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Monthly Archives: August 2024

Sean Dunn | Reaching Millennials and Gen Z With Innovative Digital Strategies

Today’s generation is not worried about going to hell when they die because they often feel like they are living in hell right now. So how can we reach them for Jesus? Sean Dunn is reaching Millennials and Generation Z with innovative digital strategies. First he interrupts their social media time using paid advertising and Hollywood produced content. Then he uses online chats to provide answers to the real questions young people are asking about the pain they feel in their lives. They present the hope that comes through Jesus and ask people to make a commitment to follow Christ. You are going to love hearing about Sean’s innovative method of evangelism on today’s episode of The Evangelism Podcast.

Learn More About Sean Dunn and Ground Wire: https://www.groundwire.net/home 

See how Sean Dunn reaches people who are hurting: https://www.jesuscares.com/ 

Transcript: 

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Today’s generation is not worried about going to hell when they die because they often feel like they’re living in hell right now. So how can we reach them for Jesus? Sean Dunn is reaching millennials and generation Z with innovative digital strategies. First, he interrupts their social media time using paid advertising in Hollywood produced content. Then he uses online chats to provide answers to the real questions. Young people are asking about the pain they feel in their lives. They present the hope that comes through Jesus and ask people to make a commitment to follow Christ. You are going to love hearing about Sean’s innovative method of evangelism on today’s episode of The Evangelism Podcast,

Evangelism Podcast Host (01:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast with Dr. Daniel King, where Daniel interviews full-time evangelists, pastors, missionaries, and normal everyday Christians to discover how they share their faith, their powerful testimonies and amazing stories that will inspire you to reach people with the good news. And now here’s your host, missionary, and evangelist, Daniel King.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:24):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus. Today I have a very special guest with me, Sean Dunn. Thank you for joining me on the Evangelism Podcast.

Sean Dunn (01:36):
Well, thank you sir. Glad to be here. Thanks for having me on.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:39):
Now you have a very unique ministry reaching out to Generation Z. Tell me about it.

Sean Dunn (01:47):
Yeah, actually our focus is really millennials and Gen Z. I’ve been a youth ministry guy since I was 18, and as the generations continue to flow through, my focus is continue to stay right in that spot. So we specialize in 15 to 34, 39 is really our specialty.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:05):
And you are using innovative strategies to reach out to this demographic, mostly here in America. Tell me a little bit about some of what you’re doing to reach out.

Sean Dunn (02:20):
Yeah, well, we in the church and parents and grandparents, we look at our kids who are staring at their phone all day and we wish that they’d put ’em down, engage with people. And I’ve had pastors pound the table and say They won’t come to church. And my response is, but they won’t put down their phones either. So it’s either a problem or it’s an opportunity. We’ve seen it as an opportunity to really engage with them and go after them. So our strategy is really not to invite them to a location where they can hear the gospel, but it’s really to interrupt them as they’re living their life on their phone every day with messaging like Jesus cares dot God likes you.com. What’s the point? Do I matter? I feel broken.com. Invite ’em into a conversation through marketing. Our tagline is often when life hurts, Jesus cares.

(03:13):
Chat with somebody who understands, and we have this massive team of online volunteers that are engaging with the lost. They don’t come online and say, Hey, I need to go to heaven. They’re saying, Hey, I’m going through hell. And we’re able to help them understand how Jesus interacts with them to give them peace, hope, joy, perspective, purpose, but also let’s talk about what he does eternally as well. So really it’s a marketing play with a backend call center that’s not on the phone like our generation embraced, but it’s really through text, instant message with volunteers all over the world.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:47):
Okay. So you mentioned the word interrupt and that seems to be a really important term that you use. So you are going after people, they’re on their phones. I know my son and daughter 14 and 12, they love screen time, they love getting on the phone and we have to pry it out of their hands sometime. But this generation is spending all their time on phones. And the challenge that a lot of churches have is how do we get people into the four walls of the church? People just aren’t going into the four walls of the church anymore, but you’re trying to reach them on their phone and you use this term interruption where you’re interrupting them in the midst of whatever they’re doing. They’re on TikTok, they they’re scrolling doom, scrolling over, just watching videos and how do you interrupt their random search for entertainment and bring them to a point where they start thinking about spiritual things?

