Based on figures from 2003, there were 103 million males in the U.S. 15 or older, but only six million involved in discipleship or personal formation, according to David Delk, president of Man in the Mirror (MIM) ministry.

That means just one in every 18 men are learning how to walk in Christ's footsteps, he says, comparing that to 18 men going to a baseball field but only one knowing how to play the game. According to Delk, that deficit in men's discipleship is directly correlated to many societal ills.

The chaos from no instruction

"Thirty-three percent of children under 18 will go to bed tonight without their father in the home," Delk says. "We think (it's) worth asking if something is wrong in a culture when 33 percent of children lack a father."

Another leading indicator of the need for better discipleship: 93 percent of prison inmates are male and 85 percent of them report no significant father figure in their lives.

Delk says such statistics reveal a systemic issue, which is millions of men who do not know what means to be a godly man, and thus don't know how to pass that on to the next generation.

Reaching men has ripple effect

The power of reaching a man and teaching him how to live for Christ has far-reaching impacts that ripple through families, neighborhoods and communities, MIM's president says.

"Discipling a man sets a family's lineage on a whole new course," Delk says. "The best thing we can do for teen pregnancy rates in 20 years is to disciple our men today."