Group format

I thought we had a very important and timely discussion this morning about men's ministry, our small group, and how to make it good, better, best, etc. I am concerned that the current format is too laid back, not focused, not intentional, and not challenging. While I think its phenomenal to just hang out and discuss life, politics, golf, or whatever - I think its important as a New Life Church small group to have some real ministry (whatever that means).

The organized men's ministry at the church, for some reason, is attended mostly by 50+ men with grown kids. While that would be extremely beneficial from a mentoring standpoint to guys in our group and others in our demographic, it just doesn't appeal to me (us) for a fellowship / freindship-based small group. We don't have the time in our busy schedules to dedicate a night every week away from home - mostly because a lot of us try as best we can to give our hard-working wife a break from the daily struggles of mommy-hood after beeing gone all day at work, in addition to other small groups and commitments (T-ball, ballet, soccer, etc.) we have during the rest of the week. And there may just be a cultural gap. To use perhaps a poor analogy with Christian music, the older generation is still listening to The Imperials or Petra while we're jamming out to Switchfoot or Falling Up.

Whatever the reason, I think we should expand a little beyond our current format of idle chatter with the occasional prayer request or thematic discussion of the book we're reading. Let's take turns hosting the guys once a month for a more focused time of "ministry". Whoever is hosting will be in charge of a devotional time or a testimony as to what God is doing in his life. I'll bring my guitar and we can have a time for worship (that's means I have to dust it off and practice, I guess). And we should have food and maybe a movie. We could also meet for pizza or bowling or a hockey game, or a game of touch football, or a trip up the incline, or even bring all our kids to a park, which would serve the double purpose of giving our wife a break from the kids AND meeting for manly fellowship.

I will try and be more organized with all of these changes so that we can be sure and put plans on the calendar way ahead of time.

Strength and Honor