NEWS STORY: Promise Keepers opens year 2000 events to families

c. 1998 Religion News Service LOS ANGELES _ As the Promise Keepers begins its summer season of stadium events, the Christian men’s organization is asking for money and for men to bring their wives and childrens to state capitals for two-hour rallies planned for Jan. 1, 2000. Those plans mark the first time Promise Keepers […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

LOS ANGELES _ As the Promise Keepers begins its summer season of stadium events, the Christian men’s organization is asking for money and for men to bring their wives and childrens to state capitals for two-hour rallies planned for Jan. 1, 2000.

Those plans mark the first time Promise Keepers _ which some have criticized for excluding women in the past _ will include wives in a formal event.


But while the cash-strapped evangelical men’s group pleads for donations, men writing checks to the organization say they’ll have to check with their wives about plans for New Year’s Day 2000.”A year-and-a-half ahead of time?”said Art Van Noppen, a 40-year-old father of three from Simi Valley, Calif., who attended a Promise Keepers Memorial Day weekend rally here.”I’m lucky to plan a week ahead of time. This is the first I’ve heard of it and I always talk about these things with my wife first.” Organizers hope the New Year’s Day rallies _ first announced last October at the group’s massive”Stand in the Gap”event in Washington _ will visibly demonstrate Christian unity by attracting members of various denominations, races and ethnic groups.

Now they’ve decided to include men’s families in the year 2000 events.”That’s a first for us,”Roger Chapman, a Promise Keepers spokesman, said in an interview.”It’s just a different vision that (Promise Keepers founder) Bill McCartney has for this event.” But even as the group devoted to increasing mens’ commitment to God and family makes plans for rallies that are still far off, Promise Keepers officials are finding attendance so far this year at their stadium events has been less than was hoped for.

Evidence of that was on display in Los Angeles and Little Rock, Ark., where a second Promise Keepers rally was held Memorial Day weekend.

Despite pre-registrations of 39,000, only about 35,000 men attended the May 22-23 free rally at the Los Angeles Coliseum, Chapman said. That figure was at least 20,000 less than last year’s Los Angeles Promise Keepers’ event _ a drop organizers attributed to the scheduling of the event on a holiday weekend.”That’s a bad time to have it,”said the Rev. Jesse Miranda, a Promise Keepers board member and associate dean of the graduate school of theology at Azusa Pacific University in suburban Los Angeles.”People left their registration to the last minute, and the Memorial Day comes up and the family obligations. Last year it was closer to 60,000.” In Little Rock, organizers said about 20,000 showed up when 35,000 were expected.”The numbers are down,”Little Rock event manager Fred McLemore told reporters.”We are as a general rule not attracting the numbers to stadium events as we had in the past.” Money now has become a more pressing issue at Promise Keepers rallies _ all of which are free this year, compared to prior years when tickets averaged $60 each.”We face a very difficult financial situation, perhaps the greatest challenge in our brief history of existence,”said Dale Schlafer, the eight-year-old group’s vice president of revival and awakening.

Promise Keepers is hoping for donations of $20 to $30 from each man at each rally to help cover its costs, he said. Promise Keepers officials said it was too soon to say whether that hope is being realized at this year’s rallies.

Schlafer urged the men at the Los Angeles rally to become”covenant partners,”a initiative mentioned in recent Promise Keepers mailings that asks supporters to give monthly donations to the ministry. In return, they receive a Promise Keepers mug and pin and a copy of McCartney’s latest book.”We did use all of our cash reserves for `Stand in the Gap,'”Schlafer said.

McCartney, who was at the Little Rock rally, said in a video greeting to the Los Angeles event:”Would you pray that God provides financially? And can I ask you to participate with us as a financial partner?” Schlafer said despite offerings and brisk sales of Promise Keepers products at the group’s May 15-16 rally in Detroit _ the first of 19 scheduled for this year _ the event still did not break even.”We still went in the hole financially,”Schlafer said to the Los Angeles crowd.”We have a very small cash reserve. If we continue to go in the hole in the events that we do, the future of Promise Keepers is in jeopardy.” Organizers said 43,000 men had registered for the Detroit event, but that”less than”that number showed up.


The group’s general financial problems led it to announce in February that it would lay off its entire staff March 31. However, $4 million in donations during the month of March enabled the ministry to recall its employees April 16.

Members of some Southern California churches said they came with smaller groups of men than they had at previous Los Angeles rallies. For example, Christ Presbyterian Church in Huntington Beach, Calif., had 50 men here this year, down from 150 in 1997.

At the Los Angeles rally, Promise Keepers board chairman Bishop Phillip H. Porter Jr., a Church of God in Christ pastor from Aurora, Colo., asked men to stand up if they plan to attend the Jan. 1, 2000, state capitol rallies. Only about half in the stadium stood.

Christ Presbyterian Church member Don Trestik was among those who chose to remain seated.”I didn’t stand up because I don’t know that I could commit myself right now,”said Trestik, 62, a retired civil engineer and father of two.”I don’t want to promise to do something that I’m not going to be able to follow through on. It wouldn’t be fair to my family for me to commit my time to that.” (STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

Others said the Colorado-based organization’s plans for Jan. 1, 2000, may work better in a smaller state with a centrally located state capital. Some Los Angeles men shrugged their shoulders when asked about traveling to Sacramento, more than 500 miles away.

Chapman said despite Porter’s call for men to stand if they plan to go, the organization realizes there are,”logistical problems”with the state capital rallies.”We’re sharing the vision,”he said.”We’re not expecting commitment now. All we’re asking is for guys to think about it, consider it. And how that plays out, we don’t know yet.”


IR END FINNIGAN

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