Sid: If you’ve been listening this week you’re getting clues; literally you’re getting supernatural coaching. And my guest is a coach of the supernatural of God he’s also a football coach; you’ve heard of him Coach Bill McCartney. God used him to start Promise Keepers and I mean I’m overwhelmed they had 1.4 million men gathered to worship God in one arena. 1.4 million men from all different types of Christian backgrounds that’s a supernatural feat. You know in the Bible it says “Despise not small beginnings.” I would imagine that the nucleus of Promise Keepers began at the 6:15 AM Bible study you had with 5 guys.
Coach: Yes, way back when I first came to Christ at the age of 33; five of us agreed, actually there was 6, 5 other guys and myself agreed to meet in a restaurant just outside of Detroit. I was Coaching at the University of Michigan so I would drive 35 miles east into Detroit right off of the expressway we’d met an then it was so good; our time together was so good that we started to invite other guys. And soon we were 2 tables and then there were 3 tables of guys, and then pretty soon it the only way it made any sense we were having between 25, 30, 40 guys every Tuesday morning at 6:15 that we had a speaker. And then they weren’t going to chase us out of this restaurant because we were bringing a lot of business that they weren’t getting. And…
Sid: What did you do at this Bible study?
Coach: Well, it started out when there was just a few of us as we opened the word of God and just kind of shared what God was doing in each other’s lives and we were holding each other accountable. We were sharing some of our struggles; it was kind of a accountability group but it grew to go beyond the boundaries of accountability there was so many men flocking into this restaurant. This restaurant was just a breakfast dive and I mean it wasn’t an attractive place at all, but God was showing up and so it started up with 6 of us and then pretty soon there were 25, and 30 and then 40. And just 60 and then every Tuesday morning there were 80 adult men gathered to hear the word of God and it went from there to 120. And the restaurant didn’t even hold 120; it was exploding and then that’s when God showed me in men there’s a longing there’s a craving for authenticity; there’s a craving within men for a real man as a godly man. A man of real substance and fiber and strength and significance and he’s a godly man. I got to tell you for every guy that came and came back there was at least one other guy who would come look around the room and see somebody he didn’t trust and he was out of there and he never came back. For those that came back and surrendered their hearts to the Lord none of us have ever been the same; God’s just radically resurrected a right spirit within us.
Sid: Now that was the nucleus the beginning but how does someone go from this 120 men that are jammed into a restaurant to the 1.4 million; what happened next?
Coach: What happened was I began cheering after some extraordinary experiences in the University of Colorado where God was just showing Himself strong in the midst of my football program. I began sharing with men that I believe that if we went after Him we could fill stadiums with men. So the last Saturday in July of 1990, 72 men gathered together in a small church in Boulder, Colorado and they came there to hear the vision. And I shared with them that I believed that if we trusted God and we went after it we would see stadiums filled with men and these guys…
Sid: Now where did you get this thought from? How did that happen?
Coach: There was another guy and myself he was at the time he was the President of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in Colorado and he invited me to speak at a fund raising banquet at Pueblo, Colorado. It was a 3 hour car ride from Boulder and on the way we were just kind of sharing our hearts together. And I said to him his name is Dave Hordell, I said “Dave if you could do anything with your life money not withstanding what would you do?” And he didn’t even hesitate he said “Coach he said I would disciple men one on one; I’d meet with them on street corners, coffee shops and I’d lead them into a discipline walk with Jesus Christ.” He said “How about you Coach if you could do anything in your life what would you do?” I said, “Dave I believe that God would fill stadiums with men and if we asked Him to do it and we went after these men.” So he and I kind of felt that the Lord was in that and we felt that we agreed to pursue that. And that’s how in 70 we invited just friends; he knew more guys than I did and that’s how many guys showed up. We didn’t know at the time that it would be a Biblical number but 72 guys showed up in a church and I shared what I said and Dave shared what he said and we said “We think God’s in this, would you agree to fast and pray and let’s see what God will do.” So the next… in the months that followed we prayed and then I took my vacation time. A College football coach only gets 1 month a year in vacation and that’s the month of July the way that we worked it. So I took my month instead and I went and knocked on the doors of all the churches in Colorado. If the pastor was there I sat with him and told him of our vision; if he wasn’t there I left him a leaflet and just explaining an event that we were going to have. So the last Saturday in July 1991 and a year later 4200 men showed up in the basketball arena in Boulder, Colorado. God was all over it and God united that thing.
Sid: Why does God want this, why is God so eager for this? Why I mean why not just men and woman? What is it about men that was so special to God in this moment in history?
Coach: Isaiah 38:19 says “A father to the children shall make known the truth.” You know they’ve done studies. If mom comes to faith in Jesus Christ there’s a 19% chance the whole family will. If a teenage son comes to faith in Yeshua there is a 31% chance, it’s greater. But if dad comes to faith in Yeshua, there is a 92% chance the whole family will. It’s the providence of God. The man is to be the spiritual leader in the home but the definition of a spiritual leader is a servant. A guy that lays down his life for his family and so it’s always been in the heart of God. But I got to tell you what was in my heart was the brotherhood of believers. In other words, here I am a coach I understand the component of a team and how we need each other. And so as a born again Christian who was involved in building teams what was in my heart was that the body of Christ would come together. And never forget this, at the very first event for Promise Keepers that when there were 4200 men there it was my privilege to close out the program. I was standing at the platform looking out; 600 guys had gotten saved, the worship was off the charts. None of us had ever felt the Spirit of God in that way before; it was way beyond anything that any of us had known personally. I mean it was electric in there and so I felt like the Lord whispered to me and He said “Coach, look at these men and tell Me what you see. And I said “God I see guys who are excited about the gospel.” He said “Well, what else do you see?” And I said “There almost all white guys.” He said “You get up and tell them because see we had challenged the 4200 men if each one of you goes out and gets 1 guy a month for the next 12 months we can go from 4200 here to 50,000 in a football stadium. In other words we can turn this into something extraordinary if we’ll just step out in faith now that God has allowed us to taste this. Well, God said “You get up and tell them if they fill that stadium with 50,000 white guys I ain’t coming.”
Sid: Hm.
Coach: And so I did, you know I got up and I said “God just spoke to me and told me that if we fill this stadium with 50,000 white guys He’s not coming.” Well, I came under attack, they said “The coach, bless his heart, you know he means well but he contradicted the word of God said ‘If two or more gathered together in My name I am there.’” But the truth is I had not contradicted the word of God because when two or more gather in His Name you gather in his character, you gather in the fullness of the Father’s heart. And the Fathers’ heart is for all of His Sons. See what God birthed in Promise Keepers was a bonding of the brotherhood, what God wanted was that all of His sons would come together across all boundaries. And quite frankly Sid we unwittingly did not understand how the Messianic Community was supposed to participate in that. When you talk about the 1.4 million men that was the first time the Messianic Community was there. It was in the Mall in Washington DC. We all knelt, if you’ve ever seen 1.4 million men all on their faces. Every one of us all had our face on the ground and we submitted ourselves to the Lord. Well, it was at that event…
Sid: I’ll tell you what hold that thought, I know you’ll be back tomorrow….
