The First Priority Podcast

Where will First Priority of America be in 5 years?

Mark serves as the Executive Director of First Priority. He spends most of his day managing the organizational side of the ministry, including fundraising and board development. He was the initiator and director of First Priority Tri-States, the 2nd oldest FP chapter. Mark and his wife Michelle manage their own small business, therefore, Mark brings years of experience in business management to First Priority of America. Mark resides in eastern Kentucky with his wife, Michelle. Mark and Michelle have three children, Nathaniel & Mikaela (Robbins) Gray, Morgan, and Micah. They also have two grandchildren, Sadie B. and Beckham.

What is the Vision of First Priority of America? w/ Chris Lane

"One of the greatest challenges and one of the greatest blessings that you will ever experience is when you can walk away and say, God used me to help get a gospel light First Priority Outreach Club on this campus. Because if you can get that going, what a legacy to say we planted an outreach church at this campus." -- Chris Lane. 

Chris Lane is the Executive Director and Founder of First Priority South Florida. He started FP in Ft. Lauderdale in 1998 and built it from the ground up. FP South Florida now has over 200 clubs in schools and is going strong. 

Chris is also husband to Wendy, and father of 4 boys (Josh, Jake, Jonathan and Josiah)

What is the Mission of First Priority of America? w/ Joel Rowland

Today we talk about the mission of First Priority, To Take the Hope of Christ to Every Student. We are starting this year off with a story. FP Director Joel Rowland asks this question of one of the students involved in FP Front Range. "If everybody in the world was listening right now and you could tell them one thing that you wish they knew about Jesus, what would that one thing be?" 

The music in the background is by Bensound (https://www.bensound.com/) and the link mentioned in the podcast about story training can be found here: www.firstpriority.club/leadershipinitiatives

Paul Penley

Dr. Penley evaluates charities for Excellence in Giving clients donating a combined $51 million annually. He manages the deal flow for the Kingdom Giving Fund launched in 2019 to invest transformative gifts of $1-$5 million in professionally vetted ministry projects that accelerate measurable and sustainable impact.

He has refined methods for nonprofit due diligence and completed on-site evaluations in a dozen countries around the world. Dr. Penley specializes in designing outcome measurement systems for internal and external reporting of program effectiveness. He is a regular contributor to philanthropy magazines like the Stanford Social Innovation Review and a speaker at venues like the Yale Philanthropy Conference or Christian Leadership Association. Dr. Penley’s ability to identify indicators of mission failure or success allows those he advises to support high-performing charities making the difference they want to fund.

Learn more about his work at www.ExcellenceinGiving.com. And read the book he wrote about Reenacting the Way (of Jesus) based on his PhD in the historical context of the Bible or the blogs he writes at www.ReenactingtheWay.com.

Ben Trueblood

Ben Trueblood serves as the Director of Student Ministry for LifeWay Christian Resources and has seventeen years of student ministry experience, fourteen of which were spent in the local church as a student pastor. In addition to his role at LifeWay, Ben is involved in training, consulting, and speaking to student ministries throughout the U.S.

He is driven by a desire for student ministries to expand God’s Kingdom, to see the lives of students transformed by the gospel, and to develop students who shape the culture in which they live. In his recent book "Student Ministry that Matters", Ben shares what it takes to build and lead a truly healthy student ministry.

Ben and his wife Kristen have four children. In his free time, Ben enjoys family, hunting, is a huge St. Louis Cardinals fan, and is an affiliate streamer on Twitch under the name of Flashbang_CSN.   Connect with Ben on twitter at: @bentrueblood

Adam Robertson

Adam Robertson currently serves as President of Commercial Bank located Harrogate, Tennessee.  In his 22 years at the bank, he has served in various capacities throughout the bank. During his tenure, the Bank has grown from 7 offices to 27 and the Bank’s assets have increased dramatically from $150 million to $1.3 billion. In addition to his duties at Commercial Bank, Adam is a small business owner and developer.

Adam is a graduate of Belmont University and the Graduate School of Banking at LSU.  He and his wife, Cindi, reside in Speedwell, Tennessee with their two children, Olivia and Noah.

Episode 33: Greg Stier

Greg Stier is the founder and president of Dare 2 Share ministries. Greg has a reputation for knowing and relating to today’s teens in unique and effective ways. Because of his 25+ years in youth ministry, Greg is widely viewed as an authority on teen issues and adolescent spirituality. Over the course of the last 20 years, Greg has spoken to over 1,000,000 teens in major venues across the nation and heard countless stories of their struggles and triumphs.

Greg’s commitment to mobilizing teenagers to reach their generation for Christ is rooted in the transforming power of the gospel. Raised in a violent, inner-city family of body-builders, he never had a dad and never felt like he measured up because his biceps weren’t big enough! But one by one, he saw his tough, urban family of “thugs” come to know Christ. And that ignited a passion in Greg to see all lost people come to know Jesus.

Living just minutes away from the scene of the 1999 Columbine High School shootings in the Denver area, the tragedy triggered a pivotal turning point in Greg’s career. Following those events, he resigned a pastorate at a church in Arvada, Colorado, to pursue Dare 2 Share (D2S) full-time. Since then, Greg and the ministry of D2S have impacted the lives of hundreds of thousand teenagers across the country, motivating and equipping them to relationally reach out to those who don’t know Jesus with the gospel message of hope.

Episode 32: Amber Johansen

Amber was born and raised in Tampa. After graduating from Leto High School, she attended Florida State University for an undergraduate degree and then the University of South Florida for a graduate degree in Government and International Studies. She is currently completing a graduate certificate in instructional design through Florida State University. Her background includes working with at-risk teens and families, and program development.

Amber has been involved with FPTB since 2009, when she began serving as a parent partner. In 2012, she consulted with FPTB as a Community Development Director, and in 2013 stepped into the position of Executive Director.

Amber’s primary focus as Executive Director is: vision casting, fundraising, program development, and ministry operations. Amber is available to speak on a wide range of topics including: the role of First Priority in the community, parenting, public education and faith based issues.

Episode 31: Brent Crowe

Brent Crowe is a thought-provoking visionary and communicator who has a passion to present the life changing message of the gospel. Brent uses humor and real-life situations to relate to people at the heart of their struggles.

He is currently serving as Vice President with Student Leadership University in Orlando, Florida. Brent is married to Christina, and has three children, Gabe, Charis and Mercy. He holds a Doctorate in Philosophy and two masters degrees, a Masters of Divinity in Evangelism and a Masters of Arts in Ethics, from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. The roles of husband, father, minister, evangelist, author and leader have allowed Brent to influence people from all walks of life throughout his twenty years in ministry.

He is also the author of seven books, including his latest work, Moments ‘til Midnight.

Jeff Grenell: Is God great when life sucks?

After 4 decades of Youth Leadership, Jeff Grenell founded ythology to raise the level of Youth Leadership. ythology exists to educate, resource, and inspire youth and to train youth leaders to prepare the NextGen to lead in the Church and the world. Jeff has also written the book, #IfJobHadTwitter: When Hardship Hits the Palace