Patrick Morley says that the “men problem” in the church today is one of the most pervasive social, economic, political and spiritual challenges of our time – the root cause behind virtually every trouble ailing society.
More than 90 percent of American men believe in God, and five out of six call themselves Christians … but only two out of six attend church on any given Sunday. To win them over, pastors need more than monthly pancake breakfasts – they need a strategy for reaching and discipling men that has the power to rebuild the church, and society, as we know it.
Enter men’s ministry pioneer and best-selling author Dr. Patrick Morley and his latest book, Pastoring Men: What Works, What Doesn’t, and Why It Matters Now More Than Ever.
The title was recently nominated by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) for a 2010 Christian Book Award – one of the highest given to Christian authors.
“Men’s ministry actually is rocket science! When you are working on rockets, things are pretty objective. Men are not nearly as predictable,” Morley explains.
The author says that the “men problem” in the church today is one of the most pervasive social, economic, political and spiritual challenges of our time – the root cause behind virtually every trouble ailing society.
He has numbers to back up his claim: Of the 72 million children in America under the age of 18 … 33 percent will go to bed tonight in a home without a biological father.
Children in single-mother homes are five times more likely to live in poverty, repeat a grade and have emotional problems compared to families where a father is present.
“If you project out 20 or 50 years, can you visualize any way of ever getting the world right if men are wrong?” Morley asks.
Pastoring Men provides an actionable model that helps pastors to do just that and includes an alphabetized reference section of 70 subjects that every man needs to know, giving pastors a masculine perspective that they can work into their sermons, teachings, counseling and writing.
“It’s everything that I’ve learned about how to effectively disciple men in one book,” says Morley, who says his calling is to equip pastors to help men grow. He has personally prepared and delivered more than 1,000 different messages tailored specifically to men and leads a men’s bible study on Friday mornings in Orlando, Fla., to 10,000 men in all 50 states and 57 countries via the Web.
More than three million copies of Morley’s first book, The Man in the Mirror, have been distributed worldwide.
The Presbyterian Church in America’s Christian Education and Publications has partnered with Man in the Mirror Ministries to offer the best in training and resources for men’s ministry in local churches.
Subscribe to Free “Top 10 Stories” Email
Get the top 10 stories from The Aquila Report in your inbox every Tuesday morning.