Book and CD

BOOK: We are very excited to announce the release of "Stand Your Ground", the book. It was primarily written for the purpose of opening new doors in public schools across the country. It is an easy read that shares stories from Joel's life relating to keeping your commitments. So far, people have really enjoyed it! Although the book does not contain any Gospel-centered material, he is currently working on a second book which will boldly proclaim the Gospel. We hope it will be released by late Spring. This will be yet another outreach tool that we will be able to get in the hands of students after Joel and Ryan are at their school.

You can purchase it on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Stand-Your-Ground-Joel-Penton/dp/0615403484/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291410414&sr=8-1

Also, if you'd like to give a donation to the ministry instead, you can do so here, and we'll send you a copy of the book as a thank you.

https://secure.teamfca.net/ohiofca/DonateLocally/GiveOnline.lsp&lsid=C8F967C8-C29A-EE7A-EDC25177E9A5B318

CD: Over the last month, Ryan has been spending time in Michigan with a producer that has helped him write and record his own songs. This is long overdue and Ryan is very happy with how it went. They created 4 original songs together and also redid "Won't Back Down." The mastering should be complete by early February. We know that this will increase their effectiveness in reaching students since music is such a big part of their lives.

We hope that you have a wonderful holiday season with friends and family. God bless!

Back At It!

Well the 2010-11 school year is underway, and we are back on the road. Summer is always a much-needed break from travel (though there's plenty of work still to do), but getting back into travel season come fall reminds us why we do what we do. Personally, I really had a rejuvinating summer, so I was rested up and ready to hit the ground running in late August.

In the last few weeks we've had the opportunity to minister at a few churches during their Sunday morning services (central OH & northern OH), had some assemblies (NW Ohio, SW Ohio, and Kentucky), and were also able to do our first concert of the year last week in SE Ohio. The next few weeks are pretty packed with events, lots of assemblies and concerts. They are all in Ohio as the second Penton baby is due next week. We intentionally scheduled things within a 2-hour radius of Columbus so Joel could get back if we get the call that the baby is coming. I kind of hope I get a call while Joel is speaking - it would make for a great story if I had to bust into a full-school assembly and pull Joel out to get back home! I'm only half kidding.

Things we could use prayer for:
1. A smooth and healthy delivery of Penton's baby
2. Still need to book up the 2010-11 calendar - pray for opportunities to arise as we work towards that goal
3. Pray that churches/ministries would be open to partnering with us for concerts so we can reach the kids with the Gospel
4. I am working on scheduling some time for November/December with a co-writer/producer to crank out some original music that we feel like will be a huge step forward in the music side of our ministry. We think it will enable us to more effectively reach kids - and especially help with the long-term ministry after we leave an area.

God bless,
Ryan & Emily

2009-2010 Recap

Another school year is in the books! Our ministry with FCA had a rewarding and fruitful 2009-10 year, taking the Gospel of Jesus into the public schools. As we use this summer to prepare for the 2010-11 year, we want you to know that your prayer and/or financial support played a DIRECT role in furthering the Kingdom of God. Here are a few highlights from this past year:

NOT JUST THE O-H-I-O...
As Joel has broken into the realm of national speakers, new doors are opening all over the place (literally). This past year, over 38% of our events were outside of Ohio. Contrast that with 2007-08 when less than 1% of our events were outside of the Buckeye state. Joel’s platform as a nationally-respected speaker has grown exponentially in just 2 years! This is extremely encouraging for 2 reasons:

1. School response outside of Ohio has been tremendous. Joel’s platform as a speaker is no longer dependent upon his status as a former OSU football player.
2. As God opens doors all around the country, we have seemingly unlimited opportunities to take the gospel to students. We feel strongly that this ministry is no longer limited to a short-term opportunity. Rather, there is real potential for long-term impact, if the Lord wills.

YOUTUBE!
With students becoming more driven by technology, we made some huge strides in reaching them through websites like Youtube. At each school assembly, Joel makes a short video of the students and directs them to www.youtube.com/joelpenton (you should go here and check them out) where they can watch it – they love to see themselves on Youtube! Once on the site, they can also view FAQ videos that Joel created, many of which have to do with Christianity and Jesus. After our concerts, we also use Youtube to follow up with those that attended. Over the course of a month, we send out videos that accompany a 5-part study for new believers.

SING US A SONG, YOU’RE THE PIANO MAN
This year, we used a new strategy to promote our evening events. We advertised the event as a Ryan Holliday concert with Joel appearing as a featured guest speaker. We held 26 concerts and were thrilled to see over 200 turn out each night. One of the most exciting changes with the new strategy was the composition of the crowd. Whereas in past years about 50% of the audience was HS & MS students, nearly 100% of each crowd this year consisted of students! Best yet – we saw an enormous increase in the number of unchurched students that came out. We’re excited to have taken some big steps in reaching our target audience for Jesus.