Sean Dunn (04:45):
So the same way that if you start thinking about getting a new car, all of a sudden the Jeep dealer knows and he starts targeting you. So it’s really through strategic advertising where we’re leveraging the algorithms. We are going after young people that are, they’re walking past the church, not into it, and they’re struggling with some form of depression, suicidal ideation, purposelessness. They’re showing those signs in the way that they’re behaving online and our messaging finds them. And so we don’t approach them in that moment and say, would you like to have a theological discussion with me? We approach ’em and say, life’s hard. How are you doing? Come talk to us about it.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:36):
And so these are kids, they’re going through depression, they’re thinking about suicide, they’re having issues with their parents having issues at school, and you come to them in that moment where they’re experiencing pain. And what do you say to them?

Sean Dunn (05:52):
It depends on the campaign, but like I said, some of the campaigns are when life hurts Cares come to Jesus cares.com. Some of it’s God likes you. I had people wrestle with me and say, no, God loves you, but God loves you is almost white noise to them. They believe that God loves ’em. They don’t believe God likes them. Some of it’s I feel broken.com, some of it is one of the young ladies logged in and she said, do I matter? And she instantly connected one of our online volunteers who said, you absolutely matter. You matter to me. I’m sure there’s people in your life that you matter to, but most importantly you matter to God. So we teach our online volunteers. You have to transition the conversation because if you let people, they will talk around the true issues for days. And so she said, you matter to God. Has anybody ever shared with you what God sees when he looks at you? And she said, no. Can I share? Absolutely. So she said, just eight, like one-liners out of scripture says, you are created in his image. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are precious in his sight.

(07:01):
You are. The apple of his eye just started to layer these things and you could just tell the young people today, they just want, they need to know because they’ve been beat down so much. If they know that somebody’s there for them, that God loves ’em, they just eat it up. And so she was eating it up and the coach, the online volunteer takes it and transitions and says, not only does he say those things about you, but he thinks you matter so much that he can’t imagine eternity without you. Did you know he made a way so that he could spend eternity with you? And she said, no. She ends up praying to give her life to Christ. It was beautiful. And at the end of the conversation, the online volunteer says, Hey, you came online and you asked me this question. You said, do I matter? But now that you know what God sees when he looks at you, now that you have a hope and a future in him, I’m going to ask you, do you matter? And her response, she came on with a question mark. She left with three exclamation points in all. She said, I do matter. So that’s just one of literally the thousands of stories of young people that are just coming to us because the marketing captures their attention and they end up having these amazing conversations with somebody who will take the time for ’em.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:14):
And so you are actually marketing to people. You’re doing advertising campaigns. Which platforms have you found the most success on? Are you advertising on TikTok, Facebook, YouTube? Where have you found the most success?

Sean Dunn (08:30):
Well, as you know, technology shifts, platforms change. Right now our top two platforms are TikTok and Instagram. So TikTok is very unique in that TikTok, TikTok will not let you succeed if you take people off of their platform. They want to keep everybody on their platform. So we had to figure out how. So our old call to action on all things meta is come over here and chat with us. In TikTok, we had to figure out how do you share the gospel, give a call to action, start follow inside of their app. And so we have videos that just like we have an animated video that just starts with this animated person just says, Hey, you got a minute. God’s got something he wants you to know. And just pure gospel for a minute, 27 seconds long. I thought it was too long, but it worked.

(09:19):
And at the end of it, it says, if you recognize that you’ve sinned and that sin has kept you from being close to God, you want to be, if you realize Jesus paid the price for your sin, it takes care of the eternal, I mean walks through the gospel, then go in the comment section and just make a declaration. I just gave my life to Christ. It is a public profession of faith because everybody who follows them on TikTok can now see that we’re seeing between five and 600 people every day on TikTok make a public profession of faith on there. So each platform has its own unique nuances, but man, it’s just been so fun to see what God’s doing.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:57):
That’s awesome. What are some of your TikTok channels that you’re sending people to?

Sean Dunn (10:02):
Yeah, so just off the top of my head, it’s the campaigns, but I don’t know how they’re worded, but Jesus cares. Jesus changes everything. I feel broken, do I matter? What’s the point? According to him, which is a website where we’re just encouraging people to say, Hey, come explore what Jesus sees when he looks at you. When I ask somebody, what do you think Jesus sees when he looks at you? I get two answers usually. First one I get is He doesn’t see me, he’s ignoring me. He’s not paying attention. Or the second one is he doesn’t like what he sees. And either one of those we can interject. Let me tell you what Jesus really sees when he looks at you and he adores you. He created you intentionally. You can just, so yeah, so those are some of the different URLs and the different campaigns on TikTok that you can go and explore.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:55):
That’s awesome. And are you putting out multiple pieces of content per day? Yes. Because I know that on the TikTok algorithm, they love it when you just pump out a ton of content. And tell me about some of your content. What is it that’s catching people’s attention? What hooks are really resonating with the younger generation?

