grandawakening

Jim Sprague, MSW, is the Chief Executive Officer of the Pregnancy Resource Center (PRC) of Grand Rapids, MI whose mission is to live the truth that people matter to God. Jim has been leading the organization for more than 20 years. He and his wife, Jody, have been part of the ministry since its inception in 1985, the same year they were married. The Sprague’s have 3 adult children and one grandchi...

Randy Hekman currently directs The Grand Awakening, an organization seeking revival and spiritual awakening in West Michigan. Previously, he served 15 years as a Kent County Probate-Juvenile Court Judge and then directed a succession of Christian non-profits. Randy’s writing includes these books: Justice for the Unborn, Truth that Sets America Free, and Sweeter by the Dozen: Making Jesus the Lord...

Windle H. Davis was born and raised in the Missouri Boot Heel and Northeast Arkansas. In 1972, he moved to Battle Creek, Michigan where he met and married the love of his life, Denice Rayburn Davis. In their 47 years as husband and wife they are thankful for their two children and seven grandchildren. Windle spent a number of years in music ministry, singing bass in a successful Southern Gospel qu...

Randy and Marcia Hekman have been married for 52 years, but only have 12 children (and 35 grandkids) to show for it! They now lead The Grand Awakening, a nonprofit with the goal of calling the Church of West Michigan to revival, leading to another Great Spiritual Awakening. After graduation from MIT and GWU Law School, Randy served as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney and then was a Probate-Juveni...

Vance Day is a modern-day profile in courage who strongly believes in helping to raise a generation of leaders equipped to address an ever-changing world. Few have had their personal convictions more sorely tested or triumphed over the politics of religious persecution and personal destruction like Judge Day. Judge Day received his undergraduate degree Warner Pacific University in 1984 and his law...

Erwin W. Lutzer is Pastor Emeritus of The Moody Church where he served as the Senior Pastor for 36 years. He earned an undergraduate degree in theology from Winnipeg Bible College, a Masters in Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, a Masters in Philosophy from Loyola University, and an honorary law degree from the Simon Greenleaf School of Law. A clear expositor of the Bible, Dr. Lutzer is th...

Randy and Marcia Hekman have been married for 52 years, but only have 12 children (and 35 grandkids) to show for it! They now lead The Grand Awakening, a nonprofit with the goal of calling the Church of West Michigan to revival, leading to another Great Spiritual Awakening. After graduation from MIT and GWU Law School, Randy served as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney and then was a Probate-Juveni...

Rev. Jon Mitchell has an amazing spirit, heart, and passion for the Kingdom of God and he desires to see lives ignited by the manifest presence of Christ. He is the Growth Director of the College of Prayer International, a global ministry actively mentoring, training, and equipping over 15 million Christian pastors and church leaders to reach a lost world through a revived church. He provides over...

Jonathan DeCou is currently serving as the Lead Pastor of Preaching & Teaching at Whitneyville Bible Church in Alto, Michigan. He brings more than 40 years of ministry experience to his current ministry responsibilities. After his training at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois, DeCou served a number of churches across the country in various capacities. He has served as teaching pastor, wor...

Moses Alexander is the Pastor of Acts Gospel Outreach Ministry located in the NW quadrant of Grand Rapids. Moses has been in ministry for 37 years, 25 of which he has served as a pastor. He and his dear wife Diane have been married for 49 years. God has blessed them with 5 wonderful children, and now 6 precious grandchildren. Moses feels called by the Lord to reach those that are not saved with th...

Jay Jones is a church planter, speaker, author, and senior pastor of the Pentecostals of Kentwood Church in West Michigan. His training included studying at the Christian Leaders Institute, and he has instructed at the Purpose Institute. Jay is a passionate worshipper of Jesus Christ, a husband, and a father. He has a genuine heart for fervent prayer, for selfless service, and for seeing the Gospe...

Whether smuggling Bibles, feeding lepers or working/living amongst a Muslim people group as a Humanitarian Pastor, Mick Veach’s commitment to share the love of God has taken him all over the world. Mick has served as a Global Partners’ Area Director for Central Asia and the Middle East, he has presented the gospel in more than 60 countries, been the Lead Pastor of a large suburban church north of...

