User:Ryanobie/Ryan Downing
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Ryan Downing, born October 21, 1980 in Phoenix, Arizona, is a Christian writer and speaker. When he was just 16, he preached his first sermon at the Youth Alive campus Bible club at Horizon High School. At that stage in his life, he directed his passion to that same Bible club. The year before he became the leader of the club, it ran around ten people on weekly basis. By the time he had graduated, it had become the largest Youth Alive club in Phoenix.
The group was defined by big events where Ryan and his team of fellow high school students would put on evangelistic events where hundreds of teens would show up and have their lives touched by God. It was during this time that Ryan appeared on a TBN broadcast to talk about how God can change the atmosphere on a public school campus.
Following his graduation, Ryan was asked to join the Arizona Youth Alive staff. There he worked with high schools from across the Valley and helped give them tools to reach students. One of these collaborations was the Blitz assemblies where high school students would put on a major outreach event focused on teenagers. These rallies were held at several high schools and one saw 40 students give their hearts to Jesus.
Not long after this, the national Youth Alive organization began taking notice and featured some of Ryan’s ideas for growth and outreach in its “Youth Alive Playbook”. He also was a regular speaker at the annual Arizona Youth Alive conference. Then, he was promoted to the Director of all the Arizona Youth Alive clubs.
Youth Alive was not the only project Ryan focused on. He also became a licensed minister of the Assemblies of God and was on the Executive Board for Youth for the Arizona A/G. He was able to travel to different churches and high schools around Arizona where he was able to bring a message of hope for his generation.
While attending Arizona State University, Ryan became involved with Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship and was one of the key figures in the student leadership team that helped run and grow the group during its transition between campus pastors.
Even though he was keeping busy with Youth Alive and Chi Alpha, it was also during this same time that Ryan started a Sunday School class at Tommy Barnett’s Phoenix First Assembly for late teens. Through the years, this group that began with six people continued to grow. After Ryan graduated Arizona State with a degree in computer information systems, he devoted more of his time to this group called YAM (young adult ministries). It ultimately was merged together with EdiPhi, another young adult group at Phoenix First, and Ryan would speak weekly at the ministry’s Sunday service [1].
When the young adult and youth department at Phoenix First was reorganized into one unit called Threesixty, Ryan became the Associate Pastor for the young adults where he ran the operations of the ministry, planned large events and spoke at the services and conferences [2].
In addition to his speaking and pastoral commitments, Ryan also has written hundreds of devotionals for young adults and college students that have been used across the country. He also is the author of "Energize Your Life: 365 Daily Messages to Inspire and Enlighten" [3].