Sean Dunn (11:17):
Well, so TikTok is different. TikTok has, we had to create a whole new strategy around TikTok, but meta for what’s been working for us for years is it truly is we need them to see themselves in the content. So we’ll have a picture, an image of a girl she’s sitting in a car and slow motion, just a tear dropping down. Her who of us hasn’t just had a bad day.

(11:46):
So it dropped because of the slow motion, the artsy piece of it, it’s dropping. And then as soon as it hits her leg, you hear a honk and you realize she’s sitting at a green light and she’s not moving. And it just says, when life hurts, Jesus cares. People say, Hey, I feel that pain too. Or there’s an African-American girl who she’s getting in her car and she’s talking to her phone and she just says, why is life so hard? I try so hard and I keep failing. I just don’t know if anybody cares about me. I don’t know if I’m ever going to get this right. When life hurts, Jesus cares through that content, we know that we’ve hit it, hit it perfectly. When people log in and they say, Hey, I just saw this piece of content and that’s me. That’s how I feel.

(12:35):
And so again, unfortunately young people aren’t waking up saying, oh no, I’m going to hell. They’re not asking the right questions. We have churches out there that we talk about the seeker sensitive model. They’re not seeking, they’re not asking the right questions. They’re in survival mode. So we have to help them ask the right questions, suggest Jesus is the answer, and then give them an opportunity that’s safe for them to walk in. So again, the attitudes and the perspectives of younger generations, especially Gen Z when it pertains to the church is very negative. 70% believe the American churches irrelevant. But here’s the one that really gets me. 26% of Gen Z trust pastors, that means 74% of the younger generation, they drive past the church and they think, I don’t trust them. That’s not safe. So if we help them ask the right questions, hoping that they’ll walk into a church, most of them won’t, but we know that they’ll live their life and they’ll dig into deep conversations on social media. So that’s what we offer ’em as the stepping stone. The old model of ministry used to be, let’s get ’em to a building so we can tell ’em about the man. Now let’s introduce ’em to Jesus and then move him towards the local community.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:50):
So once you capture someone’s attention, then you bring them to one of your websites where they can actually chat with someone who will minister to them via their typewriter. And so these young people, they’re not worried about going to hell because they feel like they’re living in hell right now. And then how do your counselors, the people that volunteer to help, how do you train them? Is this something that anyone can do? Do they have to be, do they have to go to seminary in order to answer questions? What do they need in order to actually help some people?

Sean Dunn (14:29):
Yeah, so our training is actually, we call it the Groundwater Training Academy. It is pretty extensive because there is both message as well as methodology, meaning we’ve learned a lot of things. When you don’t have tone, you don’t have eye contact, you don’t have body language, all you have are words. There are some really there, there’s some things that you need to understand. You need to understand how to language things so it doesn’t come across as aggressive. And so we take you through all that. It’s about a six hour training, but you can’t do it in one setting. But it covers everything from the technology behind the ministry to the heart behind the ministry, to how do I deal with the suicidal kid, or how do I minister to a Hindu, or how do I minister to a Muslim? So we train you on all those things and you’re assigned a mentor to walk with you through it.

(15:21):
Our team of volunteers both 24 hours a day in English and Spanish both, and it’s about 15 to 1800 people that are active on that team, ministering to people all through the day, 24 hours a day. And it’s amazing because the models of ministry I’ve been involved with is you had to show up at church at seven o’clock to be able to engage. If you wake up at three in the morning and you can’t sleep, there’s people who want to talk to you. If you have time at three in the afternoon, there’s people who want to talk to you. And so it’s always moving and always flowing. And one of our greatest needs is more of these volunteers so that as our traffic continues to increase, which it has been, we have enough coverage to make sure that we can do a good job with them.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:08):
Now, I have a lot of evangelists and people that really care about the Great Commission who listen to the Evangelism podcast. So if someone’s hearing this and saying, Hey, that is the great opportunity for me. I would love to be a keyboard warrior for Jesus. How can they get connected to you and find out how they can volunteer to be a part?

