Following the Leader

The Institute for American Values released a study on June 11 entitled Is Religion an Answer? Marriage, Fatherhood, and the Male Problematic. The findings conclude church involvement and devotional activity “increase the odds that fathers will get and stay happily married to the mothers of their children and foster higher levels of involvement and affection with children.”

This should come as no great shock to the Christian male or family. The Family of God SHOULD naturally foster through its ministries –from baptisms, to Father’s Day sermons, to men’s ministry – a moral responsibility that calls men to sacred character.

The “Male Problematic” as defined in the Institute’s report (father’s shirking spiritual leadership and responsibility) has been plaguing us since Norman Rockwell painted his famous and prophetic, “Sunday Morning” piece for the cover of the May 16, 1959 edition of The Saturday Evening Post.

I sense many of you are with me in my stance that I’m not going to take this slouching and hiding like the central figure in Rockwell’s painting. No longer. Not this generation. Not this church. Not these men.

As the Body of Christ at NBC, it is the heart of our leadership to see men grow into who they are made to be by their Creator: strong leaders who stand on Scriptural principle, who are spiritually fit and able to fight for their church, their families, friends, and their God. Part of this training up of sturdy men, husbands, and fathers is facilitating a place where men can be who they were meant to be.

This Fall promises to be exciting for the Men of NBC. Our Men’s Ministry Council, comprised of myself, Ronnie Staats, Jared Starr, and Austin McKnight, are meeting, praying, and sensing a very strong and unified direction for the NBC Men’s Ministry.

We have adopted a quote from our Pastor’s recent Father’s Day sermon to wave like a banner over our men’s ministry: “As the man goes, so goes the family; as the man goes, so goes the church.” The response to the invitation that June morning for men to commit anew to serving God and leading their families was very powerful. Seeing that many men at the front of the church, kneeling before God, praying together… it was a glimpse of spiritual champions fed up with emasculated manhood. It was a final confirmation that the Spirit is indeed moving in the hearts of our men. Personal conversations with some of you men have only led to a stronger sense of this in recent days.

Beginning in September we will initiate Men’s Fraternity, a radical call to help one another explore the critical issues we all face by standing side by side, back to back, and doing spiritual battle together. Trying to go it alone doesn’t work so we’re going to challenge one another in the coming year to walk with other men in following God’s leadership in our devotional lives, families, friendships, and church. I think it’s really just the beginning of something quietly epic.

This might not be for everyone though; as with any true and great spiritual undertaking it will require sacrifice and vulnerability. In Men’s Fraternity we will tackle issues regarding wounds of family and loneliness, among others. Through time together and in small groups of 4 to 5 men, we’ll call one another to drop the pretenses of the “male problematic” to get real about the baggage our mutual enemy uses to make us ineffectual in the fight off faith. Through fellowship, accountability, brotherhood, and unity, we will walk together to spur one another toward love and great deeds, a Biblical view of manhood guiding and igniting the warrior’s spirit granted each of us by our great King.