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Sonny Arguinzoni (born 1939) is an American Evangelical Christian pastor, author and youth counselor who founded Victory Outreach International, an international ministry of Evangelical Christian Churches. Since its founding, Victory Outreach has grown throughout the United States and in over 33 countries. [1]
Arguinzoni was born in 1939 in New York City to a family of Puerto Rican descent. According to Arguinzoni, while growing up in Brooklyn, he began associating with the local Viceroy gang and began abusing heroin and other drugs.
In 1960 at age 21, Arguinzoni befriended Nicky Cruz at a Teen Challenge in Brooklyn. He credits Cruz with influencing him to become a born again Christian. While attending the Latin American Bible College, Arguinzoni met his future wife Julie. After marrying, the couple moved to Los Angeles.
The couple began to minister to individuals in the Aliso Village area who were involved in street gangs and drug abuse. In 1967, after using their house for meetings, Arguinzoni and Julie founded Victory Outreach in a small building in the Boyle Heights neighborhood in East Los Angeles. The ministry grew throughout different cities in California. During the 1980s, the ministry experienced a rapid growth throughout the United States, which precluded an international expansion in the 1990s and moving forward. [2]
Victory Outreach consists of over 700 churches. [3]
The Jesus movement was an evangelical Christian movement that began on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s and primarily spread throughout North America, Europe, and Central America, before it subsided in the late 1980s. Members of the movement were called Jesus people or Jesus freaks.
William R. Bright was an American evangelist. In 1951 at the University of California, Los Angeles, he founded Campus Crusade for Christ as a ministry for university students. In 1952 he wrote The Four Spiritual Laws. In 1979 he produced the film Jesus.
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.
A megachurch is a church with a very large membership that also offers a variety of educational and social activities. They are usually Protestant, including Evangelical. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research defines a megachurch as any Protestant Christian church having 2,000 or more people in average weekend attendance. The megachurch is an organization type, not a denomination.
David Ray Wilkerson was an American Christian evangelist, best known for his book The Cross and the Switchblade. He was the founder of the addiction recovery program Teen Challenge, and founding pastor of the interdenominational Times Square Church in New York City.
Chosen People Ministries (CPM) is an evangelical Christian nonprofit organization which engages in proselytization of Jews. It is headquartered in New York City and currently led by Mitch Glaser, who was raised Jewish and converted to Christianity.
Nicky Cruz is a Puerto Rican Christian evangelist, the founder of Nicky Cruz Outreach, an evangelistic Christian ministry. He was also once the director of Teen Challenge, serving under David Wilkerson before founding another ministry home himself in California. Prior to his conversion he was the leader of a New York City gang, the Mau Maus.
Anthony Campolo is an American sociologist, Baptist pastor, author, public speaker and former spiritual advisor to U.S. President Bill Clinton. Campolo is known as one of the most influential leaders in the evangelical left and has been a major proponent of progressive thought and reform within the evangelical community. He has also become a leader of the Red-Letter Christian movement, which aims to put emphasis on the teachings of Jesus. Campolo is a popular commentator on religious, political, and social issues, and has been a guest on programs such as The Colbert Report, The Charlie Rose Show, Larry King Live, Nightline, Crossfire, Politically Incorrect and The Hour.
Youth With A Mission is an interdenominational Christian training organization.
David Barton is an evangelical author and political activist for Christian nationalist causes. He is the founder of WallBuilders, LLC, a Texas-based organization that promotes pseudohistory about the religious basis of the United States.
Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa is a Christian megachurch located near the boundary between the cities of Costa Mesa and Santa Ana in Orange County. Although the church takes its name from its original facilities on the Costa Mesa side of the boundary, it is now in Santa Ana. It is the original Calvary Chapel, having grown since 1965 from a handful of people led by the original senior pastor Chuck Smith to become the "mother church" of over one thousand congregations worldwide. Outreach Magazine's list of the 100 Largest Churches in America lists attendance as 9,500, making it the thirty-ninth largest in America.
Grace Community Church is a non-denominational, evangelical megachurch founded in 1956 and located in Sun Valley, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. Noted speaker and radio evangelist John MacArthur is the senior pastor of Grace Community Church. As of 2008, the average weekly attendance was 8,258.
Beverly J. Shamana was a bishop in The United Methodist Church, elected and consecrated to the Episcopacy in 2000. She was the second African American woman elevated to the position of bishop within the United Methodist Church.
Protestants in Thailand constitute about 0.77% of the population of Thailand. Protestant work among the Thai people was begun by Ann Judson in Burma, who evangelized Thai war captives who were relocated to Burma. Protestantism was introduced to the country of Thailand in 1828 through the work of Karl Gutzlaff and Jacob Tomlin, the first two resident Protestant missionaries in Thailand.
Robert Passantino, was an American author and journalist who wrote on subjects related to Christian apologetics, philosophy, and the Christian countercult movement.
Greater Grace World Outreach (GGWO) is a nondenominational evangelical Christian church that emphasizes grace, the finished work, and missions. The headquarters of Greater Grace World Outreach is currently located at its megachurch in Baltimore, Maryland. The church has a weekly attendance of 1500+. GGWO was founded by Carl H. Stevens Jr. who was succeeded by Pastor Thomas Schaller as Presiding Elder and Overseeing Pastor of Greater Grace World Outreach in Baltimore in April 2005. GGWO has been investigated by multiple organizations for cult-like practices including spiritual abuse by leadership.
Nora Lam was a Chinese Evangelical Christian minister to China, and founder of Nora Lam Ministries International (NLMI). Lam was born in China and lived there until her escape to Hong Kong at age 26.
In Touch Ministries is a Christian evangelical organization that produces and distributes media and resources, including radio and television programs, podcasts, articles, and books, with the goal of spreading the message of the Gospel and helping people grow in their faith. The organization was founded by Dr. Charles Stanley, a pastor and author, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
The Cross and the Switchblade is a 1970 American crime film directed by Don Murray. It stars Pat Boone as David Wilkerson, a Christian evangelist, and Erik Estrada as Nicky Cruz, a teen gang member whose life was transformed by Wilkerson's ministry. The film was based on a non-fiction book of the same name, The Cross and the Switchblade.