Catching Up

Hi Everyone!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful spring. Ryan and I have been busy with life--- bookings, traveling, teaching, and coaching track. We love our life; but I won't lie, I am looking forward to summer break. :)

Last week, Ryan and Joel went back to Iowa for a concert at Prairie High School. I shared about the great experience they had at the school in a previous post. They were both excited to go back, and to add to this excitement, 25 people accepted Jesus for the first time! When they get back from a concert, I love reading the responses that they get from kids. I will share a few:

"Thank you for enlightening me. My faith flows in and out and varies, but the music tonight and the lyrics reminded me of the purpose of a relationship with Christ. The faith journey is always going on and we need little reminders like this."

"Good song choice. It was good for me to reevaluate my life and how I too started feeling a bit empty like Joel was talking about a few weeks back."

"Well, I'm an exchange student from Germany and usually our assemblies are pretty boring. But seriously you guys rock! You're entertaining and your stories make total sense. You actually helped me thinking more about my life and relationship with Jesus/God. Thank you!"

Prairie High School......you rock.

Nice picture taking, Joel.

Ryan, the rock star.

Helpers after the concert...

May is a busy travel time as the school year comes to a close. Looking at the calendar, it will take Joel and/or Ryan to Ohio, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Utah.

Please pray for safe travels and for all of the kids they come into contact with. God is moving!

Emily

Follow-up System

Hi everyone!

For those of you that did not know, after the evening outreach concerts, Joel and Ryan gather the students' contact information. They then send out a series of 5 follow-up videos over the next 5 weeks. You can watch them here: http://joelpenton.com/followupoverview.html

Joel and Ryan are in the process of expanding this process. Instead of just 5 e-mails with 'Joel and Ryan' videos, they are planning to do 20 or so. The purpose is to more effectively bridge the gap between the event and them getting plugged into a church somewhere. In a perfect world, the kids would immediately get plugged in to a church. However, we know that is not always the case. Joel gets 2-3 e-mails a day from kids responding to these e-mails that we send out. They ask questions and say how much it helps them grow in their relationship with Jesus. How could we possibly stop with 5?

Please pray that we finish booking the spring with assemblies, and more importantly, book the concerts that are tied to assemblies we already did. It's definitely not easy, and there are a lot of logistics involved.

Thanks for reading! We appreciate you and would love to hear from you..

Emily

Live from Florida

Greetings from Florida! Just wanted to share a few pics and a video from our events today in Fort Walton Beach, FL. Enjoy...

Thought this was funny....Joel controls the computer and lights during my portion of the concert and he usually has an auditorium curtain to hide behind. Obviously that was not the case tonight. We built a hillbilly (no offense to any hillbillies reading this) tent for him to hide behind with bed sheets and ladders.

Joel REALLY had fun in his little tent cave.

Some of the kids that came out tonight...

A clip from the assembly today at the high school. Joel's exact words to me when he saw this video: "It's too bad you walked in during my least favorite line of the whole talk. You should have come in at a classic time when kids are laughing and we're all having a good time. We should time that up better next time."

Florida!! sorta

I say sorta, because when I think of Florida, I think "Florida!" because I think warm. But it's not really warm at all there right now.

Joel and Ryan made the trek down to Fort Walton Beach, FL on Monday. They have 2 assemblies and a concert each day they are there (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday)--which is exciting! They are actually finishing up a concert right now as I type. Please pray that lots of kids come to these concerts and hear the Gospel. Please for receptive hearts and minds.



Assembly at Fort Walton Beach High School.... this morning.




On Friday, we get to go to the Wuerffel Trophy banquet. They were able to get all of these bookings this week because of it. If you didn't know, Joel won the Wuerffel Trophy his senior of college which is basically the Humanitarian Heisman of college football. http://www.wuerffeltrophy.org/ We get to participate in all of the festivities for that.... which I hear is quite an ordeal. I think I am going to feel a little out of place considering I am the wife of the guy that works with Joel, but it was nice of our friend John Watts to invite us.

Since Joel is flying back early for a speaking engagement on Saturday, Ryan was going to have to drive the Moose back himself. I am flying down tomorrow after school to be down there with them a couple of days and then make the drive back to Ohio with Ryan on Saturday/Sunday. We are going to be stopping halfway to see my brother, Adam, in Nashville. We are going to spend the night there......in a boys college dorm. Weird, but free. :)

I will give you updates on the week soon. Please pray for the kids!

Emily

Sick and Snow

Hey all,

Well, I think they have recuperated from all the traveling--- approximately 60 hours over 2 weeks. Ryan came home with a nasty cold and Joel came home and woke up in the night with food poisioning! But I think they are both 90%.

Everything went incredibly well over the 2 weeks. One school in particular was the best experience they have had yet. They really had a chance to develop some neat relationships with the kids throughout the day through some breakout sessions at school. Ryan got to run with some cross country boys after school and Joel got to lift with some other guys. (Joel LOVES lifting and hates running. Ryan LOVES running and hates lifting. ha.) They also went to dinner with a group of guys that evening. They don't have an evening concert set up but plan to get it scheduled to go back soon. They are already looking forward to it!

