Year: 2009

Upcoming Training Events

God is opening doors to some exciting ministry opportunities for the Keynote Creative Communications Group (KCCG), my department in Keynote. KCCG exists to help equip, coach, and train others in the arts. We desire to see men and women who are deeply in love with Jesus communicate His message with excellence. I’m looking forward to these two upcoming KCCG training events:

Emcee Training

Every year during the Christmas break, the Campus Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ runs several regional conferences for college students. I remember how God used these conferences in my life when I was a student – I heard wonderful Bible teaching, learned how to share my faith more effectively, and became more deeply committed to follow my Lord in whatever He asked me to do.

As a student, I was oblivious to the effort and skill needed to make these gatherings happen. For example, one role that’s crucial to an effective conference is the emcee. That’s why KCCG is holding emcee training seminars December 4-6, 2009, at Keynote’s ministry center in Indianapolis. Emcees for upcoming student conferences will learn from guest teacher Bob Horner, emcee for Campus Crusade’s National Staff Conference. I’ll be one of the communication coaches for the event.

Pray that God will use the training to build effective emcees.

Brazil Music + Mission Training

I’m going to Brazil again! In January 2007 I was part of a team that did communication training for student musicians in Brazil. Some of those students have now joined the staff of Brazil Music + Mission, the Campus Crusade ministry that brought us down in 2007. Janie Sucupira, a dear friend and director of Brazil Music + Mission, has asked for help to train her three new staff, so I will join her for two weeks early in 2010. I’ll give you more details as time for the trip draws closer.

Pray for the preparations for my trip to Brazil.

News Briefs: Elsewhere in Keynote

  • A video of Keynote’s recent Vision Dinner is online at http://www.keynote.org/connection/vision-dinner-2009/. Watch it to see inspiring interviews, artist performances, and more.
  • Keynote has a recruiting video on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JN06qhlYCM. Pray that this video will draw people to consider serving God with Keynote.
  • Keynote’s hip-hop artist, the blackSoil project, is currently in Australia performing outreach concerts in local high schools. Pray for many Australian students to come to Christ.

Keynote Around the Globe

This has been a busy month at Keynote! Here’s a look at what God is doing.

SHORT FILM: Butler University

The Creative Communication Group (CCG), the Keynote team I work with, did a short film outreach on September 24 at local Butler University. We showed five short films and had the students turn in small groups between films to talk about what they saw and how it affected them individually. Britt, our team’s intern, gave a gospel presentation sharing about how God is continually pursuing us in love. Though most of the students were Christians, three indicated a desire to know more about spiritual things, and three indicated decisions for Christ. 28 wanted to get more involved in the Campus Crusade movement at Butler so they can grow spiritually.

TRAINING: Panama

Exciting things are happening on the training front! CCG coordinates Keynote training here and overseas, and just had a team return from Panama. Arlee, one of the Keynote coaches, wrote this after the first week:

We concluded the Trainer’s training today here in Panama City. There are now 4 newly trained comm coaches – Yariella, Marielena, Oliver and Juancho (from Guatamala).  Though they all claim to be nervous to start coaching next week, we know they are going to be amazing coaches!

And after week two (emphasis mine):

We had about 30 people in attendance over the course of the week, with ages ranging from 14 to 65 and the Central American team took on more and more of the responsibility as the week wore on…The Central American team is already looking at ways they can launch this training to the rest of the Central America – we had representatives from Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica that want to see this training expand. I think this is on the brink of something big!  Please join us in praying that God would use this training to reach more and more people in ways we never expected!

(See more on Panama at http://samandarlee.com.)

INTERNET: Turkey

Because of our experience in creative communication, Keynote has been commissioned by the leaders of Campus Crusade for Christ to take the lead in developing innovative ways to share the gospel on the internet. Three Keynoters just returned from a conference in Turkey on internet ministry. Campus Crusade staff from around the world discussed ways to minister more effectively to the online community.

