Promise Network was originally established in 1978 as Gospel Publishing Association by Dr. Ralph Woerner, a visionary pastor and writer. Dr. Woerner was the pastor of a small church in a large urban area. As he looked out from the pulpit every Sunday, he became discouraged that he was preaching to the same people over and over. God soon began to tug at his heart. His love of writing became his tool for reaching out to the other 30,000 people in his community, so he cleared out some space in his basement and began publishing a little newspaper called The Messenger.
Dr. Woerner’s desire to reach out further and impact deeper inspired his congregation, and they began to see the potential impact of mailing their very own newspaper to the community. New life was birthed in their body of believers. For the first time in many years the congregation was buzzing and actually reaching out to their local community. Soon, many other pastors in the area began asking Dr. Woerner to do the same thing for them, and what began as a small, one church newspaper has now blossomed into an outreach tool that over 6,000 churches in more than 50 denominations across the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico have used to reach over 20 million homes. Currently, our publications reach 47 states and five Canadian provinces. To God be the glory!
In 1992, Dr. Woerner was again frustrated by the lack of outreach tools that were available to the average Christian. He was inspired to provide the same opportunity for individuals who desired to reach their neighbors for Christ that he had given churches for so long. He began a newspaper called Answer Magazine, which allowed the individual Christian an opportunity to impact their local neighborhood with the gospel.
In 2001, upon Woerner’s retirement, Dr. Ron Mitchell was appointed President of Promise Network. Ron pastored churches in the United States for 20 years, and has preached and provided leadership training in many foreign countries. Prior to assuming leadership of Promise Network, Ron served as Executive Director of Leadership Enrichment with a Christian foundation in West Palm Beach, FL whose mission was to take the good news of Jesus Christ to non-Christian and non-churched leaders around the world.
Today at Promise Network, we are prepared for the future. We have merged both newspapers into one full color magazine called Answer that features two versions; one is personalized for the local church and direct mailed to the community surrounding them, and another version which is not personalized, that individual sponsors can mail to their community. In 2006, God directed us to help Hispanic churches who have limited evangelical resources available to them. Out of this desire to impact the Hispanic community, a 16-page full color magazine titled Respuesta was born. It affords Hispanic churches the same opportunity to personalize and mail their own magazine into their local community in a dual-language format.
Our mission has stayed constant, “to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the homes of North America.” Our publications speak to the spiritual, moral, cultural and family issues of our time. We continue to offer several unique outreach tools to churches, many of which are seeing direct results in their communities. People are being reached through solid biblical content, some are getting back into church after finding it “unfulfilling,” others are discovering new life in Christ, and pastors are being recognized in their communities for the very first time.
Promise Network’s desire is to partner with the local church to impact North America with the life-changing message of the Bible. From our beginning in a basement over 30 years ago, our passion is stronger than ever to help the local church … and we have more office space too!