Scott Hekman is the Executive Pastor of the Downtown Congregation of the Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, Texas. He’s married to Lydia and together they are the parents of four awesome children, three daughters and one son. Scott received his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from Calvin College and a Masters Degree in Water Resources Engineering from University of Texas in Austin....

Renée Allsbrook is a classically trained pianist, church music director, worship leader, and songwriter. She received her Bachelor’s of Music in piano performance from Indiana University-Bloomington, and subsequently went on to study at Mannes College of Music in Manhattan, giving recitals and free-lancing during her nine years in New York. Renée has a poet’s pen and a prophet’s heart, and tends t...

Marlin and Becky Bontrager, as husband and wife, are now blessed with 10 amazing children. While Marlin spends part of his days managing his farm, he also spends much of the year traveling throughout North America with his family blessing churches and groups of people with the wonderful music of their Bontrager Family Singers. Wife Becky is a full time mother who loves investing daily in the lives...

Atheist-turned-Christian Lee Strobel, the former award-winning legal editor of The Chicago Tribune, is a New York Times best-selling author of more than forty books and curricula that have sold fourteen million copies in total. He currently serves as Founding Director of the Lee Strobel Center for Evangelism and Applied Apologetics at Colorado Christian University. Lee was educated at the Universi...

Rich Correll is a former steel marketing executive turned church planting missionary to Ukraine. Since 1991, Rich has traveled to Ukraine over 145 times and has helped plant 2071 churches resulting in over 14,000 baptisms and the establishment of 91 drug rehab homes. When he launched Church Planters' Training International (CPTI) in 1992 as founder and president, Rich had no prior theological or c...

James Pool has served as a pastor in Texas for 30 years. After that, he became the National Prayer Director for OneCry, and has been in that role since its inception ten years ago. He also started a college student organization called OneCry for Baylor University, and now serves as its onsite sponsor in Waco, TX. James is also a part of PrayerLink, the Southern Baptist Convention's state prayer le...

Bruce Bruinsma is a central figure in the "Retirement Reformation" movement. As the Founder and CEO of Envoy Financial, a retirement provider that serves those in ministry, Bruce has encouraged men and women for over 25 years to look at retirement as a "Future Funded Ministry" where they will have the time and financial freedom to apply a life's worth of talent and experiences to God's Kingdom. In...

Neal Karsten grew up in West Michigan and came to know Jesus when he was at Hope College. With this major change in his life, Neal immediately gained a desire to see passionate believers raised up and empowered for mission. After working as a pastor within the traditional church for 10 years, Neal sensed a clear calling to see disciple making and simple church multiplication take place throughout...

Dr. Jim Denison returns for a second podcast. Jim is the Chief Vision Officer of Denison Forum. Through The Daily Article email newsletter and podcast (DenisonForum.org), social media, interviews, and articles across the internet, Denison Forum reaches 2.6 million culture-changing Christians every month. Jim and his wife, Janet, live in Dallas, Texas, and they have two sons and four grandchildren....

Dianne Lee grew up on a farm in northeastern South Dakota and has lived in Aberdeen, SD for over 30 years. She was employed as a medical social worker until her retirement in 2020. Dianne and her husband, Jeff, have three adult children and four grandchildren. For the past several years, Diane has had the privilege of mentoring many young women in her community, offering these women encouragement,...

Dr. Wayne Grudem is Distinguished Research Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies at Phoenix Seminary in Arizona. He is a graduate of Harvard, Westminster Seminary, and the University of Cambridge, England. He has published over twenty-five books, including Systematic Theology, and Politics According to the Bible. He is a past president of the Evangelical Theological Society, and he was the ge...

Pastor Keith Hemmila graduated from the University of Minnesota, Duluth with a Bachelor of Science degree and earned a Master of Divinity degree from Bethel Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota. He pastored in San Francisco, California, Hibbing Minnesota, Marquette Michigan, and Crossfire Church in Rockford, Michigan that he and his wife Judy founded in 2005 and continue to Pastor at present. Pastor Ke...

John Geaney serves as the Pastor of Faith Baptist Church here in Kentwood, MI. Originally from the United Kingdom, John moved to the Grand Rapids area with his Wife Stacie and 8 children in September 2016. His undergraduate is in Theology, from Westminster College, Oxford. Following on from that John studied at Cornhill in a one year intensive of Biblical Exegesis. John previously served as the Pa...