By: Jamie McClanahan | Senior Pastor of Wayne Hills Baptist Church in Waynesboro, VA
The Harvest is Plentiful!
In Matthew 9:37-38, Jesus said to his disciples, “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.” While this passage is not explicitly directed toward men’s discipleship, we do know that men are incorporated in with the laborers and in with those who need to be harvested.
Searching for the Laborers, Seeking the Harvest
Where are the laborers and the harvest? According to a Religious Landscape Study by the Pew Research, men make up 45 percent of Evangelical Christians, while women make up the difference. Of the men who identify as Evangelicals, about 57 percent have a strong belief in God in absolute terms. However, there is work to be done as only 33 percent attend religious services once a week. In addition to this, research from The State of Manhood 2024, reveals that 70 percent of men seldom if ever participate in any structured prayer, scripture study, or religious education group. To make matters worse, according to the National Coalition of Men’s Ministry, only 10 percent of congregations have ongoing men’s ministry, while women ministries are prevalent.
What can be done? I believe men’s ministry in the local church is not rocket science and it has become more complicated than what it needs to be. Simply put, men ‘s ministry is the biblical discipleship of men (Matthew 28:19-20). The evolution and rootless expression of men’s ministry in some churches has eclipsed this simple truth. We have men’s Sunday School classes and small groups. We have Saturday morning men’s breakfasts and workdays. We have men’s events where men gather to consume meat and recreate. However, these activities, are often not strategically or biblically aligned to the mission and vision of the church. They are often disjointed and erratic in expression. In these instances, some men will be reached, but with more thought and intentional action, many more men could be reached.
At least three questions arise as we consider strategic discipleship of men in the local church, First, how do you create a strategy that is both Scripturally rooted and aligned with our church vision, mission, and values? Second, who will lead the charge to initiate and sustain these efforts? Third, where can this strategy work best?
QUESTION ONE: How do you create a strategy that is Scripturally rooted and aligned with our church vision, mission, and values?
I believe the need for discipling men is great, and it will not be accomplished apart from a spiritually shrewd strategy. Of the influences that inspired me as a pastor to become strategic, Mike Young from Noble Warriors was primary.
Mike shared with our church and team an excellent strategy for developing a Men’s Discipleship Ministry and this is now a free course on the Noble Warriors website, and I highly recommend it! Let me share with you how we adapted this strategy to relaunch our men’s ministry in 2024.
- We put “Discipleship” back in the middle of Men’s Ministry. We renamed our men’s ministry, Wayne Hills Men’s Discipleship Ministry. This name change was significant in aligning us with the biblical mission of the church and the main expression of our vision “to grow disciples of Jesus.” We must put discipleship back in the middle of our Men’s Ministry.
- We created a Men’s Discipleship Team that came together once a month to pray for men, to share our experiences in groups and life-on-life, and to execute our overall strategy. The team is not just an event planning team, nor is it primary focused on creating workdays or men’s breakfasts at the church.
- We developed a discipleship emphasis by planning three to four quarterly catalytic events. A primary objective for these events was to launch men into a six to eight-week small group following the event.
- Finally, we decided to implement a biblical mentoring program to encourage men to meet one on one or two on two for life-on-life relational discipleship. There is a content highlighting resources on mentoring on the Noble Warriors website.
- We relaunched our Men’s Discipleship Ministry.
QUESTION TWO: Who will lead the charge?
Someone must lead. I believe the pastor should be leading the efforts of discipleship in the local church, particularly the Men’s discipleship efforts. It does not mean that he must do it all by himself. Consider Ephesians 4:11-13, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the fullness of Christ…” The church is set up by God to have apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers to equip others for ministry. Additionally, Paul entreats young Pastor Timothy to pass on what he has learned to others. II Timothy 2:2 says, “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” In both verses, God-appointed leaders are called to equip and invest in others; and there is a particular emphasis on developing men to mature manhood and entrusting the gospel to faithful men.
The example of Jesus, his twelve disciples, and Paul and his many ministry companions, floods both the Gospels and the Pauline Epistles. Discipleship is an intentional relational process that is expressed in biblical mentoring of individuals and smaller groups. In light of their example, pastor’s also need to take up the helm, to lead men, and they need to lead men who will lead men.
In their book, Pastoring Small Towns, Ronnie Martin and Donnie Griggs emphasize this point. They write, “Two things faithful churches do to multiply is to make disciples and appoint qualified leaders. Those are things churches do because those are things Jesus prioritized in His earthly ministry.” (Ronnie Martin and Donnie Griggs, Pastoring Small Towns, 123).
Pastors are the someone’s who must take point leadership in their Men’s Discipleship Ministry. In his book, Pastoring Men: What Works, What Doesn’t, and Why Men’s Discipleship Matters Now More than Ever, Patrick Morley, writes, “The Senior Pastor is the Key to everything.” (Pastoring Men, 28). He continues by listing three main factors in highly effective Senior Pastor led men’s discipleship.
