The following e-mail was received from Mark Dillow on 10/7/04

 

 

Randy, some random thoughts I would like to share.

 

(1) The prayer list is quite long, and in the last meeting there was a general loss of focus while the list was being read.  Could we maybe shorten that by grouping the requests if there are a lot from one person? 

 

(2) I keep thinking we need to do more to reach more men.  I think the club could be an amazing mentoring and outreach group.  By outreach I mean that if we had a way to make unchurched men aware of the club in church outreach ministries, I think it could be used to bring men back to church or even into the kingdom.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the fellowship too, but at the last outing I kept thinking about how I sometimes compartmentalize my life.  You know, when I am involved in recreational activities I don't always look for discipleship or evangelistic opportunities as I should.

 

(3) I was also thinking...as a single dad, I have become very aware of the number of single moms out there struggling and looking for Christian men to model manhood to their kids.  How about putting together a kidfish type of activity for all the kids...but especially for those in single parent homes?  I know Jack King from Great Hills has mentioned he could help getting equipment (rods/reels, etc) together.  I would be glad to help in trying to organize something, but would like the club to volunteer as instructors and/or helpers in other ways.  We might also be able to get the wives involved (sometimes single dads are looking for Christian women to model womanhood to their kids too).

 

I hope that if you ever need any assistance with club activities you call on me. 

 

Blessings,

Mark

 

I sent the following reply:

 

Mark,

We discussed this some last night but I further wanted to address your thoughts and ideas.

Prayer list – I share your concern and have created a 2004 section (with 47 requests) and a 2003 and older section (with 23 requests).  Of course this is only one way to break this down.  This will be easier for me to keep up with then to break it down per person.

Discipleship/Evangelism – I have given this a lot of thought over the years.  Our “Club History” page states “The Club was founded as an avenue for men to "let their hair down" and have fun in Christian brotherhood.”  We started out predominantly as a fellowship organization and that has always dominated our planning and emphasis.  That is not to say that we have not had some successes from evangelism efforts.  There have been at least two professions of faith made during FCS outings.  Many men who were not walking closely with the Lord are now walking closer, mainly from establishing friendships with strong Christians who challenge them to be more like Christ.  This is a by-product of our fellowship.  I think our most successful evangelism is members inviting friends and acquaintances who come to outings and then get involved in a Christian organization.  They discover that Christians aren’t as stuffy as they thought and begin to give the idea of going to church serious thought.  I’ve put flyers out at non-church/non-ministry run businesses such as McBride’s, Archery Country, and Capitol City but, to the best of my knowledge, have only received one phone call from a man who picked up a flyer, and that was a couple of weeks ago.  He asked if we would be willing to help out with youth hunts, which ties in with your third thought.  I told him maybe and am trying to get more info from him.  We have made some changes over the past few years (instituting devotionals and prayer time for more than just the food at meetings and instituting the Prayer Request list on the Website) but we are not anywhere near where I want us to be in this area.  One thing that I have asked Derrich to do is to focus our Bible studies at meetings and dove retreats on Christian living topics (how to raise Godly children, how to be a Christian businessman, praying with the one you love, loving your wife like Christ loved the church, etc.).  Hopefully, by being more specific we can meet specific needs.  Regarding discipleship I think that a major factor that prevents this is lack of time (and there’s no other way to slice it – discipleship takes lots of time).  To be blunt a lot of guys in the Club don’t have the time to hunt and fish, much less to be discipled or to disciple someone. 

Mentorship – As I stated last night one major factor that has always tabled this idea is liability.  However, in practice we have had some success at this.  Derrich, for example, took a neighboring kid under his wing (I forget his name) and took him to a Dove Retreat.  He’s done the same at least twice with Jason Brelsford.  I’ve done it with Casidy Butros and Kelvin Cheung, not to toot my own horn.  Again I think that this will only work if we get a list of men who are willing to mentor and then match them up with a youth who needs to be mentored.  To do this really right the man needs to be focused on what the youth is doing in the field.  I saw Eddy Chance doing this with his two boys on Friday at the Dove Retreat.  He left his gun in camp and focused on his boys.  The man should be teaching the youth gun and field safety, ethics, game laws, and how to be a Christian sportsman.  He won’t be able to do that well if he is focused on getting his own limit.  It would be a real special man who would drive 300 miles round trip to teach a youth that is not related to him and to put him first.  Another major factor is a lot of single women won’t be able to afford the cost of even our cheapest hunting trips.  Of course we could try to find men to help with this also.  Regarding Kids fish, as we discussed, the Austin Christian Bass Club, is much better equipped to handle this than us.  I like the idea of Jack coming to a meeting and presenting info on SCOT.  Feel free to tell him that.

Thanks again for your thoughts and ideas.  Keep ‘em coming.  I also appreciate your willingness to help.

Randy