560 PASTORS AND MENS'S MINISTRY LEADERS COMMIT TO DISCIPLE ONE MAN THIS NEXT YEAR What would happen if every church in America had a discipling ministry for men – and our church leaders were modeling the way by discipling one man each? There would be revival! At the National Coalition of Men’s Ministries National Convention, drawing pastors and men’s ministry leaders from across the United States and Canada, the over 600 attendees focused on the goal of a discipling ministry for men in each willing church in America and Canada. Pat Morley, President of NCMM, emphasized the fact that the coalition membership includes, "most all ministries focused on men and the major church denominations, resulting in an overall representation of over half the 350,000 churches in America." I had the privilege of addressing the conference with a closing message on "The Great Commission – Going Into All the World and Making Disciples".  At the end of my message, the Lord called every man to the altar for an on-the-knees, heartfelt commitment to continue discipling, or start discipling at least one man for the next year. These were pastors and men’s ministry leaders from across America and Canada – what a sight!  Truly discipleship is the missing ingredient to the movement of Christ throughout the land. We have more churches, Bible studies, Christian bookstores, trained pastors, ministry dollars, training material, and worship leaders, but why are we not seeing a greater impact on our country? Because we are sending out mere recruits to fight a soldier’s battle. Jesus said for us to make disciples. Matthew 28:19-20 Truly going into all the world and making disciples is the answer to changing our world, and is best done one-on-one. All the other aspects of Christian life, our pastors’ wonderful teaching and preaching – Christian bookstores, prayer, fasting, stewardship, teaching and ministering to the poor, are all a part of the mission just as ground balls, pitching and batting are part of the game of baseball. But the reason we have so little impact is that we continue to practice our giftedness and our function without seeing it as a greater part of a mission of making disciples, employing the time-tested model of Jesus Christ – one-on-one deep impact from person to person. If everyone exercising their gifts and their callings in the Christian faith in America were to come alongside someone else, as a man did me and a woman did Susy, and bring them along in a relationship to themselves and to Jesus Christ, we would see such a change in America we could hardly stand it. But two missing ingredients are what Paul set out in 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8. He described himself in two ways: as a nursing mother – a person willing to pour his life out for someone else, and secondly as someone who is imparting not only the gospel, but something even greater. What in the world could that be? What could be greater than the gospel? Well, Paul writes that he imparted not only the gospel to these people, but "his very life". That’s the second missing ingredient.  When a man went down in combat in Viet Nam, I would yell for the corpsman. In the middle of the screaming bullets, a Navy corpsman (medic) would run through the battle by getting up when the rest of us were down, and charge toward the wounded Marine. He risked his very life and came to nurse the wounded. The corpsman was not a trained surgeon or doctor, but was a corpsman whose purpose was primarily to stop the bleeding, treat for shock, and comfort the pain until the wounded man could be treated by a trained doctor. I had a corpsman come for me many years later in the person of a doctor, Jim Lyon, who was a CBMCer in Atlanta, Georgia. He came to me in the middle of the combat of law practice, my destroyed marriage, and wounds of life. He comforted the pain, treated for shock, and helped me stop the bleeding until the Great Physician could begin the healing process. Jim truly came to me as a servant – a nursing mother – and risked his life, an hour or more a week, investing in a man who became his spiritual son. Thank God for the Navy corpsman and Army medics who will bandage our soldiers as they go down in combat if our country engages in the coming war. God bless eternally the medics of life – you men and women who meet with others one-on-one in discipleship relationships that are intimate and confidential, where you assist in comforting the pain, stopping the bleeding and treating for shock while the Great Physician heals the patient.  On this eve of Thanksgiving, Susy, the children and I want to say "thank you" to all of you who support the ministry of DNA, through your prayers, your gifts, and your participation with us in the great Kingdom work God has put before us. Because He lives, Phil P.S. Joshua left with Tim Philpot, President of CBMC International, on Monday for the Congo and Israel. Their mission in the Congo is to establish CBMC in that country. (You may want to read "Congo – On the Road to Genocide" in World Magazine, November 16, to give you a sense of the desperation of that country.) Then they will meet other CBMCers from around the world in Israel and will "walk where Jesus walked" all over Israel, praying for that wonderful country and for CBMC around the world. Please pray for fruit for their mission, and that Joshua will come home loving Jesus even more.