OUR STORY

18 Replies

By Mike Foster:

I wish our story had started differently. We had no ribbon cutting or celebratory ground breaking. No blind idealism or inspirational grand opening.

Our movement known as People of the Second Chance was birthed out of failure. In 2009, Jud Wilhite and I were leading an organization called Deadly Viper that helped leaders live with integrity. We were helping thousands of men and women make good choices and lives were being impacted daily.

In March, 2009 a small, online activist group put us in their cross hairs. They labeled our message as racist and called for a national boycott. The personal attacks, pressure on our partners and the harsh criticism grew in number each day. Twenty days after the boycott started, our end came quickly. The products were removed from store shelves, Deadly Viper would be shut down and we were left to pick up the pieces. It was a painful and embarrassing ending.

So in the midst of this personal and professional storm, we started a simple WordPress blog. We called it “People of the Second Chance” and it was a place to process thoughts on grace and second chances. Each day we fought the urge to give up or to be bitter or to strike back or just throw in the towel. Trust me, we wanted to.

We wrote and shared more out of therapy than as revolutionaries. Each blog post reminded us that every adversity carries with it a seed for something better. As we shared on the blog, something beautiful started to happen. We realized we were not alone.

We found fellow second chancers, misfits, fighters and friends who shared a common story. Each one of us were looking for ways to fit in again, breathe again and know that our stories didn’t end in the valley. All of us wanted to belong and live our dreams…no matter what we had done and no matter how hard we had fallen.

What was, in our minds, just a blog, quickly turned into a grassroots movement. We took each other’s hand and quietly whispered to each other, “It’s going to be OK.”

In October, 2010 People of the Second Chance became an official organization. We launched a simple website, put out our manifesto called “Gracenomics” and activated an online community to live out grace.

Today we are a growing global, diverse community of 30,000 second chancers committed to unleashing radical grace everyday, in every moment, for everyone. And we are helping each other- we are carrying each other’s burdens, coaching, producing disruptive content, taking down vulture culture online, creating killer tools and connecting in groups. All of us, every failure, every broken down warrior, every soul looking to belong, are People of The Second Chance.

Through this season I’ve realized that you can’t always pick your beginnings or your endings. But you can bravely live your story and embrace what is. Each one of us is bonded by hope, redemption and possibility. This is your story. This is my story. And it’s just getting started.


  • Olsen Ew

    Thanks for your courage and commitment to expanding the impact of God’s Grace.

  • http://twitter.com/_ForeverHis17 Tara B

    LOVE it!! This is so encouraging and brings me soo much joy! Many blessings to you guys! :)

  • http://karenhammons.org/ Karen Hammons

    Thank you for your courage, Mike (and Jud) in stepping out from failure and starting this place.

  • Timmccarthy59

    Thanks Mike and Jud for your RADICAL GRACE!!!! # keepitup

  • http://www.facebook.com/kimberleedunn Kimberlee Dunn

    So grateful you stepped out and shared your story! So many are inspired and encouraged that there really are second chances!! 

  • Larzmarshall

    Still a proud owner of the previous book and dvd. Good material, too.

  • Dawn Davis

    Love this.
     

  • http://twitter.com/AshleyASmith ash

    WOW THIS is why I am passionate about second chances: “I’ve realized that you can’t always pick your beginnings or your
    endings. But you can bravely live your story and embrace what is. Each
    one of us is bonded by hope, redemption and possibility. This is your
    story. This is my story. And it’s just getting started.”

    So grateful for this community. Grateful for Mike & Jud- and all the brave second chancers, so inspired.

  • http://www.mohan37.com/ mohan37

    honored to be a part of it all :)

  • http://thomasmarkzuniga.com TMZ

    Powerful stuff! Love hearing the stories behind movements like this. Awesome indeed.

  • http://learningfromsophie.com/ Laura Anne

    I’m the proud WINNER of the book, DVD and study guide which made it’s way from Las Vegas to Scotland a couple of weeks really before it all kicked off. Still remember my two friends reading it over my shoulder when I was on holiday in Cornwall with their families.

    Also very thankful that Mike helped me return the favour by being part of my crazy mail chain sending something back to Lori to thank her too!

    Proud to be part of the second chance movement… :)

  • Steve D

    My addictions were different, as they were more inward than outward. I came to the place where I could no longer deal with myself. I fell into the deepest of depressions, and it all cost me my marriage, my job, my health, for a time my children, and almost…my very life. But GOD is bigger. I’m learning to be more like Jesus, love more like Jesus every single day. We deserve nothing. He gives us 70×7….a second chance. Thank you for sharing your story. My second chance is in the beginning stages, and I cannot wait to see where God chooses to take it from here!

  • http://www.mercyfoundme.com/ Jacque Watkins

    Thank you for the way you inspire the giving of grace. And I am striving to bravely live my story and embrace what it is, just like you said. I live in Corona, and attend Crossroads, and I remember Blake telling our couples’ small group about the criticism and the horrible attacks way back then. We prayed for you and for all God would continue to do through you, and it is so amazing how He has led and blessed POTSC. I am thankful for who you are and what you do, and will continue to pray for God to move in and through you all!

  • Mikala

    Thank God the small, activist group shut you down. On to bigger and better things! So many people miss that about ‘failure’–it’s a beginning, not an end!
    I look forward to learning more about POTSC.

  • Nancy

    How wonderful that God led you to a new and better ministry. But it is interesting the way you characterize what happened with Deadly Vipers. You don’t admit any wrong-doing. Your descriptions of the situation come from the perspective of being persecuted and a vicitm (being caught in crosshairs, being attacked, etc), rather than describing well-meaning men who were unintentionally insensitive to another ethnic group. I am an African-American and it is remarkable to me how often those in the majority with good intentions don’t realize they are being racist and offensive to those in minority groups. Thank God many of us minorities use the gift of forgiveness and thick skin!

  • Dr James Ach

    I can appreciate your desire to be positive, nevertheless “I have somewhat against thee”. Your version of radical grace and gracenomics without any emphasis on Jesus Christ has encouraged numerous so-called “victim advocacy” groups to mix your teachings with those of atheism, islam, buddhism and new age occultism.
    That is the importance of Acts 4:12 that there “none other name under heaven given to men whereby ye must be saved”. Without defining grace in terms of being crucified with Christ, this is mere Christian humanism.

  • http://threethirtypm.com/ Jim Gray

    It was one of the ugliest, dirtiest battles I have ever experienced. I grieved for Mike and Jud in the process, they had personally invested so much into DVCA. It is a case-study on social media crisis management that will forever be embedded in my head.

  • Kate

    Or maybe a group of people took offence where none was really offered? Maybe they really didn’t do anything wrong and it was the minority who had too thin a skin. ‘The right to not be offended’ isn’t enshrined anywhere as far as I know. Good grief.