Women are more likely than men to attend worship services, surveys show, but some Colorado Springs churches and organizations focus on ministry to men.

Every Tuesday, up to 400 men gather by 6 a.m. for breakfast, Bible study and discussion at Wholehearted Men, a group that started meeting in 2015, the year after The Road @ Chapel Hills opened its doors.

Meanwhile, Promise Keepers, a ministry that inspired a nationwide Christian men’s movement in the 1990s but has struggled since it was resurrected in 2019, will stream its Daring Faith event, which has faced controversy, on Dec. 1.

Tending to the spiritual growth of men comes at a time when men face a “staggering crisis,” Focus on the Family CEO Jim Daly says.

“Working men toiling at difficult jobs producing essential goods are the backbone of society and family,” wrote Daly in a blog post entitled “The Revitalization of American

Masculinity is Our Nation’s Most Pressing Need.” “Millions of men have simply lost the will to work.”

Meat and greet

Preparation for Tuesday’s Wholehearted Men gatherings at The Road begins days earlier as volunteers begin smoking a mountain of meat.

A $5 donation lets attendees choose from 30 pounds of bacon, four racks of ribs, 20 pounds of pulled pork, 40 pounds of brisket, 10 pounds of chicken and 20 pounds of sausage. They’re also offered 20 pounds of hash browns, 20 pounds of home fries, 35 dozen eggs, biscuits, gravy and green chill.

After breakfast, founding pastor Steve Holt teaches a “healthy, robust biblical vision for manhood.” Then, men seated around dozens of tables are encouraged to get to know each other and share their concerns.

Holt says that men need to be vulnerable, honest and authentic with other men and cultivate relationships with “true blood-stained allies.”

Without such transparent relationships, men risk becoming “posers” and “fakes” who “learn the language of Christian culture” but never address the “triumph and tragedy” of manhood, including a masculine shame and brokenness that underlies many men’s professional achievements.

Holt experienced shame and brokenness a decade ago when he was ousted as pastor of Mountain Springs Church, the congregation he founded in 1994 and grew to 3,000 members before conflict arose over his leadership style.

“Parts of what they said was true, and I own that,” he says now.

After the loss of the church he nurtured for two decades, he spent time praying, fasting, walking, crying and seeking God’s will before starting The Road.

Worshippers and warriors

Holt says a godly man should follow the model he presented in his 2016 book, “Worshipper Warrior,” which is based on the life of King David, author of half of the Bible’s Psalms.

First comes being a “wholehearted worshipper of God” in mind and heart. That means learning and obeying God’s commands while developing an intimate personal relationship with God.

He says godly men must also be warriors who stand up for what they believe.

“If you are a warrior first, you tend to become a bitter person,” he explained. “But if you are a worshipper only, you tend to become a wimp.”

Warriors must engage in cultural and political war, as Holt taught in a 2021 sermon series called “Born for War” and in a Nov. 9 blog post entitled “The Cosmic War Over America.”

“With the loss of a Judeo-Christian worldview, we are seeing an attack on democracy, the Constitution and law and order, especially from Marxist ideology that now owns the Democratic Party, mainstream media, most tech companies, sports, education, the pharmaceutical industry, and increasingly all of the intelligence networks,” he wrote.

Continuing frustrations

In 2019, Ken Harrison, CEO of Springs-based WaterStone, a $194 million Christian foundation, announced he was resurrecting Promise Keepers, the men’s ministry founded by former University of Colorado football coach Bill McCartney.

But plans for a 2020 in-person gathering of 80,000 men in Texas were scuttled by the pandemic. The event instead went virtual, reaching 1 million people. A 2022 event drew 30,000 men — 50,000 less than expected — and was simulcast to churches.

This year, Promise Keepers planned four smaller live events called Daring Faith, but three of the four Christian groups planning to host the events withdrew in disagreements over Harrison’s comments about transgender people.

A Promise Keepers news release said the canceling groups had gone “woke.” Harrison, author of “A Daring Faith in a Cowardly World,” expressed his “heartbreak” in an interview on the Christian Broadcasting network.

“We need to alert the church to what is going on” he said, warning about groups that are “polluting the minds of our youth.”

Viewers can stream the Daring Faith event, which will be held in New York, at promisekeepers.org.