Three individuals found faith, built families, and advanced their careers throughout the 1980s to the 2000s. Steve, Scott and Tom. In the last five years, their paths converged with a common purpose, the Great Commission of Jesus Christ*. 

Today, all three are laser focused on a shared passion: to mobilize skilled Believers as volunteer catalysts, then, connect those Believers – virtually – with mission teams all over the world. 

Switchboard is a technology platform created for this singular purpose. As it grows, it is making those global connections and supporting this gospel-driven vision in grace-filled ways.

But long before Global Switchboard, there was the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. That ministry was the catalyst that brought together Steve’s, Scott’s, and Tom’s skills, stories, and living investment. 

Chuck Colson (1931-2012), famously worked as Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon. He found faith in Jesus, made very public mistakes, including “Watergate,” and served seven months in prison. Chuck’s remarkable faith-filled comeback was all about serving Jesus.

Before his death in 2012, Chuck made good on his commitment to help “transform the habits and dispositions of ordinary people” with “choices shaped by worldview.” Biblical worldview.

CEO to Centurion

Enter Steve Verleye. Steve had an electrical engineering degree and high-tech leadership roles that included CEO of Applied Microsystems. Steve felt called to join the 4th wave of Chuck’s biblical worldview program in 2007, called Centurions. Inspired to do more in God’s service, Steve left the corporate world to join the Colson team in 2011. God’s timing proved providential.

In 2015, the board of directors at Prison Fellowship decided to spin off the Colson Center as an independent ministry. Steve became Chief Operations Officer and worked with the new president, John Stonestreet, to start and grow this new ministry. A large part of the new vision was to expand Chuck’s worldview program – renamed as Colson Fellows. The Colson Fellows program has steadily grown to over 6000 alumni!

A New Approach to Global Missions

Scott Elequin similarly “discovered” the updated Colson Fellows program in 2020. He’d sold a technology consulting firm and restlessly sought the next page in his professional life. Colson Fellows strongly encouraged students to develop a “3-year” ministry plan aligned with their strengthened worldview and rooted in Christ.

Scott envisioned a means to adapt complex cloud-application architecture to some of Chuck Colson’s more practical worldview ideas. This proposal formed the foundation blocks of what is now Switchboard!

Scott envisioned a global platform that would invite ordinary people—engineers, HR professionals, creatives, accountants, marketers, moms—to offer their skills in redemptive ways. Scott’s plan included a breakthrough idea: empower volunteers to serve global missions without leaving their job or city.

It would equip Believers to step into meaningful projects that advance the gospel—from data analytics to homeschooling to digital storytelling. Scott imagined a system that could embody the belief that every skill has Kingdom value, not just preaching or pastoral work. 

Scott invested his own money and time to launch the new “startup.” His story was not unlike hundreds of other app visionaries, except Scott’s end goal was Kingdom-building in the name of Jesus Christ and His Great Commission*.

Collaboration for the Great Commission

The third strand of this story emerged in 2024. Tom Zimmerman completed his own Colson Fellows three-year plan around the same time that Scott and Switchboard were honing their launch messaging for broader audiences.

Recently retired as a global marketing director for General Electric, “TomZ” hoped to volunteer his content messaging skills in a “Dr. Luke” biblical fashion. Scott reached out to Tom, and the two Colson Fellows took Switchboard messaging to its next phase. 

“My gift is content and communication,” Tom explained, “Jesus asked us to help share the Gospel and nurture Believers. Call me a ‘content missionary.’”  

 

Today, Steve, Scott, and Tom are collaborating together along with 25 other contributors on the Switchboard team. There are 1,054 volunteers in the at-large Switchboard talent pool.   573 mission organizations have signed up as GCOs, Switchboard’s short form for Great Commission Organizations, that are served through consultations and virtual role matches with Kingdom Consultants – skilled Believers who virtually volunteer their time and expertise through the Switchboard platform. Mission teams around the world are experiencing the value:

“What Switchboard is doing is a tremendous service to the Kingdom. There are so many things we don’t have the particular skills to take on!”
– GCO in the Dominican Republic

“It’s been a steep learning curve but the new organization is now thriving, due in no small part to the amazing people we’ve found through Switchboard! You are really a Godsend!”
– GCO doing language-based outreach

Through the Switchboard platform, a project envisioned in a single ministry plan, 1,624 followers of Christ are collaborating in ways that live out and extend the reach of the Good News. 

Acting in Faith

There are more than 6,000 Colson Fellows – men and women who have completed the program’s intensive 10-month study. Some estimates suggest that half of these will simply continue in their pre-Colson walk, with a better informed biblical worldview–a very positive outcome!

But what of the other 50 percent? After commissioning, these individuals are active in life-changing, laser-focused outcomes, with lives lived out as daily offerings of kingdom investment. 

There’s no way to know how many fruitful “Switchboard” scenarios this may imply. One thing is sure. There’d be far fewer lives changed if Chuck Colson had not acted in faith. As John Stonestreet said, “Chuck believed that his most important legacy, more than any organization or his many books, would be people.” 

There are hundreds of other Colson Center-like organizations at work in the Kingdom. Lots of Steve-Scott-Tom’s–everyday Believers who connect the dots and trust God’s Holy Spirit of inspiration and action. Steve Verleye says it this way:

“You can’t solve all the world’s problems – just solve the one in front of you. We don’t need to wait for “other” ministry work at some time in the distant future. Use the skills you’ve already developed – use your prior 20, 10 or 5 years of life skills. Go to where God is moving – a particular locality or ministry – and join them.”

How have you seen God connecting the dots in your own life? How is He transforming you to invest in the Kingdom? Can Switchboard help you find your Great Commission connection? Take the next step! Join the Switchboard community today.

*Matthew 28:18-20