MUSIC: Mongolia

Keynote’s acoustic band, blue sky nine, just returned from a tour of Mongolia and South Korea. Here’s a summary of their time in Mongolia:

  • They performed for a student ministry, a ministry to teachers, a remote prison, a military base, and a medical mission (this one was taped for national cable TV!)
  • They taught seminars on live audio engineering and on using personal stories and music to build a bridge to share the gospel.
  • They played 6 shows to 1800+ people, with over 200 decisions for Christ.

And a “God-story”: band members Ryan and Holly were walking to dinner one night. They met a girl who heard them chatting and asked if they would talk with her to help her practice English. Over the course of the conversation, they led her to Christ and connected her to the local student ministry!

(For more on the tour, see http://scottnaylor.net.)

Summer Project Report

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In my last newsletter I promised some stories of how God worked through the six student bands in Keynote’s joint Summer Project with the Impact Movement, our partner ministry to African Americans. Here they are:

Keynote’s Young Isaac had the exciting opportunity of ministering to high school students in Australia. During concerts the band’s bass player, Ryan, talked about how he learned to trust God after the death of his best friend. Here is a sampling of what students wrote on their comment cards about Ryan’s story:

  • “I know what it’s like to be mad at God, since my dad died it hasn’t been the same.”
  • “I really liked your show and Ryan’s story changed my perspective on life.”
  • “I still don’t understand why God takes our loved ones away from us, especially when they are young. This is what annoys me.”
  • “I liked your music. Ryan’s story was touching—made me realize the importance of life.”
  • “Thanks Ryan. You have opened my eyes to things I didn’t realize before.”
  • “Ryan’s story was very inspirational—gave me a lot to think about. I have a lot of problems with God and religion since my mom died.”

Impact’s hip-hop band, Level 3:16, put together an incredibly creative show with music, rap, dance and drama. Their concert at Mt. Moriah East Baptist Church in Memphis was for a churched audience, and only 3 people indicated that they started a relationship with Christ as a result of the concert. But the church was so pleased with the band’s performance that they booked another one for the very next night. At the second concert it was obvious that church members invited a lot of unsaved friends, because there were 21 decisions for Christ!

God worked powerfully through concerts in several prisons, including the Larimer County Detention Center in Fort Collins, CO, where Keynote’s Stop On Green played two short shows. One was for about 30 female inmates; six started a relationship with Christ and 10 wanted more information. The other show was for about 60 male inmates; 16 began a relationship with Christ and 23 wanted more information. In case those numbers didn’t register, that means just over half of the women and nearly two thirds of the men made a spiritual decision of some kind!

Summer Stats:

  • 39 students in 6 bands
  • 23,259 miles travelled
  • 81 concerts
  • 8302 heard the gospel
  • 812 decisions for Christ

Want to learn more about the project? The two students on this year’s film team wrote, filmed, edited and directed a documentary about the Keynote Summer Project called “Experience a Life-Changing Summer” – you can see it now at
http://www.keynote.org/get_involved_summer_project.html.

Thank you so much for helping make this happen through your partnership with me!

Summer Project News

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This year’s Summer Project students arrived in May for training followed by nearly three weeks of evangelistic concerts with their bands. But they didn’t have to wait until they went on tour to share the gospel: they had an outreach day their first week here.

  • One team left behind most of their evangelistic materials at the Keynote office, but they saw God bring just the right verses to their minds as they shared the gospel with people.
  • Silja, our student from Germany, was in a mall when she heard two girls speaking German behind her! She shared the gospel with them and they were very interested in the message and in coming to the dress rehearsals.
  • A local high school student named Tyler trusted Christ with Ryan, who was sharing his faith for the first time!

The student bands are returning from their evangelistic tours with many stories of God at work.  I’ll share some of those with you in my next letter.

Short Film Wins Award

“W[rec]k” is the short film produced by students on last year’s Summer Project. Lisa, the UCLA student who directed the film, entered it in the UCLA Shorttakes Film Festival. Over 7 hours of short films were submitted, and “W[rec]k” received first place for “Best Story”!

To view “W[rec]k” go to http://www.keynote.org/artists_film.html.

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