December 2019

When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. 1 Samuel 17:48

My teenage daughter, Hannah, jokingly mocks me from time to time by saying in her best Mike Young voice, “Well, the real issue is that men have not been discipled well. This is a men’s ministry issue.” We laugh together about my predictability. (She also ribs me about the fact that I wear hiking boots and jeans almost every day as well… but I digress.)

I just can’t help it. I believe the issues we face today in our families, churches, and communities would change if more men walked faithfully with Jesus.

Just imagine! Don’t you see it? Or… don’t you want to see it?

When a man submits himself to Christ, everything changes.

But we all know it’s rare for freshly saved men (or anybody) to mature in Christ without guidance and encouragement. Men need to be sharpened by other men. Not only do they need it, but many men want this. They want to know how to live, love and lead in a healthy way.

That’s where you and I get to step into the equation and make a difference. No, we can’t disciple every man. But God has a plan to accomplish this task… the local church. And together we can engage, equip and encourage local church leaders to invest strategically in men; exalting Christ as the model for manhood. One church at a time…One. Man. At. A. Time.

ARE YOU READY TO RUN TO THE BATTLE LINE WITH US?

Serving Adventurously,

Mike Young, Executive Director

Fred Gray can see the big picture. He has a desire to train servant leaders, those who will then train others to lead and serve. And he understands the need to start with the men of his church.

Fred became Senior Pastor of Southside Baptist Church in Suffolk, Virginia, on October 7, 2018, and he quickly started intentionally investing in discipling his men. He first began by getting to know some of them who were serving in leadership.

“I wanted to hear their heart and see their passion and trust that the Lord would identify a team of men who shared a passion for reaching men.”

It did not take long for the Lord to identify Nathan Carr, who had already been reaching out to men long before Fred arrived at Southside.

“I asked each man to take off all of the ministry hats they were wearing and allow the Lord to identify just one ministry…then I told them to eat, sleep and drink that ministry and knock it out of the park.”

After Nathan shared his desire to serve in men’s ministry, Fred knew that he was the man for the job. Soon after that, Men’s Fraternity was launched and Nathan recruited a team of about 12 men, who he calls coaches.

Fred credits the grace of God for how well the planning went, as well as the launch night. And they have a higher than normal percentage of men returning each week.

Fred shares one amazing story of a young man who recently trusted Christ as his Savior.

“This past Sunday morning, a young man who was not a part of our church but came to Men’s Fraternity at the request of his friend… The Lord worked it out for this young man to be in my small group. After a few weeks you could see the truth beginning to challenge him. This hunger led him to want more. He asked about visiting the church with the idea of being further challenged. After attending for 3 weeks he trusted Christ as Lord and Savior. What really spoke to my heart was how this came about. After preaching for a time I transitioned in the message to turn our attention to the Lord’s Supper. After explaining some of the truths pictured by this, I gave the invitation. Bear in mind that everyone is seated during this invitation. When I asked if anyone wanted to respond to the Gospel to please stand up, he stood up. Sometimes the Lord leads me to give this kind of invitation and 3 times this year men have stood up to respond to the Holy Spirit. Two of those were for salvation.”

Fred also continues to hear that some of the ladies in the church are seeing a difference in their husbands. That is exactly what Fred hopes to see as they continue to invest in men. He desires to see “godly men who will be godly husbands and fathers who are then ready to serve and lead in the church. I am praying for God to raise up pastors, lay pastors, teachers and missionaries.”

According to Fred, Noble Warriors has been a helpful source of encouragement and has provided exposure to resources without pressure. Men’s Fraternity has been priceless in the lives of their men and their families.

“For me there is no better communicator to men than Robert Lewis. Our guys know this material is dated as to when it was produced but they have come to understand the truths are timeless.”

Fred continues to praise the Lord for what he sees happening in the lives of men, praying that others will have the opportunity to see this in their churches as well.

PASTOR FRED IS RUNNING TO THE BATTLE LINE TO BUILD LEADERS.

Run to the battle line with us. Your partnership makes these victories possible.

