At Keynote's recent Vision Dinner, a video was shared of a life that was changed in a partnership with Keynote and Student Venture. Watch it here:
Friday, November 27, 2009
Keynote Vision Dinner 2009 - Online Archive
The 2009 Keynote Vision Dinner which was held on Saturday November 12 had quite a number of people watching live online. The online stream is now available on our ministry's blog site at: http://www.keynote.org/connection/vision-dinner-2009/
Monday, November 23, 2009
Choosing the “T” word.
Volume 4, Issue 11
Choosing the “T” word.
With the US holiday of Thanksgiving approaching quickly, many pause to reflect on what they are thankful for. This year in particular, it is probably hard for many to “feel” thankful because it is a sacrifice to give praise. The state of the economy, lost jobs, general worry, etc… has people so focused on their circumstances; there is little room for thanks.
As ones who have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ though, we know that in everything we are to give thanks (1 Thess. 5:18). Our circumstances should not dictate our thankfulness. Rather it is directed to God who is unchanging.
It is easy to get distracted. In our lives this year, we have caught ourselves many times getting caught up by our circumstances. Thanksgiving shouldn’t just be a holiday season – it should be an attitude of the heart- throughout the year.
Despite our feelings, there are times we must choose to be thankful. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 states “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” That is no easy task in today’s world. We must choose to pause on a continual basis to acknowledge our dependence and need for God. We need to trust in God’s character and attributes above our emotions, what we can see, or what the world says.
… every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)
Since it all comes from our Heavenly Father, what do you choose to be thankful for this year? Here is our condensed list:
- We are thankful for God’s refining of our character through difficult circumstances
- We are thankful for God’s provision of our most basic needs.
- We are thankful for God’s unfailing love, grace and mercy.
- We are thankful for God’s protection of us.
- We are thankful for God’s provision of families that love us.
- We are thankful God changes lives, and for letting us be part of it.
- We are thankful for God’s provision through people like you who support our ministry.
He alone deserves all our praise! Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise!
Praise is the power that changes everything.
-Stormie Omartian
PRAYER REQUESTS:
- Pray that we would be thankful in all circumstances.
- Pray that God would meet our next specific financial goal by our deadline of Dec. 18th.
- Pray Keynote would continue to be creative in how we reach the youth of today and innovative for the youth of tomorrow.
-Dr. Michael Youssef writes in his devotional Leading The Way
Friday, November 13, 2009
Where the Rubber Meets the Road in the Life of Faith
It is truly an amazing experience to be a faith-supported missionary. (For those that don’t know, a faith-supported missionary is someone who must raise financial support to be in ministry. For Leslie and I, we raise 100% of what it costs to employ us with Campus Crusade for Christ.) Everyone must live the life of faith. There are times in the life of each believer that it is much more obvious than other times that faith is necessary. The process that Leslie and I have been going through is what I have termed “Where the rubber meets the road in the life of faith.”
Over the last 13 weeks, Leslie and I have had two different goals that we needed to see God’s financial provision in order to remain in ministry. We actually have just begun another goal and will probably have one more following that for us to reach 100% of what we need (each of which if we don’t meet, we will need to leave our present ministry). I say that only to let you know that we are still in process and in the midst of having to trust God.
Our first goal was for 6 weeks and we saw God provide a large portion of what we needed in the first couple of weeks. Then things seemed to slow to a halt. We would make phone call after phone call to people familiar with our ministry and not see any results. As we got closer and closer to our deadline, we knew God could provide, but would He. Our goal was met a few days before our deadline and we were able to be at peace.
This last goal, however was for 7 weeks and with only two weeks left, we still had more than half of our goal to go. To be honest, the stress between Leslie and I grew with each day. We saw God provide almost a third of what was left, then nothing. We entered into our final few days this week with $200 in monthly support to still raise for our deadline at 1:30 PM this afternoon. At one point, I turned to Leslie and said, “Even if we make our goal on Friday, I’m not sure I can take another goal.” The stress of living with if it is God’s desire for us to continue on in ministry or not was wearing upon me.
The problem with what I was thinking was that I wanted to short circuit God’s plan. I wanted to have Him take away the hard things in life. I wanted God to provide so that I could live at peace. The problem with that is that God never promised he would remove the hard times to give me peace. He says in John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”
By the very fact that He mentions not being troubled or fearful, it implies He isn’t removing the situations that might be troubling or causing fear.
