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 We are thrilled and privileged to serve you in our common desire to be more Christ-like in our marriage, family, church, work, and reaching others in a gentle and yet bold way with the love of Jesus Christ. God has called us to do this through Discipleship Network of America, (DNA Ministries), a network of people committed to reaching and discipling others, serving pastors, church and denominational leaders, men's ministries, the homeschool community, and individuals ministering in their homes and at work.
We are available through live seminars and conferences, for outreaches to the uncommitted, in addition to having video and audio series and books. We encourage you to sign our guestbook. Among other things, you may request a free 8 minute video to sample and learn more about Phil's conference speaking.
We do not know where we would be if God had not reached us in the despair and pain of our broken marriage, the pressures of business, the crisis in relationships, the horror remaining from combat as a Marine machine gunner, and given us a purpose in our family, a biblical context for ambition and success, and tools and practical paths to follow in nurturing and discipling our six children and reaching others the way we were reached.
Because Christ reached us through godly and committed people, strategically placed in our lives, we are committed to spend our remaining days, not only doing the same with others, but assisting like-minded people, in addition to pastors and leaders, to be life multipliers. The theme of our ministry is Winning and Discipling People to Become Disciple Makers. Our product, with God's help, is spiritual reproduction in the lives of others who will pursue lifetime discipleship.
Susy: I grew up in a wonderful family in St. Louis. I headed to SMU in Dallas, majoring in Economics, where I met Phil. We were married, graduated from Emory Law School together, and both began practicing law in Atlanta. It was years later that I admitted to Phil that the one extra course I took, Domestic Relations, was to arm myself with the legal weapons to sue him for divorce because he had so crushed my heart.
Phil: I had grown up in Colorado and New York with more than the usual family pain, flunked out of the college where my father had been the student body president, and as a young man strongly disliking being told what to do, ironically (though providentially), joined the United States Marine Corps. I stuffed the pain, lived for the moment, medicated my needs with achievement, competition, and the answers of the world. After all, big boys don't cry. I finally found answers when a doctor teamed up with other professional men in CBMC, and reached out to me with the timeless truths of Jesus Christ. I saw the Bible become the most relevant and effective tool in my leadership role, ultimately becoming a senior partner and trial lawyer in a 50 attorney law firm in five offices coast to coast. I learned that the Scriptures provided invaluable guidance in rebuilding relationships and was a blueprint for my discipleship of men in the marketplace. I found forgiveness of the mistakes of yesterday and faith for the fears of tomorrow, providing me rest in my todays.
Susy: When I saw Phil change, giving credibility to what the woman discipling me said about Christ, I, too, became a Christian and found my role as an attorney with Delta Air Lines a fabulously strategic position to model my faith and to share the gospel outright with others.
But what about our cold and broken marriage? I couldn't imagine living with someone I didn't love, and although Phil had changed into a loving husband, my heart was empty for him. Because I had been discipled by a woman who taught me that our Lord was the God of the impossible, I turned to Him and pled for a new love for Phil. God gave me a much deeper, richer love for Phil than I had ever had before, because this love was a direct gift from Him. If God can save our marriage, he can save yours, or take a good marriage and make it into the joyful, intimate, cherishing, exciting and fruitful one, we now, by God's grace, enjoy together.
After ten years with Delta, serving as Assistant Corporate Secretary and Senior Attorney, I heard a man say, "Children have eternal significance." Because we had been so effectively discipled, we were committed to having as great an impact as possible for Jesus Christ with our peers, but it hadn't really occurred to us that this should include discipling our children. This led to my resigning my position with Delta (a job I loved so much I would have done it for free) and ultimately home educating our children.
In 1991, God called Phil to leave his law firm, move from Atlanta to Chattanooga, Tennessee and join a nationwide ministry, CBMC, as President. Over the next ten years we grew in our relationships with the Lord, our ministry individually and as a family, sharpening our focus on winning and discipling men, women, couples, and families.
Phil: Now, in Discipleship Network of America, which we founded on the twins 14th birthday on February 14, 2001, we continue with the same focus and passion with which God called us over 20 years ago, to go into all the world to make disciples. Matthew 28:19.
God has been gracious to us in His molding, pruning, and expanding, through the loss of loved ones, jobs, and expectations, through which we have seen His hand in a mighty way, turn suffering into significant growth and meaning.
We are not professional authors, although working together as a couple and with other faithful friends, God has written Eternal Impact: Investing in the Lives of Men, A Father's Reward: Raising Your Children to Walk in the Truth, Unlimited Partnership: Building Intimacy & Teamwork Into Your Marriage, Brave, Strong, & Tender, in Everyday Spiritual Battles. Optimize Your Marriage, Just An Ordinary Man, and one I coauthored and edited, Effective Men's Ministry.
Because we have lived out His ministry first as a husband and wife and then as parents, our marriage and family has not only been the crucible for life change, but has also been the medium through which we honestly, practically, and transparently share in a biblical context, life's challenges, joys, tears, failures, blessings, and eternally significant relationships and events that we trust will encourage you, equip you, free and release you to more completely be one of His special and dear life-changing disciples. We have captured much of this in our video and audio series presented at conferences either as a couple or with our children, Abigail, 26, Paul, 24, Matthew, 22, Anna and Joshua, 20, and Susanna, 14, who also share transparently the journey of our family.
Please consider us the friends next door or down the street who may be of some help or encouragement to you, your marriage, your family, your church, your ministry, or your work, as you answer God's call to see your life as a channel of His life-changing love and forgiveness in building disciples. |