Nathan Carr has been leading an outdoor ministry for years. He has a passion for men’s ministry at his church, Southside Baptist, both on campus and off campus. So when his pastor, Fred Gray, asked leaders to identify what they were most passionate about and charged them to run with it and knock it out of the park, that is exactly what Nathan did.

And it’s that athletic mentality that helps drive their men’s ministry. The idea of having a team, coaches, and viewing meetings together as practices, are all things guys learned in athletics growing up.

“So many men have never been part of a team so this is a big deal. They’re learning a lot. We break every meeting at the end with ‘MenReady! Great practice, now it’s game time!'”

Nathan has always had a passion to see men grow. He desires them to know what it means to be leaders both inside and outside their homes. His dad was always a leader in the activities Nathan was involved in and had leadership responsibility at his church. But it was when Nathan started attending Southside that he really started to grow spiritually and started to feel the call to invest in men. This passion has grown over the years through his work with outdoor ministry.

“We want to disciple our men. Create some lifelong relationships… Groups of 2, 3, 4 who are willing to do life together. Develop those types of relationships where guys are holding each other accountable, seeking advice and lifting each other up in prayer.”

It was a handful of guys who had a major impact on Nathan’s discipleship journey. A few on the list include Malcom Bunch (who was a great example), Phil Lilly and Terry Violet (accountability partners), and Howard Benton (who provided encouragement along the way).

Nathan and his group have employed such resources and tools as Men’s Fraternity, Outdoor Sportsmen’s Ministry, and MenReady. They have held a campout for fathers and their kids. Nathan has seen guys start getting together for lunch. And he’s had wives come up to him, encouraged by the difference that they’ve seen in their husbands, saying “my husband can’t wait to go each week.”

The biggest challenges that Nathan has faced is the logistics of planning a time to meet that will work for most guys, and then trying to rally the few guys that they lost. But he says Noble Warriors has been a great resource and source of encouragement, providing “insights, perspective and curriculum recommendations, etc.”

The Quest finishes up March 15. They have a big outdoorsman banquet set for February 29. What do the men of Southside have planned after that? “That’s a good question,” Nathan says. And this men’s ministry leader will make plans to “get together and talk about what’s next.”

NATHAN IS RUNNING TO THE BATTLE LINE TO MAKE MORE MEN READY.

Run to the battle line with us. Your partnership makes these victories possible.

Greg Beechaum knows that every man has the desire to be discipled. And he believes it has to start somewhere. And it has to start with someone.

For almost 20 years, Greg has been the pastor of Little Zion Baptist Church in Powhatan, VA, where he has helped start a mentoring group for men, as well as men’s choruses. He joined the Men’s Chorus almost 4 years ago, and the Chorus for Young Men got started about 2 years ago.

“It has been a great experience to go to rehearsals and have various engagements with the guys. It has been a blessing to see the growth and tightness of the group. We pray for each other and for the church.”

Through the Chorus, men are growing closer together and now they are teaching and mentoring the younger guys. Like many of the churches in the area, they struggle with the young adult groups of 25 to 40-year-olds, and Greg would love to see intergenerational fellowship, mutual respect and continual conversation. His goal is to see the church and community reach out and disciple the younger men.

Greg has implemented several great resources, such as 33 The Series and The Manger Build, within their groups, which he says “have been a blessing, so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.” They have had the opportunity to coach, disciple and support men who were released from incarceration.

“The gatherings have assisted them to deal with their anger, relationships and strengthen their relationship with the Lord. They have rebuilt their lives, gotten married and are now becoming great fathers to their children. Just awesome stuff to see and witness.”

Greg urges pastors to not give up on their men. His recommendation is consistency, even if it starts off small.

PASTOR GREG IS RUNNING TO THE BATTLE LINE WITH HIS MEN.

Run to the battle line with us. Your partnership makes these victories possible.

“Don’t measure or count the success and failure by the attendance or the numbers. Every man wants to be discipled. But it has to start somewhere. Let it start with you.” – Greg Beechaum

Dr. Jamie McClanahan is growing a forest of Redwoods in the church he pastors in Waynesboro, Virginia. His motto is “start small and grow deep.” It is a priority for Jamie to invest in men at Wayne Hills Baptist, and his goal for the men’s ministry is to grow deep in Christ and not magnanimous in number.

