Sunday BMD Gathering
A men’s gathering is an excellent way to start your Baptist Men’s Day. It allows men to gather for fellowship, a spiritual challenge, and prayer before the activities of the day.This gathering can serve three purposes:
- It calls men together to discover what God is doing in their lives and the life of the church;
- It is a good way to encourage ongoing relationship-building among men;
- It can be used as a challenge to begin small groups (prayer or book study) if they do not already exist in your church.
Some churches ask the church hostess to prepare a breakfast for this. In others, men prepare the food themselves or meet in a local restaurant. When praying men come together, it makes a difference!
If your church does not currently have a Baptist Men’s Ministry, perhaps this would be a good time to discuss beginning one. Utilize the information and resources on the Men's Ministry Website to help you with this..
A Suggested Schedule for Baptist Men's Day Gathering
Also Promote:
Special Baptist Men’s Day Offering. Consider taking up a special offering to help in one of several on-going ministry needs. Refer to our
“Donate” page to see a list and description of possibilities. You can give online or make checks payable to NCBM, PO Box 1107, Cary, NC 27512. Put the name of the particular ministry you wish to give to in the memo of the check.
North Carolina Missions Conference. Plan to attend the
NC Baptist Missions Conference, which will be held April 5-6, 2024 at Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte.
Men's Outdoor Weekend. Come join us for an inspiring weekend of outdoor fun and fellowship for men on May 3-4, 2024 at Camp Caraway in Asheboro. Skeet, rifles, pistol shoot, tomahawk throw, archery, fishing, and more!
Click here for more information.
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10 minutes: Explanation of the Men’s Ministries program in your church or a challenge to begin one. Go to our Men's Ministry webpage to view information about how to have a well-rounded ministry to men in your church on a consistent basis. Cast a vision for your men of how this might look in your church. Download any number of Men’s Ministry handouts, including the manual “Men’s Ministries: A Resource for Starting and Strengthening Men’s Ministries In Your Church” or show a Men’s Ministry PowerPoint presentation, also found on our Men's Ministry Resources and Events Page.
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5 minutes: Show a missions video segment from the BOM Vimeo Channel. Mission videos, depicting a variety of opportunities - such as Hurricanes Dorian and Florence Recovery, International and National Partnerships, Mission Camps, Handyman, and much more - can be shown or downloaded from this channel.
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7 minutes: Singing of two praise choruses
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10 minutes: Scripture & Theme Interpretation
Theme: Living Sent
Scripture: John 20: 21
Many men really enjoy following the NFL, and can’t wait until opening day each year. This used to be pretty much a September (opening weekend) to early February (the Super Bowl) pursuit. Following the Super Bowl, most men turned their attention to other sports and the NFL became a distant thought. Now, however, it seems the obsession with the NFL lasts all year long. March though July, sports radio and television airwaves are filled with talk about the upcoming draft – evaluating each team’s needs, ranking the potential draftees, and mock draft after mock draft! Then there are endless discussion about who is going to be a free agent and where they might go, as well as possible trades that teams should make to fill their needs. By July it’s time for training camp and pre-season games, and, before your know it, opening day is here again!
In addition, once the season begins, the NFL is an every-day-of-the-week point of interest and discussion for many men. Most games occur on Sunday, with Monday night and Thursday night thrown in for good measure . Monday and Tuesday involves digesting each game from every angle. Replay after replay. Who played well, who didn’t? Who was injured and how long will they be out? Did such and such coach make good decisions? What should he have done differently? By Wednesday the attention turns to the next Sunday’s slate of games. What matchups are compelling? Who gains the edge from them? What is the betting line? Saturday college football whets the appetite for what’s to come. And here we are at Sunday again!
What if Christian men took our faith in Christ as seriously as some take an interest in the NFL. What might that look like? Sunday would not be the beginning and end of our weekly interaction with God, but simply a continuation of it. Monday through Saturday would not be dominated by secular conversation and anything-but Christ like behavior. Instead, each day would begin with a thankful acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty in our life before our feet hit the floor. It might continue with two minutes of complete silence as we focus on nothing other than being in the presence of Christ each morning before heading out the door. Conscience thought throughout the day of how Christ would want us to react with those we encounter could turn the way we see the world, and our place in it, on its ear. We would begin to hunger for God’s word each day. “Living Sent” means that we always strive to see the world through Jesus’ eyes. Opportunity to share his love and the incredible meaning he brings each of us is all around us at every moment of every day. Let’s dedicate ourselves to living as the “sent ones” he has called us to be!
- Mark Abernathy
Ask men to gather in small groups of three to discuss the following questions:
1. Why do you think it is easy for men—even Christian men, to be so passionate about secular pursuits, such as the NFL
2. What kind of actions—maybe just small changes in our everyday routine—can we make that would lead us to a closer daily walk with Christ?
3. If we dedicated ourselves to doing this, what kind of difference you anticipate it might make in our lives?
Divide into groups of three. Encourage each man to pray that God would turn secular passions and pursuits in our lives into a hunger and passion for living as “sent ones” for him each and every day. The leader will close the session with prayer around the nine-minute mark.