Small Groups for Men?

The feller that operates YouTube has been sending me videos related to 'men's ministry' of late. Maybe because I read a book on it 18 months ago, and he's just caught up.

Here's one of the offerings: 

https://youtu.be/vBvyPVR4tZ4

So, what is a  'small group' for and why would a bloke want to join one; why would a church have a separate men's ministry?

Let's talk about the demand for yet another evening out from home.

Some men might want this: good break from routine, with another routine, maybe.

But if you need a men's small group, what is missing in the Sunday/Wednesday offering that your church provides?

I know, usually the Sunday offering is too feminine-oriented.

My preference would be for about three times a year a men's dinner, maybe a men's 'regroup' weekend away, and perhaps a monthly men's breakfast at the church centre, or maybe a cafe or the home of one of the men.

Men's dinner would be: mill around and chat with drinks and hor d'oeuvres, then a meal: first course, then a speaker, followed by desert. Desert could be at table, or in small clusters around the place for conversation.

We might end with prayer in these clusters, then off home.

This is the basis of getting to know each other and start to seed different ministry ideas.

The big issue is to get men into a service area that they are suited to, ranging from practical stuff, to mentoring younger men, discipling threesomes, or direct gospelling: 'gardening' as Greg Koukl calls it.

Manning community contact stalls at fairs, markets (selling crafts from mission areas) or in the main street, is an option as well.

Direct practical training is essential to men. The basics:

• the 'story' of the whole Bible, and how the different books fit in and are arranged.
• basic church history
• the gospel and how it works
• the 5 basic questions and their answers.

Some generic 'skills' training that is also beneficial in the workplace or socially can also be helpful.

Apart from that a monthly prayer breakfast is a good one, Bible reading groups: no hard intellectual slog, but just read and ask questions.

Most men don't want to 'study'. But converting it to topic based 'training' might be the way to do it.

Short period subjects might be also good for a small 'talking' group.

But above all, you need to have the 'why' worked out before anything else, then expect this to change as the men get engaged.