Chuck Colson Prayer Following 9/11

This past week, a lot of people have thinking about the impact of Chuck Colson on their individual lives as well as his biblical thinking and prophetic challenge to the Church.  My own thoughts were full of thanksgiving for the remarkable story of grace and forgiveness that Chuck’s life represented to the world.  The last time I spoke with Chuck on radio he was tired from a long trip, but so enthusiastic about listeners supporting Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree Project.

I also thought about how much I’ll miss his voice on Christian radio, not only on BREAKPOINT, but also as a “go-to” guest during strategic events in the life of our nation.  Those of us who host various programs, always knew that if we could land him as a guest, the audience (and the host) would respond with rapt attention.

One such time I’ll never forget.  It was a few days after 9/11.  The nation had responded to President Bush’s call for a Day of Remembrance and Prayer and Billy Graham had spoken in a service broadcast to the nation from The National Cathedral (the same Cathedral that will apparently someday soon hold a memorial for Colson).  I was on the air the Moody Broadcasting Network that night with Dr. Joe Stowell as we prayed with listeners and a few select guests, one of whom was Chuck Colson.  I’ve provided the brief audio clip here which will take you back to that evening over 10 years ago in the midst of the fog of those days when we didn’t know exactly what had happened, or by whose hand, but we knew we needed to pray.

ONE CRY PRAYER SUMMIT

For many years, it was my privilege to host The Nationally Broadcast Concert of Prayer with Dr. Bob Bakke.  Each year, on the first Thursday in May (The National Day of Prayer), we would broadcast a live prayer event from different locations around the country on an ad-hoc network of hundreds of radio stations.

I am very pleased to announce that we are going to, once again, be on the air with a special prayer event, not only on May 3, 2012, but for the 3 weeks following.  The ONE CRY PRAYER SUMMIT will originate live in the studios of Moody Radio in Chicago, but is available to all radio stations.  Radio stations can click here for additional information and signup.

I’ll be hosting the ONE CRY PRAYER SUMMIT with Bob Bakke starting at 7:00 pm Central Time.  In addition to radio, it will be widely available online for listening as well.  A number of Christian leaders will join us for the launch on May 3 and also joining us in-studio will be Meredith Andrews and The Chicago Tabernacle Choir.

Be sure to visit www.onecry.com, a nationwide call for spiritual awakening, and sign up with your support.

Pastor Michael Catt On His Adoption

After seeing the movie OCTOBER BABY, Pastor Michael Catt reflected on his own adoption, which he did not know about until he was an adult.  You can read his blog here.

Several months ago, I interviewed Michael regarding his adoption and you can listen to that brief conversation here.

FIRST PERSON: OCTOBER BABY

Since there’s been quite a bit of buzz about the new film, OCTOBER BABY, coming out next weekend (March 23), I thought I would release our FIRST PERSON interview with the producers and cast a week early.  Below, you’ll be able to hear the interview with Jon and Andrew Erwin, brothers who have produced, written, and directed this, their first feature length film.  Then, in the second half of FIRST PERSON, you’ll hear cast members Shari Rigby and Jason Burky, plus Gianna Jessen whose personal story of surviving an abortion inspired this movie.

This interview will be released for broadcast on radio next weekend, but please feel free to listen now and plan to see OCTOBER BABY in the theater, starting March 23.

Listen to FIRST PERSON: OCTOBER BABY by clicking here.  All other FIRST PERSON interviews can be found online at www.firstpersoninterview.com.

Audio Book Projects Updated

I can’t exactly remember how long I have been narrating audio books, but it’s been at least 20 years.  This past year has been especially busy and I have not kept the list of titles here on my website up-to-date.  So, to correct that, I’ve added links to online sources for the audio books which I have voiced.  You’ll find it by clicking on “Audio Books” in the header above.

One of the most recent books is Cast of Characters: Lost and Found by Max Lucado from Oasis Audio. The first chapter of Max’s book can be sampled here.

In addition to reading books, I’ve also been very active these past few years interviewing authors for bonus tracks on their audio books, whether I read them or not.  Most, but not all, of these interviews have been done for Oasis Audio– many of which are also posted to YouTube.com.

