Mike McPherson says he is so excited that he’s “about ready to burst.” As president of ACTS 100, which he began in 2008 with friend Brian Bakken, the organization is now on the cusp of expanding into the Greater Birmingham area.
It’s a vision that’s been a long time coming.
“I have prayed to the Lord for four years for this point in time and have been hoping and anticipating this moment,” said McPherson, who also serves as pastor of Lifeway Community Church, Loxley, in Baldwin Baptist Association.
ACTS 100 is a faith-based, nondenominational, charitable organization accredited by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. Within the ACTS 100 model, 100 individuals each donate $1,000 in a year for a total of $100,000. That donation is then given to a winning grant recipient that must be a faith-based, nonprofit organization/ministry in the membership’s community. At an annual meeting, the ACTS 100 chapter members cast a vote for the grant recipient of their choice out of several finalists. One hundred percent of all public donations are given to that local chapter’s annual grant.
ACTS 100 was formerly known as Power-Surge 100 until 2012. “We felt that the name ACTS 100 more perfectly fit our mission and our vision based off of Acts 1:8,” McPherson noted.
The current chapter of ACTS 100 is located in the Mobile area and began with 60 members. The next year it grew to 64 members, and then the following year to 100.
The ACTS 100 concept initially began as a discussion between McPherson and Bakken, and as with many new ideas there were some challenges in the beginning.
“One of the challenges is that people said, ‘This is too pure, too simple, it can’t be real,’” McPherson said. “So there were some … skeptics, and we understood that would be the case.”
And there were other hurdles as well, he noted, such as determining how to get word out about the organization and navigating the less-than-ideal economic climate during its launch in 2008. Overcoming these and other challenges has been a process, but McPherson is optimistic about the future of ACTS 100.
Now in its fifth year, McPherson is hopeful that ACTS 100 catches on in other communities and states across the country. The goal is to have at least two ACTS 100 chapters established in every state in the U.S.
He noted the Greater Birmingham area was picked as the potential site for the second ACTS 100 chapter because Birmingham is the largest city in the state. An ACTS 100 chapter in Chattanooga, Tenn., also is close to launching this fall, and there is even interest to begin a chapter in West Palm Beach, Fla.
During a “seed planting” meeting Aug. 19 at Altadena Valley Presbyterian Church, Birmingham, McPherson discussed the grant guidelines for ministries/organizations interested in applying for an ACTS 100 grant and how to become an ACTS 100 member. He stressed to attendees that there is nothing fancy or high-tech about ACTS 100 and that “anyone can join and all are welcome.”
ACTS 100 chapters are led by a committee of those participating in that chapter. The committee also reads and selects the five best grant applications to present to the entire chapter for their vote at the annual meeting.
Mary Kay Beard, founder of Angel Tree, a program of Prison Fellowship, facilitated the meeting.
“When Mike was telling me about how this would be a $100,000, one-time gift, I thought what that would do for so many ministries,” she said. “I just think it’s an excellent opportunity.”
McPherson is encouraged that a couple of pastors with churches comprised of 700 members or more are also latching on to the ACTS 100 concept and are looking to establish an ACTS 100 group in their own church membership.
And with “thousands of churches” in the Greater Birmingham area, McPherson acknowledged the potential growth of ACTS 100 membership through the church alone. “If you could somehow connect with Christians in 1,000 churches and each one of them committed out of their church one [ACTS 100] member, we wouldn’t have 100 members in Birmingham, we’d have 1,000,” he explained. “And you’d have 10 annual (ACTS 100) meetings happening … at different times giving away $1 million.”
In addition to starting at least two ACTS 100 chapters in every state, McPherson said another vision — slated to be implemented in 2014 — is to establish a “university level” of ACTS 100 where 100 college students each donate $100. That $10,000 total is then given away to a college campus ministry at their school every year.
For more information, visit www.acts100.org or email info@acts100.org.
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