“Healthy Redwoods grow large over time. Every church needs a forest of Redwoods and every pastor has the seeds in the soil of his local assembly.”

Jamie and his Ironman leadership team began with a small number of men and prayerfully moved forward. They now have three small groups for men meeting weekly, two of which are investing in the 33 Series.  Jamie has also begun a church-wide men’s discipleship group on Sunday nights, and he regularly meets with men for prayer and conversation.

“Our men want to meet and gather for fellowship and spiritual growth. There is a core group that see the need for growing in Christ together and for greater accountability as they do life alongside one another.”

Beginning a men’s ministry did present a couple challenges at first, but the investment has been fruitful. They began at a time when it was hard to squeeze men’s ministry into the budget, so they had to be creative in how they organized and promoted events and activities. They also discovered that there are some men who do not always enjoy direct communication with other men. That aspect requires some creativity as well, such as creating environments where men can indirectly connect with one another, while taking small intentional steps toward greater intimacy.

Jamie and his team have organized 3 major catalytic events that have really connected their men. He says, “These have also been a source of unity in our community as many men from other churches and pastors have attended and enjoyed great fellowship.” They have also attended four conferences presented by Noble Warriors, including Leading Noble Men and The Noble Man / Iron Sharpens Iron.

“We grew from a group of 10 men to 50-60 men in a short time. Today we have about 25-30 men growing together in regular groups each week. We have seen men step up in their homes and into many church leadership roles.”

This is what Jamie hopes will continue. He has a desire to see men grow in their love for Jesus, and witness that love translate into their other relationships and roles. He says, “I hope to see more multi-generational mentoring opportunities arise as we intentionally move men into smaller settings from the large catalytic events to small groups to even smaller discipleship groups of 1-1 or 1-2.” Personally, this journey has allowed Jamie to get to know many men in his church that he did not know before, and has provided him a support network each week. He says “I have nickels on my podium regularly.” (See NickelPrayerDefense.org)

Jamie was feeling this burden for men for some time, but did not have a game plan until he heard Mike Young talk about a strategy. After employing that strategy he watched his group grow immensely. Jamie says, “From the very beginning Noble Warriors has affirmed the biblical emphasis on reaching and training men in the local church to become spiritual champions for Christ.”

Jamie encourages pastors to pray for men to develop as godly leaders in the home and church. He points out that the scriptures say, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Prayer helps a pastor see and strengthen those laborers.

“Godly men are powerful laborers.”

PASTOR JAMIE IS RUNNING TO THE BATTLE LINE TO INVEST IN HIS MEN.

Run to the battle line with us. Your partnership makes these victories possible.

The event of one man investing in another man has life-changing effects. Bill Ward was 45 years old when he experienced this first hand. It’s through this investment that a CPA is now in full-time men’s ministry.

Bill describes himself as a “cultural’ Christian up until the Spring of 2000. He was having success at work, but failure at home, which led him to seek something new. Having witnessed his wife, Pam’s, spiritual growth as she attended Community Bible Study, he knew he wanted what she had.

“Then one day I saw an ad in New Man magazine for a ‘Success That Matters’ seminar at a local church. I called the church and left a voice mail. One of the men’s leaders, Doug Park, returned my call and asked if I would be his guest at the event. He sent me a personal note in the mail as well – a handwritten note that I still have to this day.”

It was at this event that Bill gave his life to Christ. He then began a 6 week follow-up study with the men at that church, who poured into him.

“After those six weeks together, they sent me back to my little country church to launch a men’s Bible study. Although I had virtually no biblical knowledge or training, through the work of the Holy Spirit, that ministry flourished and produced some extraordinary fruit.”

None of the men of that little church had participated in Bible study like that before, so they were all growing in faith together. Little did they know that 12 years later, one of those men would complete seminary and became a pastor in Southwest Virginia.

