[In 2011 Keynote celebrates 45 years of ministry. We thought we would use our Friday posts to look back on God’s faithfulness through the years.]
Recently, we’ve been writing about our Summer Project – what the students are learning, how they’re sharing the gospel and much more. As I was looking through some of our archives this week I came across a report for one of the earliest summer projects.
Back in the late ’70s Keynote/The Music Ministry ran a different kind of summer project. Back then, our staff would travel, along with students, to one of the Campus Crusade Summer Projects such as Myrtle Beach, Daytona or Wildwood and perform concerts. The different bands included both staff members and students and performed under the names of Daybreak, Santa Fe, New Folk and The Great Commission Company to name a few.
Rather than traveling all over the country performing, the bands stayed in one location and served as an outreach opportunity for the local project students. As the band played music and told their stories of coming to know Christ personally, the students could talk one-on-one with concert goers and explain more about knowing Christ.
In addition to their concerts, the music project students also participated in the ministry training alongside the other Campus Crusade project students. Ministry training included Bible study methods, leadership training, communication training and evangelism.
In the summer of 1979 the music projects ran from June 1 through August 1 involving 52 staff members and 32 students. The staff and students formed seven different bands and performed 169 concerts. Of those events, 135 were evangelistic with an estimated audience of 36,800 people. More than 1,000 people indicated a decision to trust Christ either at the concerts or during the music project. At the conclusion of the 1979 project more than half of the 32 students were considering some type of full-time ministry after college.
One of those students on the ’79 music project is still connected to Keynote in some unique ways. Her brother, Dave Fackler, has been with Keynote for more than 30 years and serves on the leadership team. Her daughter, Hannah Whyte, joined us for the 2010 Keynote Summer Project! Dave also went on the 1978 music project as a student.
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