For months I’ve been telling you something is coming.
Dropping hints. Planting seeds. Telling you to stay close.
Today the doors open completely.
On September 14th, the American Family Renaissance is hosting its first-ever men’s summit—The Power of Asking for Help– and everything I have been building toward on this podcast, in my coaching, and in my life’s work is culminating in one free day that I believe could genuinely change the direction of your life.
This is not an event I threw together.
This is a gathering I believe God has been orchestrating for a long time.
And today I want to tell you exactly what it is, who is coming, and why I believe every man reading this needs to be in that room on September 14th.
How This Started
A while back I was developing a keynote, a talk called The Power of Asking for Help.
It was built around something I had seen over and over in the men I work with. Something that sits at the root of almost every broken marriage, every derailed fatherhood, every man who comes to me depleted, lost, and unsure how he got there.
The unwillingness to ask.
The pride. The performance. The isolation. The deeply ingrained conviction that a real man handles his own and that needing help is something to be managed in private and never admitted out loud.
I called a man named Scott Schilling — a partner, a mentor, one of the most trusted voices in leadership I know — just to sharpen the message.
And what started as a conversation about a keynote became something else entirely.
Scott looked at what I was building and said, “This isn’t just a talk.” This is a gathering. This is a mission.
That conversation became the AFR Summit.
Why This Moment Matters
Men are in crisis. Not a soft, theoretical kind of crisis. A real one.
The male loneliness epidemic is the most acute it has ever been. The crisis of fatherhood is reshaping entire generations. The disconnection between men and their faith, their families, their purpose — it is not getting better on its own.
And the cultural response to that crisis has been to ignore it, apologize for it, or offer solutions with no foundation beneath them.
What men need is not more content.
They need a gathering. A moment where they realize they are not alone. A day where world-class voices speak directly into the exact struggles they have been managing in silence.
That is what September 14th is.
The restoration of the American family does not start in Washington. It starts with a man making a decision. And that decision starts with one question:
Are you done drifting?
The Speaker Lineup
I did not put this lineup together randomly. Every man on this stage was chosen because he has something to say that men in this audience desperately need to hear.
Here is who is coming and why their message matters to you specifically.
Scott Schilling
Scott is one of the most trusted voices in leadership development I have ever encountered. A man who has spent decades helping people unlock what is holding them back — not with theory, but with road-tested wisdom that only comes from a man who has lived it. Scott’s message goes right to the core of what keeps men stuck: the stories they tell themselves about who they are and what they’re capable of. If you’ve ever felt built for more than you’re living—Scott is the man you need to hear.
Tom Ziglar
Tom carries on the legendary legacy of his father, Zig Ziglar—and he has built something real of his own. His message is built around the conviction that every man was created with gifts worth developing and a purpose worth pursuing. At a time when so many men have lost their vision for their own lives, Tom Ziglar is one of the best voices alive to restore it.
Bob Tiede
Bob has spent his career studying the transformative power of asking great questions—and what he has discovered will reframe the way you lead your family, your team, and yourself. The right question, asked at the right moment, is more powerful than the best answer you’ve ever given. If you want to become a better leader at home and at work, Bob Tiede has the tools.
Bob Bodine
Bob brings a message on authentic leadership and personal breakthrough that has impacted thousands of men. He is not interested in the polished version of you — he is interested in the real one. His message at this summit is built around a truth that most men resist: breakthrough never comes from performing better. It comes from becoming more honest about where you actually are.
Vince Miller
Vince is the founder of Resolute and one of the most respected voices in Christian men’s discipleship in America today. He has built his entire life’s work around one conviction: men were designed for brotherhood—and without it, they drift. Vince’s message will cut right to the isolation that is the silent enemy of every man in this audience.
Chris Widener
Chris is a Hall of Fame motivational speaker, author, and one of the most sought-after voices on leadership and human potential in the world. He has a gift for taking complex truths and making them not just understandable but immediately actionable. Men leave Chris Widener sessions with something they can do today that begins to change the direction of their lives.
Jim Britt
Jim Britt’s story begins in a cotton field. Born into poverty. No advantages. No head start. By the age of twenty-nine—through a radical decision to stop doing life alone and start asking the right questions of the right people— he reached financial independence. He went on to become one of the world’s top twenty success coaches, the author of thirteen bestselling books, and the man who mentored Anthony Robbins for his first five years in business. Jim is coming to deliver one message: the shift that changed everything for him is available to every man in that room.
Mike Van Pelt — Your Host
I’m bringing the keynote that gave this summit its name. The Power of Asking for Help. Everything I have built — True Man Life Coaching, the American Family Renaissance, this podcast — traces back to one moment when I stopped performing and started asking. I’m going to tell you exactly what happened when I did. And exactly what is available to you on the other side of the same decision.
This Is Just the Beginning
The summit is September 14th. It is free. And it is the beginning, not the end.
Because transformation doesn’t happen in a day. A day can crack something open. A day can shift a perspective and ignite something that has been dormant. But the work of becoming the man your family needs—that happens over time, in community, with accountability and a clear standard to live by.
That is why, alongside the summit, I want to tell you about what comes next for the men who are ready to go deeper.
It’s called “The Standard of a Restored Man“—a twelve-week journey through The 9 Marks of a Restored Man.
A master course built for the man who hears what we’re doing on September 14th and says, “I want more than a day.” I want a complete reconstruction. I want to walk through this with other men who are serious about becoming who their families need them to be.
Eleven weeks to build the man. The twelfth week to build the house.
The summit on September 14th is your invitation into the mission.
The 9 Marks Master Course is how you go all the way.
Join Me on This Mission
I want to close with something I don’t say lightly.
I’m asking you to join me.
Not just to attend an event. Not just to read a blog or listen to a podcast.
I’m asking you to join a mission.
The American Family Renaissance exists because I believe, with every conviction in me, that the restoration of this nation runs through the restoration of the family. And the restoration of the family runs through the restoration of the man.
That is not a political statement. It is a spiritual one.
And it will happen one man at a time. One household at a time. One father who decides, today, not someday, that the drift stops with him.
That man, multiplied across thousands of homes, is the American Family Renaissance.
And it starts on September 14th.
Here is what I’m asking you to do right now:
Step One: Register for the free summit at americanfamilyrenaissance.com/summit. One click. Takes sixty seconds. September 14th — The Power of Asking for Help. Be there.
Step Two: Share this post or this episode with one man in your life who needs to hear it. Text it to him right now. Let it do the talking.
Step Three: If you’re ready to go beyond the summit—if the 9 Marks Master Course sounds like exactly what you need. The course is coming. And I want you in it.
This is the mission.
God. Family. Country.
In that order. Always in that order.
The next chapter of the American family is being written right now. By men like you. In homes like yours. In decisions that feel ordinary but carry extraordinary weight.
Don’t sit this one out.
I’ll see you on September 14th.
Listen to the full episode: The Day That Could Change the Direction of Your Life” — True Man Podcast, available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and wherever you listen.
Watch True Man Podcast on Youtube: https://youtu.be/3HoR3r9WOMc
Register for free for the AFR Summit: americanfamilyrenaissance.com/summit September 14, 2026 — The Power of Asking for Help
Mike Van Pelt is the founder of True Man Life Coaching and a board member of American Family Renaissance. His mission: help men stop drifting, reclaim their identity, and build a legacy worth leaving—one man, one family, one generation at a time.