This past weekend our church held a Men’s Retreat. 300 guys worshiping Jesus, connecting with one another and striving toward godly manhood in a world willing to just let them be unfinished – boys – gawking at girls, playing video games until they are 40, and playing the dumb, sitcom husband – fumbling around while his wife tells him what to do and when to do it.

Guys grew in their faith this weekend, a few came to know Jesus, got baptized, explored their sin, and faced the lies they tell themselves. And they hopefully went home as better men. In Nehemiah’s day the enemies of Israel approached them and Nehemiah has a good word for the men: “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes” (Neh. 4:14). I hope that’s what these guys got a vision for.I explained to the men on Sunday morning that in the Christian world of books, strategies, church planters, etc., there is a lot of talk about how to reach and transform our culture. Writers and planters and bloggers parse out ‘boundary set models,’ ‘seeker sensitive’ models, worship styles, home church vs. large gatherings, etc., etc., etc., but they rarely talk about this crucial aspect of the missional endeavor: reaching men in a culture where many have just checked out, both in regard to faith and their families and their cities.

Unfinished Men
Reaching men with the gospel of Jesus helps change a culture in amazing ways.
-Roughly 70% of all prisoners in the U.S. come from fatherless homes.
-71% of all high school drop outs and 63 % of teen suicides occur in homes where the father was either abusive or absent.
-2 women are raped every minute.
-There are 2,000 rapes each day, almost a million a year.
-1 of 3 women will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime.
-1.3 women get raped every minute in the U.S
*Stats from Tony Evans, Kingdom Man, and Darren Patrick, Church Planter.

In suburbia many fathers have gone ‘missing’ either through divorce, neglect or self-indulgence. The solution? Better men. Men changed by Jesus. Men less selfish, and distracted. Men who have grown out of the Peter Pan stage of life. I see it in the guys in my city. They get a bit of money, some success, and they lose themselves. They become defined by toys, and things that will burn in the end. Paul had a vision to change all that, when he called the men of Corinth out: “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, and act like men” (1 Cor. 16:13).Pick up almost any book on the subject of church structure and ecclesiology, or listen to leaders lay out their ideas, and a call to men is usually absent. But if the church wants to transform cities, and nations it must not neglect it’s call to reach and disciple men. And it often has.

By men, I do not mean ‘muscly,’ or I am out of the running. Nor do I mean ‘in the wild, shooting stuff,’ or again, I am out. ‘Men’ includes guys like me – artsy, reader types who would rather drink coffee and read Karl Barth than hunt anything with a heart beat. But it has to reach me – and the guy who kills stuff – and every type of guy in between. This past weekend was a good representation of that. On Sunday morning a guy walked up to me and asked if he could get baptized. So, in the morning session as I preached I finished by saying “I am going down to the water to baptize a guy, if there are men here who are trusting in Jesus and never been baptized, then come and talk to me, I will be up here for two minutes.” One guy walked up to me weeping saying ‘it’s time’ and I looked behind him and there was a line up. 15 men were baptized in the end – of all stripes and sizes and ages and stages. Body-builders, and artists. Plumbers and students. Jesus takes the different types of men and makes them a unified thing called the church (Eph. 4:21-22).

I Feel Different
Today I sat in my office with an elderly couple, she has been attending church and following Jesus her whole life. He has stayed away. Their kids are grown now. She took them to church very week. God bless her. She raised the kids in the ways of Jesus and they are still following him in their 40’s. He has disliked Christianity and the experience of church his whole life – until recently. “For the last year I have come with her.” He said, with a smile. “And I feel… I don’t know, different about it all.” He wasn’t ready to accept Christ just yet in my office today – but I told him, Jesus was starting to work in him, and if God was pursuing him, he didn’t have much of a chance of escape!

He laughed and agreed.

Such is the mission.