Challenge to Pastors from Robert Lewis
Nothing – Nothing I have ever done, ever, in my pastoral ministry has ever reaped such real, tangible, longstanding, enduring, life-changing, community-infiltrating life change as giving direct attention to my men every year for 20 years. Nothing.
I cannot tell you how exciting it is, even now, just even this last week to walk into a restaurant in Little Rock, AR and have a guy from across the room, who doesn’t even go to Fellowship, reach up and ring his little keychain – his little manhood keychain – and say, ‘Thanks for changing my life.’ Or being at a mall and having a woman grab you and pull you over to the side, almost aggressively, and saying, ‘I don’t know what you guys do when you meet on Wednesday morning, but thank you for what you’re doing to my husband. You cannot believe what kind of change is going on to his life.’
Let me tell you, I’ve preached a lot of messages, but I’ve never had a woman grab me and say something like that after a message. Never! But I have had it regularly, those kinds of responses, for over 20 years. Because men want to succeed and there is nothing more exciting than a man who finally finds his feet in life – his manhood legs! And he knows how to speak to his son, and he’s got a manhood language, and he can share with other men and they can challenge each other, and they can create their own adventures! They don’t need a church program! They’re doing it themselves! There’s nothing more exciting than that. But let me tell you, it will never, ever happen until the church hears the Paul Revere bell ring and go get with your men.
Now, I’m not saying you have to do it, you know, constantly. I know you lead a church and there’s a lot of stuff, but let me tell you, I would plead with you as a pastor, add men’s ministry next to preaching. It will be the greatest move that you ever make.
Pastors, let me just say this: If I could raise a magic wand (which I can’t) over America, whose greatest need is not a balanced budget, but healthy men, I would start, and this would be my wish…
‘Lord, make every pastor in America the men’s ministry leader.’
And that may sound like a hard assignment. I’ve lived it out. But it will be the most rewarding, enriching assignment of your life with the most enduring, life-changing fruit you can possibly imagine. Because the men of your church, whether they’ve said it to you directly or not, are desperate to win. And they can only hear it from a man in a safe place where there’s transparency.
Ok, that’s all I’m going to say on that subject.