“Turning Leaders Into Disciple Makers”
We continue to be overwhelmed by God’s goodness and mercy sustaining us in our mission to love and equip men as leaders in their marriages, families, churches and communities. Your prayers, your monthly, annual, and special event support to Locking Arms is an important expression of God’s goodness sustaining us!
The most significant focus of our ministry with men over the past two years has been the intentionality of training leaders to become disciple makers for Jesus Christ. This has involved several of our men pursuing discipleship equipping opportunities in triad or quad (3-4) groups as a discipling leader. The goal is to equip men over an approximate 20 week experience in a gospel (The gospel of Mark is often chosen). They commit to lead or co-lead a group when they are finished. Turning Leaders into Disciple Makers has also been manifested in several men going through a 10 month intensive training experience (Zoom and In Person) with Pastor Hollis Haff from the Bonhoeffer Project leading and myself assisting. The goal of this equipping is to assist men in developing a discipleship plan for their particular context of ministry. It may be in their respective churches as a pastor, lay leader, or as a volunteer in a para-church ministry like Urban Impact or Locking Arms. Several of them have been sharing the leadership of our Tuesday discipleship group on the North Side.
Of course not every man is ready for this equipping step in the discipleship process. We engage men through friendship wherever they are in the discipleship process. Our monthly events have been well attended (i.e. 2 Cigar Nights, Christmas Breakfast, *Marriage Encounter, 2 Men’s Retreats, *Man Up Pittsburgh) and they help us to cast a big net “fishing for men.” Our weekly discipleship groups continue to be well attended, assisting men in the growth process as disciples of Jesus and providing many outlets for serving the poor, including becoming a ‘father’ to the ‘fatherless’ through mentoring.
Your sponsorship at our golf outing assists us in our annual sponsorship of the Del Rey Boys Camp in the Dominican Republic. This year in late June we served 90 young men over 3.5 days from the sugar cane villages chosen by the Del Rey pastors who lead their churches. It was an amazing blessing to see the joy and appreciation of the boys in the sports activities, swimming, bible teaching, worship times, movie night with ice cream, and especially meal times!
One of our ministry partners *Mercy For All Nations, led by John Carey, is focused on serving 20+ Afghan families. He is recruiting men to assist him with transportation, furniture donations, and financial support. See mercyforallnations.com
Another partner, *Urban Impact Foundation (UIF), reaching families and young people on the North Side of Pittsburgh also sponsors Man Up Pittsburgh. Their 10th Annual was in early June and Locking Arms is again doing the follow up contacting men. UIF utilizes a number of our men as well in their sports programs.
“Pittsburgh Prays” is a very important event for the coming together of God’s people July 10th at Heinz Field (free admission – register at: pittsburghprays.com ). Many of us have been preparing for it through weekly prayer walks on the North Shore. Even more significant, many Christians have been prayer walking in communities all over Pittsburgh in the past year through the challenge of ministry partner, SEAPC director, Matt Geppert. See SEAPC.org
Jesus identified through his example with his disciples 4 Steps or Chairs in the discipleship process. They are: “Come and See”, “Follow Me”, “Follow Me and I will make you Fishers of Men”, and “Go and Bear Fruit.” Many ministries title these 4 Chairs in the four single words: Win, Build, Equip & Multiply. The disciple making process begins as soon as we engage men in a relationship, seeking to learn their story and inviting them into the friendship of Jesus that we are living out in our band of brothers. Our men are embracing the divine purpose of living on mission with Jesus daily. They are seeing these 4 Chairs played out and taking their role to help WIN men to Christ, BUILD them up in their faith, EQUIP them to lead men to reproduce, MULTIPLY men like concentric rings formed from a skipping stone on a pond for the glory of Christ!
Thanks to all of you who have so faithfully supported us as monthly donors, through year end gifts or perhaps through our annual golf outing.
Thank you for your consideration in supporting us at this year’s outing!
8th Annual Locking Arms Golf Outing – Friday, August 26th
Many of you have already registered for our golf outing at Quicksilver Golf Club. Thank you for helping us in this summer season where we count on the golf outing revenues to get us to the end of the year. Come join us for a great day of fellowship and golf. Details, sponsorships, and pricing are in the attached PDF and online through the link below.
Online Registration