Master Plan Ministries is a non-profit 501(c)(3) non-denominational Christian organization. Based out of Durango, CO, our ministry work has four major areas of focus: the Campus Ministry, the Men's Ministry, Missional Women Ministry and the Ministry Venues which are Cascade Lodge and Three Trails Ranch.  Our mission is "Preparing others to Reach and Influence the World for Christ".

Russ and Linda Akins founded Master Plan Ministries in 1985 while reaching students at Fort Lewis College in Durango.  Along with the continued ministry at FLC, Master Plan has also been at Colorado Mesa University since 1994 and Adams State University since 2019.

In 2022, there are 19 full-time staff and interns working with MPM. We also have a committed Board of Directors and an awesome team of ministry partners.  Each year we touch thousands of lives for Christ through evangelism and discipleship. ​

We live in a broken world

America’s moral fabric is unravelling quickly. Our culture that is trying to abandon God is leading to confusion, pain and death. All over the world there are hearts longing for love, that are seeking fulfillment in the wrong places. The fundamental issue is people don’t know the love of God expressed through Jesus Christ, or the hope that he offers. Today, there are over 16 million college students in the United states. We recognize that college students are at a critical part of their lives as they enter adulthood, and their life convictions are like wet cement. They are the leaders of tomorrow in families, businesses, churches, entertainment, government, medicine, law, and virtually every area of society.
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In our area of the world

God has given us over 20,000 college students who are attending classes each year in Southwestern Colorado in our scope. They are on 4 main secular college campuses and several community colleges, and they attract students from all over the world. We currently have teams on 3 larger campuses in Grand Junction, Durango, and Alamosa, CO. These students are facing increasing challenges on campus related to the cultural pressures that are growing in the US. The secular humanist worldview that is openly taught at the public colleges is in open defiance to truth and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

There are tax funded departments on each public campus that promote the normalcy of sexual perversion, gender confusion, the theory of evolution and socialism. Thousands of young lives hang in the balance.  Many Christian college students are open to fighting for their faith with some encouragement, and many lost students are open to considering the Gospel, if someone will share with them. We see these students as our main mission field and a huge potential labor force for the Great Commission.

“My freshman year professor surprised me on the first day of class by immediately telling us he was gender fluid, and...that he believed Jesus did not die and resurrect, but moved to Paris and married Mary Magdelene.”
- S.C. FLC Freshman 2018

In order to reach the lost for Christ, Christians must spiritually multiply their own lives and make disciples who can also make disciples. God has uniquely positioned us to reach over 20,000 students that attend these institutions of higher education each year with evangelism and discipleship. The emerging Christian student leaders are taught to win, build, train and send, other disciples around the US and the world.

Evangelism

“In 1998 a courageous young woman who was involved with MPM invited me to a retreat. I actually said no and when she asked why, I explained that I had too many questions. She graciously offered to meet with me, and through the discipleship process she’d learned through MPM, she led me to the Lord. From there she continued to disciple me and I became more involved in the Bible studies, retreats, outreach events, and mission trips. My final two years of college was full of training and equipping me to lead. I spent the 4 months after college graduation on staff with MPM before I joined a church staff in youth ministry. Since then I’ve done children’s ministry, women’s ministry, and now serve as the co-pastor of our church. I’m grateful to MPM for their discipleship process that encouraged and equipped me to live out the calling on my life.”

Training

“As a freshman in college, God used MPM staff and students to make the gospel clear from the Bible and their personal lives. Seeing Biblical truths lived out in every area of life confirmed the words I was hearing. This encouraged me to step fully into a deeply personal relationship with Jesus Christ. For the next several years God used the personal discipleship, encouragement, Bible studies, leadership opportunities, and international mission trips to transform my life. Through those early mission trips, and the many I helped lead, God began breaking my heart for the peoples of the whole world.

Leadership Development

“During our time as students, volunteers, and staff with Master Plan Ministries, we saw evangelism, discipleship, and authentic spiritual multiplication happening in a way that changed the trajectory of our lives and ministry. We became convinced that believers everywhere needed the training and encouragement we had received through MPM. In January of 2018, MPM commissioned us to launch the Great Commission Alliance to equip believers globally with Great Commission training. Since then, we’ve developed numerous ministry resources and trained thousands of leaders in countries all over the globe. The GCA is thriving in its Great Commission ministry but this never would have been the case had we not received the training we did from MPM.”

Building

“Attending MPM at FLC has been a blessing in my life for so many reasons. One of the things I always look back at is how they challenged me in my spiritual walk by asking a lot of the tougher questions. A few of my toughest struggles back then were loneliness & confidence. I was able to get through that through the help of Jesus Christ & also having great fellowship with friends, Bible studies, talks, & discipleship...I get to share the confidence I’ve gained with some within [my church’s] teen ministry, expressing my art, & jail ministry... I saw the changes happening in my life & I’m glad I get to apply those things in life right now on the reservation within my local church.”

Sending

“Master Plan Ministries... helped my wife and myself adjust to life at Fort Lewis College and then both enjoy positive experiences at college as well as grow spiritually. They led us to a vision for what God had planned for our lives, in both our calling as a family and in our careers. Their encouragement to grow in the word and their challenge to explore what God might use us to do led my wife to join an Athletes in Action team in 1993 and for me to get a graduate degree from Denver Seminary. Those experiences have led us to over twenty years work to see unreached Muslims hear the gospel, most of them in Asia.
                                                                                                     Sean M. Sensitive Nation

Discipleship

“When I came to Fort Lewis I was a young idealistic 19 year old who had just spent a year traveling the world. I thought I had the world figured out. I quickly lost what little I thought to be true in a place governed by relativism and fueled by self seeking pleasure. Finding Master Plan Ministries and other young people my age in that group that first year who had a foundation of truth and the purpose, something greater than themselves, set the basis for a new paradigm for me and laid a foundation for my future. I met my wife there and still have some of the closest friendships of my life.

For over 30 years, Master Plan staff have been working on campuses in southwestern Colorado reaching young people for Jesus. Master Plan staff are committed to reaching college students and others in southwestern Colorado in order to help fulfill the Great Commission by winning, building, training, and sending them for Jesus. Most staff are a product of the ministry, a testimony to how we were impacted for Christ as college students through MPM. We are passionate followers of Jesus Christ eager to work with others who desire to share the love of Christ with a lost world. By working together we can share the love of Christ with people in our country and beyond. We eagerly seek your partnership to help prepare others to reach and influence the world for Christ.