Sean Dunn (16:30):
Yeah. Let me tell you a quick story. First. I had a new volunteer just join, it’s probably been six months now, but he called me and I think in the first month he led eight people to Christ. And he said, this has amazing. He said, it reminds me of going fishing with my grandpa. And I thought it was a great analogy. He said, when I used to go fishing with my grandpa, I loved it because he loved it. My grandpa loved to fish. And he took it a step further and I thought, that’s beautiful. He said, when I used to go fishing with my grandpa, my grandpa did all the work and I got all the credit. He baited the hook, he cast it, he reeled it in. Eventually he’d clean it, but I got to stand there and take a picture like I did something. He said, I feel like the harvest truly is ripe. People are more open to the gospel right now than they’ve ever been. They just need to be approached in the right way and invited into kind of process what’s going on with them. So if you’re interested in learning more, the best place to do that is to go to ground wire.net/coaching. It will take you to a place where there’s frequently asked questions, some interviews with some online volunteers or a place where you can begin with an application. But that’s ground wire.net/coaching.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:41):
Let’s talk a little bit about your history and how you got started doing this. What is it that drives you? What gives you this passion for evangelism? Where’d that come from? And then how’d you get started in doing this type of ministry?

Sean Dunn (17:58):
Yeah, well, thanks for asking that. I was a weird kid. I’m a weird adult, but at 14 years old, the Lord called me to ministry. It was so clear that I actually wrote in the back of my Bible, contend for a Generation was the phrase he gave me. And I just assumed that meant youth pastor because that was the only model of ministry at the time. Nothing entrepreneurial was encouraged. And so at 18 years old, I go to Bible college, I get hired the first week or the second week I was there at a church to be their youth pastor. At the time, my arrogance thought, wow, they recognized God’s hand on my life. Looking back, I’m thinking they were stupid and desperate. I mean, they did not. I was 18. They didn’t check references. They needed some help. And so I stepped in and I just say that to say I’ve been in full-time ministry since I was 18 as I stayed in the local church and started to travel full-time as a speaker and an author in 97, and I was the guy traveling with the bands, the bands could get ’em in the field.

(18:58):
It wasn’t about my name, it was about the band, but I got to share the gospel with them. And I learned very quickly, I’m an evangelist. I am not a pastor. And so I thought that I would do that my entire life. I mean, that filled my cup. My ego was out of control. I thought it was all about me and I was loving it. And it was December, 2002 and I was climbing the ladder and it was on a Tuesday. I’m sitting in my office and I’m adding up the number of people I’d spoken to that year. And that year I’d spoken to 156,000 people and I was patting myself on the back thinking that I was pretty great. And two days later, I was deflated because two days later I started reading a George Barna book, and George Barna never leaves you feeling good.

(19:41):
He points out the problems, he points out the trends. He says, we are losing. But the thing that got me was, and we all know that there’s times when God amplifies something and whether it’s a scripture that you’ve read so many times before this particular time, it was a statistic that I knew, but it grabbed my heart differently. On Tuesday, I’m excited about 156,000. In the first paragraph of this new book that I’m reading to prepare for the new year, it says that there are 33 million teenagers in the United States. And I went from feeling, really, I’m sorry,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:16):
That’s a huge number. It’s it’s a great harvest field that Jesus says, pray that God would send laborers out into the harvest field.

Sean Dunn (20:25):
And I went from really excited about 156,000 to being deflated. And it put me into this kind, a little bit of a tailspin for three months where nobody knew what I was struggling with, but I was struggling with my model of ministry because God was doing something different in me. And I had three epiphanies that came out of this. Number one is my model won’t meet the need. There is no way, even if I can triple what I’m doing and get it to half a million people, it’s a drop in the bucket. Second thing I realized was in the western world, heathens don’t go to Christian events. So I’m an evangelist who’s speaking to people who agree with me. And I was saying, God, where the lost? Where are the lonely? Where are the discouraged? I started to ask questions like, God, how do we reach a generation?

(21:13):
Doesn’t want to be in the same room with us. How do we reach a generation that plugs their ears every time we disagree with them? And the third one was scripture says, go into all the world. And I kept saying, come to me. And I was really wrestling with that. And three months in, as God tends to do, he just gave me a statistic that set us on a new journey. And that statistic changed my paradigm immediately. And the statistic is no longer relevant, but it simply said that 97% of the students in the nation listened to the radio at least five times a week in 2003. And I went to my board and I said, if we know where they are, why do we keep asking them to come where they don’t want to be? Let’s go to them. Let’s go buy time on these alternative rock stations, hip hop stations, country stations.

(22:05):
And so we started on traditional media. We started on radio. We added tv. We were on MTV, vh one Adult Swim. We were buying time on those major platforms. We added billboards. But our biggest pivot came in 2017. I went to my board and I said, young people consume media differently than we do. I love telling people my age that we’re talking about Jesus on MTV because we remember what MTV used to be, but it no longer has that influence, and the audience has changed dramatically. I said, they look at the small screen, not the big screen. I said, if we want to be relevant, we have to figure out how to invade their phone. And that’s really what we started to do, and that’s really when our scale began to grow. Can I share with you some of our numbers from last

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:53):
Year? Yeah. Please tell us what results have you seen?