Last night, we confirmed a total amount that left us just $8 short of our goal for this afternoon. We spent time calling, e-mailing, and facebooking people trying to come up with this $8 a month. At one point, I got a commitment from a person that said “If you don’t have it by tomorrow afternoon, let me know and I’ll do it for you.”
I felt comforted by the fact that there was a safety net in a sense. I e-mailed that person just prior to noon to let them know that we hadn’t reached anyone who was willing to give and were they still willing.
But then, as only God can do, we received a message that someone on our current financial support team was having to discontinue their support. Then within minutes, we had another e-mail from someone saying that they would join our team. This person's gift was enough to make up the amount that was lost and the remaining $8 we needed to meet our goal.
In that moment, I was ashamed of my unbelief. It was a tangible action that showed I didn’t believe that God would provide. His provision came just 80 minutes before our deadline. And yet, it was perfect timing.
The process of raising support has in a sense been a pressure cooker for us. There are things that come out in our relationship that we need to work on. The very things that made me want to just walk away. However, as a wise counselor shared with us, our support raising process is just the mechanism that God is using to bring these things out in our lives. The issues are still there with or without raising support.
Praise God that He is sovereign and doesn’t let me control my own path. I would take the shortcut every time. But the shortcut is not always for my benefit. I thank God that He desires to see me refined in ways that I can’t even imagine — and that He has a plan that goes beyond anything I know today.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Keynote Vision Dinner 2009 - Online Streaming
The 2009 Keynote Vision Dinner (which is one of Keynote's primary fundraisers) will have a live stream viewable over the Internet.
The event will take place Saturday, November 7, from 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM (Eastern Time). This is one of the best ways that you can be exposed to the full breadth of what Keynote does.
Come join us on Saturday.
The stream can be found here:
An archive of the event will be available following the live broadcast.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Opportunities for you
Volume 4, Issue 10
Opportunities for you
Campus Crusade for Christ as an entire ministry has the tag line “Helping Build Spiritual Movements Everywhere.” Keynote is just one part of Campus Crusade. We thought we’d share in this newsletter just some ways you can have an opportunity to be involved.
Global Media Outreach (GMO) has opportunities for you to serve from your own home as an online missionary. Did you know that millions of people search for God everyday online?
In the month of June 2009, 1,030,581 people indicated a first time decision to follow Jesus or a decision to recommit their life to Christ through one of more than 90 GMO-hosted Gospel websites. Of those, GMO online missionaries responded to 180,000 people who e-mailed the ministry asking discipleship. Decisions are happening at an average of 33,000 per day.
GMO has been seeing exponential growth in recent years. In all of 2007, GMO saw 1.3 million in the entire year on its then 71 websites. In all of 2008, GMO saw more than 3 million decisions. In 2008, they launched a cell phone ministry that helps reach 300,000 people every month.
Computers allow us to respond to people from all over the world who need Jesus, right from your home. If you can send an email, you can share the gospel. You can control how many emails you receive. You decide how much time you spend online. Safe! No one sees your email address and no one can send you spam. The training and resources are provided. 
Go to http://www.GMOJoinUs.com/ to learn more and apply!
Family Life is one ministry Mike and I have personally been ministered to by. We attended the Family Life Weekend to Remember Conference in 2005 as a pre-engaged couple. This Fri.-Sun. marriage conference is for engaged couples and married couples. We can testify that it is WORTH IT! Building into and investing in your marriage is indeed a necessity and profitable.
We want to thank you! Our ministry would not be possible without your prayer and financial support. To express our appreciation we want to invite you to attend FamilyLife’s Weekend to Remember marriage conference at a special rate of$69/person. That’s almost half of the regular rate of $129 person.
Imagine…a romantic weekend to
- Focus on each other
- Get away from the distractions of daily life
- Slow down and reconnect
Last year over 80,000 people found renewed hope, joy, love romance and effective tools for their marriage. We want you to experience this life-changing Campus Crusade ministry event.
To receive this special rate visit http://www.familylife.com/cccpartner and use the promotion code CCCsupport when you register. There are over 100 events across the Unites States. We appreciate you and care deeply about your marriage and family.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
- Pray that God would meet our next specific financial goal by our deadline of November 13th.
- Praise: God met one of our specific financial goals earlier in September.
- Pray for Keynote’s launch of our new internet outreach this month.
