Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jeff and Kim Tolnar. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jeff and Kim, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

We are a non profit LLC called Awaken the Nation. As we look round at our world we see a lot of divisiveness, loneliness, depression and hopelessness. We both have a strong faith and asked ourselves what believers within churches could do to help the situation. We believe that many people are not walking the talk of their faith. This is one of the reasons why we started Awaken the Nation. To awaken believers to their faith (walk the talk) and reach non believers with the hope that we find in Christ.

Jeff and Kim, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Jeff. I’m the President of a local Tech company and my wife Kim is a fitness instructor. We never really intended to launch a faith based non profit. Yet, here we are! Once we decided to launch, we reached out to a few friend and fellow believers to help us move the vision forward.

We launched our faith based LLC called Awaken the Nation in June 2022 to help and awaken church going believers to help change their world for the better. We do this by hosting three to four free worship events per year, posting weekly devotionals and having a number of meet-ups between events. One important aspect of our mission is that we are not a church nor are we aligned with any single church. Rather, we prefer to encourage attendees of our events to attend Bible believing churches and continue down their spiritual paths. Another differentiator is that we hope to make each worship event free of charge so that anyone can attend – regardless of their economic situation.

Since inception, we’ve had four worship events featuring the AWKN Worship team and a number of very talented artists. Each event teaches us more and more about what to do and just as important what not to do. The joy and impact felt by the attendees is what drives us to continue down our path.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Our very first event was planned for Severe Park off of 12 South in Fall 2022. There were a number of challenges that we managed through and also had some divine intervention. The park was reserved for months. We went the day before the event to check out the site and it was encircled by a large 8 foot construction fence. There was no way to get in a stage or sound system. We persevered! The stage and sound crew managed to find an opening the fence, drove down a too steep hill, carted endless dolly’s of equipment over ground and spend hours setting up. The sound equipment didn’t work at first or second try, but we persevered and got it to work. God delivered a beautiful evening with no rain and nice temperatures in early October. There are too many other items to mention. None the less, the team came together, every vendor that we hired pitch in and did more than we asked of them and the event was a success.

We’ve since gotten better each event. Planning well in advance and staying indoors! Every event we learn more and each one gets better. Ultimately, we are doing these to serve God by serving others so even if one person wakes up I their faith we consider it a success.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

At first we tried to conserve money and do social media on our own. We asked friends and others to help us out for free. Big mistake. Postings were inconsistent and we were not gaining followers.

When we accepted that we would need to hire someone part time we thought that we could find someone passionate and aligned with our mission. We first reached out to local colleges to find an intern. This also was not successful. We were surprised that students were not able or interested in the position. Eventually, we found a person through a friend of a friend that does social media and accepted a part time position with Awaken the Nation.

Contact Info:

• Website: awkenthenation.tv
• Instagram: awkenthenation.tv
• Facebook: awkenthenation.tv

Image Credits
Veronica Visconti