Good Neighbor Podcast: TN-WNC-SWVA

EP# 353: How Man Cave Ministries Helps Men Heal And Find Faith

• Skip Mauney & Steve Ward • Episode 353

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A handful of sandwiches, a small garage, and a bold idea turned into a lifeline for dozens of men each week. We sit down with Steve Ward, founder and president of Man Cave Ministry, to trace how a six-week plan blossomed into a thriving community that helps men confront hurts, habits, and hangups without judgment—and with a clear path forward.

Steve shares the pivotal moment that changed everything: a trusted friend revealed he was a hidden alcoholic, completed a 12-step program, and returned to make amends. That honesty opened the floodgates and revealed a truth many miss about recovery—it’s not just about substance use. It’s also about codependency, anger, control, and the quiet ways we isolate when we need connection most. Steve explains how Man Cave’s low-barrier, faith-centered approach—come straight from work, eat, watch a short lesson, talk when ready—meets men who won’t step into traditional church settings due to past hurts or stigma.

We also explore how personal loss and crisis shaped the ministry’s heartbeat. From the death of Steve’s father to serving amid the devastation of Helene, the through line is resilience, service, and trust in God to turn a mess into a message. Along the way, we cover myths about recovery, the role of pride and shame in men’s silence, and practical ways to build a safer, stronger community. Steve outlines how to get help, where to find testimonies, and how new Man Cave locations are launching to reach more men—plus ongoing outreach like veterans’ lunches and community meals.

If you or someone you love is struggling and feeling isolated, this story offers a simple invitation: you are not alone, and there’s a seat at the table. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs it, and leave a review to help more people find hope and practical next steps.

SPEAKER_00:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Money.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, everybody, and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast of Western North Carolina and East Tennessee. So today we have a very special guest in our uh studios for the first time, and we're thrilled to have him here and very excited to learn all about them and their enterprise, and I'm sure you will be as well because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Mr. Steve Ward, who is the founder and president of Man Cave Ministries. Steve, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you. It's an honor to be here today.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, we're thrilled to have you. Like I said, very excited to uh learn all about you and what you do. I'm uh uh a big fan of uh recovery programs, volunteer some myself, and so I'm I'm super excited to learn all about Mann Cave Ministries. So if you don't mind, why don't you kick us off by telling us about what you guys do?

SPEAKER_02:

Sure. So I am a landscaper by trade, and we had some guys uh that were really struggling, going through uh some hard times and making some tough decisions. A dear friend of mine, me and him were walking at the Y, and he found a series entitled Right in the Eye, talking about a time in the Old Testament when there was no king, and everybody was making decisions, what they thought was best, but missing what God had laid out for them. And we had these friends of ours that were living through that and walking through that. And he's like, Man, I wish we had a place that we could get together and get these guys together and go over this. And I'm like, you know, I have a little man cave and we could do that. And so we began thinking about that. And who launches anything right before Christmas? But two weeks before Christmas, we reached out to a handful of guys that was hurting, invited them to come in and said, Hey, we know how men are. Uh we men, once we get home and get settled, we're not gonna come back out. So we thought, why don't we just fix them a sandwich? They can come straight from work, come straight here, we'll feed them, go through uh the little videos and try to help them out. And literally, we were only gonna do it for six weeks. At the end of six weeks, the guy said, Hey, we love this. What's next? And I'm like, I don't know, come back next week and we'll find out. And sure enough, they did. Then they began to invite other friends, and within eight months, we had packed that little building out and needed a new place. We've actually expanded three times in the building where I'm in right now, and we now have 80 to 90 men that come every single week. And the focus of it is really is reaching guys that are either been mad at God for fill in the blank. Um, they've been hurt at church, they won't attend church, or they're just going through things. And this opens up the door of Avenue to meet them where they're at, bring them in, love on them, and get their relationship established with Christ.

