Nona Jones is recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts on building The Kingdom through social technology, motivating thousands of church leaders each year to reimagine social media as a strategic tool for ministry. She coined the term “Social Ministry” and helped build and lead Facebook’s global Faith-Based Partnerships strategy, coming alongside churches and pastors around the world to shift their thinking from church as “building” to church as “community.” She was licensed into the gospel ministry at the age of 17 and preaches the Gospel regularly around the world.
Born and raised in Vivian, Louisiana, Phil Robertson came from a large family with 7 children and little money. Because of the location of his family home in a rural setting near Shreveport, and the aforementioned scarcity of money, hunting became an important part of his formative years. Never satisfied with the duck calls on the market, Phil began to experiment with making a call that would produce the exact sound of a duck. A duck call for duck killers, not for, as Phil described, “world champion-style duck callers.” Phil stated, “No duck would even place in a duck calling contest.” In 1972, Phil Robertson gave up a coaching career for his love of duck hunting when he whittled a better duck call than any on the market, the first Duck Commander call. His first year, Robertson sold $8,000 worth of duck calls and his wife, Kay, somehow managed to feed four boys on that salary. The same year, he received a patent for this call and in 1973, formed the Duck Commander Company.
Ronald Olivier ran wild in the streets of New Orleans, selling drugs, stealing cars, and finally killing someone on what was supposed to be the happiest day of the year—Christmas Day. At the age of sixteen he was arrested and then sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as Angola.  Locked up for 27 summers, he was miraculously released and then, in a remarkable twist, invited to become head chaplain for the entire prison system in the State of Mississippi.
A living example that “Good guys CAN finish first!!”, Scott Hamilton is an Olympic Champion, cancer survivor, television broadcaster, motivational speaker, author, husband/father and eternal optimist!
Todd Gerelds, son of Legendary Alabama high school coach Tandy Gerelds, witnessed God’s transforming grace at Woodlawn and throughout his dad’s life. Todd is honored to tell the amazing story of redemption that happened at Woodlawn and changed countless lives forever.