Write About Now

Most DVDs now come with extras—deleted or extended scenes, commentaries, or “making-of” featurettes. While the printed word doesn’t lend itself to this in quite the same way, blogs and websites do allow for behind-the-scenes glimpses into the final product.

Last weekend’s Christian Standard included my article for the “year of the elder” (all CS contributing editors will write something on this topic in ‘08). You can read “Leading Men,” about the efforts of a few churches to develop teenage and adult men into spiritual leaders, by clicking here. And while I’m quite aware these won’t generate the excitement of, say, the screen tests for Juno, here are a few extras:

—Turns out women aren’t the only gender who have trouble being friends in groups of three. One year, Heritage Christian had an odd number of guys in their “Joshua’s Men” classes and tried dividing the men into groups of three instead of the usual accountability groups of two. They found it didn’t work at all—apparently there is something quite powerful about that one-on-one partnership.

—The Men of Issachar program at First Christian Church in Ft. Myers, FL, got its start when Mike Bauman got restless during his Sunday school class and left to stretch his legs and pop in on his 6th grade son’s class. As Mike and MOI co-founder Mark Webb say, “Classrooms are fine, but boys learn differently.”

–Although MOI now has a detailed, structured curriculum for every stage of the program, at the beginning Mike and Mark’s main goal was “not to get eaten alive” by the junior high boys in their class.

–One of the speakers at the Joshua’s Men meetings is Vickie Sloderbeck. She and her husband Jim speak on “intimate issues” (i.e. sex) based on the book of the same name. Vickie wrote the companion workbook to this book.

–Both Heritage and First Christian have seen a need for parallel women’s studies. At Heritage that’s “WOW”—Women of Worth—and at First Christian it’s “Queen Esther’s Court,” created by Mike Bauman’s wife and some other ladies from the congregation. Like MOI, Queen Esther’s Court introduces spiritual principles through interactive activities and a structured yearly program.

–A homeschool group in Michigan recently joined the roster of MOI “Allies.” The group uses the program to provide activities and discussions for homeschooled boys and their dads, who meet individually and with other home-schooling families once each month.