SPEAKER_01:

Wonderful, wonderful. Well, I was gonna ask about your journey and how you ended up here, but you kind of you kind of covered that from landscaping to yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Let me share with you how that we got involved with that. One of our leaders that came in and was a dear friend of mine. I would talk to him every day. And I didn't realize it, but he was a hidden alcoholic. And uh so once into this, he called me. I met him out at his driveway, and he told me, he said, I'm a I'm a drunk, I'm an alcoholic, and I need help. And to be very honest, I laughed at him. I'm like, you're not, I talk to you every day. I don't, I didn't recognize this of you. And when I found out he was very serious, we got some help. He walked through a 12-step class, and then when he came back here to the man cave, actually in our whole park, right back in there, and he set to make amends with these guys, all of a sudden this guy pops up and says, Well, I'm addicted to this. And then this guy says, Well, I'm addicted to this, I'm addicted to this, and it was popping up like popcorn. So from there, we launched a 12-step class that's been almost nine years ago and has transformed so many lives, restored marriages, rebuilt families, and is just, you know, you always uh I've shared before to say, I'm so thankful this man was an alcoholic, and somebody looks at you like, how can you say that? But had he not have started that journey all of these lives up to this point, not counting what's taking place moving forward, has just been an absolute miracle.

SPEAKER_01:

What what a what a great story. If it hadn't been for him, you wouldn't be here right now.

SPEAKER_02:

Correct.

SPEAKER_01:

In my limited experience with with recovery programs, I know there's a lot of myths and misconceptions in uh what exactly that so I was gonna be very interested in your perspective on that. What are some myths that you know of?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, so for me, I always thought it was someone with addictions, you know, that struggle with drugs or this, that, and the other. And it's actually anyone with hurts, habits, or hangups. And to give you my story, as we walked through this and we started that class, I told the guys, I'm like, look, I'm gonna walk through this with you so you don't have to do it alone. I entered the class not thinking for myself, thinking I'm just gonna be there for them. Two weeks in, I'm like, forget you. I've got hurts, habits, and hangups. I'm come to find out codependency. You look up codependency and you'll see my picture. It is amazing the things that walked through that have helped me and made a big difference. And I think the biggest thing is someone, we with men, we have a lot of pride. Uh, and being able to accept the fact that um I'm really struggling with something inside and being able to release that openly, it's hard for men to do that. And they feel like they're gonna be judged. They have no idea how much help that they're gonna get and walking through this and walking through the class, and and it's not just your story, but it's hearing everyone else's story, and as they're walking through, how that helps you. And I think that's the biggest misconception, and that keeps people from stepping up and saying, Hey, I would like to take this class. Because if I do, I'm gonna be associated by you know, by the public by fill in the blank, and that's not the case at all.

SPEAKER_01:

Non-judgment zone. Yes, uh, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Well, I I couldn't agree more. Now, I know this keeps you running, uh uh your ministry, and and and you're still a landscaper too, but uh hopefully there's some time off. If there is, what do you like to do for fun?

SPEAKER_02:

So we are traveling grandparents, um, and that is my escape. I have three kids, and one is lives in Kentucky, one lives in Lexington, South Carolina, and one lives in Charlotte. And so, and all of them have grandkids. So every weekend now, basically, we travel to each one, try to balance it out. Through that, then we get to build relationships with our churches as well. And so uh for us, traveling grandparents, that's it for me.

SPEAKER_01:

Nice gig. Nice gig. I can relate. I got five kids to end one grandchild and one on the way. So I'm I'm with you, brother. So uh let's switch gears for just a second. Um, out if if uh you could describe a hardship, whether that's uh or a life challenge that's either personal or professional that you've overcome, and and you kind of touched on this earlier, but how it made you stronger in the end when you came out of the other side?

SPEAKER_02:

