Why The Church Equips Men To Serve Artwork

Every Day Carry: A Daily Word for Men

Every man carries something. The question is whether you're carrying what God gave you to carry — or something you were never meant to hold.

Every Day Carry is a daily devotional podcast for men who are done settling for less than who God actually called them to be. Five days a week, host Brian Crum opens Scripture in its real context — no feel-good reinterpretation, no fluff — and hands you one clear charge to carry into your day. Each week follows a single theme, from leading your household to guarding your mind to standing firm under pressure, so the Word builds on itself instead of scattering.

This isn't a show for men who want to feel better about staying the same. It's for husbands, fathers, workers, and leaders who want real brotherhood, real accountability, and a faith that shows up Monday through Friday — not just on Sunday.

Take up your cross daily, and follow Him. That's Luke 9:23. That's the charge. Let's carry it.

🎙️ New episodes every weekday, 5-7 minutes each

🤝 Brought to you by MensMinistry.online — Stand Firm. Not Alone.

⭐ Subscribe, share it with a brother who needs to hear it, and leave us a review to help more men find this front line

All Episodes

Every Day Carry: A Daily Word for Men

Why The Church Equips Men To Serve

September 03, 2026 • MensMinistry.online • Season 1 • Episode 14

0:00 | 7:21

Send us Fan Mail

Most men can tell you what they want from a church: stronger preaching, better community, deeper theology. We think the missing piece is often simpler and harder: real work. Using Ephesians 4:11-16, we follow Paul’s logic from Christ’s gifts of pastors and teachers to the purpose behind them, equipping the saints for the work of ministry. That means the staff is not the main engine of ministry. The saints are. You are. We are.

We dig into the word “equip” (katartismos, or from the Greek: καταρτισμός) as a repair term, like mending fishing nets or setting a bone back in place so it can bear weight again. That image reframes discipleship for Christian men: church is not a weekly event you attend to receive good content, it is a body where God restores you for usefulness and then sends you to serve. Paul’s warning about being tossed by waves and carried by every wind of doctrine lands with force here, because doctrinal stability is tied to being put in working order and given responsibility.

Then we get painfully practical. A church where professionals do all the ministry and everyone else only consumes does not just underperform, it can produce spiritually movable men. So we put a question in your mouth for today: what work of ministry has your name on it? If you already have one, do it better this week and do not perform it for attention. If you do not, contact one of your elders today and ask, “What needs doing that nobody’s doing?”

If you know a brother who needs a push from attendance to service, share this with him, subscribe for daily encouragement, and leave a five-star rating and review so more men can find the show.

Support the show

Every Day Carry: A Daily Word for Men is a ministry of MensMinistry.online — calling men back to their God-given identity and purpose through real Scripture, real brotherhood, and real accountability.

Find more resources, local events, and community at MensMinistry.online

If this episode challenged you, subscribe, leave a rating and review, and share it with a brother who needs to hear it

Scripture references are taken from the ESV (English Standard Version) unless otherwise noted.

What Are You Carrying

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Every man carry something. What a minute. Are you carrying what God gave you to carry? Or are you carrying something you are never meant to even hold? Get ready to lock deals with your brothers in Christ and take up your cross and follow him. This is everyday carry, a daily word for men.

Why Church Leadership Exists

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Let's carry it.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Welcome back, brother. It is Thursday, and this week we've looked at what a church is devoted to, who's qualified to lead it, and what he's charged to do when he opens his mouth. And today we're going to ask what all of that is for.

Saints Do The Ministry

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Ephesians 4, verse 11 says, And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ. Now, follow the arrow with me here. If you're of a certain age, you could probably say follow the bouncing ball, right? Christ gives shepherds and teachers for a purpose. To equip the saints for a purpose. For the work of ministry. Now, who is it that's actually doing the work of the ministry in that sentence? Well, that's the saints. That's you, brother. That's me. It's not the staff. It's not the man with the title. The saints actually do the work. The shepherds are actually charged with getting them ready to do it.

