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Accelerants for Men’s Discipleship by Pete Alwinson
Accelerate: “to move more quickly.” In physics, increasing velocity. Apparently it wasn’t until the early 16th century that people in the western world began to think of moving faster because the Latin verb “accelerare” (ad=toward + celer=swift) didn’t come into usage until then. We’ve been going faster ever since. We want our discipleship ministries to men to pick up speed too. We want them to attract more men, influence more families, build stronger churches, break strongholds in our culture and glorify God. As the men of the church goes, so goes the church. A church will never grow past the quality level of its men. I live and breathe that mantra. Let’s get on with it! Speed, of course, is potentially dangerous. It has often gotten me into trouble because velocity of action diminishes listening and team building. In building a Men’s Ministry Leadership Team you can run off the thinkers, the planners, the quality assurance guys. Shoddy ministry doesn’t bring guys back the next time. Some of us can be so addicted to speed that we don’t bring the Lord or quality into our discipleship approaches to men. In praise of accelerating Men’s Discipleship in our churches however, I offer these accelerants to you for consideration:
44 Knowledge: “Watch the climate, don’t worry about the weather,”
someone said. What’s the climate of your church when it comes to men? What are our men really like? What is American culture really like right now at the beginning of the 21st century when it comes to men? Is Hanna Rosen right? Is this the era of the “End of Men and the Rise of Women”? Jesus knew His church (Rev. 1-3); Paul knew his churches (I Thess.1). When you know what your men are really like, then you can minister to the men you have, not the men you think you have.
44 Perspective: In antiquity Memento Mori art included pictures of skulls and skeletons to motivate people to live a good and meaningful and virtuous life. Those Latin words mean, “Remember that you will die.” Great perspective. Paul in Philippians had the same focus. He would rather depart and be with Christ but knew he had to stay on the planet for the spiritual welfare of his people. “Fruitful labor” he called it. It seems like just yesterday that I was 21. Today I’m…wiser. Perspective of the need to reach men plus the shortness of time is a ministry accelerant.
44 Identity: If you are called to men’s discipleship and you know it, and you know your worth is not in how effective you are but that you
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