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...

Van Wert HS/MS & Gahanna-Lincoln HS Assemblies

Kicking Off the New School Year
We are back into the swing of things, and geared up for another school year. The month of August and the early part of this month have been a whirlwind. The majority of August was spent marketing our assembly presentation to 12 states surrounding Ohio. Plus we began advertising on Google Ads, which has exposed our website to anyone in the world looking for a speaker. Our goal is to branch out, and we have made some good progress toward that end. We have assemblies booked in Michigan, Indiana, New York, and Kentucky, and we have many other tentative assemblies in the works.

Van Wert HS/MS Assemblies
We were excited to be back at our alma mater - Van Wert HS - in late August. It was great to help them kick off their year and see many people that we knew and grew up with. We also were at the MS for a separate assembly. The students there were great and incredibly responsive, in large part due to Mark Bagley (the principal and one of my HS basketball coaches) and the way he pumped up the kids for Joel. My younger brother is in 7th grade, so it made it that much more special to be in front of him and other students in his class. Hopefully these assemblies made an impact on students in our hometown.

Gahanna-Lincoln HS Assemblies
Joel and I also presented to about 2600 students last Friday (9/11) at Gahanna-Lincoln HS in Gahanna, OH on the NE side of Columbus. We had been there last year, so we were encouraged that the administration found the presentation valuable enough to have us back. This year we were not as shell-shocked by the sheer number of students either. The students were great, especially for such a large crowd. It was a good chance for us to get more experience with our second assembly presentation (for repeat schools).

"Man in the Mirror"
The Gahanna-Lincoln experience was unique for me in that the school theme is "Be the Change" and they use a quote from the Michael Jackson song "Man in the Mirror." So they asked me to play it, and it could have been disastrous (ha), but the response was incredible compared to my expectations. I did NOT do the Moonwalk. But I may actually use that song more in the future because the message of the song, believe it or not, is really solid (if you want the world to be better, take a look in the mirror and start with yourself - make those changes first). Kind of reminds me of Matthew 7:1-5.

Travel Season Over/Church Services

It's been over a month since we've shared with you....so here is an update of what's been happening in the ministry!

Travel Season Over
With the end of the school year came the end of our crazy travel schedule. Joel spoke 36 times in May, and we finished the year with 4 great evening outreach events in the mid/late part of the month. We still have a few camps and church services on the calendar for the summer, but this is our time to focus on building the ministry and preparing for next year. We will have some numbers tabulated soon to share with you the impact the Lord had through the ministry this past school year.

Church Services
We had the opportunity to spend time at 3 different churches in the last month to share the ministry. We were at Westville UMC in (naturally) Westville, LifePoint Community Church in Plymouth, and my home church, Calvary Evangelical in Van Wert. At each service we were able to share about the impact of the ministry and our vision for the future. We were also able to give individuals and families the chance to financially support this work. We were humbled by the incredible response at each church. It is very cool to see the Body of Christ at work all over the state. And being back at Calvary, seeing a lot of people I grew up with, was also very special. We are really looking forward to continuing to partner with these churches in the future. Truly genuine people at all 3 churches!

We plan on posting a few more times in the next few days, and we want to share with you an exciting ministry opportunity that is in the works. Plus we will be vlogging! (for those of you including my wife that have reading ADD.) How exciting. Hope you all are doing well....

Ryan

Northeast Ohio Assemblies

It has been a crazy last few weeks for us with lots of events and a lot of traveling. We spent quite a bit of time in NE Ohio in the Youngstown area doing 8 assemblies. It was especially fun for me as my grandparents and a few other relatives live in the area, so we were able to spend a lot of good time with them.

Some highlights of the travels were an assembly at South Range HS, where my cousin Ellie is a sophomore, an assembly at Western Reserve HS, where my Mom and the rest of the famous Williams sisters graduated HS (also where my great aunt is a sub), and an assembly at Salem HS, the town in which my family lived until I was in 2nd grade. We also partnered with Pastor John at First Friends Church, my old church in Salem, to put on an evening outreach back at Salem HS. We had about 215 students there, so it was a great turnout, plus we know of many first time commitments or recommitments to Jesus.

We have another evening outreach tonight in Lucas, and assemblies and an outreach tomorrow in Wellington (near Cleveland). Please pray for the students that we will be in front of.

Ryan


My grandparents were able to come to the Western Reserve assembly, so it was really great to have them there.




















The Western Reserve "Super Sub" herself, my Aunt Dinny.





















Just to show you what a stud my Mom and her sisters were in high school. Their names are still up on the wall at Western Reserve in the girls track & field hall of fame. Betty and the rest of the Williams sisters (minus Diane, sorry!)



















The crowd at a recent evening outreach event at Circleville HS in Ohio.
















In Mattawan, MI at an assembly. Me, Joel, and Emily's Aunt Marilyn who lives nearby. She and her husband, Bob, put us up for the night when we were in town. Thanks again guys!





















