Who We Are and Why We Exist
Who Am I, Jerry Stark?
Over the years, I have been blessed to have been mentored and discipled by some real "Spiritual Giants"! I can still remember the brother who shared Christ with me at a youth camp in Mansfield Ohio. I essence I was introduced to just one person of the Holy Trinity, Jesus. Advanced forward to 1995 at Promise Keepers in the Silver Dome. It's ironic that the theme that year was 'Raise The Standard". It was at that stadium with almost 90,000 other guys that reality hit home. I may have met Jesus in Mansfield, Oh, but I was definitely not following Him! I did not have a clue that the Holy Spirit was out to rock my world. I really thought it was about Promise Keepers. Shortly afterwards I began being discipled by a member of the Cleveland Campaus Crusade Team (Now CRU). In 2004, I was trained on Practical Christian Leadership Development over 13 weeks. In 2005 I was hird to serve as Promise Keepers National Manager of Conference Follow-up. In 2019, I completed the requirements for and was Commissioned as a Mimister to Men by the Christian Men's Network. I was ordained in 2020 by the National Association of Christian Ministers.
Who Are We, Northcoast Band of Brothers?
We are a group of "Christ Followers" with a passion to assist churches in the development of real and authentic "Mission Driven Ministry for Men"! We have seen thousands of men impacted at many catalytic events like Promise Keepers only to return to their local churches who for the most part were not ready to handle the returning men and get them into the discipleship process. In essense, men went to these events and learned they were sick. We knew the medicine was Jesus, we just did not have the distribution system in place. That distribution system is the local church! We are excited to see so many churches now focusing more on ministry to men.
We continued trying to make a difference in 2001 when we developed a conference follow-up plan for Promise Keepers. We partitioned Ohio up into 15 zones using zipcodes as the vehicle. We then recruited leaders in each of the 15 zones to lead the follow-up activities in their respective zones. As a result of this activity, we formed a 501C3 ministry called "Ohio Men of Integrity".
In 2008, Now as the Northcoast Band of Brothers, and assisted by represenatives of CRU, we developed a comprehensive and systematic follow-up plan for the Cleveland/NE Ohio PROMISE KEEPERS conference in 2008. The plan we developed was also adopted by our counterparts in Charleston West Virginia for their PK Conference. We recruited nearly 40 churches in and adjacent to Ohio, all using the same tool, "Foundations" developed by CRU. God is on the move and we just don't want to miss being a part.
Our secondary mission is to assist in the "John 17 Movement"!