Repair Work That Prepares Men

SPEAKER_01 1:30

And the word for getting them ready is worth sitting in for a second. It's katartismos. It's a repair word. The verb form actually shows up in the Gospels where it mentions fishermen mending their nets, and it carries the sense of uh setting a bone back where it belongs so the limb can bear weight again. That's a pastoral job description. Not entertain you, but to take out of joint men and set them straight so they can carry a load and then send them out to actually carry it. So a church, biblically speaking, isn't a place you go to receive ministry. It's a place you go to get repaired and then equipped and sent out. Verse 13 gives the goal, until we all attain to mature manhood. God's aim for you isn't that you'd be an enthusiastic tender for 40 years. He knows we've got plenty of those. No, no, no. It's actually that you'd grow up. And in verse 14, it's where we tie the whole week together here. So

Why Spectator Church Weakens Men

SPEAKER_01 2:40

that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Both pictures here are nautical. You see, thrown around by the surf, carried in circles by the wind, because that's terms that they would have understood in that time, right? Paul's describing a small boat with nobody at the tiller. Now, catch the logic here because it's probably the most practical thing I'm gonna say all week. What keeps a man from being blown around by every wind of doctrine? Being equipped. Being put in working order, and then given work. Which means an unequipped man is a doctrinally unstable man. Not a bad man, not a stupid man. He's just doctrinally unstable. He's untrained and therefore movable. And here's the sharp edge. A church where the professionals do all the ministry and then the men that are there, they just consume it? That's not just underperforming. By Paul's own metric, it's actually producing men who can't hold their footing. It's manufacturing the exact drifting that Paul is trying to prevent here. Then in verse 16, it says the body grows when each part is working properly. Each part. Paul can't conceive of a healthy body where most of the members are just spectators that show up on the weekend. So here's the general rebuke. Because this verse takes apart a phrase that almost all of us use. I know I have. I go to church. Brothers, by Ephesians 4, that sentence doesn't describe membership in a body. It actually describes attendance at an event. A church that you only ever receive from is failing you by Paul's own standard. Even if the preaching is excellent, even if the doctrine is airtight, if no one's putting you to work, you're not actually being equipped, you're being entertained by good content. Now, some men really are in churches with no path to serve, and there's a real deficiency, and it's fair to name. But most of us aren't there if we're honest. Most of us are in churches that they've needed men to step up for years, and we've never raised a hand. We decided that being fed was actually the same thing as being faithful, and that's good enough, right? Wrong. So the question isn't is my church good enough for me? It's what is the work of ministry with my name on it? Not attendance, not giving. Giving does matter, but Paul said work. Teaching a kid, setting up chairs in the fellowship at six in the morning, walking a younger guy through a book of the Bible when you don't feel qualified and you don't, and that's fine. Because cathartismus means you get set in place while you carry. A man who has work in his church is a man who's hard to blow over. That's not motivational talk, that's straight out of Ephesians 4.14. I've heard it said that a man is like a flatbed truck. He drives straighter with a heavy load. And that leads us to today's charge.

Name Your Work And Do It

SPEAKER_01 6:05

So here's the carry for today. I want you to name the work of ministry that you personally carry at your church. Name it out loud. In the truck, in the car, maybe you're at the grocery store, maybe you're grabbing a coffee. Who knows? If you have one, good. Do it better this week. But here's the catch. Don't tell anybody that you're trying. And if you don't have one, well, you got your elders' names on Tuesday. Go contact one of them today. Not tomorrow, not this week, not sometime soon, today. Ask them one question. What needs doing that nobody's doing? And then take whatever he says, even if it's just setting up those chairs, and go do it.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

That's all the time we have for today. I'll see you back here tomorrow, brother. Carry on, brother.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Thanks for joining us for today's episode. Share today's episode with a brother in Christ that needs to hear this too. And be sure to leave us a five star rating and review to help spread the word to more men just like you. This has been Everyday Carrie. A daily word for men. Stand firm. Carry on.

People on this episode

Brian Crum

Host