Part of the Men’s Ministry at Frazer is to gather once a month on Thursday night for a time of food and fellowship. I had the opportunity to speak at the gathering in April for the low country boil.
This is not just a group who eats and enjoys each other. They reach out in special ways. Let me share one example.
In February the men had a speaker, Dewayne Rembert, who has a passion to share Bibles with high school students who do not have a Bible. He has had a great influence at Lanier High School.
The Men’s Ministry bought 350 Bibles for Dewayne’s ministry. He gives them to young Christians upon their conversion.
In April the men asked Dewayne to bring some of the young students who have made professions of faith in Christ to the men’s event. Dewayne accepted the invitation, and you should have seen the look on the men’s faces as an entire busload of Lanier football and basketball players who had made a profession of faith and received a Bible came driving up to the Men’s fellowship. Also two vice principals came, Mr. Rodney Bright and Mr. William Tolbert. The men were expecting a few results of their investment in that ministry, and a whole busload showed up!
The men from Frazer showed acceptance, joy, encouragement, and love to all these young men. They made them feel a part of the group. They talked with them and listened to their stories.
This was also a surprise to those young men. Several of them had cell phones and started forwarding pictures and streaming video of the event to Dewayne Rembert. One of the vice principals, Rodney Bright had the Lanier communications team produce a video that was shown to the entire school during morning announcements on their close circuit television of the event at Frazer. At the end of the video classes throughout Lanier erupted in spontaneous applause.
The Men’s Ministry is about helping men grow in their faith and enjoying fellowship – but it is also about sharing the good news of the gospel. If a ministry does nothing except feed people, then fail to challenge them to use their nourishment to expend energy to share the good news, obese Christians are developed. Obesity is a problem in our society – it is also a huge problem in the church.
I had an opportunity to witness a ministry that is reaching out and touching the lives of young men in our city. What was so exciting was to see the surprise of the Methodist men who thought a few boys might show up, but there was a whole busload. Equally as exciting was to see the faces of those boys who experienced genuine love and fellowship.
Richard Peake who heads up this part of the Men’s Ministry, wrote, “So many times in our lives we never get to see the result of our work. Last night was one of those rare exceptions. So many times things don’t go as we planned. But when we humble ourselves, as we did last night and let the Glory of God work through us, it is almost indescribable!”
Many men might have come for the seafood dinner – they went home remembering the looks on the faces of a lot of young men whose lives are being dramatically influenced.
That is a ministry for Real Men!!
