Go Beyond

Early in 2019, as I started planning Kingsland’s missions initiatives for 2020, God impressed upon me that we should collaborate with our men’s ministry to call men around the world to embrace His vision and design for manhood. That led me to have conversations with Gil Harris, our men’s ministry director, and Ryan Rush, our senior pastor, about how we could strategically push back on a culture intent on redefining biblical manhood.

Over the next few weeks I outlined our Men of Courage devotional guide — a 26-week study designed for men’s small group discussion. Gil Harris, Bobby Cooley, and Brian Stone joined me in writing the lessons. We published the guide and made it available to our men on Father’s Day of 2019 and gave away more than 1,200 study guides on that day.

The next step was to determine where we would offer our Men of Courage Summits. I contacted partners in Uganda, Cambodia, India, and Nepal. All agreed to host a summit and to take responsibility for recruiting men to attend.

Todd Pendergrass, our executive pastor, asked me to consider adding Brazil as a summit site. Prior to coming to Kingsland, Todd had led numerous trips to Cuiabá, Brazil, the geographical center of South America. This immediately impressed me as the most symbolically strategic location in South America from which to call men to embrace biblical manhood.

In September 2019, our partner Pastor Robert Nabulere hosted our first summit in Uganda. More than 300 men attended that first summit with many agreeing to start small groups to engage men in doing life in community with other men.

The next month, Todd and I flew to Brazil to meet with pastors to talk about hosting a Men of Courage Summit in the Summer of 2020. Todd introduced me to several of his contacts who had a heart for reaching men. After hearing about our summit in Uganda, they agreed to host a summit in Cuiabá.

And so, with our fifth location set, we locked in summit dates for 2020. Our first summit of the year would be held in Nepal in the Spring. And then the unexpected happened — a global pandemic shut down international travel and prohibited any large gatherings of people. The summits would not take place in 2020.

The following year was no better as we still faced travel restrictions as well as prohibitions on large gatherings in the countries where we had hoped to have our summits. Finally, things returned to enough normalcy that we could again look at rescheduling our summit initiatives.

Earlier this year, Todd contacted our friends in Brazil and they agreed that the time was right to have the summit in Cuiabá. So, we set the summit date for May and started planning. Todd agreed to run point on mobilizing our team and Bobby agreed to coordinate our teaching schedule for the summit.

This past week in Cuiabá exceeded my expectations. Our partners in Brazil recruited 650 men to attend our Men of Courage Summit. Todd mobilized a great team of guys, many of whom had never been on a mission trip. Every man, however, accepted assignments to share their personal story, lead devotions, and engage in street evangelism.

As with our first summit in Uganda, we began by taking 30 pastors and men’s ministry leaders on a shared adventure — a hike through the jungle outside Cuiabá to visit 7 waterfalls.

Adventure is a great way to bond men. Bobby assigned team members to lead devotions at all seven waterfalls. By the end of the day-long hike both Brazilians and Americans were well on the way to new friendships.

After our shared adventure, Todd teamed us up with several local churches to do shared mission — street evangelism. This gave each of us the opportunity to bond even more with our new Brazilian friends and, as a result, several of the people we met on the streets came to faith in Christ.

Our two day summit included worship and praise. To hear so many men singing praise and worship songs in Portuguese was stirring. These men had come to worship and to learn about how to stand strong in the midst of a culture that is trying to redefine biblical manhood.

On the first night I addressed the culture war and the importance of understanding the times in which we live. Gustavo Frank, one of our lay members, shared his personal story. Pastor Ryan concluded the evening by calling the men to embrace their identity in Christ.

On the second night of the summit, Gil talked about what God has put into the heart of every man — a battle to fight, a beauty to rescue, and an adventure to live. Todd Taylor followed and shared his personal story.

Bobby spoke about the question every man asks — Do I have what it takes? I concluded our time with a call to commitment after which we presented each man with a certificate to remind them of the essentials of biblical manhood.

On Sunday, we divided our team among two churches. Todd spoke at the Presbyterian Church and I spoke at the Baptist church. Once again, our guys had opportunities to share with these congregations. We concluded our time in Brazil by visiting a school in a remote area where Todd shared the gospel and we played sports with the students.

Feedback after the summit has been encouraging. As word is spreading we have heard from other churches in Brazil asking to host a Men of Courage Summit. And, our Brazilian friends are already strategizing on how to keep the momentum going by starting small groups throughout Cuiabá.

I am so grateful for what God did in Brazil. It was an amazing week. I am now working with our partners to lock in dates for our Men of Courage Summits in Nepal and India and Cambodia.

Our Men of Courage study guide, the first in a series of five, has now been translated into 10 languages. We have completed and distributed Men of Character, our second 26-week study guide. And, I am developing the outlines for Men of Conviction (Volume 3), Men of Compassion (Volume 4), and Men of Commitment (Volume 5).

We will continue calling men to embrace God’s vision for biblical manhood. The time has come for men to rise up and to show a confused world the difference a godly man can make in the home, the church, the workplace, and the marketplace. And we will continue challenging men to become the kind of men whom Satan himself regards as dangerous to his evil and destructive purposes.

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.