Men’s Fellowship Update

“There are difficulties in everything except in eating pancakes.” – Charles Spurgeon

Google the phrase “male friendship recession.” The results may alarm you if you aren’t familiar with the problem already. Dr. Anthony Bradley has written much on this problem in recent years. He highlighted the male friendship problem in a recent Substack post discussing the results of the May 2021 American Perspectives Survey conducted by the American Enterprise Institute. That survey found a general society-wide decline in close friendship, but it was most pronounced in men. In 1991, 55% of men claimed to have six or more close friends. In 2021, that number had halved to 27%. During the same period, the number of men without any close friends increased from 3% to 15%.

Scripture recognizes the importance of men having close friendships. We are to be iron sharpening iron with each other (Proverbs 17:17). Two are better than one because if one falls the other will lift him up (Ecc. 4:9-10). Men need each other to succeed in whatever God has called them to do. We see this most exemplified in Jonathan and David’s relationship. Many aspects of our culture, too many to go into here, have clouded our understanding of the importance of male friendship and of what it really looks like.

It is my hope that HLPC’s Men’s Ministry serves as a resource to help reclaim male friendship and to provide avenues and opportunities for iron to sharpen iron. We’ve consistently had a men’s breakfast through the Fall and Spring months the last couple of years. This Fall’s men’s breakfast resumes on September 14, and if you’re a male of any age, I hope to see you there. We also have a variety of Bible study opportunities throughout the year, and I encourage our men to check those out further down in News and Notes. We’ve also had special events on occasion such as cookouts and Macon Bacon baseball outings. All that said, I know we can always find areas to improve. If you have suggestions for events or other things we can do to enhance our men’s ministry I’d love to hear from you.

If you have questions about the men’s ministry at HLPC, feel free to call, text, or email me.

Lastly, if you plan to join us for the September 14 men’s breakfast, please RSVP at the link below. An RSVP is certainly not required, but it helps give us an idea of how much food to prepare.