Jason Frenn
| Jason Frenn | |
|---|---|
 Jason Frenn, speaking at LA FORUM Crusade. |
|
| Born | October 24, 1966 Los Angeles, California |
| Occupation | Evangelist, Conference Speaker |
| Spouse | Cindee Frenn |
Jason Frenn (born October 24, 1966 in Los Angeles, California) is an international evangelist, author, and conference speaker, whose live ministry events have attracted a cumulative worldwide audience of over 3 million people.[1] As a bilingual evangelist, he is widely known throughout the Spanish-speaking areas in the United States and Latin America. His ministry, entitled Power to Change, organizes city-wide crusades. Because his ministry events are focused on predominantly Spanish-speaking regions, he has been criticized as a foreigner trying to change culture. He is one of a handful of anglo missionary evangelists who work to proselytize in Latin America. He is also an occasional guest voice for the Washington Post. Jason Frenn is a member of the Assemblies of God World Missions, a Protestant organization, but speaks for a wide variety of churches, denominations, and non-profit organizations.[2] He is also a motivational and corporate affiliate speaker for the Ziglar Corporation. [3]
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[edit] Personal History
Jason Frenn was born in 1966 and raised in Southern California. His mother struggled with alcoholism, while his father was a bartender. At the age of three his parents separated, divorcing six years later. Jason and his mother moved to Big Bear, California, where his mother remarried a sixty-nine year old man who had been previously divorced five times.[4]
Upon attending Southern California College (now Vanguard University), Jason met his wife-to-be, fellow student Cindee Larson. During their courtship they shared a collective desire to work as missionaries to the Spanish-speaking community. They married six months after graduation, and moved to San Jose, Costa Rica, in 1991. After completing an intensive period in language school, they began their missionary evangelism ministry, today called Power to Change. Their ministry holds city-wide crusades throughout Latin America and, more recently, in the United States.[5][6]
Jason holds a Bachelor's Degree in History and Political Science, and a Master's in Church Leadership from Vanguard University of Southern California.[7]
He and Cindee have three daughters.
[edit] Ministry
The Power to Change ministry centers on the belief that through the power of God, particularly Jesus Christ, any individual can break free from addictions, family dysfunction, or destructive habits, and live a fulfilling life. The ministry initiates and manages open air crusades that present audiences with the Christian concept of salvation and spiritual living, with Jason Frenn as its primary speaker.
Over its two-decade history, the ministry has held over forty crusades, most of them in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Mexico. The largest crusade to date occurred in 2004, at the Saprissa Stadium in San Jose, Costa Rica, with 45,000 in attendance over the week-long event.[8]
Other notable crusades include the ministry's first U.S. crusade in May, 2006, at the Anaheim Convention Center, and its second, held at the Los Angeles Forum (both in Southern California) to mixed audiences comprising both English and Spanish speakers. To date, the Power to Change ministry has reached out to over 3 million people, with more than 300,000 conversions to Christianity.[9][10]
Jason Frenn’s crusade messages are bilingual, with an interpreter partnering with him as he speaks. Jason often begins speaking in English for portions of his messages, with the interpreter delivering Spanish. However, with educational background in Spanish, Jason will frequently jump into speaking Spanish, while the interpreter quickly switches over into English.
In 2007, Jason Frenn's ministry expanded to include a daily Spanish radio program entitled Por Fin Soy Libre (Free at Last) on the Radio Nueva Vida Network. The evangelistic program has a potential weekly audience of 500,000.[11]
In June of 2008, Jason along with several of his crusade team members from Costa Rica granted permission by the Assemblies of God in Cuban along with the ministry of religion to hold two open-air outreaches in the towns of Holguín and Los Banes. Both meetings had a combined attendance of 12,000 people.
In September 2009, Jason was the keynote televised speaker at the Crystal Cathedral's Hour of Power, a weekly evangelistic television program that reaches an estimated worldwide viewing audience of 20 million.[12] He made several more appearances over the following twelve months.[13]
Jason has written four books. The first, POWER TO CHANGE, has sold roughly 100,000 copies. His second, third, and fourth books BREAKING THE BARRIERS,[14] POWER TO REINVENT YOURSELF,[15] and THE SEVEN PRAYERS GOD ALWAYS ANSWERS [16](respectively) are published through Faith Words.
[edit] Bibliography
POWER TO CHANGE
BREAKING THE BARRIERS[17]
POWER TO REINVENT YOURSELF[18]
THE SEVEN PRAYERS GOD ALWAYS ANSWERS [19]
[edit] Criticism
Jason Frenn’s crusades are routinely scheduled in Spanish-speaking regions, such as Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Mexico. In conflict with his ministry is the “Indigenous Church philosophy,”[20] which suggests that missionaries and evangelists working in Latin America should be Hispanic. More recently Jason Frenn’s crusades have shifted to include North America, again aimed at Spanish-speaking audiences.
For years, Jason Frenn preaches that regardless of one's ethnicity, race or background, it is God who determines who is called to preach and not organizational philosophy. For that reason, he has continued to spearhead his crusades and ministerial outreaches to these regions.
[edit] Notable television appearances
Trinity Broadcasting Network, Latin America
Costa Rica Channel 7 – Six o’clock evening news interview
Channel 7 – Buen Día, daily morning show in Costa Rica
Channel 13 - in Managua Nicaragua
Hour of Power (Crystal Cathedral), August 9, 2009, October 18, 2009, December 6, 2009, March 28, 2010, October 10, 2010
Celebration (Daystar Network), August 10, 2009, October 12, 2010
Life Today (Life Today with James and Betty Robison), September 2009
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ [1]
- ^ http://www.crystalcathedral.org/hour_of_power/pastors/index_lc.php?contentid=4156
- ^ http://www.ziglar.com/ourspeakers_jason_frenn.html
- ^ Power to Reinvent Yourself. ISBN 978-0-446-54622-5
- ^ SoCal Connection, November 2007, Vol 2, No. 11
- ^ Relocate
- ^ Vanguard Magazine, Vol. 7 No. 3
- ^ http://www.nacion.com/viva/2004/abril/22/soc4.html retrieved Dec. 2, 2007
- ^ Assemblies of God World Missions
- ^ Assemblies of God World Missionary Directory
- ^ Radio Nueva Vida - Tu estación de Bendición
- ^ http://www.crystalcathedral.org/about/rhs.php
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/jasonfrenn#p/u/10/bbvwPqqbJuQ
- ^ http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/books_9780446564052.htm
- ^ http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/books_9780446546225.htm
- ^ http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/books_9780446546232.htm
- ^ http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/books_9780446564052.htm
- ^ http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/books_9780446546225.htm
- ^ http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/books_9780446546232.htm
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_church_mission_theory
[edit] Related links
http://www.frenn.org (ministry website)
http://www.agwm.org (Assemblies of God World Missions website)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GrBlSk6ghsE (Crusade viewable on YouTube)
http://youtube.com/jasonfrenn (speaking engagements and television appearances viewable on YouTube)
http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/11/cycle_of_destructive_behavior.html (Washington Post)
http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/12/keeping_the_peace_at_christmas.html (Washington Post)
http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/11/reinventing_mr_sheen.html (Washington Post)
http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2011/01/are_we_becoming_a_see_no_evil_nation.html (Washington Post)
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/15/my-faith-who-does-god-listen-to/ (CNN)
