{"id":35133,"date":"2024-02-22T17:06:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T17:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/successful-mens-ministry-meeting-needs\/"},"modified":"2024-02-22T17:06:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T17:06:00","slug":"successful-mens-ministry-meeting-needs","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/successful-mens-ministry-meeting-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"Successful Men&#8217;s Ministry Meeting Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a 2019 PBS documentary <em>America Lost<\/em>, filmmaker Christopher Rufo explores the devastating plight of three of America&#39;s forgotten cities: Youngstown, Ohio; Memphis, Tennessee; and Stockton, California. In a YouTube video, he describes a successful men&#39;s ministry in Stockton.<\/p>\n\n<p>Pastor Jereme of the Men&#39;s Recovery Home is shown speaking to a man on the street:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>We gotta let go of some of those old ways and those old habits, you know what I mean? I know I was there bro. I ran away from home when I was 15 years old. I was living on the streets. I was gang banging. I was getting high, shooting dope. Doing my thing man, running while carrying a gun. You know I was messed up. I was a hurting man. I didn&#39;t know any other way until somebody just like this actually handed me a flyer from Victory Outreach.<\/p>\n<p>I said, &ldquo;God can change your life&rdquo; and at that moment I was at a point where I was tired. I was tired of the way I was living. I said &ldquo;Man what do I have to do?&rdquo; I was ready to make a change. We got a Christian recovery home for men. It&#39;s an intense program to help you get your life together.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Pastor Jereme narrates:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Everybody has a story. Could be through drugs. It could be through abuse. It could be through violence. Our families are broken down, our communities are broken down, people&#39;s lives are broken down. They&#39;re devastated. That&#39;s why this ministry is here. We want to let people know that they&#39;re not in a hopeless situation. That as long as they&#39;re breathing there&#39;s hope.<\/p>\n<p>&lsquo;The people that come into our church, they come in hurting. They come in empty. They come in broken. They come in in need of a miracle. In need of a healing. A need of somebody loving them. And that&#39;s the beginning of the process. If we can affect a person, we can affect the community. We can affect the city. We can affect the world.&rsquo;<\/p>\n<p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>You can watch the clip <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Vd6YhDy_ZSI\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">here<\/a> (56 min, 36 sec &ndash; 60 min, 31 sec).<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3380,3483,3524,3648,3766,3830,3897,4085,4096,4112,4161,4394,4455,4579,4982,5005,5025,5038,5139,5284],"tax_ctp_topics":[381,391],"class_list":["post-35133","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-addiction","tax_ctp_tags-benevolence","tax_ctp_tags-brokenness","tax_ctp_tags-compassion","tax_ctp_tags-despair","tax_ctp_tags-drugs","tax_ctp_tags-evangelism","tax_ctp_tags-gospel","tax_ctp_tags-great-commission","tax_ctp_tags-habits","tax_ctp_tags-homelessness","tax_ctp_tags-lostness","tax_ctp_tags-mens-ministry","tax_ctp_tags-outreach","tax_ctp_tags-sinful-pleasure","tax_ctp_tags-social-action","tax_ctp_tags-soul-winning","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-bondage","tax_ctp_tags-testimony","tax_ctp_tags-witnessing"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Successful Men&#039;s Ministry Meeting Needs - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/successful-mens-ministry-meeting-needs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Successful Men&#039;s Ministry Meeting Needs - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a 2019 PBS documentary America Lost, filmmaker Christopher Rufo explores the devastating plight of three of America&#039;s forgotten cities: Youngstown, Ohio; Memphis, Tennessee; and Stockton, California. In a YouTube video, he describes a successful men&#039;s ministry in Stockton. Pastor Jereme of the Men&#039;s Recovery Home is shown speaking to a man on the street: Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/successful-mens-ministry-meeting-needs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/successful-mens-ministry-meeting-needs\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/successful-mens-ministry-meeting-needs\/\",\"name\":\"Successful Men's Ministry Meeting Needs - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-22T17:06:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-22T17:06:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/successful-mens-ministry-meeting-needs\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/successful-mens-ministry-meeting-needs\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/successful-mens-ministry-meeting-needs\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Successful Men&#8217;s Ministry Meeting Needs\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Successful Men's Ministry Meeting Needs - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/successful-mens-ministry-meeting-needs\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Successful Men's Ministry Meeting Needs - CT Pastors","og_description":"In a 2019 PBS documentary America Lost, filmmaker Christopher Rufo explores the devastating plight of three of America&#39;s forgotten cities: Youngstown, Ohio; Memphis, Tennessee; and Stockton, California. 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