How to Organise a Men’s Breakfast

A men’s breakfast does pretty much what it says on the tin: it is a breakfast to which Christian men can invite their non-Christian male friends, so they can hear a talk on a topic relevant to men and/or which may include the gospel.

 

Prayer

This goes without saying, but often it is easy to forget to pray before and during a men’s breakfast. Pray about it as you are organising it, as men are inviting their friends, and also during the set-up on the day.

 

 

 

Making the Most of Your Men's Breakfast

To get maximum benefit and momentum from a Men's Breakfast, all you need to do is focus on the outcomes you want and the steps to achieve these. It can be surprisingly simple.

Define your goals. Are they to:

  • Get men to process the message together?
  • Build your Men’s Ministry?
  • Sustain momentum to the next event or Men’s Group?

Action steps:

  • Before the Breakfast: Think about how you will promote your next men's activity or Men's Group at the end of the breakfast.
  • Consider how to measure the morning's effectiveness in reaching your goals. A short evaluation form that men can fill in will help you with this.
  • For the PK Livestream breakfast, download the handout and make copies (if available).
  • On the Day: Before the presentation starts at 7:30am, welcome the men and outline the morning program. Alert them to the action points that will be coming up after the online content finishes.
  • Make it easy for small group discussion. This is usually around their table. Get smaller table groups to join together. Avoid having a lot of men in a group (say, less than 7) because that will limit their opportunity to contribute to the discussion/prayer.
  • Promote your next Men's Ministry event or Men’s Group before men start to leave.
  • Give the men a short evaluation form to fill in with their comments.
  • Following the Breakfast: Debrief with your team on how to improve for next time. 
Venue

The venue can be neutral, such as a local sports club or community centre, although a church hall or similar will also work. The venue needs to have space (and tables & chairs) for people to sit and eat, depending on how many you are expecting, and kitchen facilities suitable for cooking.

If you are participating in a PK Livestream Men's Breakfast, you will need to get set up for livestreaming the event. [More info]

If you are organising your own speaker, you may need to provide a means of showing PowerPoints and/or videos. A computer and projector system can be brought in easily. However the need for a sound system may mean that you may have to use the church auditorium for the speaker presentation if you do not have a portable unit.

 

Speaker & Topic

If you are joining a PK Livestream breakfast, you can relax, as a world-class speaker has already been organised for you!

Remember that even if the PK Livestream Men's Breakfast dates don't suit your Men's Ministry calendar, you can organise to screen the messages to your men at a later date, with or without a breakfast meal.

If you are organising your own breakfast, a speaker from a local church or Christian organisation can work well. Topics that work well are either those grounded in the speaker’s experience, and/or a subject that engages with men, such as work, sport, finances, health, or sex. In either case it is important that the speaker is aware of your target audience - ie if you want to include clear gospel content, accessible to non-Christians. The style should be more ‘after-dinner speech’ than Sunday sermon; 20-30 minutes in length but certainly no more than 30. It can be good to raise a challenging question which people can discuss in groups afterwards.

 

Catering

Depending on your venue, you may need to bring some or all of your crockery, cutlery and cooking equipment with you – check this beforehand. You will need a group of volunteers with assigned roles: who will be in the kitchen, who will be serving food, who will welcome people and introduce the speaker?

It is also worth deciding beforehand how food will be served: will it be brought to the tables, or will people collect it themselves? It is often easiest for guests to help themselves to cold food such as cereals, orange juice, and rolls. It is crucial to put on a good cooked breakfast as this is a major attraction of the event! That said, logistically it is easier to aim for no more than 3-4 different kinds of hot food (eggs, bacon, baked beans and sausages are all simple to cook and satisfying). Adding hot toast to that finishes the cooked breakfast off well. Please ensure you have enough food. Men are big eaters and they eat more at a buffet event. If you want to control consumption then meals should be plated.

Advertising

Advertising is key to the success of the event, and producing a simple A5 flyer for men to give to their friends can be a real help. However, the best advert is simply men inviting their friends, so you need to reassure them that it will be a great event, and encourage them to invite at least one non-Christian friend each. We recommend you use email and social media i.e. Facebook as a way of promoting the breakfast.

If you are joining in with a Promise Keepers Livestream breakfast, there are a range of promotional tools on the PK More Than Bacon Men's Breakfast page. This will usually include logos and a promo video clip.

Other practical considerations

Cost:  This will depend on your situation, but there are three options:

1. Make the breakfast completely free, with the church(es) paying the total cost.
2. Sell tickets/charge at the door to cover the cost ($5 - $10 per person). Set your ticket price by adding all your projected costs and dividing by the number of tickets you project to sell.
3. Make it free but leave a container for donations. You will need to assume that there will be a shortfall so someone or the church will need to fund the difference.

If you have no track record of running such an event and projecting attendee numbers, then to minimise risk, sell tickets and close off on the Sunday beforehand. Cater for the committed numbers as food is most likely the expense that will blow your budget. If you have a track record then you can make decisions accordingly.

There is little margin to pay a speaker but if you set a ticket price for the food/venue costs then you should be nearer $5 and you can always do a love offering for the speaker as a donation to his costs.

Are there other churches in your area that you could invite to join you for maximum impact? This also demonstrates unity in the Body of Christ in a powerful way.

Timing

Saturday is the best day to hold a breakfast. Start at about 7:00am, allowing 10 minutes for people to arrive and then a good half hour for people to get breakfast and eat and chat (this means the cooks need to start much earlier), then introduce the speaker or log on to Livestream for the PK presentation.

The whole thing should last about one and a half to two hours (not including set-up and clear-up), so men can get back to their families/the rest of their Saturday.

 

Follow-up

Think in advance about which other events you would like to advertise at the breakfast. You can use this as a platform to get a Men’s Group established in your church.