August 2006 C&MA Men’s E-Newsletter

Impact
A family began attending one of our churches at the prompting of one of the church families. At a local outreach event--in another church--this man, and his 3 sons, surrendered their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. The mother had been a Christian, but not walking with the Lord. The wife of the family that invited them to church had been leading this lady in a Bible study, and was instrumental in the wife's turning back to the Lord. The father had been only partially employed for quite some time, and was offered a full-time job. However, the job required that the man work on Sundays. After petitioning for relief on that dimension of the job and being refused, the man turned down the job saying that he could not, in good conscience regularly miss worship--and this from a brand-new believer!

What is God doing in your life? Send your testimonies to editor@cmamen.org.

News
Jesus Out of Focus. The Da Vinci Code is raising issues that go to the heart of the Christian faith—and it's starting to confuse us all.

The book has been translated into 43 languages since being published three years ago. Now Hollywood is hoping for similar blockbuster status for its heavily hyped movie starring Tom Hanks, now in theaters.

Though the general public is fascinated with the book's conjectures, The Da Vinci Code has merely brought into the open a heated discussion among scholars that is at least 50 years old. Among Dan Brown's more controversial claims are these. More.

Men Make News in Louisiana. A team of men from Arlington Community Church (VA) and Derwood Alliance Church (MD) assisted with hurricane relief in Deridder, LA in July. They framed and roofed homes damaged by Hurricane Rita in September last year. This is the third relief trip organized by the Arlington church this year. Read about their service.

Life
Encourage Men To Pray. It has been very interesting traveling about spending time with men, ministering. When we tell them the name of our ministry, "Encourage Men to Pray Ministries" there is for some reason confusion. The conversation usually goes something like this...

They say "What do you do?"
We respond lovingly, "Encourage Men to Pray."
"What does your ministry do?"
"We encourage men to pray..."

Why is it so hard to understand? Is it because the elect of God do not fully understand the impact of encouraging others to pray? Or that we find ourselves deaf to the encouragement of God through brothers and sisters in Christ to exercise the most powerful tool and responsibility of a Christians life...to pray.

Certainly, we fulfill our ministry though various methods... a dramatic monologue: James, the Brother of Christ, 180 Bible Reading Program, The 630 challenge, and more. Ultimately, everything we do is designed to bring all men to an intimate relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. (Website/Ministry of the Month).

Pray for Men's Ministry on Thursdays

Recalling Men to Mission (a message by Pastor Rick Kingham)
Men need a compass, a map and a goal. The compass shows direction. The map gives us the path. The goal gives us purpose. We are told to “Go and make disciples of all men.” That is our mission. To do that we need to encounter God, experience accountability with other men, and express our faith boldly in words and actions. (Article of the Month)

Leadership
No Man Left Behind by Patrick Morley, David Delk and Brett Clemmer
You've got men, you've got a church. Add a testimony, some pancakes, and prayer and – poof!  A men's ministry. Right? Not necessarily.

This book is based on over 30 years of combined ministry experience, of training classes at the Leadership Training Center and thousands of interactions with men's ministry leaders. It is filled with practical strategies and real life stories from leaders like you who are discipling men in the local church.

You can reach men. You can get them to grow closer to Christ. They can help you change the world. This book will show you how.

Click here to see what others are saying about this book. Click here to order an individual copy from Amazon.com. Buy 5 to share with your leaders (click here to order).

Reboot (with 1 Samuel 17:37b-40)
The World: Saul does not listen or apply what David said to the current situation. He is not willing to move outside his experience, Saul does not think out of the box. The world thinks in specifics: what worked in the past.

Lip service: “The Lord be with you.” Was Saul really serious? If so he would have moved out in the power of the Lord to confront Goliath. Are we ever flippant in calling on the Lord when we are not really sure that He will be with us? Saul then dressed David in armor. Going into battle with the Lord is great, but don't we need to help Him!

There is a sense of desperation – letting a shepherd boy go into battle against a champion to defend the honor of the nation and keep the people of Israel from becoming slaves to the Philistines.

The Spiritual Warrior: “I cannot go in these ... because I am not used to them.” David tried Saul's armor. He evaluated the approach taken by others and recognized that it was not compatible with his skills, gifts and experience. He based his discussion on what worked in the past (he killed the lion and the bear with his hands) and then used a sling shot to kill Goliath. David was not encumbered with the conventional wisdom.

He went out with the Lord. Was the issue the size and weight of the armor or was it a matter of where David placed his trust? He was used to going into conflict with the Lord as both offense and defense. David was not an out of the box thinker. He just had a different box.

David's staff: not a weapon of war. It was used for tending sheep. It was for their protection and care. Weapons are for battle.

David stood alone in his willingness to confront Goliath.

Do we understand that we are engaged in a spiritual battle? Do we recognize that spiritual weapons are needed in the battle? Do we approach the battle as the world does or do we place our trust in the Lord and go out in his wisdom?

If your Bible is falling apart, you probably aren't

Visit us at www.cmamen.org.

This issue marks the start of the second year of our newsletter partnership with Man in the Mirror. What would you like to see in this newsletter? editor@cmamen.org.