From the Home Place

April 4, 2026

Good morning! That was quite the snow storm that “blew” across our area yesterday! We have icy roads and clear skies as of now, with 26 degrees, headed for 56. Hopefully the roads will clear soon and all can travel safely.

As I mentioned yesterday, today I want to bring the “Paul Harvey” segment – “the rest of the story.” As you read this portion, please do not try to make me say something that I am not saying, I am not anti-woman. In fact, I celebrate with the advances that womanhood has made in the last fifty years! However, I fear that in making the advancement of womanhood our primary focus, we have lost our balance.

I remember a culture when America was primarily male driven. A part of American history that none of us should be proud of in my opinion. Women are equal heirs of God’s love and grace and should be respected and treated as such. Yet while making great advancement in one area, I fear we are facing destruction in another area.

Allow me to share some statistics compiled from several different sources. These sources seem to paint a rather bleak picture for the men in today’s world. In today’s American culture: Women now make more money than men, said by some to be a major cause of a dramatic increase in ED symptoms in men; more women than men hold undergraduate and graduate degrees; more single women own their own home than single men do; the number of women elected to public office has doubled in the last thirty years: Women fill the primary roles on television programs and in movies – advanced medical skills, lawyers, law enforcement, congressional and presidential roles; and especially as the only intelligent life-form within most homes; and for the first time in American history, 70% of all divorce filings are filed by women.

In my opinion in our attempt to find balance, we have allowed the pendulum of equality to swing just as far in the opposite direction. Ask most children who the “boss” is within their home and the child will usually quickly respond, “Mom!”

If I may, it seems that we have disobeyed the age-old adage, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.” We may have cleaned our act up considering women, but we have thrown out all healthy consideration for men.

You see my friends, we attempted to let culture correct the problems of a male-dominate society, and it isn’t working! Perhaps we should now follow God’s word about healthy roles within the culture, home, church and family?

As a man who loves Jesus, a man who greatly respects women and adores children, I am also a man who strongly believes that we need to help males develop a biblical view of manhood as reveled in the life of Jesus Christ!

After many years of ministry within the local church, I see a serious need to call all males into a rightful relationship with the Lord Jesus, and to correctly fulfill their role of being men of God. For the last few years, I have been charged with finding men who will possibly be good church planters across the state of Wyoming. A task that has proven to be almost impossible.

As I remain in contact with seminaries and bible colleges, I have been told over and over again that almost all of these institutions have seen up to a 40% drop in attendance in their pastoral ministry enrolment. As such, there are fewer and fewer prospects for ministries looking for a pastor or a church planter.

It appears to me that the remedy is that the local church is faced with the task of raising up their next pastor or church planter. Recently I attended the annual conference of a large spiritual minded group. A group of people who are very serious about advancing the kingdom of God. During one of the sessions, the keynote speaker made this statement, “There is nothing wrong within the local church that discipleship can’t fix.”

Could it be that America, homes, businesses and our culture in general are in serious trouble because Christians have not been making disciples of Jesus? As I met with our young men’s group, I told them, I don’t think the issues of America are the result of who is in the White House, no, America is in trouble because of what has not happened in my house and my church. For the most part, we pastors have mistakenly replaced making disciples with making converts.

It is time for the church to get very serious about making disciples of Jesus, regardless of whether God created us male or female. Yet within the genders, we need to get back to biblically balanced roles within the home, the church and the culture.

Please pray for me as I feel a call to work on helping males become biblically balanced men of God, holding the life and ministry of Jesus Christ as our primary example. Pray that our Lord will open doors for me to minister to men in large groups small groups and one-on-one, and that I will be faithful to walk through those open doors with full obedience to our Lord, while properly respecting the Pastor and leadership of each local church. This will be a ministry of multiplication as men are mentored to “stand firm” as followers of Jesus. At each gathering, men will be invited and challenged to be godly men. Men who live a biblically balanced life in private and in public, and who are serious about building into the life of another man who will then join the ranks of those living a life that pleases God and blesses people. This will be a ministry based upon Proverbs 27:17, “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”

Thank you for allowing me to share some heavy things these last two days; yet many of us have prayed, “Oh God, break my heart with what breaks Your heart.” It seems to be a fair statement that the condition of our homes, churches and culture must break His heart, and as such, should break our hearts as well.

Raising up godly men with your prayers, Neal