Luke 4 v 18-19 The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
Men need adventure, challenge and risk – but these things are often discouraged in church. Although our official mission is one of adventure, the actual mission of most churches is making people feel safe and secure. Men are born risk-takers, but churchgoers are often a cautious bunch. Men are all about doing, but the emphasis in today’s church is on becoming. Men who want to serve in church often end up attending meetings or passing out bulletins. Where is the adventure in that?
We seem to be short of a lot of men in our churches, consider the following statement:
‘’The best way to reach men is often not through ecclesiastical Sunday events but by working in a relational way. With men you need to work a little harder and take them out of the church context sometimes.”
So what might that mean? Maybe consider The Besom Charity:-
The Besom was founded by James Odgers in 1987. What had motivated him was not so much the absolute levels of poverty that he encountered but the ever widening gap that exists between those of us who have and can give and those who are in need. Mission statement for Besom is that it should ‘’provide a bridge between those who want to give money, time, skills or things, and those who are in need.’’ It ensures that what is given is used effectively. There are 33 different Besoms scattered around the UK.
A group of men at a local church football team determined to give something back to the local community. They recently had a fixture free Saturday and so through the York Besom Charity arranged a decorating project for the bedroom and lounge of a flat for a young man with health problems.
The project came together so seamlessly and ran smoothly on the day – it did feel that God’s hand was upon them. Despite an interesting colour scheme the flat looked pretty good when they had finished. They could see that the project was a real benefit to the young man who lived in the flat but it also benefited the team to spend time together. They even managed to fit in a game of football and a curry following the project!!
On one of our own Besom Projects we spent several hours clearing a ‘’jungle’’ of a garden and later delivered a Besom Christmas Hamper to a young mum and her daughter. Only some 18 months later did we hear that the work had helped to bring a family closer together!!
For more information on The Besom Charity go to http://www.besom.com/
