• What was your last act of courage?

• What was your last act of cowardice?

• What happened after both?

“These questions should not be asked to create shame,” he explains, “but asked in order to create a better spiritual leader. If cowardice is found, then we should pray for this person, help bind up his spiritual wound. We should provide courage training. God, in Revelation, puts cowards in the same category as adulterers, murderers and liars (Revelation 21:8). Cowardice is a form of spiritual treason that we need to weed out early. Cowardice kills love,” Coughlin attests.

Brewskis and the Bible

With your church’s doctrinal details tended to and solid believers with healthy ideas of Christ and manhood, the most effective outreach is sending individuals into the community to build relationships with other men. While the mission field your church chooses is up to you, remember that Christians do have differing ideas of what types of outreach are appropriate. For instance, some churches believe you can reach the unchurched in a pub. The Bridge Church in Portland, Ore., hosts a Red Letter Pub, gathering Christians together in a nonthreatening environment to discuss the Bible’s “red letter” sections.

Bridge Church’s Pastor Geoffrey Neill says the pub situation is a “really good place to refer someone who is either burned by church or unchurched (which is a lot of Portland). You aren’t in a church (setting), you are in an environment where people are prone to chat. And you are dealing with words that someone else said. There is no agenda other than discussion of what is being said, so people can disagree, argue context, whatever, and everyone is all equal in that. It’s not a Bible Study per say, but everybody brings what they have to talk about and gets challenged by the concepts that Jesus is talking about.”

Coughlin agrees that bonding over a beer can be a great outreach to men. “As the expression goes, the devil is always in the details,” he states. “For example, drinking beer can be bad if it leads to overconsumption and bad behavior. But having a beer with other men can also be a time of great enjoyment – something I did recently in Boise, Idaho, with other men’s ministry leaders.”

Sensing the Humor

Regardless of whether your outreach is in a seminar, small group, pub or park, a great point of connection with men is humor – and you don’t even have to be that funny. Robert Provine, author of “Laughter: A Scientific Investigation,” says that 90 percent of laughter isn’t caused by tremendously funny material, but that humor provides an expression of like, trust and agreement between people. Coughlin says that in male fellowship, “There needs to be robust laughter, which helps men open up.” Neill agrees and contends laughter is a key to creating an atmosphere where men can bond in small groups. “Usually, someone comes up with a doozy of a joke that everyone cracks up at, after which, we pray. It may sound irreverent, but we think fraternity and joy are a part of our walk with Jesus.”

While laughter is encouraged, Neill is adamant about avoiding put-down humor. “This is something that causes immediate recoil,” he cautions. “If someone shares something vulnerable and a guy takes the easy shot, then connection has just been severed.”

The Challenge

Comfortable with healthy competitiveness, it seems like there is nothing like a challenge to attract and cause men to bond. Mars Hill Church offers Men’s Advance. “Instead of calling men to retreat, we call them to advance: Advance in their walk with Jesus, advance as a husband, as a father, as an employer or employee,” Munson affirms. “The Men’s Advance is an annual event where we gather together for a long weekend for Bible study, prayer, fellowship, healthy competition, and reflection on Jesus’ grace and what we as men can do to bear more fruit in our lives.”

The church also offers Men’s Training Day for newcomers and non-Christians to challenge men with scriptural truths pertaining specifically to men. In doing this, men get some clarity on their roles and find instruction for relationships and careers through the Word of God.

As a cautionary note in challenging men, Neill says his ministry does not to use the Word of God as “fix-it scripturizing.” He explains, “We as men are ‘fixers’ and immediately give unwarranted advice.” He cautions that using Scripture in response to expressed emotions “may seem like a rebuke in love; however, it is the same as unwarranted advice. We as men are not able to be instructed until we are ready to be instructed. We do use the Bible in many of our groups, but we don’t use it as a way to scoot each other back into line.”

Web of Truth

Finally, with 70 percent of American men ages 18-34 viewing Internet porn once a month, the Internet seems to be a happening place for churched and unchurched men. And so enters Guy Thing Radio, a ministry of International Men’s Network overseen by Pastor John King in Keller, Texas.

Guy Thing Radio covers topics such as, “What’s the big deal with pornography?”, “How do I raise my kids?” and “How do I love my wife better?”. Viewers download sermons to their computers and listen to the messages while colors streak across the screen.

Web sites offer an easy way for non-Christian men to ease their way into church. They’re also an excellent avenue to get Christian men vital information for strengthening their walks. If your church is looking for a new way to reach and teach men, try boosting up your Web site for reaching isolated, lonely men in need of community and the Word of God.