Billy Zeoli

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Billy Zeoli
Gerald R. Ford
(1974–1977)
Notable workHow Should We Then Live: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture (1977, film executive producer)
TelevisionHow Should We Then Live: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture (2005; television series)
TitleGod's Got a Better Idea
(book author)
Political partyRepublican
SpouseMarilyn Bruder (1955-1981) Ruth Zeoli (1984-1998)
ChildrenSteven Zeoli, Patresha Rohre, Dr. David Zeoli and Zachary Zeoli
Parent(s)Anthony Zeoli and Elizabeth Zeoli

Billy Zeoli was an American

Gerald R. Ford and Betty Ford during the mid-1970s[2] offering counsel on national spiritual matters, and acting as spiritual counselor to President Ford.[3]
In the 1960s, Zeoli was an early organizer of what would become Baseball Chapel, a Christian organization that provides professional Baseball players, and other athletes, Sunday church services in their locker rooms before sporting events. Zeoli was perhaps most remembered as the long-standing president of Gospel Films Inc, later becoming Gospel Communications Inc, a leading Christian media company that distributed media and promoted ministry outreach around the world. Zeoli held the position from 1962 until he retired from the organization in 2006.

White House Chaplain

Gerald Ford was elected the Congressional representative of the 5th District of Michigan from 1949 to the time of his Presidency. Zeoli lived in Grand Rapids, MI and was introduced to Ford by a friend. The two men became friends and Zeoli started sending Ford a devotional once every month in the early 1970s (these devotionals would later become a book called "God's Got a Better Idea", a twist on the Ford political slogan, "Ford has a better idea"). Ford and Zeoli would meet in Washington and frequent events such as the Presidential Prayer Breakfast, and at sporting events where Zeoli was preaching. It was in Washington D.C. at a pre-game chapel service for the Washington Redskins football team that Zeoli convinced then representative Gerald R. Ford to become a Christian.

U.S. President Richard Nixon, who had resigned following the Watergate scandal and the administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement.[5]

Sports Ministry and Media

Zeoli was well-known as a preacher to professional sports teams and celebrities. He was one of the early advocates of the practice of preaching to professional athletes that were working on Sunday. The subject was controversial at the time in Zeoli's community of West Michigan, where he took criticism from many in the Christian Reformed church community. Working with Baseball Chapel founder Watson Spoelstra, and New York Yankee great Bobby Richardson, Zeoli helped to increase the frequency of these services in baseball, football and other sports. Zeoli was the minister for several Super Bowls, World Series, and All-Star Games services and received recognition as a minister for several American major league professional sport teams and athletes.

Gospel Films and Gospel Communications

Zeoli was working as the director for Indianapolis Youth For Christ when he was hired to lead a fledgling Christian film company in Muskegon, MI called Gospel Films. Under his 44-year tenure, Zeoli would come to be known as an innovator in para-church ministry. He appealed to the youth movement and was a devote of McLuhan, utilizing the media of the era to reach into new territory. He created a free film program for American schools, prisons and the military, while leveraging the power of media for evangelizing the globe though the use of indigenous clergy. Gospel Films and Zeoli were the executive producers of

United States Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision, 410 U.S. 113 (1973) that supported legal abortion in the United States. Francis Schaeffer's son, Frank Schaeffer, with the help of wealthy American evangelical donors (such as Amway co-founder Richard DeVos
) would go on to make a successful follow-up, entitled Whatever Happened to the Human Race.

Over the decades, Zeoli would helm the many technological transitions in media format, from film to video to DVD and in 1995, launched GospelCom, an innovative Christian website and partnership and hosting portal, where ministries could work together to reach out to their constituencies. In 1998, Gospel Films became Gospel Communications International Inc. Gospel Communications International developed the

BibleGateway.com
web site and also trained and hosted hundreds of evangelical ministries on the World Wide Web beginning in 1995. By the mid 2000s, Zeoli stepped away from day-to-day operations of Gospel Communications and eventually, the 2008 financial crisis contributed to the shuttering of the organization.

References

  1. ^ "View Billy Zeoli's Obituary on Mlive.com and share memories". Retrieved December 6, 2019.
  2. ^ http://www.linkedin.com/in/billyzeoli Billy Zeoli – Linked-in.
  3. ^ Gibbs, Nancy (January 2, 2007). "The Other Born-Again President?". Time. Time Inc. Retrieved March 9, 2014.
  4. ^ http://geraldrfordfoundation.org/centennial/oralhistory/richard-devos/ "Richard Devos". The Gerald R. Ford Foundation.
  5. ^ https://www.amazon.com/Billy-Zeoli/e/B001KHF912 Billy Zeoli. Amazon.com
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