Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it.
~Psalm 37:3-5
Let me tell you how God works in my life and how you can champion God’s grand Kingdom drama with the Men in the Arena. A few years ago God started stirring a new vision for reaching men. We needed to find our stride. We needed a niche in the men’s ministry world. With so many great organizations out there like Man in the Mirror, Authentic Manhood, Ransomed Heart, Iron Sharpens Iron, and others; how could we find our sweet spot?
That year we launched the Men in the Arena Podcast and Facebook forum for men. The forum is a group within “The Arena” page that’s non-promotable. Facebook regulates groups in this way so they can only grow organically. In two years that group grew to over 11,000 men from 86 different countries, and the podcast grew to 40,000 downloads by the end of year two years with downloads representing men from more than fifty nations!
But the winds of change were coming. The month before we hit the 11,000 mark on Facebook, I came under conviction that social media should not be trusted with the lives of so many men. We prayed. We sought expert advice. We brainstormed more effective ways to equip and inspire men.
Our Board met for our annual course setting weekend and I expressed this new burden. I was under a heavy conviction from the Holy Spirit about the source of my trust. You see, it had been misplaced upon social media, instead of the God of the universe. We had—I had— committed our ways to social media more than the Lord and knew we had to change.
On our second day of meeting to my horror, I noticed that Facebook had pruned our group by purging 4,000 men. In a moment, 4,000 men were simply gone and we had no say in the matter. The timing of this was impeccable and unquestionably from God!
Why am I sharing this?
If there is one lesson I’ve learned it’s this. People depend on us (men) to get it. People depend on us to lead the way. Our faith is the tip of the spear for those who love and trust us the most. Make sure you are trusting in God more than every other thing.
In the months since then, God has done an amazing thing. He has sent amazing men our way who are gifted beyond my wildest dreams. We are set to launch a new website with a new forum for men who are not social media users. This forum actually functions at a higher level than Facebook and I can’t wait for you to try it!
We’re looking for 100 bold men to test-drive this new forum before it's official launch. If you are willing please contact us at info@meninthearena.org. Thank you for championing God’s cause for men in the arena!
