This is a guest post by Patrick Morley and his team at Man in the Mirror Ministry. I fully support the work they have done and are doing to reach men for Christ. The book by Patrick Morley had a profound impact on my life and I encourage you to consider this new opportunity.

Here are some thoughts from Patrick Morley from Man in the Mirror:

See if you agree with this…

• Can you see any way of ever getting society right unless we get the church right?
• If that’s true, can you see any way of ever getting the church right unless we get families right?
• If you’re still with me, can you see any way of ever getting families right unless we get marriages right?
• And, can you see any way of ever getting marriages right unless we get men right?

Sure, every now and then you hear about a woman who rips her family apart, but even then it’s usually after years of emotional neglect. It really is about the men.

How can we help get men right? To become a disciple of Jesus is the highest honor to which a man can aspire. To be born again and not become a disciple is like joining the Army and getting a rifle that you never learn how to clean and shoot.

The good news is that thousands of leaders and churches are learning how to disciple men so they can walk with God in our kooky culture. How do they do it?

For my PhD dissertation I studied the question, “Why do some churches succeed at men’s discipleship while others languish or fail?” I wanted to know from a management perspective, “What are the factors that lead to success or failure when implementing a men’s discipleship program?” And I wanted to discover, “What are successful pastors doing differently than the pastors of ineffective or failed ministries to men?”

To get at the answers, I employed multiple-case-study research to compare and contrast churches with effective men’s discipleship programs to churches with ineffective or failed programs.

The factors that differentiated the highly effective churches were….
1. A senior pastor with the vision to disciple every man in the church,
2. The determination to succeed no matter what, and
3. A sustainable strategy to make disciples.

I’m so tired of watching men go to events, get all amped up, charge out determined to do better, soar briefly, then glide (or crash) back to earth. In my experience these men are deeply frustrated that they can’t sustain the change. It doesn’t have to be that way. Thousands of churches have figured it out. But how do we get the word to those churches that are still in the dark?

At Man in the Mirror, the ministry I founded 25+ years ago, we’ve launched an initiative to hire 330 full-time Area Directors located throughout the United States to help churches more effectively disciple their men. Each Area Director will have a territory of 1,000 churches, which will put “boots on the ground” close to churches and men. We have a lot of early momentum, and the first 30 Area Directors have been appointed.

Now we need to surface scores of new candidates. We’re praying for men who are passionate about Christ, men’s discipleship, and who love the church. You can find out everything you need to know HERE. Join us in our fight to save our society and build the Kingdom.

Go HERE now to join this effort.

Editor’s Note: For 25 years Pat and his organization, Man in the Mirror, have focused on men’s discipleship. They’ve trained thousands of church leaders. In 2009 they reached the milestone of impacting 10,000,000 men for Christ. Their new goal is to see “10,000,000 new men leading powerful transformed lives in Christ by 2020.” Their new Area Director strategy is putting “boots on the ground” close to churches and men.

What if I saw my job as a mission field?

Okay, maybe my job is not a good example…fair enough…

Obviously my job IS a mission field.

But, what about you?

What about you who are not in a paid “missionary” role?

What if the church sent missionaries into the world? The real world…

Into the marketplace

Into politics and government

Into Hollywood and the film industry

Into manufacturing

Into the service industry…

What if an assembly line in a factory became a warehouse of faith?

Imagine a plumber shows up at a house, not only to fix a pipe, but to share a kind word on behalf of Jesus…

It’s a radical idea I know…

But what if?

What do you think?

Here’s a guest post from 11 year-old Mallory Fundora. Mallory and her family are active members of Grace Community Church. I love her vision and passion. She reminds me of Isaiah 11:6 “and a little child will lead them”. Be inspired…

Here are the words of Mallory Fundora:

In October 2011 I sat down to write my Christmas list for my parents, I looked around my room and I realized there was nothing I needed, nothing I wanted. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought about the children in Africa, and how they weren’t going to get Christmas presents, and there was a lot of things that they needed. So, I sent my mom an email with my Christmas list, one thing on it, to help Africa.

See, in August of 2010 the Ugandan Orphan Children’s Choir came to my church to perform, and I got to meet the children, and they were amazing. They were so loving, and just wanted to hug me and hold my hand. My mom had also started doing work for a couple of organizations that helped in Uganda, so she had taught me about the children there.

The day after I sent the email my Mom and I sat down and talked about what I wanted to do, and how I wanted to help. I contacted Amazima Ministries and Project Have Hope and I told them what I wanted to do, and I asked them how I could best help them. That is how Project Yesu was born. My goals at first were simple, I wanted to raise $600 to sponsor 2 children, one from Amazima and one from Project Have Hope. When you sponsor a child, it pays for food, medicine and sends them to school. I also decided I wanted to send Christmas cards to the children in Uganda, I mean who doesn’t like to get a card, it makes you smile. So I drew two different card designs and I contacted a local printing company and asked them if they would donate the printing of 650 cards, they did.

