Are You “Spiritually Challenged”? I really do not know how to interpret this question. If you look at this via the eyes of political correctiveness, one would think that this means a person who lacks spirituality similar to the politically correct term ‘vertically challenged’ used to describe short people. However, if you look at this normally, one would interpret the question to mean “Is a man challenged spiritually to be the best Christian he can be?”

Well, according to the article entitled “Christian men: Faith not a challenge”, a survey conducted by Promise Keepers concluded that:

…shows Christian men don’t see issues of faith and spirituality as challenges in their lives, focusing more on family, work and health concerns…

…Rather than issues regarding their faith or spiritual growth, respondents said family and children (42 percent) are a top “challenge” in their lives, along with career/money (39 percent) and health concerns (20 percent). Just one in eight said spirituality was a challenge to focus on….

I found the following statements troublesome:

….”It’s certainly clear to us that we have a great mission field in front of us in reaching the men of America,” said Tom Fortson, Ph.D., president and CEO of Promise Keepers, in the statement. “Much, much more needs to be done to engage men with their spiritual side, and then to see them make an impact on their families, churches and communities. We’ve only scratched the surface.”….

Gee, what have you done since 1990. Founded by a celebrity college football coach with regional conferences annually with mega-Christian speakers and a big gathering on the Washington D.C. mall between the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument broadcasted on the major Christian television networks, one would think that after reading their history page that they were expanding, growing, and reaching out. However, after reading that statement. The past 14 years have not been as successful as portrayed.

…The men’s group said it was pleased that 68 percent of respondents had heard of Promise Keepers….

…The poll included 415 men chosen randomly and 200 men from Promise Keepers’ own constituent files. All of the respondents identified themselves as “born-again Christian” or “active church attenders.” They hailed from Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, Dallas, Baltimore and Atlanta.”

Based on that aggregate data and survey pool of all ‘born-again” Christians, only 68 percent of the respondents had heard of Promise Keepers? I find that very hard to believe with the local, statewide, regional, and national networking their members bragged about at their church men’s meetings. One would think that that number would be considerably higher along with the fact that all the men surveyed lived in major metropolitan areas of America where many of their regional conventions were hosted. I am baffled by this. Many men’s groups in America’s churches are really extentions of Promise Keepers where their curriculums are used monthly and they rent a bus and secure hotel rooms once a year {and some use this as a chance to look at the porno channels because it can be hidden on the hotel room bill when away from the wife because of deeper unresolved issues} to go to the regional convention on a weekend, claim they were refreshed, and life became the same thing weeks later at home.

If one analyzes the results of this survey, one has to now see this as a failure that Promise Keepers has spent the last 14 years as a nationally known ministry with Christian and secular news coverage and many of these men are not satisified with their church experience. If you go out on the frontal assault on reaching the men of America, what are you going to reach them with? More feminized neutered male psychobabble mixed in with Republican politics mixed with White Southern American Males are automatic racists? They were having problems reaching out when a major hotel chain came out and stated many years ago that hotel pornography rentals went up drastically during the Promise Keepers retreat weekends. The message to the heart was somehow lost somewhere between the convention center and the hotel room when some of the men rented pornography in the hotel room. It starts when you get real with men and treat men like brothers instead of a drill sargeant / private or a probation officer / criminal mentality too many men’s groups turn into. It starts when we teach men how to overcome and conquer, not just barely survive. It starts when we teach men the true inner workings of their life and not just the answers to the test to bare pass and barely get by.

Promise Keepers, time to get started, time’s (14 years) a wasting.