The Long Haul
The men’s ministry at Long Hollow Church is thriving and making an incredible impact on the whole congregation.
Increases in attendance, giving and families joining the church can all be traced back to a renewed emphasis on ministering to men with the help of Noble Warriors.
“Our church has felt the weight of our men’s ministry in recent years,” said Wil Moore, discipleship pastor at Long Hollow church.
Long Hollow is located in Hendersonville, Tenn., about 30 minutes outside of Nashville. With thousands of attendees and a location in a highly populated and growing area, Long Hollow’s unique situation provides an amazing opportunity for men’s ministry to shine.
“I am very excited that a church as large and influential as Long Hollow sees the value of investing intentionally in the area of men’s ministry and discipleship,” Noble Warriors Founder Mike Young said. “Investing in men has such great potential for the health of the church. Investing in men probably produces a greater result and a greater impact for the overall health of a church in a disproportionate way than investing in anything else. It impacts the entire church.
Although the men’s ministry at Long Hollow is now thriving, that was not the case just a few years ago. The church’s long-time men’s pastor retired just before the COVID-19 pandemic, leading the church into a long period without a clear direction for ministering to men.
“We realized that there was a massive gap between our men’s ministry and the rest of the church,” Wil said. “There was a lack of men’s discipleship and really opportunities for men in general.”
Wil had just reached his 10th anniversary as the student pastor at Long Hollow when senior pastor Robby Gallaty asked him to make a massive ministry transition.
“They really wanted me to step away from student ministry to build something that we didn’t really have in a men’s ministry,” he said.
Wil agreed to step into his then role and had just a few months to prepare a new strategy to relaunch the ministry. During this transition, the first place he turned was to David Romig, a member of the Noble Warriors Board of Directors.
Romig has recently moved from Richmond to Nashville and immediately noticed a need for men’s discipleship at Long Hollow. After meeting with several of the church’s pastors, Romig decided to simply begin by starting his own discipleship groups in a lay capacity.
“I’ve been involved with Noble Warriors for more than fifteen years,” David said. “I’ve always been a strong participant with churches that partnered with Noble Warriors, so when I moved and started attending Long Hollow, my natural question was who runs the men’s ministry here?
“For me I just started thinking that I’m not going to wait for someone else to do it, I’m going to go ahead and start some groups. I had learned through osmosis from Mike and Noble Warriors, and it was an opportunity for myself to put it into action.”
“David felt the gap and took initiative by creating some discipleship groups with a few others on his own,” Wil said.
“I knew I had to learn a lot in a short amount of time and so I went to David and our relationship started to take form. I realized that God had put David in my life for a reason. He had been there, seen it and done it with men’s ministry. He had experience as a practitioner and a participant.”
As they began forming a relationship, David told Wil about Noble Warriors and connected him with Mike Young.
The two formed a fast friendship and Mike began mentoring Wil about men’s ministry.
“Mike and Noble Warriors were able to give me a runway,” Wil said. “Mike answered all of the questions and bought me time I did not have. He gave me a framework and an outline for our ministry that fit the context or our church. He also helped me build a philosophy for our discipleship process. I’m so thankful for all that.”
The men’s ministry at Long Hollow has shown great results in the last three years, growing from 200 men’s discipleship groups to nearly 2,000.
Three years after joining forces with Noble Warriors, Wil expressed his gratitude for their support.
“I’ve gone from somebody that had no idea that Noble Warriors existed to somebody that has greatly benefited from their help in running our church’s men’s ministry. I have a true mentor and friend in Mike, and I’m truly thankful for their ministry.”
When you give to Noble Warriors, you help to equip churches like Long Hollow, to multiply disciples of Jesus who are changing the communities around them.