Men’s Connection
By Fred Kline

The following is a communication sent out from Freedom Life Church in North Dallas, Texas to the men in the church. Hopefully, this will help jump start some ideas and thoughts for your local men’s group.

August 2009

The Men’s Connection was started last year with the primary objective of developing strong authentic and transparent relationships and accountability with men at Freedom Life Church. We are not about a “program” but we have developed some strategies to help men to connect, develop relationships and serve God’s kingdom. We have seen the fruits of men getting connected, developing stronger personal relationships and joining together to serve God’s work. Our desire is that the Men’s Connection will enable our men to bind together in the support of the Leadership and ministries of Freedom Life Church.

The Men’s Connection is organized as follows:

Large Group Meetings: A Monthly meeting to celebration what God is up to in the lives of the men and an opportunity to connect with our brothers in Christ. We have had 40-55 men attending the monthly meeting.

Small Group Meetings: To foster relational connections among small groups of men (5-8). The goal is encouragement, prayer, accountability and support of each other in development of authentic Christian Living.

Ministry: Provide hands-on ministry opportunities that will result in men living out their faith. Current ministries include the Ronald McDonald House, Dallas Dream Center and World Missions.

Special Interest Groups: Provide relational connections along the lines of activities and special interest of a man in connecting with Freedom Life men. Examples include Fantasy Football, Golf and Sporting events.

You have a great opportunity to get connected with the Men’s Connection next Saturday, August 22, at 7:30 am in The Rock in our 1st ever Freedom Life Church Men’s Connection Large Group Meeting. We are anticipating 80-100 men and best of all Pastor Kendall will be speaking. The Large Group meeting is fast paced and uplifting and includes:

7:30am: Breakfast & Fellowship — We offer various types of breakfast from month to month:
This month we will be serving Pancakes, Breakfast Tacos, OJ and Coffee.

8:00am: Worship & Prayer – Jacob Nelson and his team will lead us in worship.
8:15am:  Men’s Connection Ministry Overview – A brief overview of planned activities.
8:30am: Testimonies: “Tell Us What God Has Done For You in the Last Month” – Dan White provides and leads us in testifying about what God has done
8:45am:  Pastor Kendell
9:30am:  Prayer & Dismissal

Men’s Connection Announcements:

The Men’s Connection is sponsoring a “Texas Rangers Baseball Family Night” on September 11th . Tickets are only $10.00 and parking is $5.00. During the next two Sunday’s (after church) we will have a table in the foyer to accept your money ($10.00 per ticket) and ticket(s) confirmation. We have received 32 ticket request to-date and have 61+ seats on-hold from the Rangers. There will be fireworks after the game and we hope that you will take advantage of this opportunity to connect and fellowship with our new Freedom Life Church family. Hope to see you there!

Another facet of the Men’s Connection is called the Special Interest Group where men connect with like interest. Brent Smith and Paul Dorn are heading up a Fantasy Football League and the “draft” will occur Friday night, August 28th, at 7:00 pm in The Rock (doors open at 6:00 pm). Beware; this event contains a lot of “smack talk” (whatever that means).

Thank you for being a part of  “The Men’s Connection”.

This article “Men’s Connection” was written by: Fred Kline – January 2009 It was submitted for use by Fred Kline at our request. Used by permission.

This article may not be not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes, “Eat meat. Throw away the bones.”