Christmas In America on The Public Square

The first two weekends in December this year were some of the busiest, but most meaningful I’ve had in a long time.  Our team at The Public Square has been planning Christmas In America for a very long time, and it finally happened in Medina, OH on December 3 and Nashville, TN on December 10 before live audiences.  A very unique program of music and spoken word was created by Dave Zanotti and our whole team.  It was my privilege to MC the events and celebrate the incarnation along with musicians Phil Keaggy, Nathan Clark George, Four Wall Flight, The Chosen, The Bender Family, Odessa Settles, and David White.

Congressman Bill Johnson of Ohio joined me on stage for an interview, as did Dr. Sterling Glover.  Dr. Jeff Sanders gave a stirring presentation from Civil War times, and Dave Zanotti underscored the importance of God becoming man as a foundational truth for our nation.

The Cleveland area event became that week’s program of The Public Square, and the Nashville event became part 2 a week later on The Public Square.  Then, we took both programs and created a radio special version of Christmas In America for all interested radio stations.

These programs can be enjoyed online by going to www.APRoundtable.org.  Merry Christmas, everyone!

Angel Tree Radio

Angel Tree® is the very popular program, spearheaded by Prison Fellowship, which provides the children of prisoners gifts at Christmastime. Over the past 29 years, 6 million children have received gifts. You can read all about, and donate to Angel Tree® at their website, www.angeltree.org.

It was my privilege to host this year’s radio special with Chuck Colson, the Founder of Prison Fellowship, and Jim Liske, the new CEO of Prison Fellowship. The producer was my long-time friend, Jay Payleitner, and the program was represented to radio stations by The Hibbard Group (www.thehibbardgroup.com).

Russian Ministries and PROJECT HOPE

Many years ago I hosted a weekly radio program with Josh McDowell, the great apologist and speaker. Josh was extremely active in evangelism and meeting humanitarian needs in the countries of the former Soviet Union, so I was privileged to travel to Russia a couple of time in the early 90′s and see what was happening first hand.

Now, it is my privilege to serve on the board of Russian Ministries. It is a much different ministry landscape than it was 20 years ago when there was so much openness to the Gospel, but, if anything, the spiritual needs are even greater. Russian Ministries, led by its President, Sergey Rakhuba, is doing a fantastic job of assisting the church the countries of the former Soviet Union.

One very significant outreach provides Russian believers in churches with the necessary resources to put together gift boxes for children– some of whom are orphans. To learn more, please visit www.russian-ministries.org, or to help Project Hope with a gift, call 888-462-7639.

Sergey and I recently recorded a 25 minute radio program to explain Project Hope, and you can listen to it here: LISTEN TO PROJECT HOPE RADIO

The Freedom Climb

I get to interview a lot of people who do a lot of interesting things. But a group I met with recently to help them with some media work, really impressed me. Operation Mobilzation has mobilized almost 50 women who are going to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania this coming January. They range in age from 18 to 73 and they are doing this to mark the National Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the U.S. Climbers will be raising awareness, prayers, and finances for women and children being oppressed, enslaved, exploited and trafficked. The Freedom Climb goal for 2012 is to affect the lives of 10,000 women through projects that break the cycles of poverty, shame, slavery, and despair. These projects include micro-loans, education, skills training, and protection from exploitation.

They begin their ascent on January 11. 2012 and you can follow along, pray for them, and even sponsor one or more of the climbers when you go to TheFreedomClimb.net.

And to hear my FIRST PERSON interview with several of the women, click on the “listen” button at firstpersoninterview.com.

First Person: COURAGEOUS

With the COURAGEOUS movie opening soon (September 30), I wanted to bring your attention to two upcoming First Person interview shows.This weekend’s program (www.firstpersoninterview.com) features two men to whom God has given a vision for filmmaking. Alex and Stephen Kendrick talk about their early years of making home movies as well as their hopes and dreams for how God will use this new COURAGEOUS film to turn the hearts of fathers to God.
This interview and all others will remain in the First Person archive, so you can listen anytime online.
Then, starting September 30, the day COURAGEOUS releases across the country, First Person will take you to last month’s Red Carpet Screening for conversations with the cast who were at the Fox Theatre the night the film was shown to 4,000 people.
If you want to go back in the archive, you’ll also find interviews with the two executive producers of the film, Michael Catt and Jim McBride.
It has been a real joy to spend some time with many of the people associated with the making of FLYWHEEL, FACING THE GIANTS, FIREPROOF, and now COURAGEOUS. They are men and women who take their role as followers of Christ seriously and live in obedience to God’s call on their lives.