04/12/2008
Dear Friends and Supporters ,
This is John Mahshie, founder and operator of the Relevant Revolutions and Sermon Jams ministries. I am truly excited to begin this regular newsletter updating you on the current happenings of RR/SJ. The main purpose for writing this letter is to share my vision/heartbeat and tell you a little bit about myself and the current plans for this ministry.
I am 25 and established this ministry in 2005 with absolutely no idea as to how the Lord planned on using it. The beginning started when I mixed a sermon from my church onto musical instrumentals which eventually turned into the creation of Sermon Jams. The purpose of these messages, or "audio tracks", was to create a medium which would present the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in such a way that it would bypass cultural barriers without diminishing the substance or distract the listener.
As the Sermon Jams ministry began taking shape I felt led to create an umbrella under which various ministries and tools could be incorporated; thus came the establishment of the Relevant Revolutions Ministry. Since then I have received a very large amount of emails, comments and message postings stating the impact of this ministry from hundreds of people around the globe, including various hostile countries such as China, Russia, UAE and India
The main purpose of this ministry has always been fairly simple; follow the greatest commandment to love God and neighbor by using my artist gifting. Sermon Jams is one expression of this gifting and has become a very valuable tool for kingdom ministry. The audio tracks have been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times which have lead to a wide variety of media attention. Well known Christian magazines such as 'Outreach' have written articles about SJ, as well as other main stream secular publications like the Asheville Citizen Times and 'The Source' hip-hop magazine. We have also had the privilege of working with the promotion of the box office movie 'Ten Commandments' in an audio promotional. The primary reason this has been possible is due to the establishment of the Relevant Revolutions website which makes all of this material available free of charge.
Since the initial publication of Sermon Jams, 13,000 CD's have been produced and freely distributed. Each CD cost roughly $1.00 to produce and we have spent over $8,000 on shipping cost, web design, purchasing beats and other additional expenses. It takes roughly five hours to produce one track and we have produced six nine-track albums to date. The total investment is roughly $20,000.
As I like to tell people, "this ministry is a very time consuming, energy exhausting and financially draining process. I love every moment of it."
I moved back to Western North Carolina after serving four years in the US Air Force and began an apprenticeship with a renowned ceramics artist as well as taking college classes. I am extremely excited to say I will be graduating college in May, and even better, getting married to my bride Nicole on June 7th. She is the most amazing woman I have ever met, a tremendous blessing and an answer to much prayer. Currently we are planning on traveling for two months in my 1975 VW camper following the wedding.
We are currently involved in a wonderful church located in downtown Asheville, NC called 'the body' of Christ. It is a smaller church (Apx. 80 members), and is located in a very strategic area for ministry. Much of the congregation is made up of recovering addicts, poor and hurting people, which allows me to feel very much at home. Recently, there has been an increase of youth in attendance which has created a need for a youth leader. Additionally an impressive recording studio has been constructed with the potential for a very powerful outreach to the local musician population.
The reason I share this information is to make a need known: because of the size and make up of our congregation, it has been very difficult for the Church to financially support the monetary needs of the SJ/RR ministry or a youth/outreach position. As I stated before, I have always known this ministry is from the Lord and have refused to allow finances to stall its progress. However, now that I am entering into covenant with my bride I realize my role as a provider changes things up a bit.
This letter is intended to share a need and nothing more. I will praise God if he moves you to lock arms with me in the form of financial support, but I will also praise him the same if he doesn't. He is Jehovah Jireh and, as the word says in the book of Matthew, if we "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" all needs will be met!
Grace and Peace,
John Mahshie
Here are few testimonies:
I love your work. Your unique talent attracts the attention of the upcoming generation, allowing us to root ourselves in Truth. ~Nathan
Guys I just wanted to express my sincere gratitude for this ministry. I love it. Truth and art intertwined! ~Phil
I appreciate the website and sermon jams you put out. I had never heard of Ravi Zacharias, Allester Begg, or John Piper. I started digging and found their podcast, now they are a big part of my daily commute. Thanks man. I would not know about theirs, or your ministry if you did not make your art so freely available. ~Jason
I'm a 25 year old Pastor in Dubai and we've been seeing some Muslims come in and give their lives to the Lord - they're so on fire for Jesus but have no Arabic Bible - I found the audio Arabic Bible on your website… You are really impacting lives (even here in the Middle East), never stop what you're doing because it is stirring up a storm for Jesus! ~Ben
