several laymen, some of them new to leadership in our ministry to men. We’re going through No Man Left Behind together and doing some work in between planning sessions. At the end of the three sessions we’ll decide how to move forward.

Three pastors, five lay leaders, a solid strategic planning tool, commitment from the participants. Doesn’t it sound awesome? So why am I not jumping out of my skin with excitement?

Because as I was preparing for these meetings I went through my files from our leadership team meetings in 2005. I found our quarter-by-quarter goals and objectives, which included finalizing our Vision, Mission & Values, a training we would attend together, a book to read, and other items – 14 in all. Of which, we accomplished three. (Two and a half, actually, but rounding up makes me feel better.)

It would be easy to look at something like that and think, “This is too hard.” “What’s the use?” “Why didn’t those guys care as much as I do?” Or, “What a lousy leader I am!” And, to be honest, all of those thoughts ran through my head. But then I remembered – it takes a long time to make a disciple. And, even longer to build a sustainable ministry to men.
Our culture celebrates, even demands, quick success. Richard Foster once said, “Our tendency is to overestimate what we can accomplish in one year, but underestimate what we can accomplish in ten years.”

Ministry with men often doesn’t look successful in the present. Usually, it only looks successful in retrospect. So keep the faith; keep striving. And one day, maybe eight or ten years from now, you’ll look around your church at the men that are leading ministries, serving as elders and deacons, and teaching classes, and you’ll say, “Hey. We discipled that guy. And that guy. And that guy too!”

So I’m choosing to be encouraged that we achieved three out of 14 objectives – precisely the three that God knew would provide the foundation for what’s happening now. I know we’ll set goals and objectives for 2008, and then accomplish some, but not all. But I also passionately believe that in the years to come God will use our efforts for His Glory.

With you for the long-term,
Brett Clemmer

CALLOUT: Men’s ministry usually doesn’t look successful in the present. Often, it only looks successful in retrospect.

With Brett’s bio:
Follow along with Brett his team by visiting wcironmen.blogspot.com.

Strategic Planning

The guys agreed to meet once a month for three months to do some strategic planning on our men's discipleship efforts at Willow Creek Church (PCA). I wrote an article about it for Equipping the Man in the Mirror magazine. I'll post that as well.

We had a great first meeting - Greg, Ray, Pete, Jeff, Chris and me. Norm and Sam couldn't make it, but we'll get them up to speed. Everybody got a copy of No Man Left Behind. We set out an agenda for the next three meetings as follows:

Willow Creek IronMan Men’s Ministry
Brothers in the Great Adventure

2008 Strategic Planning Process

Session One (January 9) – Where are we?
1. Review the No Man Left Behind Model – Goal: MAKE DISCIPLES
a. Portal Priority
b. Man Code
c. Leadership
d. Types of Men
2. Exercise: Men’s Discipleship Audit
3. All-Inclusive Men’s Ministry
4. Exercise: Review Vision and Values

Session Two (February – Where Do We Want to Go?
1. What is a disciple at WCC?
2. Building disciples who know, believe and do what a disciple does
a. Exercise: Head-Heart-Hands Worksheet
3. GAP Analysis
a. What activities are building disciples?
b. What types of men are we not reaching effectively?
c. What types of knowledge, belief and behavior are we not teaching/modeling?


Session Three – How Will We Get There
1. The spiritual development process – from Wide to Deep
2. The Create-Capture-Sustain Strategy
3. Exercise: Pathways to discipleship for men at WCC
4. What’s Next?

This is, of course, subject to change... but it's a start.

Here we go...

Our first meeting as a new leadership team was last Wednesday. It was a good start. I'll post our minutes this week.