It was a guys’ weekend out for more than 7,500 men and boys at the Promise Keepers' 2006 kickoff event in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., June 2-3 and thousands more are expected to join the ministry outing in Baltimore this weekend for an "Unleashed" experience.

Right out of the first of 19 conferences covering coast to coast, Promise Keepers has moved up the Eastern Seaboard for its second "Unleashed - Releasing the Raw Power of Your Heart" event, June 9-10. Traveling with the national men's ministry every weekend for the next five months is key speaker Dr. Bob Reccord, former president of the North American Mission Board, who had stressed the need to engage the culture even from the pews at a press meeting ahead of the kickoff.

This year's theme plays off of the ministry's desire to help men discover and develop their potential and to put them into action.

"You are the Church," Promise Keepers President and CEO Dr. Tom Fortson said according to a released statement during the first conference of the year. "Go into the world and live it in the marketplace!"

Last Saturday, the PK Thunder motorcycle rally featured 150 motorcycles that went around Broward County and is also planned to make their way to other cities in this year's tour. The thousands of attendants also donated more than 8,000 pounds of canned food to food banks in three different counties

That morning, Bishop Joseph Garlington encouraged men to unleash their talents during a session on "Optimizing Your Talents."

"There is something about you that is bigger than you are," he said. "God knows your purpose before you were ever born. Unleash it!"

While the first two-day event closed, the thousands of men who participated received a six-week group Bible study, developed in association with Man in the Mirror, to help them continue their spiritual development.

Promise Keepers will make stops in two more cities on the East coast – Raleigh, N.C., and Albany, N.Y. – which will close off the first month of the Unleashed conferences.