Joel is the world's #1 cat lover and he made a new friend at Bob & Marilyn's house.

The Moose

I am incorporating some vlogging (like blogging, except it's "video" blogging) into the blog to spice things up a bit. It will be like a newspaper column that occasionally appears and it will be called "Ryan's Ramblings." Just click the play button on the box below. Enjoy the first installment...

Ryan's Ramblings: The Moose


The Moose in Trouble


Family pic with the Goose

Updated Follow Up System

We shared with you in a post from a couple months ago that we have been working on an updated video/email follow up system. It has been a long and time-consuming process, but as of a couple weeks ago, that new system is fully operational. In the past, when someone would attend one of our events and indicate a decision for Christ, we would send them an email a few days later with some helpful advice and links to various online resources. Beyond that it was up to the local ministries to follow up with that person. The new system attempts to extend the bridge from the event to people getting plugged into a local ministry as well as follow up with those who may be slipping through the cracks of the current system. Now all the positive contacts receive the initial email with some encouragement and resources as well as five more emails over the next five weeks walking them through five key concepts to help them in their new walk with Christ. Each email directs them to a video of Joel and me walking them through the concept as well as a PDF “On Your Own Study” that takes them deeper into Scripture. We currently have about 500 people from recent events working their way through the system and the feedback so far has been great. If you want a better idea of what we are doing, visit: http://www.joelpenton.com/undevelopedmaturity.html to view the last of out five follow-up videos. From that page you can also visit the pages from other weeks.

Ryan

Lorain County Tour/New Presentation

Joel and I recently spent 6 days in Lorain County, up near Cleveland, and we packed in 13 assemblies during that time. A county prevention group brought us in for the second year in a row to travel to many of the county schools. We also partnered with Heritage Chrisitian Church in Avon to hold an outreach event at the tail end of our time in the area. Kevin, the youth pastor, and Guy, a local businessman, helped make the events happen and were kind enough to be our roadies for a few days. We're still trying to coerce Guy into selling his company and forsaking six figures so he can come on the road with us. Don't think that's going to happen.

Since we had been to many of the same schools last year, we brought a new presentation for those assemblies. We had been trying all year to craft a second assembly presentation for repeat schools, but had yet to feel like we created something solid. However, I think we finally hit the nail on the head as we got a lot of positive feedback from administrators, teachers, and students at the schools where we did the new presentation. This is huge as we really feel confident in offering schools a legitimate follow up assembly if they bring us back.

Sharing the Gospel at a Catholic Church

Well, it's currently closing in on midnight on Wednesday night and we are only halfway home to Columbus (just passing through Van Wert) on a 4 ½ hour trip from Mattawan, MI. We'll get home at 2:00 a.m. and then have to leave at 5:45 for an 8:00 assembly south of Columbus. Yeah, about 3 hours of sleep tonight. On a brighter note, as I’m blogging, I'm lounging in the back of our 15-passenger beast of a van named the Moose, which I’ll highlight in a later post. Seriously, you should look forward to that one.

I want to share about a really cool event we got to do recently at St. Brigid of Kildare Church in Dublin, which is a Catholic church conveniently located about 10 minutes from our home. We presented to about 300 8th graders for their confirmation retreat. We don’t often get the opportunity to go to Catholic churches or schools, so we always jump at any chance we get. From what I gather, it’s rare that anyone outside of the Catholic Church gets this unique opportunity. We actually did the same event last year and were really grateful that the church invited us back. So for the second year in a row, we were able to talk with their confirmation group about what it means to have a relationship with Jesus. Please pray that the seeds that were planted in these kids’ hearts would grow.

Ryan

Willoughby Middle School OSU Day

Greetings from Biggby Coffee Shop in Kalamazoo, MI! Joel and I are on the road again and will be for the next few days...

Comment From Reading, MI Event
First of all, here is an e-mail we received from a student that came to the outreach event at Reading HS which I blogged about yesterday:

“I have to confess the day you came to my school I was like 'great another speaker....better break out the MP3 player'...but when I heard you played for the Buckeyes, I was like, 'maybe this guy is actually cool'...So I listened, and really enjoyed the speech...so I went to the little gig down at Reading School. And words cannot describe what happened, I rededicated my life to Jesus, and for the first time in 2 years I picked up my Bible, blew the dust off, and read it.”

This is why we press on.

Willoughby Middle School OSU Day
A couple weeks ago we were at Willoughby Middle School in the Cleveland area for an assembly. The administration decided to make it "OSU Day", as some schools do for our assemblies. I must say they took it to a new level with things like OSU giveaways and a blow-up Brutus. All in all, it was definitely one of the better assemblies we have been a part of this year. Be sure to watch the video at the bottom and make sure your speakers are up.

Ryan


Joel and his helmet.














The sea of red for OSU day.











I think Brutus could take Joel.




















Students at nearby Willowick MS where we also did an assembly.











No words needed.