A Growing Burden

“Come and follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19

Jesus had a holy discontent of where things were at with humanity. So He called together a team of guys to change that! He told a couple of Galilean fishermen that instead of pulling fish out of the abyss that they would now be pulling men out of spiritual darkness and into the light!

In 2019 I (Brendan) sensed an increasing burden on my heart. My ministry passions were being shifted. I had been involved in youth ministry for over a decade and loved inspiring the next generation to pursue faith in Jesus. But I was noticing a growing pattern: there were less guys than girls in the youth group and of the guys that were there, less of them were serious about their faith than the young ladies were. This is a problem! The church needs both men and women who are faithfully following Jesus together. And then, when I looked up to the broader church in general, I saw that the thread was the same: there were fewer men engaged in their faith that there were women in the broader church. Not ideal!

And being in youth ministry, I know the stats on the importance of parents being engaged in their faith in terms of their kids continuing on in the faith into adulthood. And particularly, when dads are checked out of church and not taking their faith seriously, the likelihood of their kids owning their own faith in adulthood reduces drastically.

These were some patterns I was noticing in my pastoral ministry but I also had some shifts in my family life as well. The Lord blessed me with four sons and eight nephews! In other words, my life has become men’s ministry whether I wanted it or not. And with a glorious last name like “Dick,” it was clear that men’s ministry is a path that God is fully opening me to.

Therefore, since 2019, the Lord has been growing in me a passion for men’s ministry with a desire to inspire men to pursue their faith, their families, and their fields of influence!

Do you also sense a need for the Spirit of God to move among the men in your community? How have you experienced a lack of spiritual enthusiasm among the men in your life?

Have a conversation with a friend about the state of masculine spirituality this week!