Go Beyond

Our missions ministry has a broad reach. We are engaged with more than a dozen unreached people groups in some of the most challenging geographical locations on the planet. We also address such transcultural concerns as the sanctity of human life, human trafficking, the water crisis, caring for the poor, educating children, and much more.

Every year, I seek God’s guidance about how our missions ministry can strategically address a specific critical issue in the world. This year’s special emphasis is on the 4/14 Window — the mission field defined by the ages of 4 and 14. These are the ages when most children come to faith in Christ. We have invested human and considerable financial resources this year to address issues that directly impact the lives of children around the world.

Our special emphasis for 2020 will be to call men around the globe to embrace God’s vision and design for biblical manhood. We will work directly with our partners in Cambodia, India, Brazil, and Nepal to host Men of Courage Summits in 2020 — special gatherings of men and leaders in which we will call men to rise up and be done with lesser things.

This week Gil Harris, Kingsland men’s ministry director, and I led a team of men to conduct the first Men of Courage Summit in Kampala, Uganda. Brian Stone (senior pastor of Valley View Church in Louisville), Bobby Cooley (Adult Discipleship Pastor at Kingsland), and Austin Lanier (Hip Hop Artist) joined us. Austin spoke to more than 3,000 students in school assemblies and also was a guest on a local television program this week.

Pastor Robert Nabulere, one of our Ugandan partners, agreed to host our first summit at Miracle Center Church in Kawempe. I have known and worked with Pastor Robert for more than a dozen years. He is a visionary and gifted leader whose church and schools are reaching many in Kawempe and beyond.

We started the week at a retreat at Murchison Falls National Park with Pastor Robert and four of his men’s ministry leaders. We spent hours discussing the issues that keep men in Uganda from reaching their highest potential in Christ. This time was important because each of our summits will be crafted to address specific cultural considerations that distract, discourage, and ultimately destroy men.

Our time at Murchison Falls allowed us to fine tune our challenge to call Ugandan men to understand and embrace God’s vision and design for biblical manhood. Our discussion at times was difficult as we listened to the challenges men in Uganda face and how those challenges are squeezing men into a pattern that is not consistent with God’s design for men.

All of the specific partners that will host our summits next year have expressed this common concern to me — the issue of biblical manhood is not being addressed. As a result, homes are in danger. Too many men are getting caught in dangerous cultural currents that are sweeping them away from God’s vision and design for manhood.

The reality is that men around the planet are in danger. Men are at war with an enemy that is determined to distract, discourage, and ultimately destroy them. Make no mistake about it, our enemy is committed to using everything in his power to bring about the destruction of men — making men impotent and ineffective in leading their homes and in advancing God’s purposes in the world today.

The Apostle Paul wrote that God desires to conform His people into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). Conformity is an inner change with an outward expression, a part of the sanctifying work of God in the life of every believer. Paul warned that the world is also committed to trying to conform us into something far different from what God wants for us (Romans 12:2).

Therein lies the tension and the danger. The world wants to conform or press men into its pattern. Men who are ignorant of the enemy’s schemes are vulnerable to being conformed into something that God never intended. The best way to destroy the home is to keep men from understanding and fulfilling their roles as God has defined them. When that happens, then the home, the church, and ultimately society is in danger.

This past week was amazing. Our two-day summit was the first of its kind in Kampala. We invested in three-hundred men who made a commitment to do three things. First, they made a commitment to have quarterly meetings to encourage one another.

Second, they committed to doing life in community with other men because alone is dangerous. The men in attendance pledged to start weekly core groups that will potentially reach hundreds more men than were able to attend the summit.

Finally, the men in attendance recommitted themselves to leading their homes according to God’s design as recorded in the pages of Scripture. They have a better understanding of their roles as husbands and fathers. The feedback from the men in attendance encouraged us. This summit, they said, is the start of something new in Uganda.

Our team learned much from our Ugandan brothers and how we can sharpen our message even more. We remain determined to challenging men around the world to rise up. In the words of the old hymn:

Rise up, O men of God!
Have done with lesser things;
Give heart and soul and mind and strength
To serve the King of kings.

As men of God we will indeed rise up and let go of the lesser things that keep us from reaching our highest potential in Christ. We will rise up to end the night of wrong, to strengthen the family, to make the church great, and to lift high the cross of Christ. We are determined to be men of courage.