So I started to tell people about Project Yesu, and my mom helped me start a blog so people could read about it. I met with my Children’s pastor and asked if our youth group could help me with the cards, because I wanted them to be personal, so I needed a lot of help to write out 650 cards. I also spoke to my youth group, and told them about Project Yesu and about the children in Uganda and asked them to help me raise money. Every week I set up a booth at my church to tell people about my project, and the word spread.

In only 8 weeks I raised over $2,400 and I was able to sponsor 7 children. It was way more then I had originally planned on and it was great. I got to meet some wonderful people, and tell them my story. I was invited to go to WAYFM a Christian radio station because they learned about my project, and I was even on TV. The NBC station out of Nasvhille did a story on Project Yesu.

I read a quote one day from Mahatma Ghandi that said, “Be the change you want to see in the world”. That’s what I want to do, I want to be the change, I want to make a difference, I want to help people. Everyone thinks kids are selfish or that we’re just kids and we can’t do anything like this. I want to show people what a difference one person can make. If someone, because they heard about me, or met me, decides that they can be a change too, then it will spread from me, to that person, to another person and so on. Kids have good ideas, and you know what? We don’t know all the reasons why it won’t work, we just know we what we want to do.

I know with Project Yesu, I am making a difference, not only in the lives of the seven children in Uganda who now have food, medicine and can go to school. But I am making a difference in the lives of my family, my friends, my teachers and even people I have never met before.

I want Project Yesu to continue to spread and grow, and to do that I need people like you, who are reading this post to spread the word and to help me. My goals for 2012 is to raise $4,500 – who knows maybe I’ll double that this year or even triple that and be able to help more and more children in Uganda. I plan to travel to Uganda in December of 2012 to hand deliver the Christmas cards to the children, to meet my sponsored children and to love on the children of Uganda who have changed my life.

If you want to know more about Project Yesu, or how you can help you can find me on Facebook – www.facebook.com/projectyesu or go to my site www.projectyesu.org.

I am selling T-shirts and wristbands to raise funds, and I am also looking for families, groups, classrooms or anyone to be a part of the “Be The Change” campaign by collecting coins to donate towards Project Yesu.

So I have accepted the challenge to be the change…. Will you?

I had a thought the other day…

What if Tim Tebow mentored Justin Bieber?

I love intentionality. I love people who use their influence for good. That’s what I see in Tim Tebow. I loved THIS STORY about Tebow’s work with suffering people each week. It’s incredible.

Here’s an excerpt:

Every week, Tebow picks out someone who is suffering, or who is dying, or who is injured. He flies these people and their families to the Broncos game, rents them a car, puts them up in a nice hotel, buys them dinner (usually at a Dave & Buster’s), gets them and their families pregame passes, visits with them just before kickoff (!), gets them 30-yard-line tickets down low, visits with them after the game (sometimes for an hour), has them walk him to his car, and sends them off with a basket of gifts.

Fan or not, you have to agree Tim Tebow is doing good things on and off the football field.

I also love the rise to fame story of Justin BieberI don’t listen to his music that much. (I’m man enough to admit I like it though ) Justin Bieber is a professing believer. He was raised by a single mom. I’ve read some promising things about Bieber and the morals he hopes to hang on to. I understand he’s done some good charity work. We don’t read as much about him standing for his faith as we do about his pop status and he doesn’t appear as bold in his beliefs, but…

Think of the good Bieber could do with a few lessons from the older Tebow.

Two great men of influence. Two men with tremendous potential for the Kingdom.

We just need to get them together.

What do you think?

Who else impresses you by using their influence for Kingdom good?

I’ve got something BIG to share with you today. Some of you may remember last year’s Gifts of Water Team Challenge campaign. Ron Edmondson was a part of it and nearly 6,000 people (soon to be 9,000) received the gift of safe water and the opportunity to hear the Living Water Message through your efforts. The Proof – Malindi, Jaffna College

This year, Water Missions International is launching a major church initiative called Water Sunday. Water Sunday is one Sunday that a church dedicates to the global water crisis. All the materials will be provided to you to make this a fun and energizing Sunday for your church. Churches across the country are hosting Water Sunday’s in March. (March 22nd is World Water Day) You will be amazed at the work that the Holy Spirit will do in your church members hearts when they look outward at those in need around the world.

Water Sunday from Water Missions on Vimeo.

