Reinventing Promise Keepers

A strategic repositioning puts the spotlight back on an organization that grew

exponentially in the 1990s. |By Regina McGee

To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Promise Keepers, an evangelical men’s organization, is inviting women – for the first time – to attend an event, “Time to Honor” at Folsom Field at the University of Colorado, July 31-Aug. 1.

“We expect men to invite thousands of women to ‘Time to Honor.’ We want to honor women in profound ways at this event,” said Bill McCartney in a statement last month. McCartney, who founded Promise Keepers (PK), returned from retirement in September to take over the leadership of the organization, which has struggled in recent years to regain the audience that its events attracted in the 1990s, when multi-city tours would drew tens of thousands of men to stadiums around the country every year. Since then PK has scaled back on big venues, using small local churches instead.

“Time to Honor,” the only Promise Keepers event this year, is the first since the return of McCartney, and it will serve as the re-launch of the organization, McCartney has said in news reports. The former football coach of the University of Colorado, McCartney guided the group’s success during the 1990s. McCartney had a “vision for celebrating 20 years of ministry to men,” says Adam C. Dike, PK’s marketing manager. “That vision involved honoring women, as well as the poor and the needy and the spiritual fathers of the faith, Jewish believers.”

Dike says that when McCartney read an article last year in the Denver Post reporting that 26 percent of teenage girls ages 14-19 in America had a sexually transmitted disease, he was moved to take action.

“Being a Promise Keeper, Coach was impacted by the realization that the key contributing factor to this devastating result was ungodly young men. So honoring women, that is, daughters, wives, mothers, and sisters, etc., is the ideal antidote to this situation,” Dike says. “And who can deny that there is a gender divide in America that needs to be healed? This is the foundational reason for PK inviting women to this event.”

Dike said registration is strong and a “full house” is expected. Featured speakers for the event include Jane Hansen Hoyt, president and CEO of Aglow International; Dr. Tony Evans of Dallas, Texas; relationship expert Gary Smalley; and Rabbi Jonathan Bernis, among others.

The announcement that women would be honored participants at the PK event drew mixed reactions from popular Christian blogs. Though PK’s past policy of focusing exclusively on men has drawn controversy, some bloggers felt that the organization would be better served by keeping that focus; others welcomed the inclusion of women; and others said the move was an economically driven strategy to resuscitate the organization.

“What PK events will look like after the anniversary celebration will be announced in the fall,” Dike says. Stay tuned.