Sean Dunn (22:57):
Yeah. So first of all, let me tell you that the numbers seem like I had a friend tell me, they’re like video game numbers. They don’t seem real. I had another guy in Houston look at me and say, Sean, I want to believe you, but I don’t. He said, because I know how difficult it is, the Western world Church doesn’t know how to reach young people in mass. And he said, I know how expensive it is. And so he challenged me. He said, don’t come back and talk to me until you get your numbers validated, but if you get them validated, please come back and talk to me. So we took that as a challenge. We called the Ranon Foundation, said, who do you trust to do non to do nonprofit metric evaluation and make sure that they’re not fudging the truth? And so they gave us the name that everybody trusts. And so we called ’em and said, Hey, we need you to do a deep dive. So they do that every couple of years for us. I can provide that if anybody has questions, but they basically validate our numbers. So here’s our numbers. In 2023, our commercials were seen 1.3 billion times.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:58):
Wow.

Sean Dunn (24:00):
And the way you measure if your marketing is effective is how many people take steps of the 1.3 billion? We had 6.8 million people take the next step and visit one of our websites. George Barnes, as the average church in the United States sees one person a year come to Christ. Last year we saw 567,545 pray to receive Christ.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:24):
Praise God.

Sean Dunn (24:26):
And here’s another one too. Churches and denominations in the US will tell you that it costs ’em over $35,000 on average to see one person give their life to Christ. Last year, our all in costs was $6 and 51 cents.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:41):
Wow.

Sean Dunn (24:42):
So it’s been mind blowing. And I talk about when I was traveling and speaking and people were asking me to sign things, my head was just, I thought it was all about me. This is really a humbling place to be because we know that God is doing this, and our job is just to make sure we stay as close to him as possible. He’s got the strategies, he’s got the messaging. We just need to be faithful and not get in his way.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:07):
So with all the advertising you’re doing, that’s a pretty significant budget. How do you raise money to put into evangelism? Do you have people that help to support you?

Sean Dunn (25:20):
We do, absolutely. Yeah. And it really is just about telling our story. There’s people out there that are saying, man, I care about my kids, my grandkids. I care about culture. I care about the morale in our nation. Some of ’em truly care about evangelism, and they say, man, I want to invest in something that’s effective. And so, yeah, it has become easier and easier to tell our story as we’ve continued to see more and more people come to Christ. And so people know that, okay, so for every $7 that came in last year, somebody walks the island, gives their life to Christ, and we have people say, Hey, I think I want to take care of 10, or I want to do a hundred, or I want to do a thousand. And so yeah, we continue just to let God bring in the resources and we invest it well when it’s given to

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:07):
Us. That’s amazing. So if someone wants to support you, how do they find out more information about how they can do that?

Sean Dunn (26:15):
If you go to ground wire.net, that is really the best website for that. So all of the other websites are facing the young people we’re reaching. So we don’t have donation buttons on those sites. We don’t. Here’s who we are about us. We just have messages. We’re trying to funnel them directly into the God conversations. But if you want to learn about us, go to ground wire.net and you can request request those financials. You can request our metrics audits that we’re happy to share with you, whatever we can, but you’ll probably find most of it on that site.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:54):
That’s awesome. Now, you mentioned this big number of young people that are giving their lives to Jesus, and as an evangelist, one of the questions I’m always asked, I’m sure you’ve been asked a thousand times. What do you do about follow-up? How do you get them to the next step?

Sean Dunn (27:11):
Yeah, so we have two primary goals this year. One is on the evangelism side, one ISS on the follow-up side. Our evangelism goal is to see a minimum of a million professions of faith in the calendar year. We are on track. We’re very, very close to that. As we approach the new year, we need to pick up just a little bit of steam to hit that goal. But the second one is to see 30% of those who make a profession of faith take a meaningful and measured step in their spiritual journey. So that can be everything from signing up for our, we have a discipleship drip that we call Hope Connection, where for 16 days it’s delivered to their cell phone. It’s basically spiritual discipline, but young people don’t want to be told what to do. They want to watch somebody else’s story about how did reading the Bible change their life?

(28:02):
And then they get to decide if they want to do it. We are building an online community on the app called Discord, which is an app that young people are very familiar with because it was built for the gaming community to have community. And we’re building a community there called Chasing Christ. That’s another one of our growth tracks that they can opt into. We have a group of people who will walk with them for four weeks after they come to faith to figure out how do I grow closer to Christ? So we give them different options. There’s about five or six things that we offer them, and we invite ’em. We have partners. Most of what we do is in the US when we do something internationally, it’s because we have a discipleship follow-up partner in that country that will take the follow-up. And so in Kenyan, India, some countries in South America, we are partnering with some ministries that are boots on the ground to move them forward as well.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (28:58):
Now you said that you do it in both English in Spanish with your Spanish track. Are you doing some things in Central and South America?

