Is the Journey to Biblical Manhood (JBM) another book study, curriculum or event?
Although JBM incorporates small group resources and events, it is not merely a curriculum or an activity; it is a flexible, sustainable, and intentional plan for a church to reach and disciple ALL its men over time. We’ll suggest heart-oriented resources and activities for the challenges to help your men go deeper with Christ and each other, but the ultimate implementation will be up to you.
JBM includes downloadable resources, detailed instructions and timelines, assessments for your men, promotional plans and videos, planning tools, graphics, and more.
How do I know if my church is ready to implement the Journey?
We recommend three components be in place before you implement the Journey, in order to be most effective: 1) a committed leadership team, 2) a vision to reach ALL the men in the church, and 3) the support of the lead pastor.
Who should be using this website?
Although JBM is for all the men in your church, this website is for the leaders responsible for planning and implementing the Journey. Only your leadership team should access this subscription-based site.
Should each of my leaders subscribe?
You may set up the subscription to be shared by the leadership team; in this case, consider using a generic Username and Password, as well as email address. Otherwise, each leader is welcome to subscribe separately.
What does the Journey involve?
The Journey is made up of 12 Challenges for your men, designed to provide you with a long-term discipleship plan. There are five strides to every challenge: 1) Plan for the challenge, 2) Cast the vision, 3) Include ALL your men, 4) Deliver content, and 5) Celebrate.
Click here to view the 12 Challenge areas, or here to learn more about what’s involved in each challenge.
For an idea of what the Journey might look like in your church, click here.
Our leaders are busy. Will you help us know exactly what to do?
Yes. We provide detailed checklists, timelines, and planning tools for every challenge. We do recommend having a leadership team working on each challenge, and we provide tools to help you recruit leaders; JBM is not intended to be a one-man job. You may want to give leaders the opportunity to gracefully take a break now and then and we’ll show you how to recruit new leaders to help with whatever challenge you’re doing. Many of the tasks can be given to any committed man who has a passion to reach others; therefore, this is a great opportunity to raise up and build into new, potential leaders in your church!
Our leadership training, based on the No Man Left Behind Model, is at the heart of everything we do in the Journey to Biblical Manhood. Maximize the effectiveness of JBM by taking your leaders through the No Man Left Behind training.
How long does it take to complete a challenge?
The duration of each challenge is up to you and will be determined by which resources you choose to study, how long you need for planning, how long you choose to promote your kick-off event, etc. Most churches will do one or two challenges per year.
Can I choose any challenge or is there a specific progression?
You are free to choose which challenges you do and in what order you do them. They are all self-contained so it’s completely up to you. We do suggest starting with Challenge 1: Manhood and Challenge 2: The Gospel.
Is JBM just for the men’s ministry?
No! In fact, we don’t want you to use the term “men’s ministry” at all. Every man is a part of your ministry to men; therefore we’ll show you how to engage every man in your church in the challenge. Certain challenges may also involve women and/or children, such as Challenge 3: Relationships and Challenge 4: Fathering.
I know that small groups are a big part of JBM, but we have trouble getting men in groups. Will this help?
Absolutely. We’ll show you how we’ve consistently recruited more than 70% of more than 110,000 men at our events to form small groups—using one simple idea! We walk you through it in your planning tools.
What about men who don’t join small groups?
You’ll cast the vision for the challenge church-wide with the tools we’ll provide. We’ll help you involve other ministries and groups in the church, and invite every man to be a part of what the church is doing. Still, we know that no matter how well you promote, build excitement, or cast vision among your men, there will always be those who won’t attend an event or join a small group. Therefore, for each challenge, we show you how to include ALL your men—even those on the fringe. Nearly all of these discipleship ideas are free to you and downloadable. We also show you how to help men put what they’re learning into action, and these activities should be open to all the men in the church.
Can I have flexibility in what events and resources we use?
We recommend a primary event and resources to use for each challenge. However, flexibility is built in every step of the way so you can customize each challenge to suit your needs. Beyond those primary recommendations, we offer multiple suggestions for resources and events from a variety of ministries and you will choose what you use.
And no matter what you choose, we provide a list of free, downloadable resources to engage men outside of the men’s-only discipleship opportunities.
What is the cost for JBM?
The only costs for JBM itself are the annual subscription (one per church), which gives you access to all the downloadable components and instructions, and the JBM Leader’s Notebook (recommended, but downloadable as well).
The annual subscription amount is based on church size:
Large church: $79 (more than 750 attending worship)
Medium church: $59 (more than 250 attending worship)
Small church: $29 (less than 250 attending worship)
There is also free, monthly subscription open for churches with very limited resources. The total cost for each challenge is completely dependent on your resource and event choices, as well as the number of men in your church. To see how a small church might complete a challenge inexpensively, click here to view the Small Church Sample Plan (for Challenge 4).