Here’s what you should know:

• All the materials are provided. (promo video, lesson materials, graphics, sermon notes)
• March 2012 is the focus month, but you can choose to host a different time that fits in your ministry schedule.
• The global water crisis takes the life of one child every twenty seconds.
• Connect your church community with communities in the developing world.
• Share the love of Christ in a tangible way and equip a local pastor with a valuable tool to share the gospel!

In the following months – inspiring photos, videos, and stories will come back showing the direct impact your church made.

Expect God to show up in BIG ways!

Visit the Water Sunday Website to learn more and sign up your church NOW!

Here is a short testimony of this impact:

“People are always questioning about how this system works and asking how they can acquire it. We always tell them about our Great God and there we end up with the chance of preaching to them the gospel. Can you imagine that even non believers come willing to offer us land to plant churches because of this water system. Not one or two, many have come to us! So to us, it is an iron tool for the gospel.” Pastor Charles – Glory Center church – Neddje, Uganda

You

want

to

reach

people

for

Christ

That’s all there is to it. Of course, you want more explanation if you’ve questioned it so far. Let me just say this: If you want to reach people, you have to go where people are…

Any questions?

Kent Shaffer is the mind behind Church Relevance and other online ministry resources. Kent is one of my early mentors for my blog and has since become not only a social media friend, but someone I’ve been able to hang out with a few times. I learned how to leverage influence by watching Kent online.

Now Kent has a new project and I’m excited to help introduce it to you here.

Introducing Open Church

Open Church is a nonprofit designed to empower global church leaders to equip each other with ministry ideas and free downloadable resources. You can visit http://openchurch.com to learn more about it, but consider this diagram to fuel some thoughts:

Be honest, did you know 80% of global church influencers are Americans, but Americans are only 10% of Christians? Have you even thought about learning from Christians around the world? Do you think they may have something they could teach us as Americans?

Social media has made the world a smaller place. I interact with pastors around the world everyday. Open Church is designed to allow believers to truly learn from one another.

Still want to know more? Check out this brochure for Open Church HERE.

Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance.” (John 10:10, HCSB). He gave life. That’s why we must introduce people to Him and give that kind of life away.

There are so many ministries doing that very thing today. You and I together couldn’t begin to number the ways they give life to others—from giving shelter to a homeless family to providing meals for the hungry and from rescuing a child out of slavery and trafficking to training up leaders to be disciples of the Word.

And that just touches the tip of what we’re called to do to be Jesus to the world.

That’s why I want to introduce you to my good friends at The Resonate Group and The SoulCare Project, who’ve teamed up to create a unique grant initiative for 501c3 ministries who give life to others every day. Bottom line: They’re giving away money to people who give away life. It’s a collision of innovation and funding through a simple online process—no frills, zero red tape.

There’s already a lot of excitement surrounding this new initiative.

For ministries and organizations, all they need to do is apply online, share who they are and how they give life, and upload a short video. Done. That’s it. Some great ministry leaders and organizations have already jumped on board to apply.

As for the rest of us, we just need to go to the Giving of Life site and vote on our ministry and/or ministries of choice to put them in the running to receive a grant of 50K, 20K, or 10K. Hundreds of fans are already following Giving of Life on Twitter and Facebook. And thousands have already voted.

On November 8, the top 10 finalists will be selected based on those who receive the most votes between now and then. In the end, a review committee will step in and help pick the top three ministries out of those ten who’ll receive grants.

How cool is that? Don’t wait. Go and apply or vote today.

There are close to three million prisoners now in the United States and that population is growing at a compounded rate of well over 2 percent a year. What will the future bring?

Introducing God Behind Bars

God’s prompting of the founder, Jake Bodine, and the skyrocketing number of incarcerated men and women in the United States has led directly to the creation of this one of a kind prison ministry.

Here are some of the features of what makes God Behind Bars unique:

* Unique four-step strategy that will allow a person to have full life change instead of some life change.

* Partner with churches an d faith-based organizations to stream live, dynamic, high-quality worship experiences into prisons all over the world.

* Online campus called “Church With Inmates” that allows the families of prisoners to see and experience the same service that their loved one is watching from inside the prison.

* Intentional about family reunification through outreach ministries such as their promising new children’s ministry “Project 22”, a ministry focused on providing children of inmates with a safe place to live and restoring the child and parents relationship through biblical principals.

* Next-generation aftercare program that pledges to walk with and care for each former pris oner who completes the three prerequisite steps. Among some things that will be provided initially by the ministry are temporary living quarters, groceries, gas, a cell phone, clothes, employment training and placement.

Watch this video that tells the story of God Behind Bars

Could you see yourself being interested in a ministry like this?