Inferno: A Men’s Mission with Momentum
By Paul Dusseault
(PHOTO: Father Chance Billmeyer, chaplain for Inferno Mission, (left) and Luke Vercollone, executive director of Inferno, are pictured at the Inferno Fatherhood 5K that was held June 17 at Fox Run Park. Photo by Alex Cedillo)
COLORADO SPRINGS. Inferno Mission, a men’s organization devoted to prayer, friendship, evangelization, and discipline, began in Colorado Springs seven years ago. It’s now a full-fledged Catholic movement spreading like a blaze in a dry mountain forest, already crowning to other states.
How did it get started? Like all infernos, with a spark.
“The Holy Spirit called a small group of men from different backgrounds to just get more serious about going after the mission of Christ,” recalled Tom Waits, co-founder and board chair of the group. “I had been praying for years to determine what sainthood would mean to me and I met up with friends who were aiming at the same goal — to raise the bar for ourselves and those around us.” That first group, which met over steins of draft beer at a local brewery, included David Theis, Josh Durow, and Luke Vercollone, all area professionals and fathers of young families.
“We quickly agreed that it was very hard for working laymen to pray every day, to really stick with a commitment to spend time with our Lord and Scripture,” Waits said.” There are just so many demands on his time. Plus, men in our culture are often encouraged to settle in to a certain mode of isolation. Men have acquaintances, of course, but frequently not strong friendships with other men who are likely to guide and challenge them.”
“That first meeting really made things click for me,” said Luke Vercollone, who now serves as Inferno Mission’s executive director. “I remember that very evening I went straight to Eucharistic adoration and just prayed all night. It was, for me, a clear manifestation of how our Lord wants us to organize and witness — men challenging each other, rooting for each other, sharing with each other. It was the very embodiment of that passage from Proverbs: ‘As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.’”
That original group extended invitations to other men, who reached out to other men, until hundreds of area Catholics, predominantly husbands and fathers, were meeting regularly to study Scripture, discuss their personal struggles, and seek more and better ways to be spiritual champions and Christian brothers to each other.
In 2018, the group fielded its first conference — a luncheon presentation by popular speaker Father Nathan Cromly, President of the St. John Institute in Englewood. Since then, the annual Inferno Men’s Conference and related programs have attracted thousands of attendees and Catholic celebrity speakers such as Father Mike Schmitz, Chris Stefanick, Connor Gallagher, and Jimmy Wahlberg.
Inferno now hosts multiple small discussion groups, parties, Masses, hikes, camping trips, paintball outings, book clubs, Bible studies, retreats, and something called the John 17 Fight Club where men from different Christian traditions discuss and debate politically incorrect topics. (Past sessions: Predestination, Christian Nationalism, Vaccine Mandates, Critical Race Theory.) The 2024 Inferno Men’s Conference, set for Nov. 9 at Colorado Springs’ Antlers Hotel, is expected to overflow the grand ballroom capacity of 800.
“The founders really provide an excellent model for other men trying to do the right thing, grow their faith, and tend to their careers and families,” said Father Chance Billmeyer, chaplain of Inferno Mission. “They demonstrate to others that it’s okay to reject that ‘strong man is an island’ trope and embrace the reality that we’re actually better together. It’s very powerful, this idea of men coming together to share at a deep level and feeling affirmed in that fraternity. In today’s world where the very concept of positive masculinity is under attack by a variety of forces, that’s a message and a motivation that is pro-family, pro-man, and ultimately pro-life.”
The social science bears that out. According to the America First Institute, children with no father in the home are 20 times more likely to be incarcerated. Fatherless kids comprise 90% of runaway children and 63% of youth suicides. When the father is not present in the home, rates of depression, divorce, substance abuse jump. Family members suffer poorer health, decreased education, and lower lifetime income.
For those reasons, co-founder David Theis sums up the Inferno mission: “Win the man, win the family. Win the family, renew the Church. Renew the Church, transform the culture. It’s not a restoration of the man as a leader in community as much as an acknowledgement of natural law. As the man goes, so goes the culture.”
“We’re not deeply trained in theology or religious instruction,” said Waits, “but we read, study, pray, and absorb the lessons around us. We feel called to evangelize, in large part, by holding our Christian brothers accountable for their behavior and commitments to that important road of sainthood to which Christ calls us all.”
How does that accountability happen? Inferno men often meet in person. They try to pray daily and be guided by Scripture. They employ chat apps to check in with each other frequently. They attend Inferno events and invite others to join. And many start each January by signing a pledge that outlines goals for the year, then share that pledge with others so they can be “graded” on their progress. “There’s also a very natural tendency of men to compete,” said Waits. “One fellow reported a 27-day streak of daily prayer. We all said, ‘Man, that’s awesome,’ and immediately began tracking ourselves in an attempt to best him.”
One of the benefits of a heavy Inferno event schedule is that there seems always to be something coming up, something to which new members may be invited. “We’ve all looked around the pews and seen the few men in the parish who look like they could use a little more community,” said Father Billmeyer. “(We see) folks not participating at a high level, folks not responding. That’s an opportunity for a group like Inferno to extend an invitation, and it really speaks to the work of the Holy Spirit in our churches.”
The future of Inferno can be viewed generationally. The group recently designed a Rite of Passage Experience (ROPE) to help introduce teen boys to the responsibilities and expectations of Christian manhood. And last year, Inferno sponsored a 5K run for fathers and their families. A father-daughter dinner dance was held recently, and the Inferno St. Valentine’s Date Night has become a February tradition for hundreds of area couples.
Might Inferno Mission become a national movement? “Sure,” said Vercollone. “We’re already seeing members in Michigan and New Mexico. And if it grows slowly, organically, bigger things could be on the horizon. But it would have to be fueled, and owned, by local interests. That’s where the energy is in Colorado Springs, and that’s the secret to success.”
For more information and to register for the Inferno Men’s conference, visit www.infernomen.com.
Men Helping Men: An Inferno Mission Story
“The Lord told us to go forth and make disciples,” said Inferno Mission co-founder Luke Vercollone. “But it’s not easy. It takes some courage and vulnerability to approach a stranger and invite him to an event or a small group meeting. But we’ve had some good success at this kind of ‘invitation evangelization’ and it’s changed many lives for the better.”
Case in point: Dustin Halliwell. “I was an active alcoholic, and addicted to gambling,” recalls Halliwell. “I was contemplating suicide, thinking my family may be better off without me. I took those concerns to my Inferno brothers in prayer and, in 2021, I entered a rehab facility. When I spoke to my wife by phone, she said she didn’t want me to return home. She thought it would be better if I lived somewhere else. But she did agree to see a priest that I met through Inferno. He put the two of us through nine months of spiritual counseling that did wonders for our marriage and really turned my life in the right direction. I’ve now been sober and gambling-free for years; we just celebrated our 13th anniversary and have a new baby.”
“Women are awesome, but they’re different than men,” said Vercollone. “When a man is on some bad path and a woman tells him to pray and do better, that’s fine. But when a brother, a male friend, tells him the same thing, it hits a different chord. It’s fulfilling God’s intention to help each other and sharpen each other and more closely align our lives to his plan for us.”
Halliwell is now an Inferno group leader helping other men with their struggles.
“I wish I had never been a gambler and an alcoholic,” he said. “But when I think about the darkness through which I traveled in order to reach the light where I am now . . . I wouldn’t change that, because that experience has so strengthened my marriage, my family, and my personal faith journey. Plus, it gives me the credential of personal experience. When I hear a story from a man going through the stuff of the devil’s making, I can look him in the eye and say, ‘I’ve been there, man. You can get through this.’”
— Paul Dusseault