When I seek to point people to Christ, it is because I am convinced that He alone is God’s answer to life’s deepest problems.
-Billy Graham
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Branching out online
Volume 4, Issue 9
Branching out online
Going online these days is just like picking up a phone for many. The communication continuum keeps escalating. Mike remembers when world wide web was just text and not graphic pictures. Even with so many advancements, ministry IS happening in the realm of the World Wide Web. So you ask, what does that have to do with Keynote? Well, our ministry is branching out. Not only is music a creative element of sharing the Gospel but so is the internet and screen based technology. Keynote was tasked by Campus Crusade leadership to spearhead some of this “virtual ministry”.
On a whim, Keynote’s executive director posted our ventriloquist/comedian, Dave Pendelton’s Gospel presentation to youtube.com. The only promotion he did was put in his Facebook status to check the video out. To date the counter reads 18,451 viewers. One viewer posted the following comment “at first I thought it would be a comedy thing yet, I just find out in my self that it could have been the most valuable video in YouTube I have ever watched...” Dave personally followed-up with the viewer and that viewer shared that he was “trying to search about some famous ventriloquist and it’s a fact that your are one of them I have watched a lot of them including yours and what can I expect? It’s all just for laughs. But when I saw this video about God I felt thankful for even a short span of time you’ve able to share God’s way and I really admire those persons.”
You can watch that video at:
http://bit.ly/DPvideo
In a more intentional way, Keynote is working on some websites that will actually equip the body of Christ to use the Internet for ministry. Some of you may be familiar with what a widget is. No, we aren’t referring to the generic name used along with “thing-a-ma-jig.” The widget we are talking about is in essence a container for information that is placed on a website whose content exists somewhere else. The way Keynote intends to equip the body of Christ is by creating a repository of these widgets that churches, ministries, and individuals can use on their own websites. The widgets will be life giving resources for your online world! People can compile endless combinations of these widgets to create exactly the kind of outreach they are looking for.
Right now, Keynote has a team of people building the widgets and gathering various sources for the information. The goal is to be able to make the repository as well as our own website using those widgets available in early October.
Keynote’s Summer Projects film track produced a documentary this summer. The team of two students and two staff filmed, edited and directed the documentary.
"Experience a Life-Changing Summer” can be viewed at:
http://bit.ly/KEYdocuVid
PRAYER REQUESTS:
Please continue to pray for Keynote as we seek more ways to connect with people through social media.- Pray for the upcoming international opportunities Keynote has. Late Sept. blue sky nine– Mongolia & South Korea for outreach events. Mid October sending a team to Panama to give communication training and coaching for the Campus Crusade staff as they being a music & creative arts ministry.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Photos from our Staff Conference in Colorado
As an added bonus to the photos from our newsletter, we are posting the photos that couldn't fit on the page.
These are from our US Staff Conference in Colorado
These are from our US Staff Conference in Colorado
Mike and Leslie enjoying the view at the top of Horsetooth Mountain after they hiked up there.
Mike's old Student Venture Staff friends (Debi & Robin) pause for a photo with him.
Friends who are also a Campus Crusade staff couple meet for dinner with the Rebholz's. Both couples soon (mid August) to celebrate 3 years of marriage within 1 week of each other!
Mike's second home, the presentation desk, during the staff conference.
Staff who are new to Keynote as Mike was or is their support coach.
Leslie with friends (Rose and Omar) from her previous ministry with Life Builders.
Moby Gym filled with 5,000 stateside Campus Crusade staff for the conference.
This year's staff conference theme was "Connect".
One of Campus Crusade's national leaders addresses staff during the conference.
Keynote led worship for the staff conference.
Singing and signing language (far right) to our Lord.
A view of the stage from the upper section of Moby Gym.
Tenth Avenue North, a christian band, gave a concert.
Mike and Leslie taking a pose on a rock half way up the mountain on their hike.
Upclose to a deer during our hike.
Lecrea, a christian hip-hop artist, gave a concert which Mike. You may remember Mike ran lyrics for him during the Impact conference at Christmas time. Someone accepted Christ at that concert because of the lyrics.
Leslie and Mike get a moment together as Mike is working the sessions during the conference.
A stop at a store in Estes Park with a furry friend, a moose.
Mike and Leslie spent an evening with her brother John and his girlfriend, Marcy.
Powerful worship times during the staff conference.
Thomas, Liz and Leslie stop at Keynote's booth during the Ministry fair.
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