Dear friends,
Exciting times lay before us! We have had a few changes here at Defenders Media, 501(c)(3) and I wanted to take a couple minutes to share about those changes.
Dr. Kurt Jaros Returns
In 2020, we hired Trevor J. Fox to captain the ship. He did a great job for us by bringing in new client work, overseeing a website overhaul, leading great strategy meetings, and raising funds for studio improvements. In February, Trevor took a job as Director of Communications at West Jackson Baptist Church in Jackson, TN, where he went to college. We want to thank Trevor for his service at Defenders and wish him and his beautiful family all the best!
In March of this year, I returned to the helm at Defenders. My time in St. Louis was a valuable learning experience, and within a few months I realized that season was to be a short one. I am delighted to return to the solid ground at Defenders Media and we have plans for our continued growth in impacting the world with quality, thought-provoking theological media. In recent weeks, the team has been having discussions on our core strategy as an organization: How can we most effectively reach people with a winsome defense of the Gospel? In years past, our strategy has been to seek apologists, theologians, and biblical scholars to help them craft high-quality media content. Now, we will begin to shift our priority to develop this content ourselves. To a certain extent, we had already been doing this with some of our platforms, but we are going to pivot our strategy in order to invest more of our resources and man-hours into developing those ministries. In a nutshell: The type of work we perform and the target audience remains the same.
Welcome, Beth Bakker!
To help us in accomplishing our goals, we have hired a part-time Executive Assistant & Content Coordinator, Beth Bakker! Beth has been a volunteer for our ministry for many years, and perhaps you’ve met her at our events in Chicagoland. She has lived in the western suburbs of Chicago with her husband Gary for 23 years. While raising her children, Beth developed a passion for Bible study, theology, and especially apologetics. This summer she will be completing a master’s degree in Biblical and Theological Studies from Western Seminary. She has been putting this and all of her education to good use working in high school ministry at her church and leading a home teen Bible study. Beth is also an organizational & administrative nut, which makes her well-suited for the job.
What’s Next
Right now, our team is working on a mixed-animation apologetics video series looking at some of the most important questions that young people are asking.
We have also been installing and upgrading our office space and studio to accommodate the growth of our staff and expected needs moving forward. In our studio we have added ceiling-mounted lighting, sound-diffusion foam, a shoe-mount & external monitor for our video camera, and a large green screen. We could not have done this without the continued generous support of individuals like you! Thank you!! Please keep our ministry in prayer and reach more people with a winsome defense of the Gospel by donating today.
God bless you and stay tuned for great content from us this year.
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Dr. Kurt Jaros
