"I like to move it, move it"

Leading men to actively engage in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ has become my passion for ministry, starting with the Men @ Lewis and reaching out to the ends of the earth. You see, prior to 2004, I suffered from "Sunday-morning Christian-itis", much like we see in today's churches. No doubt I "believed" in God and had verbalized my desire to have Christ as my Saviour; but, what did I do to show others? Was I the living example of what happens when someone truly opens their heart to Jesus and receives salvation? Or was I simply someone who felt that my "Christian obligation" was attending church for one-hour on Sunday (and Pastor, don't you go over your allotted time to teach me about God)?

Well, the answer was quite clear (although not to me at the time). I was more interested in figuring out how God could serve my needs than actually pursuing an intimate relationship with my Creator, my Saviour, and my Lord. You see, to do this, perhaps I realized that I had heard my Pastor tell me in the past that I would have to surrender ALL to truly open my life up for God's many blessings. Oh no, not me because that would certainly cause me to move from my comfort zone in life to a position that I simply have no control over. I was quite happy simply existing as a "believer", doing good (most of the time) and caring for and about others. After all, those are wonderful attributes of a Christian I thought.

Then came my first trip to PROMISE KEEPERS in August 2004 and my Christian walk began a complete overhaul the moment I dropped to my knees and asked God to forgive me and to make me new again (Read John: Chapter 3). I praise God today for the Men @ Lewis who prayed for me during this period and who stood boldly in the gap for me while the seeds planted all those years ago finally took root and began to manifest within my entire being. For the Men@Lewis who refused to allow me to simply warm a pew on Sunday morning but cared enough about my eternal position in the Kingdom to extend the hand of Jesus in fellowship encouraging me to attend, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

This scenario I have described above is typical, I believe, for a large percentage of men today. You see, we all have a story and God wants us to share with our fellow brothers to show unity and commonality for all who either seek God's face or who, through encouragement, eventually will.

So I ask, Men@Lewis --- won't you step up and step out for Christ. Start by taking that proverbial look in the mirror and decide if you like what you see. Then, depending on what answer God provides, decide what your next step needs to be. Perhaps it will be falling to your knees as I did, or, depending on where you are in your walk with Christ, maybe it is to encourage or shepherd other brothers at Lewis.

This blog was established by Sonny McDowell to be a platform for the Men@Lewis to discuss and share experiences that will hopefully help bond each of us closer together so that we may truly live out the Great Commission.

I highly encourage responses to this posting as you feel led, always remembering that your prompting may just be the one that God has planned to bring another idle or lost soul into the Kingdom.

Be blessed my brothers.

What follows below is something I hijacked from another blog entitled "Church for Men". I post this because the message presented spoke to me and sort of dovetailed into what God placed on my heart. Hope you enjoy.

It happened again last Sunday. The preacher advised me to get up early and start my day with devotions. "Spend time alone with God," he said. "Read your Bible every day. Pray to God in secret."

But this good advice, repeated millions of times in our churches every year, has an unintended consequence: it's isolating our men. We're teaching men that the Christian faith is something you do alone. In private. And it puts pressure on men to generate

As important as private prayer and study are, I think fellowship is more important. That's right — I believe that hanging out with other Christians is more important than reading your Bible or praying. My mother had a saying, "David, take a good look at your friends, because that's who you're becoming."

Think about how Jesus started his ministry. He didn't teach the crowds how to study the scriptures or pray. Instead, he chose 12 men and forced them to hang out together. In fact, the disciples had to ask Jesus, "Teach us to pray." Then he gave them the a brief model to follow. Soon he was back to team building.

When Christ sent 72 men out to minister (Luke 10) he paired them up. Jesus never sent anyone out alone. Similarly, the Apostle Paul's missionary journeys were taken in the company of other men.

Looking back at my spiritual life, I'm most like Jesus when I'm in close proximity to other godly men. My deepest failures have come when I am alone.

I'm really going to climb out on a limb here: I think a Christian life consisting of individual Bible reading, prayer and church attendance is little threat to the kingdom of darkness. But when two or three gather to pray, the evil one trembles.

Men tend to isolate themselves. By pressing men to practice a God-and-me-alone religion, the church is setting men up to fail. I challenge preachers and teachers to emphasize corporate spiritual disciplines as much or more than personal devotions.