Men make pledge
to let Jesus purify
Getting men in touch with
God is what church needs

Doug Koop
CW Staff

WINNIPEG, MB–Getting men into hockey arenas happens all the time in Canada, but getting them to spend the better part of a weekend worshiping God and listening to preachers is no mean feat.

Promise Keepers Canada has been working at the latter by tapping into the former–putting Christian content into sports arenas.

It helps to have a football hero on stage. More than 3,000 men made the pilgrimage to the Winnipeg arena November 9-10 to hear speakers and athletes challenge them to "become godly influences in their world."

Milt Stegall shared his thoughts on how God changed his life.

"I sin every day, but God is the focus of my life. It used to be football. Everything used to be because of football, but now it's because of Christ," says Stegall, a Winnipeg Blue Bomber star receiver.

"Choosing Christ will be the best decision any man can make for his life. It won't be an instant turnaround. It won't make life suddenly easy. There will be backsliding. But God will take care of you. It doesn't mean he'll supply you with the biggest house or car, but you'll have what you need. Do it. Make Christ the center of your life," he says.

An eloquent address on the various types of love moved nearly a third of the gathering from their seats to the altar. "You need to make a decision to let Jesus cleanse you," concluded well-known Christian speaker Tony Campolo.

"This goes beyond believing. You need to be purified, energized by the Holy Spirit to connect with your wife and with others."

It was the kind of moment PK Canada CEO and president David Sweet loves to see. "Watching the response of the guys when Tony asked if they really believed that God could actually erase the slate pulled a spiritual heartstring," he says. At the end of the assembly he urged the men "to come down from this mountain top experience. This is a great time of worship, of being sharpened. Now it's time to put it to work."

Church needs men

For Sweet, the "ultimate measure" of PK's success "is whether men's ministry is happening in the local church. There's a lot of work to do to have clergy catch the vision," he says. "Pastors are very busy running lots of programs. But [part of the reason why they have] no bench strength for ministry is because they lack solid development of men in their church for leadership."

Canada needs PK Canada, he told CW, "because men are natural influencers, whether we like it or not." He points to statistics from the U.S. indicating that if a child comes to Christ, three per cent of the time the rest of family will come along. With women the figure jumps to 17 per cent. But when a man comes to Christ, says Sweet, in 74 per cent of the cases the rest of the family will come along as well.

"There's a particular reason why Jesus called men only," explains Sweet. "It's not that women aren't co-participators. It's because Jesus knew women would naturally follow. Men, on the other hand, had to be called."

Sweet closed the conference urging the men to accountability. "Nobody does this alone," he said. "We set high standards today. The main driving force is the Spirit of God, but Jesus choosing disciples set an eternal pattern of brotherhood. Be with other men who support you, who pray.

"Get into small groups on a regular basis, building relationships, studying Scripture and holding each other accountable. And do them in that order. Accountability without relationship is tyranny. Through relationship we build brotherhood, a demonstration of God's love."