wfn.org | Men's Ministries Program Is Coming out of the Shadows

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Note #5885 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

5-May-2000
00182

	Men's Ministries Program Is Coming out of the Shadows

	Annual gathering of Presbyterian Men celebrates rapid growth

	by Bill Lancaster

ATLANTA -- The dry bones of Presbyterian Men (PM) are stirring.

	The ministry that went through a severe decline in the 1970s and '80s is
showing signs of new life. According to the Rev. Curtis Miller, associate
for men's ministries in the Congregational Ministries Division (CMD), 60
percent of all congregations in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) now have
men's ministries of some kind, up from only 10 percent five years ago.

	The ministries range from prayer breakfasts and church-school classes to
Habitat for Humanity crews and groups that support soup kitchens or
shelters. Some men serve as mentors for younger men or lend a hand in
disaster relief and other such projects.

	Most of these groups, which in all number about 6,000, are not chartered as
part of Presbyterian Men. In fact, only about 200 are. But the numbers of
charters and renewals has grown sharply in the past five years, according to
Miller, "because people are realizing the value of this connectionalism,"
and PM provides the line of communication.

	Presbyterian men's groups are among the fastest-growing ministries in the
denomination, Miller said: "We're a real bright spot, but nobody knows it."

	Miller offered three explanations for this growth during a workshop at the
Presbyterian Men's Conference in Atlanta April 28-30, which was attended by
more than 200 men of broad racial-ethnic diversity from across the country.

	"First," he said, "is the shaky nature of the job market. Men used to take
their identity from their work, but now work changes. The average man's
occupation will change three to five times in his lifetime. So men look for
an ongoing identity in church."

	The second reason, Miller said, is that "men don't understand women."

	"The role of women has changed, and this has challenged men to change as
well," he said. "We've modeled our relationships on how our fathers related
to our mothers. But our wives are not like our mothers. Women have changed.
The same is true of our daughters; they have tattoos and pierced bodies and
different attitudes toward work, and men don't understand them."

	The third reason Miller cites is the wide-ranging influence of para-church
men's groups such as Promise Keepers: "Men have gone to these conferences,
and whether they liked them or hated them, they have come back to the church
and said ‘How can we do this here?' or ‘How are we different from this?'"

	The Men's Ministry office has edited and published 24 seven-session Bible
studies designed to be taught by laymen. "In the first year of publication,
the Men's Bible Series became the best seller ever in men's ministries,"
Miller said. More than 10,000 copies have been sold.  The most popular are
"Job: The Story of Man Confronting Adversity," by William M. Ramsey; "First
Samuel: Fathers, Brothers, Friends and Others, A Study of Male
Relationships," by H. Michael Brewer; and "Song of Solomon: A Lover's
Manual," by David Ray Lewis."

	In the case of the last-mentioned, Miller said, he has been was accused of
publishing "pornography."

	The office also has material supporting projects such as mentoring and
volunteering to help in disaster relief.

	A domestic-violence teleconference sponsored by PM last year had the
highest rate of participation of any PC(USA) teleconference in history. In
2001, the Year of the Child, Presbyterian Men will put on another
teleconference on domestic violence and its effect on children.

	Miller said the domestic-violence effort came out of his 20 years of
experience in the parish. He said he could never take an off-day on the day
after Thanksgiving because he generally would have "at least five"
domestic-violence incidents to deal with. He said either the stress of
family gatherings or over-drinking apparently led to these.

	"We think it is not in our churches, but it is," he said.

	Why did men's ministries decline in the '70s and '80s?

	The Rev. Marvin Simmers, who recently retired as coordinator for Pastor,
Educator and Lay Leader Support, which oversees the men's program, said: "We
did hatchet jobs on men who were successful in business and in positions of
authority, especially white men. Maybe we felt that to raise one group, we
had to lower another." He added that many men became more involved with
their careers and had less time for their families and church.

	Miller pointed to two wars as definitive events for men. "After World War
II, men came back victors," he said. "Their military experience taught men
about relationships with one another. They came back and wanted to get
together." But military service changed with Vietnam, he said: "Men came
back and wanted to get away." He said Vietnam divided men, healing has taken
a long time.

	"This is a window of opportunity with men that we haven't seen in decades,"
he said.

	But funding is scant. Five years ago, the denomination's budget for
Presbyterian Men was $60,000; now it is $13,800, according to Miller (but
this does not include his salary).

	The Women's Ministries Program Area has 23 staff persons in Louisville plus
12 national staff in synods. Men's ministries has one and a half staffers.
Reductions in undesignated giving have affected funding of PM, as has the
$1.7 million loss suffered by "The Dawn" youth millennium event. Half of the
deficit had to be absorbed by CMD, which sponsored the event.

	"The women say, ‘Last year we gave $3.2 million to the church. The men took
$13,800.  Without the women, there probably wouldn't be a men's ministry.'
That hurts," Miller said.

	Keynote speakers at the conference, hosted by the Greater Atlanta PM,
included Andrew J. Young, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and
a former mayor of Atlanta, who is the newly elected president of the
National Council of Churches; Bill Curry, a former head football coach at
Georgia Tech and the University of Kentucky and a former player with the
Green Bay Packers and the Baltimore Colts; Dr. James H. Costen, a former
president of Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta and a past
moderator of the UPCUSA General Assembly; and Dr. J. Davison Philips, a
former president of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga.

	Workshops were held on 12 topics. Officers were elected and installed to
serve on the National Council of Presbyterian Men: Vice-president, Floyd
Gilbert, a member of Providence Church of Virginia Beach, Va.; secretary,
Judson Dinkins, a member of St. Albans Church of St. Albans, N.Y.;  Korean
men's representative, Yubang Lee, a member of Capital Korean Church of
Davis, Calif.; and young men's representative, William Duval, a member of
First Church of Slidell, La.

	Donald E. Travis of La Palma, Calif., continues as president; Keith Daniels
of Eau Clare, Wisc., continues as treasurer; and Robert Wilson of Madison,
Ala., continues as black men's representative.

	Next year's conference will be held in Memphis, Tenn., April 26-28, 2001.
For more information about PM, call Curtis Miller: 1-888-PCUSA-2-U
(728-7228), ext. 5485.

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