Twenty years have passed since the heyday of Promise Keepers. Like myself, hundreds of thousands of men who attended the packed stadium conferences around the country had their lives dramatically altered. In 1997 alone, 1.1 million men filled football stadiums to overflowing singing A Mighty Fortress is Our God and other hymns and worship songs and listening to messages and testimonies from amazing men of God like PK founder, Coach Bill McCartney. In 1998, another 1 million men filled the National Mall in DC for Stand in the Gap.
I wasn’t able to make it to Stand in the Gap, but I did attend five stadium events in Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Kansas City. I’ve told the story in another post of how the trip to Indianapolis with a group of men from my church completely changed the focus of my pastoral ministry.
The modern day men’s ministry movement owes much to Promise Keepers. New Commandment Men’s Ministries is just one example of dozens, if not hundreds, of men’s ministries that came out of Promise Keepers. More than anything else, Promise Keepers raised awareness of the need for effective men’s ministry in local churches.
So where is Promise Keepers now?
Sadly, PK is just a shadow of its former self. In fact, both PK and Coach Bill McCartney need our prayers.
Currently, Promise Keepers is launching what it is calling “PK 2.0” and has scheduled a conference in Jacksonville, Florida in April, 2017. But the details for both are vague. And it was announced in August that Bill McCartney has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
In honor of Promise Keepers and Coach, I’m republishing an interview I did with him two years ago. I’ve entitled it, “Playing Hurt: An Interview with Bill McCartney.”
Have you attended a Promise Keeper’s conference? What impact did it have on your life?
This post originally appeared in NewCommandment.org.
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3 thoughts on “An Update on Promise Keepers”
I attended quite a few. I credit my attendance with growing in my faith And developing relationships with other men. The one thing that always concerned me was what happened after the event? I think more emphasis on post event activities to keep the fire going would be helpful.
I attended events in St. Louis and Denver. In genkate 90’s I headed up the men’s ministry at my church and the St. Louis event was a game changer. By the time I arrived in Denver, they were in the smaller venues but still it was stirring. I still have the old original music cd’s from those early years and listen often.
Yes, Scott, I have the music too…on my IPhone. It’s amazing to llisten to.