Sean Dunn (29:07):
Yes, sir. Yeah, on the Spanish track, we’re in five other countries in, so we’re in Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador, Columbia, and Argentina. I think I could be wrong, but that’s roughly what we’re doing. But yeah, we’ve found that it’s a model that’s working very, very well, even in these other countries. And so when we have the right partners on the ground, we take our expertise in the marketing space and we take our massive coaches and we move in and buying marketing in their country.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (29:43):
That’s awesome. And I think that’s very innovative. Every country I go to around the world, I mean, people all have very nice cell phones. They spend a lot of time on cell phones just like kids here do. And so I think that your strategy will work well in many different countries and even in some Asian countries where here you would pay a significant amount for each impression. In some countries, I’ve done some advertising and it can be pennies to reach thousands of people. And so there’s just so many people and the advertising isn’t expensive in some other parts of the world like it is here. So I think the years to come as you strive to reach your million and even beyond that, I really pray God gives you a strategy that will work around the world.

Sean Dunn (30:43):
Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate that. Our board said a couple of years ago, we weren’t going to even begin to think internationally until we hit a milestone of a thousand or a hundred thousand Professor of Faith in the US in a calendar year. Because the quickest way to destroy momentum is to try and grow too quickly. So when we hit that a couple of years ago, we began to explore internationally. But our focus continues to be the us. This is where we believe, this is my calling. It is Western world predominantly us young people who have everything, and yet they have nothing because they don’t have Jesus.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (31:18):
That’s awesome. Well, Sean, it’s really wonderful to talk to you today. Thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast. Really appreciate it. And I love your strategy. I love what you’re doing. The young people of America need a touch from Jesus, and you’re connecting them to Jesus right where they’re at. So thank you for what you do, and thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.

Sean Dunn (31:45):
Thank you, Daniel. I appreciate you having me.

Evangelism Podcast Announcer (31:48):
Are you called by God to be an evangelist? Do you want to lead millions of people to Jesus? Do you desire to be trained in the practical side of building a ministry? Then check out the Daniel King’s School of Evangelism. Learn how to be an effective evangelist from Dr. Daniel King’s 20 plus years of experience. Daniel King has done crusades all over the world in over 70 nations and is seen over 2 million people give their lives to Jesus. But it wasn’t easy. There was no crusade school. So Daniel traveled the world learning from and observing top evangelists, noticing how they successfully won souls for Christ. Now he wants to share decades of knowledge and experience with you. Topics of the Daniel King School of Evangelism include what is an evangelist, how to be a master soul winner, how to give antar call, how to organize a crusade, how to raise money for your ministry, and much more. If you want to be an evangelist, but don’t know where to start, the Daniel King School of Evangelism is for you. Enroll today in the School of Evangelism by going to Daniel King ministries.com/evangelism.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (32:50):
Thanks so much for listening today. I am excited about telling people about Jesus, and I want to invite you to be a part of helping us to rescue people from Hell and take them with us to heaven. There’s two things you can do to help. First of all, can you go find the Evangelism podcast on Apple iTunes and leave us a positive review by giving a review, you will help other people find these valuable resources about sharing our faith. And second, would you become a financial partner with King Ministries. Every single dollar that people give us enables us to lead at least one person to Jesus. And so that means for only $1, you can help start a party in heaven. And so today, I want to invite you to become a monthly partner. You can start out for just a dollar, but if God puts it on your heart to do more, of course you can do more. But please go to king ministries.com and become a monthly partner with us today to help us to lead more people to Jesus. Thank you so much, and God bless you.

Evangelism Podcast Host (34:10):
For more information about how to share your faith or to financially support our worldwide evangelistic outreaches, visit king ministries.com. Again, that’s king ministries.com.

 

 

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Congo Meets Christ the Healer

At all of our crusades, we see God do amazing healing miracles. Our crusade in Gandajika in the Democratic Republic of Congo was no different. Here are some testimonies from people who were touched by the power of God.

 

Bret Sipek | Crusade Planning in Africa

Today on The Evangelism Podcast, Daniel King interviews Bret Sipek, a Christ for All Nations Crusade Director, about their recent successful crusade in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They discuss the challenges and miracles they experienced during the organization of the crusade, including the logistics of transporting equipment and the overwhelming response from the people. You will learn the secrets of organizing a successful crusade in Africa.

