I love the Word of God. God uses His Word to speak to me, instruct me and encourage me. I also really enjoy being in a church where the pastor teaches the scriptures by working through books of the Bible. This gives me understanding and insight into who God is and what He wants for my life. This teaching ministry stimulates my thinking. I am challenged to consider how I am living and what changes need to take place if I am to be a whole-hearted follower of Jesus Christ.

We have succeeded in stimulating the minds of men who attend our churches.

Where we have failed is that we have not succeeded in reaching the hearts of these same men.

Men in the church are keeping God at a distance because their mind is engaged but their heart is somewhere else. John Eldredge invites men in his book, ‘Wild at Heart’, to recover their masculine heart, defined in the image of a passionate God. Eldredge writes that the church’s great call to men is to be nice and that this challenge will never be nearly enough to capture a man’s passion.

What arouses a man’s passion? Find this and you will see a measure of success in your ministry to men. It may be fathering or grandfathering. It may be a Halftime seminar where purpose for the second half of their life is explored. It may be helping him to become a steward of his possessions instead of an owner. It may be a personal and spiritual renewal. It may be a number of different things depending on a man’s spiritual maturity and his season of life.

The eighteen inches between a man’s head and a man’s heart is one of the great challenges in ministry to men. Most men are careful about becoming vulnerable to other men yet becoming vulnerable to someone is the only way to engage the heart. It is very important that the visible male leadership of the church sets the pace in becoming vulnerable. When a man that is well respected goes first in sharing his heart issues, he opens the door for other men to follow. This is as true in a small group setting as it is in sharing a testimony at a large event. Men need a model to follow and men need to know that a strong man can and will share his heart.

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