From the Home Place

July 2, 2026

Good morning! Starting at 60, headed for 90 with a 1% chance of rain – looks like summer is here.

Yesterday was a event-filled day with several different projects to complete around here and then spending the evening with relatives from Arizona and friends. We enjoyed good eats, good conversation and a good night’s sleep.

Today, we will be traveling to Torrington so Miss Deb can go see the bone-cracker and then we go on to Scottsbluff, Nebraska to get plumbing parts and some groceries. Back to Guernsey to get another load of rock for the front yard and then to a men’s gathering at a church east of Lusk. Sounds like another boring day with little to do, NOT!

I’m very excited to attend the men’s prayer gathering at the Node church. They are a great group of guys, and I’ve been asked to share how God is leading me to help churches develop a mentoring process for men. The mentoring ministry will involve men from the ages of 13 to 90. For far too long we have allowed men to be pushed off into the back room in churches and homes. It’s time we start developing godly men who fulfill their responsibilities as men.

I often marvel at how culture has influenced the church more than the church has influenced the culture. Most every God-fearing, Bible-loving church develops ministries that culture will accept; we call it “outreach.” It semes to me that we need to begin teaching and living the truth of God while gracefully asking culture to walk into our world instead of us always following culture’s lead.

When Jesus told His disciples to go into all of the world and make disciples who follow Him, He wasn’t talking about us going into the world so we can be disciples of the world. We are to be different by design. Is it any wonder that most of the world pays little attention to the American church as long as we develop programs to benefit those who don’t know Jesus yet (a good thing), and stay inside our churches the rest of the time (a not so good thing)?

I’m of the opinion that it is time that we Christians push each other to be the living-breathing church for the advancement of God’s kingdom. If that upsets cultural standards, yeah God! Could it be that we have spent so much time being like the lost world around us that they no longer see us as being anything different than they are in most situations?

I mean, we divorce just as often as those of the world, we tend to cuss as much as those of the world, we likely drink and party like those of the world, we tend to cheat and lie as often as those of the world, too often the people of the “church” are way more like the culture than they resemble Jesus. Situations that I think most Christ followers would really like to see changed, we just don’t know how to go about it. That’s why Jesus told us to “go make disciples,” or often called mentoring.

I’m suggesting that we need to start training men how to fulfill their God-given role as males in a culture that dislikes them greatly. However, if churches develop mentoring ministries that will call men to be godly men, and women to be godly women (Titus 2), perhaps we can give the culture around us something really good that they will want to be a part of? Shouldn’t we the church be inviting culture to be more like us, rather that the church trying to be more like culture?

I will close with one last question: “When was the last time you stepped into a church where the holiness of God was displayed in great reverence for who He is?” Isaiah 6:1-9 shows us what happens when a person finds themself in the presence of God – how often do we Christians experience a similar situation when we go to church?

Now, don’t make me say something I am not saying, our pastors and church leaders are working hard to help their followers to become followers of Jesus – I’m just saying that we have allowed too much of the culture around us follow us into the church; and too little of Christ-likeness to follow us into the culture after attending church.

Desiring to be part of a movement of God with you, Neal