Going hard after the tough guys

I don't consider myself a tough guy, however, I've had the privilege of being around guys like this all of my life. Tough guys don’t just mean men. I really mean tough guys and gals but it’s just easier for me to describe this type of person as a “tough guy”. I define “tough guys” as anyone who has been through many painful experiences in life. The pain of being hurt or let down in life has caused them to distrust others. Their painful experiences have caused them to turn inward and develop a powerful self-reliance. As a result of the repeated pain, they feel like they have to be “tough” enough to handle any circumstances that life sends their way… thus the title “tough guys”.

Almost everyone I know has a tough guy in their lives. When life gets difficult, they dig their heels in and try harder rather than reaching out for help. This person keeps everyone else at a distance. On the surface, there’s nothing wrong with being a tough guy. In fact, I applaud this approach when painful circumstances make other people quit around you, but the tough guy keeps on gutting it out.

On the surface, being a tough guy looks impressive but, inside something is missing. That’s because all of us were made for relationships. Life is designed as a team sport. No one was ever created to go through the good days of life alone. This is evident from God’s description of the original tough guy. Back in the Garden of Eden God said it was “not good” for Adam to be alone (Genesis 2:18). Tough guys were never part of God’s original plan for all humanity.

Even in the perfect days of living in paradise, Adam needed someone to go through life with.  If Adam was a perfect man, and he needed this in paradise, how much more do tough guys need someone to walk through life with them in the hard days of this broken world that we now live in? God graciously gave me the chance to spend decades of my life with some of the toughest guys on the planet. Even today, I get a chance to interact with tough guys almost every day of my life.  This is where Jeff Struecker Ministries was born.

I can’t take credit for this drive to reach tough guys. God put it in my heart many years ago. I still remember exactly where I was standing, on the airfield, in Mogadishu, Somalia immediately after Black Hawk Down, when God changed my passions in an instant. Up to that moment, I was committed to serving our country, defeating our enemy, and winning America’s wars.

God gave me a deeper passion after watching my buddies grappling with the death and destruction around us after the bullet stopped flying. There was a moment when God put a real passion in my heart for the souls of these tough guys. Since that moment, I’ve dedicated my life to reaching tough guys in the military. Now, by God’s grace, I’m expanding that circle. I still have the same passion to reach tough guys, by now I’m broadening my aperture to include tough guys outside of the military as well.

Any attempt to reach tough guys is going to require a tough path. There is no simple easy approach to reaching people like this. I feel completely comfortable in conversations with these tough guys because I've been around people like this my entire adult life.

Reaching tough guys requires doing things differently than the average pastor or the average church. If the average church or pastor was effective in reaching tough guys a ministry like this would not be necessary.  Therefore, I'm Willing to take the difficult path and have hard conversations with people who are rough around the edges.

Unfortunately, a lot of ministries give up hope because they don't see immediate success. This ministry is willing to relentlessly pursue people when others have given up on them. I'm convinced that Jesus expects people to go the extra mile(s) to reach people like this.

I am so excited to start this new ministry dedicated to reaching tough guys. And now I want to ask you to partner with me. Are you willing to go hard after a tough guy in your life? If you care deeply about a tough guy like I’ve described, would you share their first name with me? All I need is the first name. I will start to pray with you for this tough guy. And then I’ll provide you recourses and recommendations on how we can get that tough guy connected to Jesus.