Our History - On The Back Of A Grasshopper

I thought that header might grab your attention! And now for the rest of the story. Maximum Impact Ministries literally began on the back of a Grasshopper. The year was 2000 and I was finishing my last year at Dallas Theological Seminary. I had a lawn and landscape business at the time and from time to time I donated my services to organizations as a means of supporting their work. We had been supporting our local pregnancy center for several years and my wife had been a volunteer counselor before she became pregnant with our son. They had just opened their new location in College Station - a beautiful building on a lot strategically close to the university. I offered to keep the grounds for them - mow the grass, plant the flower beds, maintain the memorial garden - so the ministry would not have the expense of hiring another company to take care of the landscaping.

One afternoon I was mowing and the executive director came out to talk with me. When I saw Sherry approaching I shut down my machine to visit with her. She informed me that the board of directors wanted very much to start a men's ministry now that there was space to do so. The idea was to not only reach young women of college age but the young men as well. But no one really new where to begin. A crisis pregnancy center ministering to guys? Sherry was familiar with my background in working with men and she asked if I would consider coming on part time as the Director of Men's Ministry. Well, after some prayer and figuring out how I would finish my degree, keep my business going and start a new ministry working fifteen hours a week at the center I accepted.

By 2002 we were seeing a steady stream of guys coming into the center with their partners. On a whim I submitted a workshop proposal for the CareNet conference in Atlanta that year titled Counseling the Male Client - Strategies and Techniques. CareNet liked the idea. So did about eighty women who attended that first workshop. Pregnancy Centers from around the country began to contact me asking for help and direction in starting their own men's ministries. I realized we had uncovered a real need - and a remarkable opportunity to reach men for Christ beyond our own community.

So in 2002 I founded Maximum Impact Ministries to help pregnancy resource centers do what we had done in our center - implement and integrate a vital counseling ministry to men. That's how it began. By 2005 our center was seeing about hundred men per year. That number represented 10% of our total client base! Oh, by the way, the big commercial mower I was operating that day Sherry and I talked was called a GRASSHOPPER. Now you know the rest of the story.