I hope you already know about our 64th annual Men’s Easter Breakfast and are planning to attend. But just in case you haven’t yet decided, please let me formally invite and encourage you to join us this Saturday, at 8am, in the Family Life Center for a wonderful Southside tradition.
This is such a meaningful event for me. For almost 13 years I have enjoyed a great morning of food and fellowship with my father and my sons, as well as the other men of our church and community. Each year I see many generations of men gathering for this grand tradition. What a great legacy the men of our church left to us 64 years ago.
Please plan on coming and bring your son(s), father, grandfather, uncle, nephew, co-worker, neighbor, best friends, and anyone else who would enjoy this special time. In addition to the food and fellowship, we will also enjoy some singing (manly songs) as well as a great message by Rev. Mike Hudson of Ortega United Methodist Church.
So, to recap:
This Saturday (March 30th)
Southside UMC’s Family Life Center
8:00 – 10:00am
Please plan on coming as we prepare to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Come join us for a brief excursion into fatherhood. Together we’ll take a look at a few of the key ideas and practices that can help every dad love and lead his children well.
We will meet right after our Wonderful Wednesday Fellowship Dinner (6pm – 7pm). Bring your family for dinner and stay for the study.
This is for any and all fathers, soon-to-be fathers, guys thinking-about-becoming fathers, and grandfathers. This study will last for six weeks (April 3rd – May 8th).
If you have any questions about this study, please contact me at 396-2676 or DaleTedder@yahoo.com.
Where do you look for direction, security, peace, purpose, confidence, and eternal life? With all of the competing voices in our culture, there’s a lot of confusion for men today. The world in which we live offers many options for where men might find such things. The Bible offers one: Jesus Christ.
Beginning the first week in April, our men’s discipleship ministry will start a new study entitled, I Am: Discovering Who Jesus Is. This 8-Lesson study will look at our basic needs from the perspective of the great “I AM” statements of Jesus, found in the Gospel of John.
Please come and join us for this new study. Not only will you get to know Jesus better, you will also have the opportunity to get to know other men who are on the same journey as you.
Starting Dates
Monday, April 1st (7:00 – 8:30pm, Family Life Center)
Wednesday, April 3rd (6:30 – 7:30am, Family Life Center)
If you have any questions about this new study or our men’s ministry, please don’t hesitate to call me at 396-2676 or email me at DaleTedder@yahoo.com.
What does it mean to be a man? How would you define it?
When does a boy become a man?
When he turns 18? When he starts driving? Graduates from school? Gets married? What answer would you give a boy to that question?
I’m very excited to announce that beginning this January, we’re going to try to answer that question, as well as other questions related to it. Using the new curriculum, Stepping Up: A Call to Courageous Manhood, the men of our church and our community are going to discover what it means to become the man that God has called us to be. Here’s a clip…
In the twelve years of this ministry to men, I don’t think that I’ve ever been this excited over a new study. I believe that there is a great need for a rediscovery and renewal of godly manhood in our culture today. I pray that God will use this study to make a powerful impact in the lives of the men who gather each week to participate… and therefore, also impact their families, workplaces, communities, etc.
Requirement to be a part of this study…
You are notrequired to be an expert on the Bible or Systematic Theology.
What you will needis the desire to become the man that God has called you to be… at home, at work, at church, in your community… and even alone. None of us has yet become that man, but that desire is a step up and a step in the right direction!
Here’s a little more about the study…
Many men find it difficult to identify acts of courage while slogging through the daily challenges of home, work, and community. Yet these are the very battlefields where courage is demanded of them every single day.
In this 10-session video series, Dennis Rainey calls men to boldly forge into courageous manhood. Stepping Up defines courage throughout the five stages of manhood and commissions men to honestly evaluate where they stand in their duties of masculinity. Rainey then prepares men to bravely master their life purpose by developing a strategic plan and establishing a winning vision.
You can master true leadership, develop a plan for your life and make a difference in your world.
(from the back of the study guide to Stepping Up.)
Our new study begins on Monday evening, January 7th (at 7pm in our Family Life Center)… or on Wednesday morning, January 9th, (at 6:30am, also in our FLC).
You do not have to be a member of our church (Southside United Methodist Church) to come and join us. This study is open to all of the men in our community. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call me at 396-2676 or email me at D.Tedder@southsidemethodist.org.
Let’s pray that God will use this new study to help us STEP UP and STAND FIRM.
Welcome to Pursuing Godly Manhood. Thanks for taking the time to stop by and check out my blog. I hope it will bless you.
Pursuing – Striving to gain; seeking to attain or accomplish; carrying on; continuing
Godly – Pious; devout; characterizing a Godward attitude; doing that which pleases God; indicating reverence manifested in actions
Manhood – No one seems to know! Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s not far from the truth. My desire with this blog is to help move us all forward in coming to a better understanding of such an important subject as “manhood.”
Why Focus on Manhood?
While I serve my present ministry appointment in a variety of ways (related to discipleship), ministering to men has been a special focus and passion of mine for over a decade now. I can still remember when the light bulb went off for me regarding the importance of ministering specifically to men. The avalanche of statistics as well as my own ministerial observations began to sink in. I finally realized that what I had read dozens of times was actually true. My little epiphany could best be summarized by the words that I once heard pastor and writer, Tony Evans, preach…
As the man goes, so goes the family
As the family goes, so goes the church
As the church goes, so goes the community
As the community goes, so goes the city
As the city goes, so goes the state, then nation, and finally the world.
That’s how we will change the world for Christ… by extending God’s kingdom into every sphere of life… beginning first with ourselves and then working outward in what we might think of as concentric circles or spheres of influence.
Of course, nothing is ever that simple. However, virtually every statistic I’ve come across – secular and Christian – has stressed that the positive influence of a man in the home is non-negotiable for health and vitality in that home, as well as for society. Therefore, I came to embrace the wisdom of, as well as to put into practice, an intentional focus on ministering to men. Additionally, as a father of three sons, I also realized that the best time to influence men is before they’re men… that is… when they’re still young men and boys.
Purpose of this Blog
My purpose and calling is to love and glorify God by helping men become all that God has created, redeemed, and called them to be in every sphere and circumstance of their lives. (I go into more detail of what this “purpose statement” means on my “Vocation” page). It ought to go without saying, though I dare not go without saying it, that this is not a “self-help” blog. My fundamental premise is that no man, woman, or child can become godly until they first respond in faith to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Only then can God’s Spirit and Word renew minds, renovate hearts, and transform lives.
My emphasis for this blog is pretty wide. I will focus on what I call the seven spheres of godly manhood: Worldview, Holiness, Family, Vocation, Culture, Witness, and Leadership. You will find out more about each of those spheres by visiting those pages on the blog. Those are broad and far-reaching themes to be sure, but I believe that they represent those areas of our lives that either relate to the spheres that influence us or those spheres where we have opportunity to influenceothers for Christ and his Kingdom.
Let me finish up with this “4 Sakes Prayer” that I found at the end of Jack Graham’s book, A Man of God:
For the sake of the Kingdom,For the sake of my family,For the sake of God’s Church,And for the sake of our nation,I will become a man of God.
8.) The Good Man Project- This is not a website or “movement” (as they put it) that is coming from a biblical perspective. There is plenty of “the world” running in and through their material. However, there have been some useful articles that I’ve read since I ran across it a couple of weeks ago. I like very much their emphasis on hammering out what meaningful manhood is in our culture today, even if they don’t often line up exactly with where I might be. So, use your own discernment. And think to yourself… “Acts 17″
Brothers,
