People ask me all the time “Why are you working a normal job when you’re Jon Gibson?” The answer to that is as simple as it is complex. When I went on a four-year hiatus as a station manager for a CCM based radio network, my good friend and raining King of Gospel, John P. Kee called me and asked me why I quit music? At the time, it all seemed too complex to answer so I just responded with “God has me in a different season.” However, if he asked me that same question today, I would know exactly what to say to him because it is really quite simple. It is human nature to think as a man thinks and miss the fact that we are not here to worship or revel in our own gifts and abilities but rather to change our hearts and follow the one who leads us unto eternal life with our Father in heaven. I was truly surprized the first time when I actually heard the voice of God speaking to me. And this went on over a two year period when my career as a musician was at it lowest. What I found to be so amazing about it is that it had nothing to do with who I thought I was as Jon Gibson or my gift of or for that matter, my troubled carreer. It only had to do with the condition of my troubled heart. Wow! Had I missed something here? Did I not fully understand what the father had written through me long ago in the song "Friend In You"? In the lyrics of the song that truly just flowed through the spirit "Life don't love you when you're holding on or after you let go?  So what's it matter who you are or what you do?"

When I was young, I had dreams of becoming a big star. But I was a troubled young man which would prove to be a blessing because it would eventually lead me to give my life to Christ. When my first chance came to become a recording star with a major label, it would show itself early on to be a path that run counter to what God had placed in my saved soul. So, I walked away from fame several times which of course gave me the reputation early on as being difficult to work with. When I discovered CCM, I fell in love and thought surely that I had found my calling. It would take much longer but over time the Christian Music Industry would also show itself to be counter to what God had put in my heart and so my relationship with that industry would be a long, slow, heartbreaking, painful divorce. Even years, after I had been basically written off, I was given an opportunity to produce an artist for Disney, a 14-year-old female singer songwriter, who sang in English and Spanish. But I could not bring myself to do it as they did not want me to change any of her songs lyrically. One of her songs was a complete stumbling block as the lyrics were about waiting for her parents to go to sleep so she could sneak out the window with her boyfriend. Well, if you know me, then you would know that there was no way that this rough-around-the-edges rebel for Christ was going to put his name on something like that for any amount of money. I would survive for a few more years, doing TBN and being a church conference hitman but times were changing, and church attendance was down by about 25% and those doors began to close one by one.  

So, to survive, I had to get a job and so I did.  I took a job with CSN, the Calvary Satellite Network programming 58 of their national contemporary music radio stations called the Effect Radio Network. But I soon found myself in the middle of a staff that was at odds with their founder for personal reasons. For three years I would witness the firing of that entire staff, people who had been there for over 20 years. I was one of the last to find myself unemployed in Idaho, a right to work state where an employer can fire you for any reason. To make it even worse Idaho also has a no competition clause in their state law, which prevents you from working for your competitor if you are fired. So there I was, a family of five stranded in Idaho. I did with any man would do, I got another job. A job that an unemployed musician could get where no experience was needed, except for on-the-job training at a large PVC manufacturing plant. It was a tough job, one that I would do for three years. Some people would call this a season of left. But but it is the left season, where a believer learns more about themselves and about the love of God, more than any other place. It is in a left season where you develop compassion for others who are there suffering with you. It is also in this season, where you find the courage and the strength to climb that mountain that we know we need to climb to arrive at a place where you are ready to take on your true calling and begin to walk worthy.

I currently live and work in Las Vegas Nevada and I don’t believe that I’m here to entertain anyone but rather to be a beacon of light in the desert. The need to know the truth of the Father and know the great power of His love is so needed here with the people of Las Vegas and especially the employees who labor here. Las Vegas or “Sin City” as it is often referred to, is a place where people come from all over the world for its gambling, entertainment and resorts. These resorts are massive operations that employ thousands of people. The WYNN/Encore Resort alone employs 14,000 people and that is just one resort. Most organizations of this size support in—house Chaplain programs for employees. For instance, police departments, fire departments, all of the Armed Forces, the NFL and the NBA provide in-house chaplain programs for their employees. These organizations understand the value of such services as people have spiritual needs that need to be addressed and maintained. People feel safe venting their troubles under the protection of the separation of church and state. If you have a spiritual issue or a major problem in your life, the last person you want to share it with is someone in the HR department. Bottom line, spiritually, healthy people make for better employees. As strange as it is and, for reasons, unbeknownst to me, casinos have no such programs for their employees who give up half of their lives in labor, leaving thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of employees to fend for themselves spiritually. This has created a massive void for Las Vegas churches who are absorbed to their own flocks and can not see the need to reach out at a public level to meet these people halfway and provide the counseling, direction and healing that is so desperately needed here.

I have learned this much in my years of being involved in ministry that even just being able to share what you are going through with someone who cares can make an enormous difference. Sometimes, just sharing what what has been sitting in the dark to bring it into the light is all it takes for someone to get back on the road towards restoration and healing in a city where sin is king. I clearly see the need and so I have been praying and seeking the Father for an opportunity to provide these services at a public level. I want to kickstart an independent chaplain's program that serves the employees of Las Vegas 24 hours a day offering free protestant-based counseling and intercessory prayer for the employees of Las Vegas.

Please stay tuned in here to this page for updates as we move forward and for information on how you as a brother and sister in Christ can lend a hand.  If you feel led to make a contribution to help with this mission, you may do so using the Paypal link below.  Thank you.