Men’s Ministry in Your Youth Ministry: The First Experience

Ok, once you make the decision to start an emphasis on training the young men in your youth ministry to becoming the Greatest Sons, Greatest Husbands, and Greatest Fathers, you need to decide how to open it up.

Here is one way I opened it up 2 years ago:

In the circle drive in front of our youth building, I lit tiki torches in 3 different areas along the circle drive while the group was in the youth building during the service’s opening worship. I asked 3 men to share their hearts, each at a one of the different stations I had created. The first shared what it meant to be a great son. The second shared the significance of being a great husband. The last shared about being a great father.

After the worship ended, we walked all the guys outside. As they set their feet out of the door, they saw the tiki torches set up. Immediately they asked what was going on. I then told them of the new direction I was taking the youth group in. I explained what Trailer Club was going to be about and listed the 3 roles of what we would be
discussing.

In going to the stations, they would soon learn even more about these 3 roles. At the first station, my friend shared from his life and the Scriptures. When we got to the next station, that man shared about preparing yourself to be a great husband. We continued to walk about the circle lot only to arrive at station 3 where the next guy shared about being a father and what that looks like. We ended in prayer; praying over each other that God would give us His power to accomplish His plans for our life.

After you introduce them to the concept, cast great vision to the guys of what they can expect to learn and experience as they become part of the men’s emphasis at your youth ministry.

Leading a Men’s Ministry in Your Youth Ministry

Imagine...

...you and your Senior Pastor are sitting down discussing the youth ministry. He makes the statement, “I’d like to see the youth ministry going in a new direction. How about we only have the regular youth service twice a month? On the other two weeks of the month, we would split the guys and the girls for gender-specific lessons. Let’s teach the young men to be Men and the young girls to be Women."

How would you react to that? Would you be anxious, perplexed, excited, or downright scared?

Take a moment to think about this: What if we as youth ministers brought our young men out of the traditional youth ministry setting and separated them from the ladies so we could specifically target them as men?

If you want to do something like this in your youth ministry, think about these things before you start it up:

1. Name the fraternity:
Yes, you need to think of this as a fraternity where the men will want to be part of it and enjoy it.

2. Main Goals:
What do you want to accomplish in these 2 meetings a month?

3. Tenets/Core Values:
Out of all the things Christians need to develop in their lives, what specific “core values” or tenets will your group focus on?

4. Content:
What resources are you going to use?

We will continue to discuss this the next time I post about men's ministry in a youth ministry.

Men's Ministry in a Student Ministry Part I

• "Being a male is a matter of birth, being a Man is a matter of Choice."
  
  In youth ministry, I have rarely seen seen a focus on men's development in youth groups. I have seen churches focus on men's ministry, but very rarely in the teenage years. When I first became a Youth Pastor, I searched for information that would help me target the young men to bring them from being boys to thriving as men. The information was not there to be found. In the youth ministry I am part of, we typically have more young men than young women attend. The reason for this is the environment that is created with what I call Trailer Club. Trailer Club is a men's specific teaching that hits the young men square in their face about 3 issues:
  1. Becoming the best Son's
  2. Becoming the best Husband's
  3. Becoming the best Father's
  
  It is everyone man's dream to become at least one of the those three concepts above it not all of them. Here are some things I would ask you to consider when it comes to leading your family or your youth ministry:
  
  
• Do you have a plan in place so the young men in your care are being challenged to make choices that will help them become better men?
  
• Have you created an atmosphere in your own life that provides challenges in your own life?
  
• What do you think of the quote, "For boys to become men, they have to see men."
  
• What would a men's focus in your youth ministry look like with the area you live in and the young men that attend?
  
• Do you have to have a Wii to draw young guys to your youth ministry, or is love for God enough?
  

Here are some thoughts...I will continue to share thoughts almost every week on this topic.