Dear Brothers, 

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We hope all is well with you, spiritually and physically. The purpose of this letter is to invite you to participate in Kingdom Men’s Fellowship (KMF) as we continue to build men for Christ. KMF was established to address the current challenges that face our Christian brothers. We respectfully request that you read this letter in full.

Background

More than ever, many men are consumed with work to support themselves and their families and often struggle to balance these demands. The current dilemma is how to balance the needs of family and spiritual life with a career. Balancing work demands with family life can be a complicated and stressful responsibility that can lead to frustration and unhappiness. When this happens, men become vulnerable to isolation from a meaningful life and personal relationships with their families and friends. Work is important in men’s lives, but trouble can erupt when work overshadows family and spiritual life.

Church Facts and Statistics Concerning Men

Although called by God to be spiritual leaders, most men are spiritually adrift. Many pastors and Christian leaders see this as a major crisis. Mr. Cornillaud, the former Director of Men’s Ministry at Beach Road Baptist Church in Southport, NC, provided the following statistics to show the current challenges faced by churches in the USA: 

1. A typical church congregation draws an adult crowd of 61% female and 39% male.
2. On any given Sunday in the U.S., there are 13 million more adult women than men in churches.
3. Almost 25% of married, churchgoing women worship without their husbands.
4. Midweek activities often draw 70% – 80% female participants and 20% – 30% male participants.
5. 90% of the boys raised in the church will abandon it by their 20th birthday, and most don’t return.
6. The average man accepts the reality of Jesus Christ but sees no value in going to church.
7. 90% of men believe in God and call themselves Christians, but only 1/3 attend church on Sunday.
8. Many churchgoing men attend out of habit, unaffected by what they hear.
9. Quite a few men go to church simply to keep their wives, mothers, or girlfriends happy.
10. Most men who attend church do nothing during weekdays to grow their faith.
11. Over 90% of Christian men have never shared their faith with another man.
12. Many churches are declining because men have stopped participating, growing, and leading.

Cornillaud also reported that many men have recently lost interest in attending church. Since 1991, church attendance, Bible reading, Sunday School participation, volunteering, and financial giving have all decreased among this population. According to Cornillaud, of the 96 million men over 18 years of age in the United States, only 26 million say they attend church. Of the 70 million men who do not attend church, 80% say they grew up with a church background. Many men have abandoned their families physically and/or emotionally. Some have rejected their commitment to marriage, and as a result, families are fragmented and fragile. Pastors and Christian leaders must recognize the great need for their churches to reach out to men and teach them how to become better husbands, fathers, leaders, and witnesses to others in the community. If churches address the multiple challenges men face, God’s order can be restored, marriages can be saved, and families and communities can be turned to Christ. 

The Formation of Kingdom Men’s Fellowship to Address these Needs

In his book, “How to Build a Life-Changing Men’s Ministry,” Steve Sondermann states, “If ever there was a time in history when local churches needed to build men individually and corporately, it is now.” Since men help stabilize the family and the church, developing a solid ministry for them would benefit the family and the Body of Christ. With this in mind, the EECA KMF was established in October 2008, the first and only men’s ministry in Ethiopian churches in the USA. The purpose of the KMF ministry is to help Christian men assume their spiritual leadership role in the House of God, their homes, and the workplace. Within this ministry, we train, encourage, empower, and equip men to assume the roles God created them to fulfill while walking in integrity, honesty, and commitment. We focus on the classic threefold office of prophet, priest, and king occupied by Jesus Christ by creating an atmosphere where men can interact with other at events, including seminars, workshops, conferences, and retreats. Fun and fellowship through games (ping pong, tennis, soccer, volleyball, etc.) and group work are also emphasized and encouraged. According to Maurice Blumberg (2004), the ten reasons why men benefit from fellowship are as follows:

1. Men need other men to help them grow in their relationship with Jesus and experience God’s love for them more deeply. We can often experience God’s love and wisdom through our relationships, and God can sometimes speak to us through other men.
2. Men need other men to help fight worldly temptations and sin, overcome sinful habits, and protect one another from attacks on the world, the flesh, and the devil.
3. Men need other men to serve the Lord better, grow in holiness, bear fruit for God’s kingdom, and be a sign of Christ’s love to other people.
4. Men need other men to help them through difficult circumstances and suffering that are parts of being human, such as the death of a family member or serious illnesses.
5. Men need other men to enhance their ability to make wise decisions in critical areas affecting major aspects of their lives.
6. Men need other men to relieve the strain they can put on their wives to satisfy all their emotional and social needs.
7. Men need other men to help one another grow and develop, as God wants them to, in their roles as husbands, fathers, and Christian workers, through the give and take of trusted relationships between brothers in Christ.
8. Men need other men to gain a more balanced perspective on life.
9. Men need other men so they can help one another sort through the current confusion about, and attacks on, masculinity and manliness.
10. Men need other men because they are social beings who need the companionship of other men.

Men from all Ethiopian churches in Atlanta and neighboring states have participated and benefited from the training and spiritual nourishment provided at previous conferences. However, addressing the above complex challenges requires multiple approaches and collaboration, which cannot be realized without men’s participation and support.

We look forward to your prayer, active participation, and support to help strengthen men in the church and to build a better bridge to the Ethiopian community in Atlanta. 

We pray that our men’s ministry and all we do will please God and that He alone gets the Glory, for He alone is Worthy.