Outstanding Alumnus Award
JR: Homecoming 2007 Recipients of the "Christ Over All" Outstanding
Alumnus Awards.
JR was born in Kansas City, Missouri where his father was on staff at Kansas City Youth for Christ. KCYFC held a summer camp at JBU and one of his early memories is swimming in the JBU outdoor pool down in the valley at that summer camp. As JR approached high school graduation he was advised to apply to several schools to find the best for him. He had more than 10 scholarship offers but somehow he knew that JBU was the best place. JR attended JBU for 3 ½ years joining the Sound Generation in the fall of 1967. They traveled and performed over 900 concerts during that time. While at JBU he married Melody Hope and their first daughter, Sarah, was born in November 1970. After leaving JBU, JR and Melody prayed about it and felt called to the ministry of Christian media. While in Tulsa, JR and Melody were active in Southern Hills Baptist Church, where he taught the young married couples Sunday school class for 10 years. He also sang with the choir, and served on a pulpit committee to choose a new pastor and chaired the staff committee. In addition, he also had the opportunity to serve on the board of the JBU Alumni Association.
JR and his family moved to Muskegon Michigan in August 1988 to become the Director of Ministries for Gospel Films. JR has been the executive in charge of production for multiple dramatic and documentary productions, the executive producer of several international films and the co-producer of FREE AT LAST – THE MOVIE with DC Talk. In the late 90’s, in recognition of the expansion of Gospel Films to include so much more than just film, the name was changed to Gospel Communications International. In 1999 JR was named Vice-President of the ministry. In 2002, he was named COO and in 2003 named CEO. In 2005 the board appointed him both President and CEO and then elected to the board of directors. For the last 7 years, JR has been on the board of directors of Gospel Films of Canada. During his time on staff at Gospel Communications, the ministry has grown to touch every country on the globe working in at least 55 languages. Their online Bible, biblegateway.com, is now accessed by over 200 countries in over 100 different translations and languages with people coming to Christ online everyday.
Their evangelistic media outreach uses critical needs like drugs, addiction, and alcohol to present a message that shows the love of Christ leading to a decision to become Christ-followers. Our Gospel Response to AIDS initiative is reaching out to more than 20 countries in sub-Saharan Africa with HIV/AIDS education and a message to end the stigma of AIDS while presenting a clear message of coming home to the Father. JR has had the opportunity to lead praise and worship, perform or preach in front of hundreds of thousands of people across the US and in Africa and Eastern Europe over the last 15 years. His passion is to see that every man, woman and child has the opportunity to hear, understand and respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. JR and Melody have now been married for 37 year and have two married daughters and four grandchildren who all live close by.