OUR BELIEFS ABOUT MEN’S MINISTRYBack Link

Men’s ministry helps the church accomplish its mission, to make disciples.

 “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, 1) baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and 2) teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”  Matt. 28:19-20

  • Today’s church has largely abandoned the discipleship model for the academic model, but men learn best by example.
  • Biblical Christianity is not intended to be one smart person imparting knowledge to the masses; it is one follower helping another follower.
  • We tend to ask men to follow our teaching, our methods, and our theology.  God has hardwired them to prefer following men.

 In the above text, Jesus tells us there are two parts to the way disciples are made.

Baptizing them:

  • Baptism is the sign and seal of membership in the covenant community.
  • The inward spiritual reality to which baptism points is our connection to one another in the covenant community.
  • 95% of Christian men have no best friend—they are not relating to each other at the spiritual level in the body of Christ.
  • The first goal of men’s ministry is helping them get connected as brothers at the level of their spiritual lives.

Teaching them everyday obedience:

  • Notice that Jesus qualified the kind of teaching that makes disciples--teaching his followers to obey what he has commanded.
  • Men’s disciple-making ministry therefore focuses on the areas that are specific to men’s struggle to be obedient.
  • The second goal of men’s ministry is to get Biblical teaching to them that is specific to their unique responsibilities and temptations as men.

Back Link

Men’s ministry helps the church follow the Biblical method for discipling men, mobilizing the members of the body to use their gifts.

 “From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”  Eph. 4:16   

“Men’s ministry” refers to the process of mobilizing members of the body to use their gifts to help men move down the discipleship path towards greater maturity in Christ.  This process involves planning events and ministries for men.  But is more than that.  It also involves linking men to the disciple-making events and ministries in the church that are already going on.

In summary, “men’s ministry” is the mobilization of some in the body to use their gifts to help the session disciple the men of the church.Back Link


Many people associate the verb, “to disciple” with a the multiplication method explained in the booklet, "Born to Reproduce", by Dawson Trotman of the Navigators and the book, The Master Plan of Evangelism, by Robert Coleman.  This is the idea that the pastor disciples two elders, say for two years.  Then, at the end of the 2 years, those elders each disciples two men for two years, etc.

  • We believe this is the absolute best method to disciple men—for those who are called and equipped to do so.  If you have such men in your church, free them from other responsibilities and encourage them to build themselves into a few men who will build themselves into a few other men, etc.

  • However, it is a mistake to call the multiplication method—the primary method of New Testament discipleship.  That is simply not true.

  • The method for the body to be built up is given in Eph. 4:7-16 as we have seen above.  Paul makes no mention of the gift of “discipleship,” or “mentoring” or whatever we might call the multiplication method.  He says the body is built up not by disciplers, but by every member of the body contributing.

  • 2 Timothy 2:2 is often quoted to substantiate the multiplication method as the primary NT method to make disciples.  But this verse is not talking about Paul’s one-on-one time discipling Timothy—but about insuring that sound teaching continue in the church at a time when the New Testament had not yet been completed.  Paul says to Timothy, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.”   The focus here is Paul’s PUBLIC teaching—not his PRIVATE discipleship meetings with Timothy. Paul wants the content of his teaching, i.e. the gospel, passed on to reliable men who are able to teach (not disciple) others.

  • If a pastor disciples two elders for two years who then disciple two men for two years, at the end of 4 years, there are 7 mature believers. Praise God!  But someone has to focus on the 95% of the men left out during this 4 year period, to help them grow in Christ.  That is the task of the men’s ministry.  The Biblical method for growth is given in Eph 4.16.  The body “grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work.”

  • The vast majority of pastors say they do not have the gift of “mentoring” or “discipling.”  So, how can this multiplication method be the preferred NT method for making disciples?  The marching orders for the whole church are to make disciples—not just for those gifted in mentoring!