Features

The Journey to Biblical Manhood is a framework to disciple every man in your church. It is based on the principles of the No Man Left Behind Model, Man in the Mirror’s proven leadership training. View or download a brochure here.

The Journey consists of 12 Challenges for the church to take its men through over the long term. These challenges are targeted to help men grow in the major areas of their lives. Each is flexible and customizable for your church and your men! The duration of each challenge will depend on what resources you choose to use, but most churches complete one to two challenges per year. Click here to view the 12 Challenges.

Each challenge is broken up into five main strides.

5-strides-map

1. Plan for the challenge.

Start the Journey off strong! We’ll help you form a leadership team if needed, as well as recruit men to the vision and tasks involved in the challenge.

You’ll benefit from pre-made plans and checklists for you and the other leaders, as well as communication templates to use with other ministry leaders in the church. Let us take some of the administrative work of ministry off your shoulders so you can focus on what matters most–discipleship.

2. Cast the vision.

We’ll help you cast vision at the start of each challenge for every man in the church. Each challenge is so much bigger than an event or study, and we’ll give you the tools to let each guy know what you hope God accomplishes in three main areas: what he knows (Head), what he believes (Heart) and what he does (Hands). We call these the Faith & Life Objectives, and you’ll communicate these to the men through downloadable cards at the start of each challenge.

Also during this stride, assess your men through the use of a short survey. The assessment form is simple and able to be downloaded and modified as needed. This provides you and the leadership team with a great snapshot of where your men are in the area of the challenge. At the end of the challenge, you’ll assess your men again with a similar survey to gauge what God has done in their lives over the weeks of the challenge.

3. Include ALL your men.

Men’s ministry isn’t just something that happens when men get off by themselves for a monthly breakfast. Instead, every interaction your church has with any man is part of your ministry to men. We call this approach the all-inclusive mindset. (In fact, we recommend you retire the phrase “men’s ministry” altogether!) If the number of men in your ministry equals the number of men in your church, why would we want you to only impact a small fraction of them during a challenge? We don’t.

Every man is on the Journey together–not just those who will come to an event or join a small group. Therefore, we provide you with ways to reach men on the fringe and disciple them right where they are. Many of these ideas and resources are FREE and downloadable–articles, video Bible studies, sermons, devotionals, activity ideas, and more.

In addition, although each challenge recommends the use of small group resources and events, the Journey doesn’t require you to add a ton of new things to your church calendar; rather, we want to help you maximize the effectiveness of existing ministry opportunities. Plug men into existing small groups, classes, and other discipleship efforts, before (or in addition to) launching new ones.

4. Deliver content.

The heart-oriented resources we suggest for each challenge are designed to be done in a small group context. You may use our recommendations or choose your own. It’s completely up to you.

The cycle of each challenge is that of Create-Capture-Sustain:

Create Value. Each challenge kicks off with a value-creating and momentum-building event. We’ll help you plan, promote, and personally invite men to attend. This event serves as a springboard for getting guys engaged in the challenge and should be open to every man in the church.
Capture Momentum. On the Journey, you’ll never do a stand-alone event. Instead, we’ll show you how to connect guys to a credible next step BEFORE they leave the event. This allows you to capture the momentum. We’ve tested this process at more than 1,000 church events and more than 70% of attendees consistently join follow-up groups right there on the spot. Use one of the short-term studies we recommend, or choose your own. Either way, we’ll tell you exactly what to do.
Sustain Change. Following the short-term study, you’ll move men into a more in-depth discipleship opportunity. Most real change takes place in the context of relationships, and this portion of the stride will enable men to connect on a more authentic level over a longer group study. Again, use our suggested resource(s) or choose your own.

5. Celebrate!

At the end of each challenge, gather and celebrate what God has done through this leg of the Journey. Plan a time to eat, worship and/or hang out together, and incorporate the sharing of testimonies. Invite ALL the men in the church to this gathering. We’ll show you how to make this time resonate with your guys.