Learn more about Christ for All Nations: https://cfan.org/

Transcript: 

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a very special guest here today, Brett Pac. And thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast.

Bret Sipek | CFAN Crusade Director (00:12):
Thank you so very much evangelist Daniel. It’s so, such an honor for me.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:16):
So we are here in the Democratic Republic of Congo and we have just completed a very successful crusade in Ika with Christ for all nations. And you’ve been working with Christ for All Nations for many years, helping to organize crusades, and you have helped to organize a series of crusades across the nation. Tell me what have been some of the biggest challenges and also the biggest miracles that you’ve seen here in Congo.

Bret Sipek | CFAN Crusade Director (00:51):
Well the Congo, as you can see, democratic Republic of Congo is a very different level than many other African countries. Even some of our African coworkers, directors said, we never ever in our life seen so much poverty. So the infrastructure is very, very, very low. There are people living in the houses, there’s no water, no electricity, electricity comes from only from Gensets, which are expensive and water is distributed in the barrels and people have to buy. So there’s a lot of challenges in just a pure staying in the country. And first of all, we are amazed of the hunger of people, the response of people. People are very hunger, very responsive. We see so powerful response for altar call. I know that in Gda gca, you had almost every hand raised, I was looking at the numbers and I was like, oh my almost everybody in the crowd wants to receive Jesus. And that’s true. The country is Christianized, but many people has very more prodigal sense relationship or sleen relationships or more like a nominal Christian relationship with Jesus. So it is so important to preach gospel and we are so excited to have you here in gda gca. Yeah, it’s a great honor for us.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:26):
Well, I want to say thank you to you and to the entire staff of Christ for all nations. I know that it has been a lot of work organizing here in Congo. Great challenges. I was watching the trucks, the pictures of them coming across the country to get to this place. It took several weeks and at one point they’re only going like 30 kilometers a day because the roads are so bad.

Bret Sipek | CFAN Crusade Director (02:51):
It is, yeah. It was really a new challenge, a new level of challenge for us. And we have experienced drivers like Vinny Wetland, our chief driver. He’s very well experienced. He crisscrossed Africa, all the roads that you can imagine, and he really believed that he will be able to, he would be able to make it, but they had to stop and they had to go back to Mumbai after three, four days, pushing forward, pressing forward. It was simply impossible because they have 20 meters, 60 feet, long track, very heavy, like 40 metric tons. And you can go on the road and suddenly there is a big, big bump down, maybe one and a half meter, five feet deep, and in between are another bumps. So the trucks, they had to use beams to support the wheels. It was so difficult, so much dust because it’s a dry season. It was very a load load of dust. So we had to and unload, unload and load everything to the local, they call it hobo trucks. It’s more like kind of construction side tracks or kind of military truck with higher, higher chassis and bigger wheels. And that’s how we finally get it to the crusade locations. That was the biggest logistics challenge probably in so many

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:23):
Years. I mean this is true pioneer crusading. It is, yeah. But it’s very rewarding because in Ganja where I was, there had never been a crusade there before. The people were so hungry and they came from everywhere and they were ready to receive Jesus.

Bret Sipek | CFAN Crusade Director (04:44):
Yeah, I’ve seen the photos. It was powerful crowd and all our stuff on ground, they were amazed. And you are very right. There was never, ever international evangelist crusade, like maybe some local crusades. We sometimes call it like church yard crusade, which is good. People can come, but typically like one 2000 people know your number. I was looking like 50, 60,000, maybe even bigger. I was so amazed. It never ever a day, never ever heard in this city. And it was the same for we do all, actually we already did four ess including Yor, inand, gca in every place. We were amazed like

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:22):
This. And you have two more coming up. We have

Bret Sipek | CFAN Crusade Director (05:24):
Two more. We have two more in another big, big city called Kanga, probably 1.2 million people. So we expect another great

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:32):
Harvest. And my good friend Nathan Morris is coming for that crusade. You’re

Bret Sipek | CFAN Crusade Director (05:35):
Excited

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:36):
To have the nation. It’s wonderful. And Ruben’s, Kya will come as well this coming week. And so it is really exciting to see the teamwork between different ministries, different evangelists working together.

