Artists in Christian Testimony I

Artists in Christian Testimony Intl’s

2009 Pioneer Award Recipient

Karen Lafferty

… A true PIONEER integrating ARTISTIC personnel, strategies, and methods into the Worldwide Mission of GOD to proclaim the Gospel of Christ’s salvation and establish HIS Church in every People and Nation of the World—all to HIS Glory forever! (Acts 13:2-3; Acts 14:21-23, 27)

Karen Lafferty is probably best known in the Christian world as the author of the scripture chorus "Seek Ye First." However that is hardly the full extent of her profound impact.

Karen spent her first years in ministry with the Christian recording company Maranatha! Music, which was an outgrowth of Calvary Chapel. There she recorded four albums. As she began to have invitations to share her music outside the USA, she began to see the incredible potential that contemporary Christian music had in reaching youth around the world. Karen began to seek the Lord concerning this new discovery and a strong burden to be involved in world missions full time was birthed.

After completing missionary training in Holland with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Karen founded Musicians For Missions International (MFMI) in 1981 as a part of YWAM in Amsterdam, Holland.

"God has called me to be a 'Musicianary'; to seek those places where others aren't going and to disciple the national musicians, who can then reach their own nations. I believe there are other Christian musicians with that calling too. MFMI's goal is to work with the local church to facilitate these musicians into ministry, especially ‘missions’."

For more than two decades Karen has concentrated her energies on developing MFMI. She has led many multinational music teams on tours in more than 50 countries; held numerous music seminars and short term outreaches for musicians, launched a "School of "Music In Missions" as part of YWAM's University of the Nations and produced or assisted with many recordings in several languages. While living in Amsterdam, she and the MFMI staff musicians were regularly involved with ministry to prostitutes and street people.

To learn more about Karen and Musicians for Missions Intl: www.musiciansformissions.com

A.C.T. Intl began recognizing pioneers in Arts Missions and Ministry in 2008 at the Arts Alive Nashville Conference. Our first two recipients of the Pioneer Award were Colin Harbinson and Frank Fortunato.

Dr. Colin Harbinson has been involved in many varied aspects of the arts for 40 years. Dr. Harbinson is recognized internationally as a pioneer and leader in his field. As a writer, director, and producer, his work has won numerous industry awards, including the prestigious Golden Halo Award, presented by the Southern California Motion Picture Industry. He created the internationally acclaimed production Toymaker & Son that has been performed in over 60 countries. Dayuma, another of his internationally performed productions, completed a successful twenty-one city theatre tour of the United States in the mid ‘90’s.

As the Founder and President of the International Festival of the Arts (IFA), a nonprofit organization based in Canada and the United States, he pioneered Sacred Fire, the first East-West Arts Festival, in St. Petersburg (Russia) and organized the Love Without Borders Arts Festival in Sofia (Bulgaria). His most recent Ode To Joy festival in Kunming (China) involved more than 700 artists from 21 countries and was the largest international arts festival of its kind in the history of that nation.

He is currently the International Director of StoneWorks (Forming Artists to Reform Culture), a global arts partnership for cultural transformation launched by Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi. This vision to educate the church, disciple the artist, and transform the culture is underway and gathering momentum with a network spanning over 140 countries. www.stoneworks-arts.org

Frank Fortunato has served in the music ministry his entire lifetime. After several years teaching music courses in colleges in the Midwest he began ministry with Operation Mobilization serving as a music missionary for many years on board the two mission ships of Operation Mobilization, the Logos and Doulos.

Frank later completed graduate studies in ethnomusicology and serves as Operation Mobilization’s International Music Director, coordinating Heart Sounds International, a ministry promoting indigenous worship through seminars, songwriting events, and recording of non-western worship mostly in the restricted parts of the world. The recording teams have released more than 50 audio and video projects from five continents, including DVD documentaries, a YouTube channel of worship from their projects from every continent, and an internet radio channel broadcasting all the recorded songs from HSI projects.

Based at the OM USA headquarters in Atlanta, Frank teaches on global worship music and leads worship at a local church. He recently co-authored All the World is Singing—Glorifying God through the worship music of the nations.