Interview With our Media Director, John Rolf – October 2015

Interviewer: Jeff Myers

Jeff: Give us an overview of your life story.

John: I’m originally from a little town in East Texas. I was born, raised and lived most of my life in that area. I grew up in church, got baptized as a kid on Easter; but it was just religious routine. I didn’t really meet Jesus until I was 16 when I had a youth leader who took me under his wing and saw the call of God on my life for ministry. I began leading worship at that point and getting really involved in ministry. I knew at 17 that I was called to give my life to full time ministry.

After high school, I studied radio, television and film. During college I took my first official ministry job as a youth pastor at a small church in Palestine, TX. I had a youth group of about ten and found out pretty quickly that youth ministry wasn’t my calling!

In my early days of ministry I served in local churches as a worship pastor and also travelled as a worship leader with a Baptist evangelist. It was during that time that I met my wife, Jessica. We actually first met when we were four because we were in the same preschool class. She still has the class photo with both of us in it! We’ve been married for almost 15 years and have two young sons.

So since 1997 I’ve served in vocational ministry, and before coming to Global, I was the Senior Worship Arts Pastor at one of the fastest growing churches in America, located in the DFW area.

Jeff: When was your first connection to Global Awakening?

John: We attended the Awakened to Destiny conference in Dallas. We were impacted by the ministry during that event and found ourselves sensing a transition coming in our lives. I was really impressed by what we saw at that event and just a few months later, we were on our way to PA to join the Global team.

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Jeff: What is your role at Global Awakening?

John: My title is Director of Media; which covers Graphics, Web, IT and Media. My department handles all the video production, live streaming of events and the media that you purchase in the bookstore. We handle all of the graphics and print material and also manage the entire web presence for the ministry. Our team stays busy!

Jeff: What is the greatest miracle or testimony that you’ve ever filmed or edited?

John: Probably the first one that jumps out at me was a lady in Brazil on one of our mission trips. I was filming during an evening church service and on the other side of the room I hear this scream. Everyone in the room turned to try and see what was going on. I went running over there with my camera. A crowd had formed and people were saying, “This lady’s eyeball is growing back!” I pressed through the crowd and it was true. Her eye was reforming in the socket. I witnessed it with my own eyes. She had lost most of her eyeball in an accident. She only had a small piece of it left and she wore a glass eye. I watched as the eyeball grew and the pale faded dead pupil of her eye started turning blue and she began seeing flashes of light. She was hysterical. I’m still kind of freaked out by the experience. It was crazy! There was even a ophthalmologist on the trip who examined her as it was happening and confirmed that she was beginning to regain her sight.

Jeff: Is it true you were named after the husband of Pocahontas?

John: No, but I probably am related! He had an “e” at the end of Rolfe and my family actually used to have an “e” at the end. My great-grandfather stowed away on a ship from Southampton, England to the States. When he arrived at the port, for some reason they made him drop the “e”.

Jeff: Which came first, building motorcycles or learning your first video editing software?

John: Editing software… but restoring vintage motorcycles is my favorite hobby right now. I have a weird obsession with taking old crusty worn out stuff and bringing it back to life.

Jeff: Over the next five to ten years, what do you hope to see from your department in media? Where are you going to take it?

John: I’d like to see our resources tailored to a broader audience than just the Global stream. I’d like to change things around to where this movement is more accessible outside of the normal crowd. I don’t know exactly what that looks like yet, but video and web is where everything is happening right now. The world is more connected today than anytime in history and we have a massive opportunity to use media to see even more people step into what we’ve experienced.

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