Look around your church. Statistics tell us that amongst 40-50 year old men there is a slightly lower percentage in church than in the wider community. But that is not my concern today.

As I look around I notice that some churches have excited and active members in this age group, but in other churches they are absent or inactive. I want to think about why this is so. 

Ministry Advice

It seems to me that one reason for this is our success or failure in ministry advice and development. Let’s think about that.

Phases of life

The decade from late teenage years to late 20’s is the decade of so many options and so many demands. There are the options of where to live, whom to marry, which job to accept, which church to be part of. The demands are the demands of church, of spouse, of children and parents and of job.

There is a different focus of ministry during the different focus of life. During the 20’s decade we naturally move from extensive ministry involvement with many people to the intensive ministry of caring for spouse and children, at a time when job demands are stretching. At this time it is quite normal for men to withdraw from some public ministries in order to concentrate on family responsibilities. There is nothing wrong with this, but it’s what happens in their 40’s that concerns me - when the intensive family ministry days are behind them, some men never re-engage again in active ministry and even though the family focus has passed they at best become just ‘pew sitters’.

Ministry Thinking

My suggestion is twofold.

1. Work with men in their early 20s to plot out the possible areas of ministry they will be involved in over the next 20 years. This will be a discussion that takes seriously the different phases of life but also helps the person going through these changes to think about what may be done in sacrificially serving the people of God over these years. We should keep talking to each other through these years as a way of ‘tuning up’ our ministry because we all have slightly different circumstances and opportunities. It keeps us honest and focused. This task is a task we should all be involved in.
2. Work at having great models of how to navigate the decades from the 20’s to the 40’s. This is because it is much easier to follow well trod paths than to establish new paths. It is a great blessing to know that living a life of faith and service will have impacts for generations to come. Of course if there is no well trod path, you will need to begin to create one. Again, this is a task that all men need to take as their responsibility.

So, just as our employers constantly work at career development, I am calling for us to work together at ministry development. 

(Feature Photo: Bjørn Giesenbauer)