January 2007 C&MA Men’s E-Newsletter

Impact
The Lord has been working in one man who is facing some very real challenges. He is coming to confess that the Lord is on the throne and in control in spite of appearances to the contrary.

One man is learning to set spiritual goals for his quiet time. He is moving from a spontaneous to an intentional and focused quiet time.

The Lord is leading another man in developing a spiritual mission statement.

God is always at work! What is He doing in your life? Send your testimonies to editor@cmamen.org.

Pray for Men's Ministry on Thursdays

News
A Report on the Christian Men’s Movement by Patrick Morley, Ph.D. Fifty leaders of men’s ministries met in Kansas City for our 12^th annual National Coalition of Men’s Ministries (“NCMM”) leaders meeting, November 6-8, 2006. When we gather I feel like I am with the most homogeneous group with whom I’ve ever met, because we are all so passionate about one thing -- our vision -- a disciple-making ministry to men in every church.

Here’s an overall sense of the Christian men’s movement today from our meeting:

• It's robust
• It’s leaders are optimistic
• The movement is expanding
• Many new leaders are coming on board
• Churches are eager to figure out the men’s discipleship conundrum
• The focus has shifted to equipping leaders in the local church with training and resources

The NCMM meeting was powerful because it gave every leader a voice in the future direction of the movement. Under the very capable leadership of our president, Rick Kingham, we worshipped together, gave and received encouragement, heard uplifting updates from the ministries present, felt a positive mood, renewed old friendships and made new ones, established contacts, made strategic alliances, and coordinated strategic initiatives.

NCMM is also valuable because it blunts the effects of the Fall. The meeting helped us toward victory over suspicion, jealousy, envy, gossip, competition, duplication, strategic overlaps, and strategic gaps.

Promising new initiatives were discussed, including:

• www.disciplemen.com which will gather the world’s best men’s discipleship training, resources, and leaders together in a single online location;
• the launch of Iron Sharpens Iron conferences as a resource for local church leaders; and
• an initiative to gather the men of our nation and their sons and grandsons together on the National Mall once every 10 years in perpetuity.

As a young boy I came across an adult magazine in my father’s sock drawer. It was captivating. It was stimulating. It was humiliating. I didn’t really understand why there would be pictures of women in my daddy’s drawer, yet even at six or seven years of age I knew that it was wrong that I had seen them. The pictures captured my young imagination. (Read More) (Article of the Month)

“Top Ten” Principles to Sexual Purity. We live in a sex-crazed culture where sexual temptation is every man’s battle! Men, how can you learn to say “no” to sexual temptation? How can you gain and maintain sexual purity? How can you teach sexual purity to your children?

The following principles go beyond describing what not to do by detailing what you can do positively. I periodically return to these principles and renew my resolutions. May I challenge you to make the following resolutions to maintain sexual purity? (Read More)