Contacts:   Tex Reardon                               Doug Hovelson

                 Ruth Graham & Friends              Big Thunder

                 651-261-1964                             612-722-5501                 

                 treardonjr@comcast.net         dhovelson@bigthunderpr.com

 

Ruth Graham & Friends Cut Ticket Price To Zero

For 2009 Get Growing Conferences

 

No Financial Pain, But Plenty To Gain For Conference Attendees

 

MINNEAPOLIS – (Feb. 6, 2009) With a new “free admission” policy, Ruth Graham & Friends is taking the extra step to make their life-affirming, personally enriching conferences more available to more people in 2009.

              “What we do in our conferences is help people eliminate the barriers to personal growth,” says Ruth Graham, founder and head of the Ruth Graham & Friends ministry. “Now we’ve eliminated a financial barrier that we hope will encourage more people to attend and learn how to help themselves and others overcome life-controlling issues and ‘get growing’ again.”

              “This is the first time we’ve tried a ‘free admission’ policy, and I must admit it is something of an experiment to see if we can expand the reach of the ministry – and still be able to pay the bills,” says Tex Reardon, executive director, Ruth Graham & Friends.

              In lieu of selling tickets – priced at an average of $50 each in previous years – the ministry will request that those who attend provide a free will donation in whatever amount they can best afford.

              “We are hoping that with more people attending, we can cover our costs through free will donations and support from outside sponsors who believe in the mission of the ministry,” says Reardon, who headed up similar efforts for the Rev. Billy Graham’s crusades during his 25-year career with the Billy Graham Evangelical Association.

              So far, the experiment looks very promising – advance reservations are running almost three times as high for the ministry’s first conference of the year, to be held at North Heights Lutheran Church in Arden Hills, Minn. on Feb 20-21 – as with similar conferences in the past.

              “There’s no doubt that we are fulfilling a true need within the church arena,” says Reardon, “and that is to provide functional, spiritually-based help both to people who are really struggling with real-life issues like depression, addiction, pornography, anger, divorce, body image and many more such life-controlling hobbles and to those people – friends, relatives, professional counselors, church leaders and lay ministers -- who seek to help others deal with these issues. We look to give people the information they need to better understand these issues, and also point them in a direction that will help them understand how to overcome them.”

              Ruth Graham & Friends have scheduled five free Get Growing conferences in 2009. Besides the upcoming Minnesota event, conferences are scheduled as follows:

• Casper, Wyo., April 24-25 at the Highland Park Community Church;
• Midland, Tex., Sept. 18-19, at Crestview Baptist Church;
• Logan County/Bellefontaine, Ohio, Oct. 23-24 (location to be determined);
• Wichita, Kan., Nov. 6-7, Wichita First Church of the Nazarene

 

Tickets are required to attend the conferences, and may be downloaded (for free) at www.ruthgrahamandfriends.org. Ruth Graham, youngest daughter of renowned evangelist Billy Graham, founded Ruth Graham & Friends to help the church provide care for people experiencing life and its constant challenges

 Ruth Graham & Friends conferences have been attended by more than 7,500 people in more than 12 U.S. and Canadian cities. For information on hosting a Ruth Graham & Friends conference in your community, call (877) 743-7884 or send an email to info@ruthgrahamandfriends.org.

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Downloadable photos of Ruth Graham, other conference speakers and musicians, and of previous conferences, are available online at www.ruthgrahammedia.com and by sending a request to dhovelson@bigthunderpr.com.