Men's Ministry Spiritual Development

University Fellowship Church was founded in 2008 with the biblical purpose of Loving God, Loving our Neighbors and Making Disciples. A typical pattern for our pastors in fulfilling this mandate is to meet a new person in our church, take them to coffee or lunch, get to know them and hear their story of faith. If the gospel is vague or unclear in their story, or their salvation seems fuzzy we offer clarity through a simple gospel presentation we call “the line diagram”. This effective tool helps clarify the gospel and gives the hearer the chance to apply the gospel to their life/story. We have followed this pattern 100’s if not 1000’s of times in UFC’s history. If appropriate we might seek to meet with them a couple more times to help establish our new friend in their faith, evaluate next steps, guide them to a small group, engage them in personal growth, etc.

What we are looking for currently, is a man who would be gifted and enjoy pursuing this pattern with men in our church. Your title would be Associate Pastor but your calling would be to “make disciples” in the fashion described above. You’d need to have enough extroversion and people skills that you would look forward to pursuing guys and meeting with them with a plan and intention.

In this role you’d get to know the men of UFC, you’d make some initial evaluations and suggestions for “next steps”. You might follow up with a guy, establishing him in the basics of the faith. You might point he and his wife toward a home bible study. You might direct him to a group of men already meeting and learning. You might round up a couple more guys and start an 8 week study and cut them loose to move forward on their own. You’d do what you think best to help the men in our church grow, mature, follow and lead well. You’d learn their gifts, occupations, interests, hobbies and you’d become the “networker” for service in our church, to the church family and in the community. If we had a project that needed a team, you’d have an idea on who to call, how to connect, how to equip and how to thank.

Beyond this, you’d be given the freedom to build out a “Men’s Ministry”. This might include a couple retreats a year, breakfasts with teaching opportunities, mission projects, service projects… etc. Create an environment for men to make friendships and connections, helping to equip them for their primary ministry of leading and providing for their families. Lastly, we’d like you to “manage and expand” our small group ministry. This would include caring for the current leaders (about 20) and looking to establish new leaders and more small groups. These are loosely organized around teaching, fellowship, service, mission… groups sort of flock based on what they hope to accomplish.

So, I’d sum this up as you are paid well and given the time, the resources and the freedom to do evangelism, build men, make disciples, bless families all while drinking good coffee and putting on weight over lunch! You don’t have to fret over sermons or content creation. You get to build men and make a lasting impact for generations! If this is the reason you went into ministry you’ve hit the jackpot here!

A little about UFC. I started the church in 2008, I am 66 years old and have at least 3 to 5 years left. We have 5 full time employees and a couple dozen part time staff and interns, most under 30. Depending on how you count, we have 1400 who receive my weekly email, 800-900 show up on a Sunday with another 150 youth and kids underfoot and stealing cookies.

We have two identical services on a Sunday (9 & 11) and no Sunday night gathering. We are very diverse in age and value generational overlap.

We have a thriving college ministry (120 ish) on the UO Campus. Our youth ministry is growing and families are pleased. We have kids arriving daily and serve our families well. The church continues to grow, with new young families being the most encouraging area of growth. Women’s ministries are healthy with 125-150 women attending 3 weekly events.

I do most of the preaching (book by book, verse by verse), and you should listen to enough of me to get a sense of what you’d have to endure. Our college and youth pastors do a great job in my absence and are better educated than me.

If you are not from Oregon or the PNW, you need to know it rains a lot in Eugene from November to July. Then when it’s done raining in July the pollen organizes and tries to kill you. I am not kidding here, rain and pollen are hard to endure, make sure your wife is on board with gloom and doom.

Eugene is a fun place to live. The Ducks. Two great rivers run through it. Fishing and hunting opportunities are handy. We have 100’s of miles of bike paths. Boating and lakes out the back door. We are an hour from ski slopes and an hour from the beach. July to October is nearly perfect weather, hot, dry, cool nights (and pollen). Great restaurants, lots of micro breweries now sanctified by the presence of a Chick-Fil-A, with rumors of an In and Out headed our way as a sign of the millennial kingdom arriving.

The politics of Oregon and Eugene are very left of center and our culture has a very “post Christian” vibe. Many who move here from Conservative areas feel oppressed and marginalized and start to view their neighbors as the “enemy”. We can’t be having that, it doesn’t fit well with our purpose.

We are Complementarian, if that’s a problem for you or your wife, we are not your next stop.

Financially UFC is in great shape, money in the bank, no debt, generous to the community and world. Our team is paid well based on local rates and the rumor mill of broke seminary graduates.

We don’t have formal membership, and probably won’t during my tenure. So if you are a 9 Marks devotee, don’t join us… wait, you can’t join us.

Bonus points if you speak Spanish! We partner with a local “Spanish Immersion” school and we support a local ministry to hispanics that could use your gifts and skills in disciple making!

That’s about it. If you think you have the heart, gifting, experience and skills needed based on this outrageously long ad… contact our office administrator zoe.m.scott3@gmail.com and she will put you in the process to move forward. If you have any questions, feel free to call me Brett Gilchrist at 541-914-9504 and I will be happy to visit.