From 2000 on, Bill has participated on the men’s leadership team of every church he has attended. He organized and ran several one and two day men’s retreats, and a number of small group studies were spun-off of those events. He was introduced to Noble Warriors and the Iron Sharpens Iron Conferences by Ken LeFevre, and has been participating since 2011. He serves on the men’s leadership team at his current church, Grove Avenue Baptist, where they actively participate by attending Noble Warriors conferences and host The Manger Build.

Bill semi-retired (with one active client) from his CPA career, in which he worked over 40 years as an advisor/consultant to hospitals and health systems. And he immediately jumped on board with Noble Warriors, serving as Central/Richmond Regional Coordinator, assisting with The Manger Build and other events, and recently heading up the new Noble Warriors Centurion project.

“Noble Warriors has the bold vision of reaching every church in Virginia by the year 2025 with an offer to assist with resources and encouragement for effective, intentional men’s discipleship. To accomplish this, we plan to place 100 Centurions in strategic locations throughout the Commonwealth, each with the goal of reaching 100 churches.”

This project was launched in the Ashland District this fall, and so far, Bill has had interactions with ten churches and is actively engaging in conversation with four of them at the moment. He says that “one conversation in particular is leading to great possibilities, as the pastor has expressed a passion for men’s discipleship. He is reaching out to his personal pastor contacts in the city, and has a vision for the launch of a multi-church, multi-cultural, intergenerational men’s discipleship group in 2020!”

Bill and Pam are overwhelmed by God’s amazing grace. He feels extremely blessed that God has given him this opportunity to keep one foot in his professional career while providing him with the time to devote to this ministry as a volunteer. He says that there is no comparison between his work with Noble Warriors and his professional work.

“My NW role puts me in places and contexts I could never have dreamed of a few years ago. Speaking with pastors, men’s leaders and the “every man” about the life-changing greatness of our Lord and Savior. This is so much fun!”

Growing up, faith wasn’t discussed much in his house, but his father, as well as a man that he worked for as a teenager, helped lay a foundation for honesty and integrity as he became a man. While raising his own family, it was Bill’s wife who was the spiritual leader, while it became evident that it was his career that he worshipped. It wasn’t until Doug Park invited him to that event in 2000, investing in him spiritually, that everything changed.

“I was 45 years old before truly understanding what Jesus had done for me on that cross. For me! My life’s goal now is to finish well, for His glory. I heard a speaker once say it’s all about taking as many people with you to heaven as possible. My prayer for other guys is to set aside all the distractions of this world and focus on that cross. Your family, your church, your workplace and your community will all be stronger as a result.”

BILL IS RUNNING TO THE BATTLE LINE TO ENGAGE CHURCHES.

Run to the battle line with us. Your partnership makes these victories possible.

STACY AND I RAN TO THE BATTLE LINE IN 2005.

We responded to a clear call to go all in… launching Noble Warriors to help churches disciple men. (God has been gracious in many ways throughout the journey but Stacy’s unwavering partnership in this adventure is one of the great blessings!) Over the years, many of you have joined us at the battle line as well. You’ve prayed for us or the ministry, participated in events, partnered with us financially or told others about the impact of Noble Warriors.

LITERALLY, TENS OF THOUSANDS OF LIVES HAVE BEEN TOUCHED!

• THOUSANDS OF MEN have learned and now practice biblical manhood because of Men’s Fraternity and 33 groups we helped launch.
• NEARLY 20,000 MEN have participated in over 40 conferences.
• THOUSANDS OF MANGERS have been built in over 30 states by men who are keeping Christ in front of Christmas for their families.
• OTHER MINISTRIES across the country have been encouraged and blessed by our participation in national networks, like NCMM.

In the next five years, our goal is to connect with every church in the state of Virginia with an offer to help them disciple their men toward biblical manhood. We believe there are over 12,000 churches in VA. This is a bold, audacious, God-sized goal. The goal is every church. The strategy is Noble Warriors Centurions across the state! (Can you imagine men like Bill Ward, serving and coaching the Fred Grays, Greg Beechaums, and Nathan Carrs throughout Virginia?)