Men✝ors is a local men’s community group I founded in my home town. The pattern could be applied anywhere, so I describe it here in case you want to consider establishing a chapter in your area.
The group consists of men of all age ranges. (We are about 10 men ranging from college-aged to 80s.) We meet monthly to study God’s Word together and teach life skills and wisdom to each other and to be supports to one another. We have a group chat to communicate prayer or advice requests to each other throughout the year.
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(which I used in initially sending out feelers and advertising among my contacts when founding the group)
For a very long time now, I have been searching for a true community of like-minded Christian men. And by “community,” I don’t mean just a group of guys who do some things together. I crave something deeper. I want an actual community, centered around Christ, where the older men train up the younger men, and the younger men respect the elder men, and the brothers in Christ support each other like brothers. I want to break down the invisible walls of our modern lifestyle that separates me from my elders.
And I bet I’m not the only one.
To be a capable Christian man who can lead his household with wisdom and who can take an active part in his congregation requires training and mentoring. We shouldn’t have to learn those skills alone. With your help, I am forming a <your town name here> area Christian men’s community called Men✝ors.
What is Men✝ors?
A community of Christian brothers who gather monthly for mutual support and training in the Word, in Wisdom, and in the skills needed to live as responsible Christian men.
The tenants of Men✝ors:
- Multi-generational
- This is essential for younger men to learn manhood from their elders.
- There are no age restrictions, so long as each young man has a desire to attend and to learn from his elders and can maintain respectful conduct.
- In this way young men can gradually grow up into manhood in the community.
- Cross-congregational
- This is open to Christian brothers across the St. Louis area
- Any man who is serious about living his Christian faith in daily life and wants a like-minded, multi-generational community is welcome.
- Invite your friends
Practical Details
The practical details can evolve over time to suit the needs of the brothers, but here is how we do it:
- Meet once a month at a consistent location:
- Start with 45m of devotion / Bible study, led by a different brother each time, in rotation. (This serves as experiential training for men to lead devotions in their own homes.) Begin the devotion with a group hymn sing. (We will make singing masculine again.)
- Then have 45m of mentoring: A volunteer for the month presents/tutors the others in a particular skill he would like to share (a handy skill like plumbing, a social skill like public speaking, a technical skill like photography, a headship skill for navigating a challenge in life with wisdom, etc.). We learn best by doing: The goal would be to teach in such a way that everyone can learn via practice, as much as the subject matter allows.
- Close in prayer together (each man shares a prayer request with the man to his left and then we rotate praying for each other as requested).
- Hang out until everyone departs (this can involve sharing beverages or snacks that the men bring, or games, or whatever is desired on a given day). This is a great time for a man to seek a brother’s perspective on any particular challenges he would like to discuss.
(In practice each segment tends to go longer than planned, because our group likes to chat and be interactive. Trying to stay in the time window is ideal though, since fathers especially need to get home at a reasonable hour to tend to their families.)
Organizer’s Notes
A key idea of the devotion portion of each meet is that we don’t do planned organized Bible studies (not the kind most of us are familiar with anyway). Rather, we pick a Biblical word or concept, typically one that doesn’t translate well into English, and then just read through places in the Bible where that word appears in the original languages to help us get a sense for what that concept means in the Bible. The only preparation needed by the leader for that month is to collect key Scripture references where the term is used. (He can always dive deeper and provide more research if so inclined though.) This format is helpful for cross-denominational conversations, if you desire that for your group, because the subject matter of the study is simply God’s Word and the conversations you all create together around it.
Having the skills mentoring segment after the devotion study is especially integral to getting the older generations of men engaged. Often today, it is hard to get older generations of men to be active and proactive in passing on knowledge to the younger men in their churches. But if a younger man asks them to share a home or car repair skill they might open up more and connect with the community.
Social events are great to have too! Sometimes our group has a board game night between normal meetings. Other options are camping together or playing some sport together. These are also great to consider when you have months with no available volunteers to lead one of the normal evening sections.
If you do start a local chapter in your area, let me know!