In my years as a pastor, the two most difficult ministries to get started and thriving are prayer ministry and Men’s ministry. I daresay other pastors would make the same confession. The resistance to prayer ministry is easy to explain. Satan hates nothing more than prayer ministry in a church because prayer is what engages the supernatural power of God and when that is seen in a local church he has nothing to defeat that. Hence, if he keeps ministries prayerless, he has room to weaken them or stop them completely.
Men’s Ministry is also crucial for the health of any local church when seen through a biblical lens. From Scripture, we know that God has given men unique and crucial roles of leadership in the church of Christ. This includes not only preaching and shepherding through the men within the eldership, it also includes men taking the spiritual lead in their homes. Their headship as husbands and fathers is crucial for the godly development of wives and children.
Again, its no mystery why there is so much spiritual resistance to men’s ministry. If Satan can significantly hinder the men in a local church by closing the door to serious male discipleship efforts, he has to exert far less energy to hinder the spiritual development of wives, children and families. “If you strike the shepherd the sheep will scatter” is a statement, not only applicable to Jesus, but, at some level, to all men in the body of Christ.
Hence, the absolutely indispensable role each Fall Men’s Retreat plays in the ministry of our church. In these annual events, the men come together in a beautiful setting up north and spend a weekend getting to know one another, hearing teaching from the bible and doing discipleship with one another. The intention behind our Men’s Retreat is that new relationships will be formed and men will come back from the retreat with a new motivation to grow closer to the Lord, become better disciples and more active in their God-given leadership roles in church and home.
Please pray that God would mightily use this year’s Men’s Retreat to give the Men’s Ministry here a badly needed reboot and that fruit from this retreat would be seen for years to come for the glory of God and the joy of our men and our families.
