Personal History
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), he 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 citywide crusades throughout Latin America and, more recently, in the United States. [5] [6]
He holds a bachelor's degree in history and political science, and a master's in church leadership from Vanguard University of Southern California. [7]
In May 2020, he graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Marshall School of Business. He was awarded membership into the Order of Arête. The term comes from Greek and "means virtue or excellence in attaining one’s utmost human potential. Members of the Order of Arête have distinguished themselves above their peers through campus or community leadership roles beyond those required for their programs of study, often making notable contributions to the university, academic discipline, community or world at large. In these leadership roles, members demonstrate significant depth and scope of responsibility, and they are recognized for upholding value and meaning over individual achievement. The award represents the highest honor accorded graduate students upon completion of their academic programs." [8]
He and Cindee have three daughters.
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 seventy-five 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. [9]
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 7 million people, with more than 700,000 conversions to Christianity. [10] [11]
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 1,000,000. [12]
In June 2008, Jason along with several of his crusade team members from Costa Rica granted permission by the Assemblies of God in Cuba 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 2012, he returned to Holguín, Guardalavaca, and Bayamo and held three open-air outreaches with a combined attendance of 18,000 people. In 2014, he was invited back to speak at two open-air outreaches in Holguín and Guardalavaca.
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. [13] He made several more appearances over the following twelve months. [14]
On July 31, 2014, Frenn was the keynote speaker for the 100 Anniversary National Youth Convention and Fine Arts Festival in Columbus Ohio. On August 9, he was the keynote speaker for the Centennial Celebration of the World Wide Assemblies of God Fellowship in Springfield MO with 10,000 pastors and leaders in attendance and hundreds of thousands watching around the world. [15] [16]
On March 30 and 31 of 2017, Frenn was one of three keynote speakers for the World Congress of the Assemblies of God held in Singapore with thousands of ministers and delegates in attendance. [17] On August 9, 2017, he was the keynote speaker for the 57th General Council of the Assemblies of God in Anaheim CA, a biennial council for their ministers in the United States. [18] [19]
Frenn has written six books. The first, Power to Change, has sold roughly 350,000 copies. His second, third, and fourth books Breaking the Barriers, [20] Power to Reinvent Yourself, [21] and The Seven Prayers God Always Answers [22] (respectively) are published through Faith Words. BECOME WHAT YOU BELIEVE and POWER TO PERSUADE are published through Summit Books, LLC.
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
The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) is an international Holiness–Pentecostal Christian denomination, and the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States. Although an international and multi-ethnic religious organization, it has a predominantly African American membership based within the United States. The international headquarters is in Memphis, Tennessee. The current Presiding Bishop is Bishop John Drew Sheard Sr., who is the Senior Pastor of the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ of Detroit, Michigan. He was elected as the denomination's leader on March 27, 2021.
Cru is an interdenominational Christian parachurch organization. It was founded in 1951 at the University of California, Los Angeles by Bill Bright and Vonette Zachary Bright. Since then, Cru has expanded its focus to include adult professionals, athletes, and high school students. In 2020, Cru had 19,000 staff members in 190 countries.
Reinhard Bonnke was a German-American Pentecostal evangelist, principally known for his gospel missions throughout Africa. Bonnke had been an evangelist and missionary in Africa since 1967.
William Franklin Graham Jr. was an American evangelist, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, and a civil rights advocate whose broadcast and live sermons became well known internationally in the mid-to-late 20th century. During a career spanning six decades, Graham was a prominent evangelical Christian figure in the United States.
It Is Written is an internationally broadcast Seventh-day Adventist Christian television program founded in 1956 by George Vandeman. Its title comes from the Gospel of Matthew: "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'" The programs are produced by the Adventist Media Center in California.
Vanguard University is a private Protestant university in Costa Mesa, California. It was the first four-year college in Orange County. Vanguard's required core curriculum includes courses on American politics and history, theology, fine arts, and public speaking.
Hilary Hinton "Zig" Ziglar was an American author, salesman, and motivational speaker.
The Australian Christian Churches (ACC), formerly Assemblies of God in Australia, is a network of Pentecostal churches in Australia affiliated with the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, which is the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world.
Dwight K. Nelson is a Seventh-day Adventist evangelist and author.
Charles Richard Hillis (1913–2005) was an American Protestant Christian missionary to China, author, and founder of "Formosa Crusades", later "Orient Crusades" and "Overseas Crusades", now "OC International".
The Spanish conquest of the Chibchan nations refers to the conquest by the Spanish monarchy of the Chibcha language-speaking nations, mainly the Muisca and Tairona that inhabited present-day Colombia, beginning the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
William John Ernest (Ern) Baxter (1914–1993) was a Canadian Pentecostal evangelist.
Priscilla Shirer is an American author, motivational speaker, actress, and Christian media personality, and evangelist. Her father is Dallas mega-church pastor Tony Evans and her brother is musician Anthony Evans.
William Franklin Graham IV is an American Christian evangelist. He is the executive director of the Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove and associate evangelist of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Graham is the third generation of Grahams to preach under the banner of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA). He is a grandson of Billy Graham and the oldest son of Franklin Graham.
Domingo Damian Pilarte was a Christian evangelist who held mass crusades during the 1960s–1980s. He traveled to more than 80 countries preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Many of the claimed miracles that occurred during his crusades have been documented in books, magazines and newspapers. These miracles included healings of the crippled, blind, deaf, mute, and terminally ill.
Tommy Lee "T.L." Osborn was an American Pentecostal televangelist, singer, author and teacher whose Christian ministry was based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In six decades as a preacher, Osborn hosted the religious television program Good News Today.
Brandon Paul Crouch /kraʊtʃ/ is a third-generation American Christian evangelist, youth speaker and television broadcaster. He is a member of the Crouch family, of which his grandfather Paul and grandmother Jan were founders of Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN).
Paul Edwin Finkenbinder, known as Hermano Pablo was a Puerto Rican Christian evangelist who was involved in radio and television evangelical broadcasting in Latin America. He created and for many years ran the program "Un mensaje a la conciencia". He and his wife Linda traveled extensively across Latin America conducting seminars, conferences and evangelistic crusades.
Rev. Nicholas Bhekinkosi Hepworth Bhengu was born on September 5, 1909, at Entumeni, KwaZulu-Natal. Known as "Manotsha", "Papakho", "uMkhulu" or "uKhehla" by his converts, he was the Founder of the Africa Back to God Crusade in the 1950s. Bhengu was an evangelist, a teacher of the word, and a pastor. Through his ministry a very large congregation was built up in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and the rest of South Africa together with the neighboring countries. Bhengu emphasised holiness and the fear of God, among other things.
John Schmid is an American country and folk singer and songwriter who is popular among the Amish and Old Order Mennonites. He sings songs both in English and in Pennsylvania German. He is especially popular in the Holmes/Wayne Amish settlement in Ohio where he lives. He may be the "only man ever to write songs in Deitsh".