Joel at the North Dakota state line...


Ryan is busy catching up on bookings....... please pray for the Spring bookings. We are actually going to be heading over to the Pentons in a little bit to have a meeting to prioritize the million things that seem to go on. Hopefully it is productive!

This is my 2nd day home from school because of snow. Thank you Lord for beautiful snow that gives us a day off!

Happy winter wonderland...

Emily

Georgia Concert Video!

Travel, Travel, Travel

Hey Friends,

Like I said in the last post, Joel and Ryan have been doing some serious traveling. Last night, after finishing up an awesome concert in northern Ohio, they started on their journey to North Dakota. They are currently still on their way, but I just talked to Ryan and they are less than an hour away... woo hoo!

After the evening events where the gospel is shared, Ryan and Joel have the students fill out cards to respond to what they heard and also to get their contact information so that they can follow up with them.

I wanted to share some responses that students wrote from last night's concert:

Most Random: "I really liked the concert tonight. Joel and Ryan are cool like the other side of a pillow."

One that reminded them why they do what they do: "I really love the music that Ryan sang. Joel is an excellent speaker and he spoke to me so much. I realize now that God has been tugging at my heart. I don't know what about yet but I am going to find out."

Cutest: A girl said she rededicated her life to Jesus, then drew a smiley face next to it :)

One that needs prayer: (Pray for this 18-year old guy) "I am not convinced. If my "soul" is so important, I need to be persuaded that there is a God, and that I need to believe in it. If I refuse to bow my head, convince me that my life depends on it. Otherwise, I still have no reason to belive in a story such as God."

One that made me laugh: (Sorry, buddy.) "Good job. The blue lights hurt my eyes."

Stay tuned for a video from last week's Georgia concert.... for some reason, I am computer illiterate right now and need to go to bed!

Emily

Van Wert Comeback Concert

Hey Everyone,

Last Wednesday, we traveled to our hometown of Van Wert, OH for another outreach concert.  There were over 300 kids and adults in attendance and it was great to see our family and friends that we do not get to see enough.  It was also interesting to see the dynamics with so many adults in the room.... (Do I raise my cell phone and scream when my mom is sitting next to me?)

The one picture that turned out ok from the evening....Oops!

Today Joel and Ryan are in Edon, OH doing a middle school and high school assembly.  Tomorrow they head to Greenfield, OH for more assemblies.  Here is what their next 2 weeks look like: On Monday they drive to Iowa, then turn around and head to Georgia, and then back up to Ohio, and then to North Dakota (yes, North Dakota), then back to Iowa, and then to Michigan for a weekend retreat.

Praise God for opening up so many doors for them to share the gospel with unchurched kids.

Please pray.....
 1) that God would be glorified with everything that happens in this ministry.
 2) that Ryan would be able to balance travel, music, and bookings.
 3) for safe travels in winter weather in northern states!


Blessings!
Emily

New Year News!

Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year! We hope you had a wonderful time with friends and family over the holidays. By the way, this is Ryan's wife, Emily. I will be the one updating the blog the majority of the time now.

We live in an internet driven world that speaks to each other less and less. It is getting harder and harder to get kids to leave their computers or cell phones and come to an event. However, over the past few months, we have actually seen an increase in the number of students that are coming out to hear Ryan and Joel share the Gospel. I think there are 2 reasons why:

1. Use of Social Networking= Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and Twitter.

2. New evening event setup= Ryan Holliday concert.

1....... Kids love MySpace and Facebook. Ryan and Joel gained hundreds and hundreds of "friends" in a matter of a couple months. This keeps the students connected and greatly increases the chance that they will come back for the evening event. They also shoot videos at the school assembly and post them on YouTube to accomplish the same thing.

Here is an example of what they put up on the screen at the end of the assembly.

2....... Let me set the scene for you. A good looking 26 year old (that looks 18) plays a couple sweet piano songs during the school assembly. They are then promised that Ryan Holliday is going to come back in concert at a later time! The average attendance has been around 250 at each evening event! Ryan plays around 10 songs that all point to what Joel has to share (his testimony and the Good News about Jesus). I will explain the logistics more in detail in a later post. Here is Ryan at a concert:

Note: My favorite is when I am at the merchandise table selling t-shirts, cd's, etc. and middle school girls come up and tell me how awesome they think Ryan Holliday is and how her friends are in love with him and how she even got his autograph! The funny thing is that they rarely think that I could possibly be the wife. I just smile and agree that I'm in love with him too!

I didn't get to witness this, but here is Ryan working in a janitor's closet at a school trying to use his time wisely between assemblies. His computer had to be plugged in high up on the wall to feed into their sound system, so rather than stand, he sat on a ladder. Makes sense!



Prayer Requests:
1. Safety while traveling on winter roads. (of course I put that #1-- I'm the wife!!)

2. That God will continue to give Ryan and Joel wisdom to most effectively reach students for Christ.

How can we pray for you?

You will hear from me soon! I promise!

-Emily

A recent concert...