c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Promise Keepers, the evangelical Christian men’s ministry that has been plagued with financial problems, said Thursday (April 9) it is recalling the furloughed national staff it laid off March 31.”Promise Keepers can recall its staff around the United States because the body of Christ is responding,”Promise Keepers founder and CEO Bill McCartney announced in a statement.”With large and small gifts, pledges and prayers, people who love Jesus have told us they want us to continue. … We are deeply grateful.” More than 300 employees will be invited to return on April 16, when the ministry will hold a special chapel service celebrating the event.”I think that will be an ecstatic time,”said Roger Chapman, a Promise Keepers spokesman.”The mood’s pretty light.” Chapman said most of the 345 national staffers who learned of the layoffs Feb. 18 had not found new jobs. Nearly one-third of the staff had offered to work for the ministry as volunteers.”We only had 19 people resign,”Chapman said.”People were planning on staying … as long as they could.” The economic crunch came after the ministry decided to no longer charge the usual $60 fee to attend stadium conferences _ thus, the ministry no longer received advanced registration money that would have provided a financial cushion. Promise Keepers officials hoped the strategy would attract more men _ Christian and non-Christian _ to events.

McCartney announced the shift in the admission policy at Stand in the Gap, Promise Keepers’ gathering of hundreds of thousands of men on Washington’s National Mall last October.

The lack of registration fees _ which amounted to 72 percent of its income in 1996 _ forced Promise Keepers to rely solely on donations and prompted the layoffs.

McCartney said that although the immediate crisis appears to be over, ministry officials will continue to consult with Christian leaders on how to make Promise Keepers”financially secure.””It’s still too early to say the financial transition of this ministry is complete,”said McCartney.”The current influx of donations has been enough to pay the bills, reinstate staff, and prepare for the upcoming conference season.” About 100,000 men have registered for the 19 Promise Keepers conferences scheduled from May to October. In 1997, 630,000 men attended 18 stadium events compared to a total of 1.1 million men at 22 events in 1996.

While ministry officials had said they expected the layoffs to be temporary, some Promise Keepers observers thought they meant the beginning of the ministry’s end.”It is surprising to me,”Mark Muesse, professor of religious studies at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., said of Promise Keepers recalling its staff.”I really thought when they laid off the staff that that would … mean that they were in decline. It doesn’t seem like the movement is (as close) to being finished as I thought.” The quick turnaround is a sign of interest in the movement among certain segments of Christianity, Muesse added.”It seems to suggest that there’s some significant support for the Promise Keepers among evangelicals,”he said.

Among the ministry’s supporters are Campus Crusade for Christ and Focus on the Family, groups Muesse called”two of the biggest parachurch organizations in evangelicalism.” In an unusual move, Campus Crusade president Bill Bright sent a letter to the mailing list of his Orlando, Fla.-based ministry seeking support for Promise Keepers. Focus on the Family, based in Colorado Springs, Colo., highlighted Promise Keepers’ financial situation on its radio program in early March.

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