My father, Ed Cole, and our family launched this ministry in 1977. He was near the age when most men retire, but God had given him a word from the Lord to reach the men of the nation. I went to the courthouse and paid $34 cash for the incorporation. My sister Joann was already producing brochures and tape series, my Mom keeping records, praying, and counseling, my sister Lois reviewing legal needs.
Defeating the attack on the family began with a family.
Dad was told it wouldn't work. Others, like Harold Bredesen and Campbell McAlpine, said it was a word from God. Then, in a public meeting, George Otis stated, "this ministry is running late." Dad faced huge obstacles, but he had a word, and he wouldn't quit.
February 1980, at a men’s retreat in the mountains of Oregon, Dad spoke a “word" of repentance that put 200 men on their faces in a Holy Spirit confrontation that not only changed their lives but propelled CMN into a new level. The teaching that followed was the breakthrough word that Israel’s five deadly sins are the same things today that still keep men from their personal “Land of Promise.”
This became the theme; "Manhood and Christlikeness are Synonymous."
The response to repent was so compelling that, within two months, the first citywide men’s rally was held. Drawing only 38 men, the global Christian men’s movement was nonetheless ignited, and four years later, 7,800 men attended the first National Christian Men’s Event in Houston.
That original word became the bestselling book Maximized Manhood, one of the most widely read men’s books in the world. Dr. Cole resigned the church he was pastoring, started the Christian Men’s Network and began the journey of reaching men wherever the doors would open.
The first twelve years of the ministry were extremely hard financially ... but friends like Pat Robertson and others encouraged and helped. A move to Texas in 1991 centered the ministry geographically and
Twenty years later, Coach Bill McCartney and others have called Ed Cole the “Father of the Christian Men’s Movement.” After Coach heard him speak at an athletes conference, he asked Dad to help him teach men to keep their word. That launched a ministry called PromiseKeepers. As that other men's ministries sprang up, CMN went across the world. By the year 2001, CMN had made impact in over 200 nations. To this day, we hear from people from far-flung places whose lives were changed directly through his ministry.
The last 20 years of his life became his greatest years in ministry. When Dad entered Heaven in 2002, a stubborn legacy took over. Built on prayer rather than plans, Dad’s teachings kept circling the globe and his “spiritual sons” carried it. The year before his death, Dad assigned Joann to oversee his books. In the next decade, more than a million books were distributed in English and in dozens of new languages.
By December, 2006, my wife Judi and I had planted a church, were operating a business, helping others in their ministries, and life was rocking along. Then, a word from the Lord and the counsel of close friends brought a massive God-directed shift.
Judi and I went all-in. Treating nothing sacred except following God’s plan, we sold our house, moved into an apartment, started the process to install my son Brandon and his wife Meredith as lead pastors at the church, and committed ourselves to building the ministry to men and reigniting the worldwide men’s movement.
After a few starts, in 2007 a team of committed men joined forces as a CMN brotherhood and together we re-launched the full Lions Roar Summit in Dallas.
Since then, this brotherhood has put everything into helping leaders disciple men, and we've made allies with men whose hearts beat with ours.
When you have a word, know it's from God. You just don't quit. It's been a stretch for all of us, but I won't quit, and the CMN brothers won't quit.
Dad taught us, "Champions are not those who never fail, they are those who never quit."
God hasn't quit on you. We don't quit on God.
Dad would have turned 102 years old tomorrow. He left 22 years ago. What's remarkable is that today, more men are reading his books and using the CMN resources to disciple men than when he was alive.
Let's keep it going. Let's take it to men in every nation, every language, every church.
Let's raise up fathers, save families, and take Jesus to the next generation.
What a man does in life becomes history, what he puts into motion becomes his legacy.
We are those men who will not quit.
We are The Brotherhood of CMN.
We are CMN, we rescue men.
