c. 1998 Religion News Service

DENVER _ Promise Keepers, the evangelical Christian men’s ministry, is laying off all of its 345 salaried employees effective March 31 because it doesn’t have the money to pay them.

Promise Keepers officials said the ministry’s decision to no longer charge fees for its conferences and rely solely on donations prompted the layoffs and the need to rely on volunteers.

But Steve Ruppe, director of public affairs for the ministry, said Thursday (Feb. 19) the organization isn’t folding and still plans to hold 19 men’s conferences this year. The conferences will continue to encourage men to increase their commitment to God, family and church.

Bill McCartney, the former University of Colorado football coach who founded Promise Keepers in 1990, broke the startling news to staff members at the Denver headquarters Wednesday.”I have a broken heart,”he said.”But, I don’t have a discouraged heart. I have a heart that is filled with hope.” Although it is too soon to tell how many salaried staff might choose to work as volunteers, Ruppe said,”I fully expect the doors to remain open and volunteer staff to keep this ministry running until we reach an increased and stable income from donations … to bring the staff back.” He could not predict when paid staff might be able to return.

Ruppe said there is a mood of”prayerful hope”among employees.

Ministry officials said it is more important to share the gospel with men who are”lukewarm Christians or non-Christians”than to charge $60 for the events, he said. They think some wouldn’t be inclined to pay the registration fee.”We wanted to remove that impediment so we’ve opened the gates to all of our events in 1998,”Ruppe said.”That meant that Promise Keepers again had to do something that everybody said was impossible. We have a long history of … God doing things through us that everybody said was impossible.” Most recently, Ruppe said, people thought the organization could not bring a large crowd of men to the National Mall in Washington for its”Stand in the Gap”rally. But the event was a huge success, with hundreds of thousands of men attending the Oct. 4 gathering, one of the largest religious events in the nation’s history.

Ruppe said the organization has paid off the $9 million cost of the event, thanks in part to increased donations in 1997.

Merle Longwood, a professor of religious studies at Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y., said he thought the decision to move away from a fee-based operation was”a big leap of faith”when he heard it announced at Stand in the Gap.”They obviously were going to take a risk to see whether or not moving in the direction of total donations would be a possible way to make their organization continue and the risk yielded this result,”said Longwood, who studies the role of men in religious movements.

Promise Keepers officials had warned staff of possible cutbacks. Last July, after reaching a peak staff that exceeded 500, more than 100 people were laid off due to the loss of revenue from stadium events. McCartney said at the time he hoped there would not be any further staff cuts.

But a dramatic drop in attendance at regional events made further layoffs necessary. In 1997, 630,000 men attended 18 stadium events, compared to a 1.1 million total attendance at 22 events in 1996.

In 1996, 72 percent of the ministry’s income came from event fees and the rest from donations and sales of products such as T-shirts, mugs and books by McCartney.

Now the ministry is hoping to continue to hold regional conferences, with tentative plans for 19 cities.”Obviously having enough revenue to put on these free, but still costly, events is the determining factor,”Ruppe said.

Asked if he expected the layoffs to lead to cancellations of any of the conferences, Ruppe said,”I couldn’t speculate.” He also said he was”not privy”to the amount of the financial shortfall the ministry is facing.”There have been those who said we’re going from a fee-based to a faith-based ministry,”said Ruppe.”That’s wrong. We’ve always been a faith-based ministry.” (OPTIONAL TRIM _ STORY MAY END HERE.)

Longwood said it is too soon to tell if the layoff announcement is a sign that interest in the movement is waning.”I think everyone has been watching the Promise Keepers to see whether the things that had happened this past year were an indication of a peak or whether it was a possible indication there was new life forthcoming,”he said.”I guess what happens in the months to come will give us a reading of that,”he said.

McCartney, in making his announcement about the layoffs, offered a challenge to church leaders.”We have seen how God has used this ministry to change men’s lives and lead them back to church,”he said.”Now, as the fees to all events are removed, it is time for those churches to assist us in our mission to men.” Longwood said some churches may have the inclination, but not the capacity, to give the ministry a financial boost.”I’m not sure that given the financial condition of most churches that they will have much resources available to really provide alternative funding,”he said.”Churches I know _ none of them are very flush.”

DEA END RNS