Last week a very successful businessman and potential major donor asked, “What is the big idea to move the ministry forward?”

It would be tempting to give money as the answer, but money is not a “big idea.” Money is merely a tool to finance a big idea. Here’s the email I sent him…

Ed… Thank you for asking what our big idea is to move the ministry forward. 

Nothing short of a wholesale spiritual revival and awakening, starting with men, will satisfy. We have a “men problem.” Men are in trouble. The collateral damage is staggering. As a result, it seems like the sky is falling. Our once dependable consensus of Judeo-Christian values is melting faster than a polar ice cap. But far from being hopeless, we see that a great door has opened.

No matter how we got into the current situation, the only solution is to disciple our way out.

To that end, God has called us to do everything humanly possible to evangelize and disciple 10,000,000 new men who go on to lead powerful lives transformed by Christ.

Over the last 25 years, the Spirit has given us a “trust” (the No Man Left Behind Model) which continues to produce suspiciously good results. 1 Corinthians 4:2 says, “Whomever has been given a trust must be found faithful.” As a result of this, we ask daily, “What does faithful look like?”

We are in the process of training 35,000 disciple-making churches. That’s approximately 10% of America’s churches. We’ve already completed transactions with over 35,000 churches since 1991, so we think this is doable, God willing. We know that we will work hard to make it happen, and it most certainly won’t happen without big vision and hard work.

We have a “men problem” because we have a “church problem.” Most churches have not been making disciples who make other disciples.

Here it is: If churches don’t start discipling more men, then from where will revival come?

So we’re asking, what can we do to be found faithful? 

For us, the BIG IDEA is to recruit 800 (FTE) part- and full-time Field Staff to help 35,000 churches disciple 10,000,000 new men. That’s reflects our current average of approximately 40 churches per FTE Field Staff, and only 30 new disciples per church (which, based on actual results, takes a No Man Left Behind church 2 years to achieve). We want to put a Field Staff in every community as soon as possible. 95 men have been appointed so far, and we have another 61 in the pipeline (which is double the number from one year ago).

TO MOVE OUR BIG IDEA FORWARD, WE NEED AN ADDITIONAL $500,000 THIS YEAR AND AN ADDITIONAL $1,000,000 PER YEAR THROUGH 2020. We think that would be enough: $5,000,000.

So how can we build relationships with high capacity donors who share our zeal for revival and awakening and are willing to put down some large bets to equip churches to disciple men? That is our greatest need.

We have some ideas, but what are yours?

Until every church disciples every man…

Pat