“The Church is really struggling for a way to reach men.”

Jason Rivers
Special to Spur Ottawa

The Western Church has lots of effective programs to reach kids, youth, and women, but men seem to be an unreached people group today, according to Lyle Johnson, founder of Nextlevel Ministries. But with the Nextlevel discipleship model’s effectiveness in Ottawa, the ministry is now spreading beyond the city.

“The Church is really struggling for a way to reach men,” Johnson states. “Our whole thesis is that men are disconnected from God because they are disconnected from one another. So, why don’t we start by getting them connected to one another, to help each other get connected to God in a deeper, intimate relationship with Him.”

Nextlevel Ministries reaches men by forming purposeful small groups of men that meet weekly to build trusting relationships. Johnson believes that when men have meaningful relationships with other men, it will help them to invest in their home churches.

The groups teach men to have a clear understanding of the gospel, but they also cover topics like marriage and fatherhood, character building, the discipline of spending time with God daily, and what Christ-like masculinity looks like.

“Men should join a Nextlevel group so they can become more like Jesus.”

For several years, David Kitz has participated in a Nextlevel group. He says, “It has helped me stay consistent and steadfast in my walk with the Lord. Though we live in an urban environment, with people all around, people are plagued by loneliness and an absence of deep personal relationships. Being part of a Nextlevel group counters the self-isolation that is the rot at the core of 21st-century society.

“Men should join a Nextlevel group so they can become more like Jesus,” Kitz continues. “This is what discipleship is all about. I need to be held accountable for my spiritual growth or I will tend to drift.”

Johnson says the seeds of the ministry were planted in the late 1990s. He was a pastor and he noticed that, spiritually, he was constantly on the giving end. No one was coming to him asking, “How is your walk with God?”

“In the fall of 1999, I said, ‘God, if I was to put together a group of people that approximated what You were trying to do with Jesus—doing life together, focused around Jesus—and if that could be successful, I’d like to do that. I’d like to disciple men in that kind of context. If you will bless that, I’ll do it for the rest of my life.”

“My challenge to the men of the city would be: You’ve got to get together with other men.”

That winter, Johnson put together his first group of guys. He says it was such an extraordinary experience and met a niche in the lives of the men there. So after five or six years of splitting his focus between that and his pastoral work, he decided to focus fulltime discipling men.

“My challenge to the men of the city would be: You’ve got to get together with other men,” he says.

Through these authentic, vulnerable, Christ-centered relationships, Johnson says he has seen men grow into mature godly men who are making a difference for the Kingdom.

“I’ve seen so many guys where they are serving in so many roles—teaching, sponsoring in youth ministry, or they are deacons or elders—to me, that’s payday. That means they are growing and motivated by the spirit of God.”