Men’s Ministry

Traditionally in our nation, many men who attend churches have distanced themselves from involvement in the ministry of the church. The backbone of many churches, the people who organise and work behind the scenes to ensure essential jobs get done, have tended to be the women of the church. Yet the Bible teaches clearly that each member of the Church, is a part of the body of Christ and their participation is a vital part of the work of the whole body. (1Cor.12.v12-31). The role of the local church to both serve and show leadership to their local communities cannot be fully realised without men stepping up to take their place in the work of the Church. This is especially true in a generation where many children are growing up without the influence of a father or attending primary schools with few male teachers as role models. The media does little to promote the Christian experience that strong men are not those who can beat the competition, but rather those who are secure enough in their identity to offer their strength and gifts in service to others. 

Men take part in all aspects of the ministry of River City Church and we are seeking to build characters that will inspire this generation. To be a man as God intended is to look like Christ. He was the greatest man that ever lived, a man that millions of men and women have followed. Men are called to give such leadership to each generation, a leadership that does not lord over others, but is willing to lay down their lives for the sake of others. (Ephesians.5.v25)

For a generation raised on war movies and military video games and who idolise the war hero as the ultimate in manhood, the words of one such hero remain as relevant today as 200 years ago. This is what Napoleon Bonaparte had to say of Jesus.

"Well then, I will tell you. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I myself have founded great empires; but upon what did these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions will die for Him.... I think I understand something of human nature; and I tell you, all these were men, and I am a man: none else is like Him; Jesus Christ was more than man.... I have inspired multitudes with such an enthusiastic devotion that they would have died for me.... but to do this it was necessary that I should be visibly present with the electric influence of my looks, my words, of my voice. When I saw men and spoke to them, I lighted up the flame of self-devotion in their hearts.... Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man toward the unseen, that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time and space. Across a chasm of eighteen hundred years, Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others to satisfy; He asks for that which a philosopher may seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the human heart; He will have it entirely to Himself.