Recently, while teaching in an Italy coffee bar, Tony Hedrick started sketching one of the women in the room.
Within 10 minutes, he had a completed drawing, perfect illustration for his lesson and a fully captivated audience.
“The focus was the Samaritan woman, and the question was ‘Are you thirsty?’ The room was full of people who were not believers, and I was able to get their attention and talk about the thirstiness in their lives,” Hedrick said. “It was a phenomenal morning and the owner asked us to come back.”
Hedrick, who will serve as the evangelist July 20-23, 2025, at the 106th annual God’s Holiness Grove Camp Meeting at the Central PA Wesleyan Campground near New Columbia with his wife, Jeanne, has used art quite frequently to augment his message.
“I’ve done a drawing of Nicodemus, for example, doing it in a way to get people captured. I’ll do a story and ask people to guess where I am going with the drawing, using it as an evangelistic approach,” he said. “For example, the prodigal story. Catholics have heard the story, but have never had it truly explained to them, like being born again.”
Hedrick is a huge fan of the family camp atmosphere – of families spending time together over multiple days.
“If you just get kids together on a Friday night for pizza or volleyball, you can’t connect with them on a personal relationship-level like you can in a week-long family camp atmosphere,” he said. “And I really feel I work successfully with the 16-28 year-old age group. That’s really where most people discover their faith. In fact, most studies show that around 80 percent of people develop their faith by then. It is a lot harder to get saved after age 45.”
As for what to expect from his messages in July, Hedrick admits that he is a prophetic type of preacher, not one to work through a series and more interested in following God’s direction.
“As for the evening services, I expect that to look along the lines of ministry in the spirit of Jesus and the style of Jesus. One talk I may give is framed as power, not power,” he said. “Part of it will depend on what the people need and to encourage them.”
Hedrick considers himself an inductive, not deductive, preacher.
“Some people, like my wife, are linear thinkers. I am pretty much ADHD,” he said. “Some people think I am getting lost in the bushes, but then I come back and pull the trap door. Listening to me speak is like going on an adventure.”
While Hedrick doesn’t usually use his art while preaching to a full congregation, he will sometimes illustrate what he is doing.
Meanwhile, his wife, Jeanne, serves primarily through her gifts of writing and editing, publishing three different devotionals.
“Truly His” explores seven critical areas in Christian discipleship that often keep followers of Jesus from maturing in their spiritual walk. “40 Days at the Feet of Jesus” is a short devotional book based on the sayings of Jesus. “Lord, Teach Us to Pray” explores the prayer life of Jesus, delving into what, how, and why Jesus prayed as well as what He taught His disciples about prayer.
“She is a great writer and had been an editor for a number of years for different publishing groups like Baker and Bethany House,” said Tony. “She’s more of a one-on-one person, contemplative, a prayer intercessor. We complement each other very well.”
More recently she worked for The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association as an editor and proofreader and in her spare-time she likes to write devotional articles at adventuringwithgod.com
The couple currently lives in South Carolina and have raised four children, have 14 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Together, they serve as missionaries through Adventive Cross Cultural Initiatives in Italy, Europe, Canada and elsewhere, helping with church planting initiatives and challenging popular secular culture. The thriving mission-based ministry was founded by Tony in 2002 and until 2008, he functioned as the executive director.
ACCI serves in world evangelization by recruiting, mobilizing and resourcing missionaries throughout the world. ACCI also works to bring Christian reconciliation in the much-divided evangelical church of Europe. Today ACCI has more than 100 missionaries as well as forty-five smaller, affiliate ministries serving on five continents and island nations. Since 2000, Tony has made 50 ministry trips to Italy and Europe. He has also helped plant multiple churches, including three in Canada, among them Chapel Ridge in Ottawa.
“A lot of people, over the course of their ministerial lives, can get stuck in a rut of complaining here or there, but there really is not one thing I regret in our ministry life,” said Tony, who has served a bi-vocational role both in the ministry and as a business owner. “God has been good and it has been a good ride.”
You can learn more about Tony and his artwork by clicking here. Check out more about Jeanne and her devotionals here. Learn more about the Hedrick’s missions work and the ACCI worldwide impact here.