It depends on what approach you want to take. My parish has a “Men’s Club” that focuses more on providing service along with the K of C to the parish. They meet monthly and have projects. They support basically all of the other ministries and parish groups when they need help. For instance, they do much of the labor for set up and tear down of our huge annual carnival including stringing the electrical and raising tents.
They do a game night instead of a regular meeting once per quarter where they can sit around and play cards and drink beer, etc. I believe that they are also the sponsor group for our parish softball teams. (Talk about a nonthreatening way to suck a man further into parish life. Who doesn’t love some team sports and a beer with the guys afterward. Many men have joined the softball team and then been drawn into more “spiritual” activities by the other guys on the team.)
We have a Brothers in Christ group that organizes men into smaller groups that meet in homes hopefully in their own smaller part of the larger parish boundaries. They focus on supporting each other in spiritual growth as men with a devotion to St. Joseph. They do Bible study, prayer and more spiritual sharing activiities.
We have Christ Renews His Parish separately for men and women (English and Spanish). It begins with a weekend retreat at the parish for a group of men or women. The team giving the weekend has already been through it (another parish will bring it to you the first time). They have witnesses to different aspects of the faith, small group discussions and activities, adoration, prayer, etc. After the retreat the new team meets once per week for 6 months getting to know each other’s personal and faith history.
They do spiritual formation together until they are ready to give the next retreat at the end of the 6 months. They pass the torch after doing discernment to see how they can then share their gifts/talents with the wider parish in an effort to energize the faith of the wider community. This latter program has really caused a boom in ministries/organizations in our parish. We have grown in size by leaps and bounds over the past 10 years and not solely due to population shifts in the area.
