Promise Keepers, the Christian men's organization that filled football stadiums in the 1990s and then faded from view, is resurging and will hold a national conference Sept. 20-21 in the Cox Business Center downtown.
It is the first time the national organization has held a conference in Tulsa, although local groups with Promise Keepers ties have held rallies here.
Raleigh Washington, Promise Keepers national president, was in Tulsa last week to work out details of the upcoming conference, one of six scheduled this year.
He disputed the idea that the organization has faded away.
"Everywhere we go we hear people say, 'Where did Promise Keepers go?' Washington said.
"Promise Keepers hasn't gone anywhere. It has done multiple events every year since 1994 or 1995," he said.
Some people say that the organization was never the same after the Stand in the Gap Promise Keepers rally in 1997, which drew more than 1 million men to Washington, D.C., he said.
"It is true that we're not filling stadiums, or even large arenas of 20,000, but we are filling small arenas. Our average crowd is close to 5,000, and we hope to top that in Tulsa."
And he said in the next few years, the numbers will go "off the chart."
Although the numbers are down, he said, the impact of Promise Keepers is as great or greater than it has ever been, he said.
"The anointing of God and the power of God is touching and transforming the lives of men."
Washington said he was just coming from a meeting in Battle Creek, Mich., in which the preacher began to speak to the men on the subject of sexual purity.
When he asked them to take out their smart phones and show their neighbors what Internet sites they had visited, a groan went through the crowd.
"He never preached another word," Washington said. "When he finished that introduction, men started pouring from all over the arena, flooding the front of the arena, on their knees. The aisles were filled."
According to Barna research, he said, half of pastors and 60 percent of men who attend church struggle with pornography.
Washington was with Promise Keepers almost from its beginning.
He is best friends with former University of Colorado head football coach Bill McCartney, who founded the organization in the early 1990s in Boulder, Colo.
He left the Promise Keepers with McCartney in 2003 to pursue another ministry, and they both rejoined the organization in 2008, McCartney as chairman of the board and Washington as president.
The organization was in financial straits and was doing meetings in large churches, he said.
"When we came back it was a rekindling," Washington said.
"We changed the vision from 'Men Transformed Worldwide,' to 'Transforming Men to Transform the World.' "
In 2012, they stopped meeting primarily in churches and went back to small arenas, a venue that men find comfortable and one that worked for the organization in the past.
And they restored the practice of charging for Promise Keepers events, Washington said, finding that men who pay for an event value it more and are more likely to attend after registering.
Next year they will simulcast conferences to small arenas across several states, a technology they believe will more than quadruple their numbers.
"We've brought it back full circle," Washington said.
Promise Keepers conference
When: Sept. 20 and 21
Where: Cox Business Center, Seventh Street and Houston Avenue
Theme: Awakening the Warrior
Tickets: $69 for one, $59 for 2-9; $49 for 10 or more, and for clergy and military.
For more: Call 866-776-6473, or go to
tulsaworld.com/promisekeepers
Bill Sherman 918-581-8398
bill.sherman@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Promise Keepers in Tulsa
Local
The convenience store chain was the sole distributor of the 50-cent stickers residents were required to place on bags of extra yard waste.
The plaintiff alleged in a lawsuit that he was made to perform pushups to avoid a ticket or jail.