So the bottom line is we have the privilege to trust the good Lord, whether we take advantage of that or not. The Lord can take our mess and turn it into a message. And uh knowing I lost my dad at a young age. Um, I was a teenager. Um, he got sick and spent basically a year slowly just dwindling away. And we didn't know what was wrong with him. We sent him everywhere. And um so to watch this man that loves the Lord, that loves to help people all of a sudden slowly dwindle down and the Lord take him away, that was a hard challenge for me. But I'm so thankful for the um example that he set in front of me and stilled in me that I can trust the Lord no matter what. So I'm 59 years old and I've learned no matter what means no matter what. So whatever struggle that the Lord allows me to walk through, instead of being a victim, if I if I can trust him and realize, okay, God, you've got my attention. Help me see what you're trying to teach me through this, and then let me trust you on the other side as we walk out. It's amazing. We uh just to give you a little example of that, when Helene hit here a year ago, we went to serve as our man cave. We were we were serving meals, we fed the linemen, and we actually went out to Biltmore to serve like two or three days in. And with that being said, as we got there, they wasn't at first going to let us go in because they were actually pulling bodies out, but they realized we had food, and so they didn't want to deprive the workers. As we went in there and pulled in, 360 degrees around me was total devastation. I'd never witnessed anything like that in my life. It was like a war zone, and I almost got overwhelmed, and it was like the Lord just got me by the shoulders and shook me and said, Hey, I've spared you for this. You get up and you serve. That was a reminder again, no matter what we go through. We have a heavenly father that loves us. He's not gonna turn our back on us. We may walk away from him, but he won't, he will help us get through whatever we're going through. He won't do our part and he won't force himself on us. But that's a choice if we choose to trust him and walk through whatever it is he's allowing us to walk through, knowing he'll be with us. That's how I get through every day.

SPEAKER_01:

Amen, brother. Anything means anything.

SPEAKER_02:

That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_01:

That's I love it, I love it. So um Steve, if you could think of one thing that you would like our listeners and viewers to remember about you and about the man cave ministries and what you guys do, what would that be?

SPEAKER_02:

That we all we all have got struggles, we all make mistakes, but God can take our mess and turn it into a message. There are men out there that are hurting man cave. The Lord has taught me through this to reach a niche of men that the church can't reach. I thought the church could reach everyone, but the Lord has shown me through this. There's a niche of men, it doesn't have to do with the church, the pastor, the people, it has to do with where the men are at and the struggles they're going through. They've seen enough hypocrites, they will not step on church property to even give it a chance. Man cave gives a non-judging that meets them where they're at and meets that need. Men want to talk, but they seclude themselves. If you listen to any men with that alpha, so any conversations you hear with men, one's gonna trump the other one as they go through. But then when they go through struggles, they isolate. When we isolate, the only person we can hear is us. And so Man Cave is the heart of reaching men. My heart's desire is to get in the ditch with these guys, meet them where they're at, and let's get their uh uh relationship re-established with the Lord and let them know whether they're going through something good or through some through something bad, they don't have to walk it alone.

SPEAKER_01:

You're not alone. Great thing to remember. Great thing to remember. So if uh any of our listeners are you know struggling with something, which you know most of us are uh struggling with with a hurt hang up or habits, habits, habits.

SPEAKER_03:

We've all got habits.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right, that's right, and and and not many of them are good. Um so but say we've got somebody that's interested in and needs help and would like to learn more. How can they do that?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh so you can reach out to our website, it's mancaveministryinc.org. We have some wonderful testimonies on there, video testimonies. You have my contact information. You can email me at mancaveministry or excuse me, mancaveav at gmail.com and can reach out to me that way. We would love to talk with you. Uh, the Lord has actually let us branch out and we've launched uh 10 lands, 10 man caves. We just launched a brand new man cave last night in Barnardsville for the first time, reaching these folks there where folks have come in and said, Hey, teach me how to do this in my area. And we're willing to do that. We've got a few YouTubes out there. You can look up Man Cave Ministry Asheville on YouTube and see a few testimonies and things from there. Be glad to help any way we can.

SPEAKER_01:

Awesome, awesome. Steve, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking time to be on the show, number one, but number two, for what you're doing in the community, what you're doing for men, bringing them back to God and helping them to recover. And it, you know, it's a long road, and uh we appreciate we appreciate everything you're doing at the Man Cave Ministries and wish you, your family, grandchild, grandchildren, sorry, uh, and uh everybody that you uh work with all the best moving forward.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, thank you. We work with veterans, we do a veterans lunch every third Friday of the month. We're getting ready to do a big Thanksgiving meal, opening up to the community here. So we try to reach out to the community and be a help all we can, and it's an honor to be here today.

SPEAKER_01:

Awesome. Well, it's an honor to have you, and uh, maybe we can have you back sometime. Thank you so much. All right, thanks so much, Steve. You have a blessed day.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNP Try Dash Cities dot com. That's GNP Try Dash Cities dot com or call four two three seven one nine five eight seven three.