- A Senior Pastor with the vision to disciple every man in the church.
- A Senior Pastor with the determination to succeed.
- A Senior Pastor who has found a sustainable strategy to make disciples and disciple-makers.
Morley concludes by encouraging pastors. He writes, “…without you, the pastor, men’s discipleship in your church will never be more than fringe activity…no one has more influence with your men than you do [pastor]. The Senior pastor is the key to everything.Everything points to this overarching conclusion: For a critical mass of mentors become disciples in a church, pastors will need to take the lead.” (Patrick Morley, Pastoring Men, 31).
QUESTION THREE: Where can this strategy work best?
In small town churches, pastor-led men’s discipleship ministries can uniquely thrive. Statistics are hard to come by for this specific statement, but as a pastor of twenty-four years in many settings, including small town church plants and pastorates, I have seen how pastor-led men’s discipleship works in small churches. My experience and pastoral ministry gut knows that this statement is true.
I was recently on a panel and asked many questions about my experiences as a small-town rural church (STRC) pastor. One question rose above the others, what would you do differently if you could do it all over again? I shared that I would have created and developed a men’s discipleship ministry. I believe that if there is one thing that works well in STRC ministry, it is reaching and ministering to men. It is hard to explain, but STRC men really enjoy connecting over a fire, BBQ, corn hole, skeet shooting, or any number of hobbies. In my experience, they will make time for church or community gatherings, which seems to be in their heritage and DNA. Pastors have a unique role in initiating such ministry and outreach. There are fertile fields and spiritual fruit ripe for picking in this area of STRC.
A few weeks ago, my church joined in with a small-town rural church for a wild game feast in a barn. There were probably fifty men gathered for a corn hole tournament, some good eating, and a time of preaching.
Why is Small Town Pastoring so Important?
“In God’s eyes, there are no little people or places,” said Francis Schaeffer in a book of sermons complied on that topic. His words were on my heart as I considered the small-town churches scattered throughout our country.
As I examined small-town, rural SBC church statistics, I am reminded of the prevalence and opportunity to share the gospel and make disciples in these types of churches. According to the SBC website (my church denomination), there are currently 46,906 Southern Baptist churches. Out of these churches, the SBC Annual Church Profile Report reveals that 73 percent are churches with 100 or fewer regular attendees. Surprisingly, the number of small churches is on the rise. According to the ACR (Annual Church Profile Report,) “The SBC is increasingly becoming comprised of the smallest churches, according to the latest ACP. From 2017 to 2022, the percentage of Southern Baptist churches that were below fifty in worship attendance grew from 36 present to 45 percent.”
What does this all mean? Why should we care? How does this impact the Kingdom? Small church pastors are the norm in SBC life. Many of these churches operate with a single-staff pastor. Some of these churches will not grow too much in attendance because they cannot sustain more people in their buildings and resources, which is ok.
Small Town Rural Church Observations
- Church size does not determine your significance in the Kingdom of God or your value as a pastor.
- The calling of a small-town pastor is equal to that of a large church pastor.
- The influence of a rural pastor can be as significant as that of a suburban or urban shepherd.
- The Word of God must determine the definition of success for all pastors. Faithfulness does produce fruitfulness, although the fruit is observed and harvested in different ways.
Small Town Rural Church Exhortations
- Small-town, Rural Pastors need each other. Reach out to a brother pastor, join a network, or start your own among like-minded pastors who live near your church., and join with another church to do men’s discipleship ministry.
- Consume leadership resources related to small church/small town ministry and Men’s discipleship.
- Avoid the comparison trap of comparing yourself to another church, another leader down the road, or someone who lived within a different context.
Resources available from Noble Warriors
Podcasts:
Rural Church Network (feat Jeff Clark) | Episode 130
Course:
5 Keys to Effective Men’s Discipleship
Other Resources
No Little People: 16 Encouraging Sermons on Human Weakness and God’s Sufficiency | Francis Schaeffer
Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome | R. Ken Hughes
Mobilizing Men for One-on-One Ministry | Steve Sonderman
How to Build a Life-Changing Men’s Ministry | Steve Sonderman
The Mentoring Church: How Pastors and Congregations Cultivate Leaders | Phil A. Newton
About the author: Jamie McClanahan is the Senior Pastor of Wayne Hills Baptist Church in Waynesboro, VA. He has served as an Associate and Senior Pastor in several churches in the Shenandoah Valley since 2004. He has been married to his beautiful bride Crystal since 2002 and has two amazing kids, Caleb (19) and Bri (17). He has earned a BS, MAR, MRE, MDiv, and D.Min. from Liberty University. He is currently enrolled in Southeastern Seminary’s Christian Leadership Ph.D. program.