EDITOR’S NOTE: L.J. Salzman, a student at the Spurgeon College in Kansas City, is serving this summer as a intern with The Pathway.
MARQUAND, Mo. – “Iron sharpens iron,” says Prov 27:17, “and one man sharpens another. Many churches have programs to foster this “sharpening,” and First Baptist Church of Marquand, Mo., is no different. Their men’s ministry, led by Emerson Branham, brings men together—not just from the church, but from the surrounding community as well.
The main event of this ministry is a prayer breakfast. It’s a nondenominational activity, and Branham said that men from all backgrounds and professions attend. The average number of men who come is between 15 and 20.
Branham said the purpose of the prayer breakfast is to “hopefully generate concern among the men of Marquand for their community.” He described how the men meet each Monday morning at 8 a.m. for food and fellowship. “After breakfast, a very short devotional is presented as a means of reaching out to those men who are unchurched and perhaps lost individuals,” he said. “We then solicit prayer requests for those individuals in the community who are sick or maybe grieving for a family member or friend who passed away, as well as those standard items concerning the community.”
Each fall, Branham shared, the men’s prayer breakfast sponsors a Sportsman Banquet. It is held in the high school gymnasium at FBC Marquand and usually runs from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on a Saturday night. Events at the Sportsman Banquet include a catered meal, giving away door prizes, and bluegrass gospel entertainment. At the end of the night, the organizers make a presentation of the gospel. Branham says this presentation “may be the only time some of those folk ever hear the good news.” Branham said that the average attendance at the Sportsman Banquet is just over 150 people, the maximum number the facility can accommodate.
Each one of these people, both the men who come to the FBC prayer breakfast and those who attend the Sportsman Banquet, can be ministered to and hear the gospel, a very important goal. Once they themselves have been sharpened like iron, they can learn to sharpen each other. As Branham said, “Our objective throughout the breakfast and the program is to reach out to the community in the name of Jesus and let them know He cares and is still receiving those who come to Him.”
