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.

September Remembered

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The 10th anniversary of 9/11 is fast approaching and, like most of you, it’s causing me to think about that day and the feelings it brought out in all of us. I was in my office at Moody Radio when the news broke, stunned as you were no doubt. Bob Neff, the VP of Broadcasting at Moody urged me to go downstairs to the studio and go on the air network-wide, breaking into normal programming. In Chicago, the WMBI morning program was underway, but we all pitched in together to connect all the stations in the Moody Broadcasting Network to a national feed. WMBI host Mark Elfstrand and newsman Dave Mitchell joined me on air, as did Dr. Joe Stowell. Dr. Stowell had been in a board meeting just a floor away with the MBI Trustees, and many of them came to the studio to watch the monitors.

So, that began many hours and days of special programming that was made up as the news came in. It was, of course, incredibly intense, but God was very clearly directing our words and response. The whole staff joined the effort– on and off the air– but I was especially grateful for the help of producers Joe Carlson and Cindy Rojas. We seemed to be in lock step with what was needed and who we needed to talk to. I’ll never forget the response of one listener who emailed and said that while she had initially tuned away to an all news station for facts, she was compelled to return to Moody Radio to understand God’s perspective on the terror and uncertainty.

Now, 10 years later, Moody has asked us to produce a special radio program looking back at 9/11. It was Joe Carlson’s idea to have Dr. Stowell, now the President of Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and me get together on mic and talk about that day. This special radio hour will air a couple of times on Sunday, September 11 on Moody Radio– both over the air and on the internet at 8:00 am CT and 5:00pm CT. I hope you will take time to listen, remember with us, and give thanks to God for our nation which stands in spite of the attack.

At the top of this post is an audio sample of FINDING GOD ON 9/11.

COURAGEOUS Red Carpet Webcast

This Friday night in Atlanta, I’ll be hosting the Courageous Red Carpet Screening Webcast for Lifeway which will take place at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre. You’ll be able to log onto www.iamcourageous.com and watch from 6:00 to 7:00 PM Eastern Time, 5:00 to 6:00 PM, Central Time.

We’ll be interviewing cast and crew as they head into the theatre, and Mark Hall of Casting Crowns will join me to talk about his song Courageous which is from the movie soundtrack.

‘Hope you can watch this Friday night! www.iamcourageous.com

Facebook and Twitter

For the latest updates, you’ll find me on Facebook at facebook.com/wayne.shepherd

Look me up on Twitter: @WayneShepherd

FIRST PERSON has its own website: FirstPersonInterview.com, and a Facebook page as well. It’s facebook.com/firstpersoninterview.

‘See you online!

In Memoriam: Jim Warren 1937-2011

Summer of Hope

It’s very hard for us to over-estimate the value of a week at summer camp for a child in the former Soviet Union. Whether an orphan, or just a neighborhood kid who needs to know that someone loves and cares for them, these children are given the gift of a week to learn about Jesus and just plain have a little fun.

I am very pleased to say that we have created a radio special which gives all of us a chance to make this dream come true for many children all across the former Soviet Union. We are asking listeners to give a gift of $50 to send a child to a week of summer camp.

Joining me in the studio for SUMMER OF HOPE is Sergey Rakhuba, the President of Russian Ministries. As a Russian Ministries board member, it was my privilege to donate my time as Executive Producer and Host. The world’s best radio producer, Joe Carlson did what he does best, and Steve Wick of Resonance Audio provided the custom theme music. Anita Deyneka’s voice is heard in the spots within the program, and I called on a long-time friend, Sharon Franks Burgess to lend her voice as well.

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You can listen to the radio special by clicking the play button above. And, if you feel led of God to give towards this worthy goal, you can give your gift of $50 or more at Russian-Ministries.org. Thank you!