Saturday Men’s Group

Almost every Saturday morning, I try to get to my office early for some personal quiet time before I’m joined by a group of young men from our Church at 7:30 a.m. who meet for what we call, “Saturday Morning Check-In.” This group gathers to fellowship, discuss and challenge one another to continue growing in our personal, professional, spiritual and family life. It’s really one of my favorite times of the week.

The content for each session comes from the previous week’s message which is crafted by the leader of the group [not me] into one key question of the week. That question, and some “food for thought” is sent out each week on the Friday prior to our gathering. Our group tomorrow will be led by Randy, a relatively new face to our group who has been coming to our church for about a year and has really experienced some incredible changes in his life in that short time. I wanted to share his thoughts with you here.

And of course, if you’re looking for a men’s group to connect with, we’d love to have you anytime. 7:30 a.m., room #215 in the Arts & Education Building at FUMC Mansfield.

Here’s Randy’s thoughts for tomorrow…

Hi guys, Randy again.

I hope everybody is having a good week, and I look forward to seeing you on Saturday morning.

It was another great message from David last week, and I really feel ready to “pick up my mat and walk” away from some of the issues where I’ve been “stuck.” I am looking forward to the next two messages in the series and am convinced, that with David’s guidance and Gods help, I will be able to move past some of these things that I want to have victory over.

The first thing that I took note of during David’s message was the fact that churches are often places where people go who are hurting and are looking for healing from their pain, but somehow miss out on the help that they went there to receive. I suppose it would be as if we went to the local hospital with a broken arm, and every doctor or nurse seemed to be completely unavailable. Now, in all fairness, at the Hospital they have a check-in window, and if you show up there with an obviously broken arm, they have a procedure to get you the help that you need. Here at Church, the pain is all on the inside, and sometimes visitors (or even members) don’t quite know what the “check-in” procedure is, so they show up, stay for a while and then leave untreated.

The second thing that caught my interest was from the scripture reading in II Corinthians 5, verse 20: “Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ; certain that God is appealing through us, we plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” I looked up various definitions to the word “ambassador”, and one of the accompanying titles to ambassador is often “Plenipotentiary”, which means “invested with full power”. Therefore, as “Ambassadors for Christ”, we are His representatives and are invested with His full power.

This brings me to David’s message about the invalid at the pool of Bethesda and how it related to me and to the first two points that I have made here. I wonder how many people at services each weekend are spiritually just like the invalid at the pool, just waiting for Jesus ( or perhaps an ambassador of His), to come up and speak to them? These “spiritual invalids” may have a smile on their face and be all dressed up and you may have no idea that they are hurting inside and wanting help. More likely, though, if you look around carefully, you will see them. They will perhaps linger in the foyer for a little while, hoping that someone will come and talk with them…perhaps invite them to a Men’s group or tell them of a church event where they can personally get to know some of the other members of the church. I know that there have been many times over the years that I have been that spiritual invalid showing up looking for help, and after not receiving any, sadly walking away.

I am convinced that much of real spiritual growth that occurs in the Body of Christ is in small groups such as our Saturday Morning Check In, as well as one-on-one fellowship with other believers, but unfortunately many people never find that opportunity. Instead, they are like that invalid by the pool, waiting for somebody to walk up to them and ask, “Do you want to get well?” They may come for a few weeks or a few years, and every service lay down their mat and hope for the water to get stirred, then after the water remains still, they go back home again with the same soul-sickness that they brought with them.

Since Jesus Himself isn’t likely to walk up to them after services on Saturday or Sunday, I feel like it is up to us as “Ambassadors for Christ” to find these people and perhaps strike up a conversation with them or maybe tell them about our Men’s group and invite them to come on Saturday. I know from experience what a  difference that just one person revealing Christ’s love can make. Our pastoral staff and volunteers can’t possibly get to personally greet every person at our church each weekend, much less have a meaningful conversation with each of them, and many people might shy away from one of the pastors anyway, whereas they might feel comfortable talking with one of us “just members” for awhile.

Therefore, the question of the week is: “How can I better be an “Ambassador for Christ?”

Categories: Church leadership