4 Tips for Capturing and Using Momentum from Your Next Men’s Event
- Chris Bolinger Crosswalk.com Contributing Writer
- Published Apr 25, 2023
You have formulated a solid strategy for your church’s men’s ministry. Part of that strategy is a set of high-impact events for the men of your church and their friends.
One of your goals for each of those events is to deliver value to each man who participates. If that value exceeds the opportunity cost that he incurred by choosing the event over some other priority in his life, then he is likely to be interested in doing more with your men’s ministry in the future.
In other words, the event will have generated some momentum with that man.
Steering Momentum Strategically
One way to leverage the momentum is to invite him to another men’s event. Your men’s ministry, however, is much more than a set of events for men. It’s a strategic effort to help men become mature in Christ.
“It takes a long time to make a disciple,” says Brett Clemmer, president of Man in the Mirror. Effective discipleship, he continues, usually is a series of small steps forward in the context of significant relationships with other men.
When a man gets value from an event, you want that man to understand that the event was not a standalone offering but part of a journey on a pathway to discipleship. You then can offer the man an invitation to continue the journey with some of the other men who attended the event.
Make sure that there’s no pressure in that invitation.
“We must give men permission to stand at the edge of what we are doing and observe,” says Clemmer. “Allow them to buy in at their own pace and decide their own level of involvement.”
What are the best ways to capture and use momentum from a men’s event? Dave Wertheim, a bi-vocational pastor who heads Men U for Transformed Lives, wrote a chapter on this topic in the book How to Disciple Men (Short and Sweet).
Here are four tips from Wertheim.
1. Get to Know the Guys Who Participate in the Event
If a stranger approached you and invited you to embark on a spiritual journey, how would you respond? That’s how a man at an event will respond when approached by a men’s ministry leader . . . unless the two already know each other.
One of the most important jobs for your men’s ministry leadership team is to get to know the men of your church. This can be a challenge, especially in a larger church, but it pays big dividends in many areas.
An often-used approach is to divide the men of the church roughly equally among the members of the leadership team. Some assignments are easy because a team member already knows some men and is involved in groups or activities where he can have conversations with other men.
When a team member is assigned men he doesn’t know or see regularly, he should find opportunities for face-to-face interactions with those men, such as after a worship service or at a church social event such as a picnic or potluck.
A church can help its leaders here by organizing fun activities for men at big church events. For example, at an event where families gather, a church can have something fun for dads, such as a putting green or a basketball shooting contest. Men’s leaders can follow up with guys by having a golf scramble or a family night at a local pro or college basketball arena a few weeks later.
In spite of your team’s best effort, some men may remain relative strangers and then attend an event. When that happens, a team member should make a special effort to meet those men at the event – greet them when they enter, talk with them at breaks, and check in with them throughout the event.
2. Tailor the Next Step to the Event and Its Participants
A good next step is one that starts soon after the event and relates to the event.
If you have an event with a speaker who has written a book, then a logical next step is to form groups that will read, study, and apply the book together. If you have a service-oriented event, then possible follow-up opportunities are the creation of an ongoing service ministry team or a short-term mission trip where guys will do similar types of service.
Depending on the diversity of the men who participate in the event, you may want to have more than one next step ready, or you may want to form several groups of men for the same next step. Don’t forget that men will be forging relationships – ideally strong relationships – with other men as they pursue Christ together.
When a chosen next step will be challenging and unfamiliar to some men, make sure that it is within their reach and that they are excited about the benefits they will attain. Otherwise, the costs that the men perceive – and the discomfort they feel – will generate a great deal of resistance.
If the next step will use materials, then ensure that they offer not only sound biblical guidance and spiritual application but also are relevant to the men you are targeting. If you have selected materials that won’t be a good fit for these guys, then don’t settle for those materials; search for better ones.
Finally, ensure that there is another appropriate step after the next step. Make it easy for guys to make continual progress in their spiritual development.
3. Rightsize the Commitment
The next step after an event may last only for a short time, such as a weekend or a week. But it may last for weeks or months. The optimal length of time depends on the men for whom the next step is designed.
For example, some men may be intrigued by an in-depth study of a book of the Bible, such as Revelation. You could do a study of Revelation in six weeks or six months. Which is better? You need to right-size the commitment for the men.
Man in the Mirror structures its seminar follow-up materials to cover no more than a six-week period because men generally will stay with a program for that length of time. Many men tend to re-up and do another small group program with a similar length of time, especially when they build connections with the other guys in the group.
Another men’s ministry, Christ Led Communities (CLC), has witnessed a similar dynamic. CLC”s Getting Real program offers three modules, each lasting three months. The vast majority of Getting Real groups end up doing all three modules, so each group stays together for almost an entire year.
4. Have Men Start the Next Step at the Event
Throughout your men’s event, you need to provide plenty of information on the next step. When will it happen? How many groups will there be? Who will lead each group? What will be expected of the men who participate? What are the benefits of participating?
Even a bevy of details, however, won’t be enough to get most guys to sign up. They’ll need two more things: a personal invitation to take the next step, and a comfort level that they’ll know some of the other guys in the group.
Wertheim recommends that, before the end of an event, you have each leader stand, introduce himself, and share the details about his group. Then have every man in attendance pick one of the leaders and gather at his table (or location).
Once the men gather in a group, have them provide their contact information to the leader and discuss some pre-arranged questions. The discussion will give them a chance to get to know the other men who may be in their group for the next step.
At the end, the discussion leader will confirm the date and time of the first meeting of his group for the next step and promise to follow up with each man. When he follows up, the leader will encourage each man to attend the initial meeting, answer questions, and address concerns.
When churches use this method, more than two-thirds of men who attend an event do the next step after the event.
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