Pastoral Reflection
Sunday, March 10, 2019
Praise the Lord Trinity! I pray that you and your family have experienced the awesome and sustaining power of our Amazing God in substantial ways during this past week, and you have come ready to enter His gates with thanksgiving in your heart and praise on your lips. Let me also express my gratitude to our guest worshipping with us today. You are welcome here at the Trinity church, and I pray God’s richest blessings upon you and your families.
Trinity, today we celebrate what God is doing with our men. I believe that God has something supernatural in store for the Trinity Church, and that He will use our men to bring glory to Himself, and further His presence in our midst. The Trinity 300 Men’s ministry has multiple components within it including Men of Presence, and the Men’s Jail ministry. We are working diligently to give men what they need in the context of what they want. While we have been focusing on having the attitude and the determination of 300 men, and we have consented to moving forward with the strength of 300 men, and we desire to worship God with the sound of 300 men, God is further calling us as men to embrace the challenge set before us in this life experience.
Trinity, the “men problem” has become a crisis that is virtually out of control. The collateral damage among families is staggering. Men under 40 are especially vulnerable to an alien worldview that is gutting the institutions of marriage and family. Our government agencies, social sector organizations, and businesses are overrun trying to cope with the downstream damage of an increasingly fatherless, angry, and dysfunctional generation. By all means, let’s continue helping single moms, pregnant teenagers, and fatherless boys. But we’ll never solve these “symptomatic” problems without treating underlying disease—the cause—that men don’t understand biblical manhood. If you are trying to solve the wrong problem, you can only succeed by accident. Behind virtually every human tragedy you will find the failure of a man. No problem we need to be working on is more important than “men’s discipleship.”
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If you want to restore healthy marriages, restore healthy men.
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If you want to restore healthy families, restore healthy men.
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If you want to restore healthy churches, restore healthy men.
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If you want to restore healthy communities, restore healthy men.
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If you want to restore healthy men, take a man under your wing and disciple him into the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Trinity 300, Jesus modeled a foolproof way to bring men to spiritual maturity. It’s for already mature men to take men younger in their faith under their wings and show them the ropes. Patrick Morley not long ago mentored a young man in his late twenties. As with so many younger guys, he grew up in a dysfunctional home, so he’d never seen “normal.” On our fourth visit—long enough for him to size up whether or not he would trust me—he sat down and blurted out, “I have a mediocre business, a mediocre marriage, and a mediocre relationship with God.” See why disciples cannot be mass-produced? We can’t just enroll men in a class or get them to attend our event and expect them to “get it.” That’s a good start, but not enough to complete the mission. No, we’re also going to have to get our hands dirty—every mature guy. We’re going to have to spend “personal” time with these men, one at a time, until they no longer have to guess at what normal looks like. You’ll never actually make a mature disciple until you do this.
Praising God for men who love my Jesus,
Let’s Worship, Pray & Do Life Together!
#doinglifetogether
Dr. John D. Tolbert
Senior Pastor
