Jason Frenn is an international evangelist, author, and conference speaker, whose live ministry events have attracted a cumulative worldwide audience of over 3 million people. As a bilingual evangelist, he is widely known throughout the Spanish-speaking areas in the United States and Latin America. His ministry, entitled Power to Change, organizes city-wide crusades. Because his ministry events are focused on predominantly Spanish-speaking regions, he has been criticized as a foreigner trying to change culture. He is one of a handful of anglo missionary evangelists who work to proselytize in Latin America. He is also an occasional guest voice for the Washington Post. Jason Frenn is a member of the Assemblies of God World Missions, a Protestant organization, but speaks for a wide variety of churches, denominations, and non-profit organizations.

Personal History

Jason 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.

Upon attending Southern California College (now Vanguard University), Jason 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 city-wide crusades throughout Latin America and, more recently, in the United States.

Jason holds a Bachelor's Degree in History and Political Science, and a Master's in Church Leadership from Vanguard University of Southern California

Vanguard University of Southern California

Vanguard University is located in Costa Mesa, California, USA. During the summer of 1920, Harold K. Needham, D. W. Kerr, and W. C. Pierce opened a school to prepare Christian workers for the various ministries of the church. The new institute, Southern California Bible School, moved from Los...

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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 forty 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.

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 3 million people, with more than 300,000 conversions to Christianity.

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 (Finally I am Free) and in 2008 Angel Ruiz youth pastor for the Church of God, joined the staff to help the calling audience find Jesus Christ, and to help new believers get them in touch with a solid ministry for further discipleship, the program has a potential weekly audience of 500,000.

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. He made several more appearances over the following twelve months.

Jason has written three books. The first, POWER TO CHANGE, has sold roughly 100,000 copies. His second, third, and fourth books BREAKING THE BARRIERS, POWER TO REINVENT YOURSELF, and THE SEVEN PRAYERS GOD ALWAYS ANSWERS (respectively) are published through Faith Words.

Criticism

Jason Frenn’s crusades are routinely scheduled in Spanish-speaking regions, such as Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Mexico. In conflict with his ministry is the “Indigenous Church philosophy,” which suggests that missionaries and evangelists working in Latin America should be Hispanic. More recently Jason Frenn’s crusades have shifted to include North America, again aimed at Spanish-speaking audiences.

For years, Jason Frenn preaches that regardless of one's ethnicity, race or background, it is God who determines who is called to preach and not organizational philosophy. For that reason, he has continued to spearhead his crusades and ministerial outreaches to these regions.

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 09, 2009, October 18, 2009, December 6, 2009, March 28, 2010, October 10, 2010

Celebration - Daystar Network -- August 10, 2009, October 12, 2010

Life Today - with James and Betty Robison

Related links

http://www.frenn.org (ministry website)

http://www.agwm.org (Assemblies of God World Missions website)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GrBlSk6ghsE (Crusade viewable on YouTube)

http://youtube.com/jasonfrenn (speaking engagements and television appearances viewable on YouTube)

http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/11/cycle_of_destructive_behavior.html (Washington Post)

http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/12/keeping_the_peace_at_christmas.html (Washington Post)

http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/11/reinventing_mr_sheen.html (Washington Post)

http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2011/01/are_we_becoming_a_see_no_evil_nation.html (Washington Post)

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/15/my-faith-who-does-god-listen-to/ (CNN)