Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeff and Kim Tolnar.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
There is so much division and darkness in our nation and our world. It is clear that the nation is at a crossroads. We though about the Christian church and the good that it could provide, if empowered to do so. Because so many believers are asleep in their faith the church has become relatively ineffective. In early 2022, we felt called to create a ministry to awaken believers in Christ to walk their faith and shine their light on this nation and on nonbelievers. We formed Awaken the Nation in June 2022 as a nonprofit focused first on Nashville to reach our communities and our city.

Our charter is to awaken believers to act on their faith and awaken nonbelievers to the joy found in Christ. We reached out to members of our church group to join us, formed AWKN Worship, and launched our first worship event in October 2022. Our intention is to reach others by offering free worship events 2-4 times per year and in between the events have fellowship opportunities. We also release twice weekly devotionals on social media and our website to provide encouragement and enlightenment. In time, our intention is to take Awaken to other cities throughout the country.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Well, none of the Awaken team members had any idea how to put on an event or form a worship team. Team members were all hands on deck making calls, inquiring about events, networking with others having similar experiences, and focusing on a common goal of having a great event in October. Through a lot of prayers, perseverance, and some amazing members of the Awaken team, in our first 4 months, we formed the company, created a website, formed a 10-member worship team (that sounded amazing), and put on a free concert in Severe Park! The days leading up to and the day of the event were a bit interesting, we had permit challenges, the park was fenced off due to construction, and the weather was always on our minds. The permit came through the day before, a gate happened to appear in the fence the day before the event allowing the stage company to get the stage into the park, and we had a beautiful sunny 70-degree day in early October. I’d say we had some divine help!

Another significant challenge was how to market the event when none of us had any social media marketing experience. We’ve since hired a social media marketing expert to help us with event #2 scheduled at Historic Eastland on Saturday, April 1st – no fooling!

As you know, we’re big fans of Awaken the Nation – ATN. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Our goal is to bring light into the darkness of our community and city. Then God willing we intend to expand nationally. We intend to do this by awakening Christian believers to what they are called to do in their faith.

We believe that we are all called to awaken believers that are sleepwalking through their faith. Ephesians 5:14 says “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” When we sleepwalk in our faith we are doing no favors to our community, city, or nation. We need to wake up! Those around us need help. They are in the dark and need the light that an awakened believer can provide.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success? 

We put our faith and trust in God to deliver miracles and awaken others. In other words, we are servants called to be love and light for our neighbors. Our job is to do what we can. In the story of feeding the 5,000, the apostles gathered the 5 loaves and 2 fish then left the miracle to God. Similarly, we are gathering loaves and fish then trusting God to do the impossible.