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.