Bret Sipek | CFAN Crusade Director (05:49):
I believe that that’s the part of end time vision that we are really standing together. Evangelists are like lone runners. You want to go and you want to press forward, push forward. But we need to understand that some territories are too big for one ministry, even for two ministry. So we really need to strategize how we can make it. And Congo, Congo is over 110 million people and the territory of Congo is 2.4 million square kilometers, which is like six times bigger than Germany in Europe. It is huge territory. And as there is no logistics, we need to go to some region. Now we are in the region called Kasai, Kasai Central Car Oriental, and it’s just a little part of Congo in a way. But still we need combined four like yourself, evangelist Nathan Morris, evangelist Ruben. That’s the beauty of it. End time harvest, let’s press forward, let’s push forward.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:51):
Together everyone achieves more. We can do it by working together. Now you have come from the Czech Republic and you were friends with one of my friends, Terry Hinshaw and Terry and Brenda Hinshaw many years ago went to the Czech Republic to plant a church, a victory Christian Center. And you knew them all the way back

Bret Sipek | CFAN Crusade Director (07:17):
All those years ago. It was more than 30 years ago. As you know, evangelist Billy Ty, he did a crusade in St. Petersburg, Russia in early nineties after the fall of regime.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:30):
That was the first crusade I ever went to. Really? I was 14 years old. I went to one of the Crusades in St. Petersburg, Peter Praise. And I remember 30,000 people ran as fast as they could to the altar call when he gave the altar call. They were so hungry for God, they just ran forward. And I think that had a big impact on my life and is one of the reasons that I’m so excited about being an evangelist.

Bret Sipek | CFAN Crusade Director (07:52):
It was kind of like Holy Spirit outpouring in Eastern Europe and Soviet Union right after the communist regime collapsed. We’ve seen it in many countries in Czech Republic, in Hungary, in Bulgaria, most very much in Russia, Soviet United at this time. So it was, people are so hungry for God. And at this time we connected with, as you mentioned, with missionaries Terry and Brenda Hechos. We helped them to relocate from St. Petersburg to Czech Republic and then help them to start a church. It was great. We have great memories. It was so beautiful time.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:31):
Then how did you get connected with Christ for all Nations?

Bret Sipek | CFAN Crusade Director (08:33):
Well, I always admired Evangelist Rein Haron from early eighties when I seen him pushing forward in Africa. And it was kind of like my dream to meet him sometime and to be around him. And it happened in 2002 when he came to Prague, Czech Republic for a small Christian conference, and I happened be his driver driving evangelist Bunker. It was a great privilege and great experience because he was sharing his heart and his heart was evangelism. His life was what he was preaching, just so winning. So winning, so winning. I asked him whatever question I could ask. He always end up with evangelism. So many. I was like, oh my. He’s so much focus at this time. I realized focus in your life is something that will take you way higher. So evangelism was like embodiment of focus. Focus on the soul’s focus on Africa. Africa shall bee. So it was my first connection in 2002, and then I ended up to go for on Cruise eight one, cruise eight in Aki Nigeria. And it was mind blowing. It was time of huge opening and outpouring of holy the Spirit after 10 years of closed in Nigeria. And it was time of super, super great harvest and powerful miracles.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:52):
And what is your role with Christ for all nations now?

Bret Sipek | CFAN Crusade Director (09:55):
I am a crusade director and in a way, crusade Director is somebody who’s preparing the stage for evangelists like yourself or evangelist Reinhard Bonky and or now evangelist Daniel Kolenda. My goal is to see the powerful harvest. I’m praying for harvest. It is like mobilizing all the local churches. We are meeting hundreds of churches sitting with bishops, these pastors, and face-to-face, sharing the vision. It may seem easy to get several hundred pastors together, but I can tell you it’s not that easy as it may seem. They have so many different opinions, so many different church backgrounds. So it’s a lot of work. As Evangelist Bunker used to say, you have to drink a lot of coffees to cast the vision. So that’s what we are doing, casting division. And then of course we need to do a lot of logistics things and mobilizing training the volunteers. We are training for your crusade. In gda gca, we trained well over 10,000 local volunteers, giving them teaching what we want to do, how we want to reach out to people on ground. And after that, when you have to make the bridge from the crusade to the churches. So that’s the big part. And then of course the event management itself that you experience. We are on the meeting, we have everything on spot. Generators are working like sound is working on. It may seems easy when the show runs, but the

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:26):
Backstage, there’s a lot of logistics behind it. It is, it is. They say with the military, they run on logistics. And I think it’s true of crusade evangelism too. The logistics is so important. It’s not just the preaching. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes to make a successful event.

Bret Sipek | CFAN Crusade Director (11:47):
I always say to our directors, if you want to fire fall on some ground, you need to prepare a lot of material, which is flammable like a lot of wood. Everything that you can bring together. And this is our task, prepare everything, make sure that people would come definitely for the first night or for the whole crusades, because when people are there and evangelists preach gospel and the Holy Spirit come, there is thousand or tens of thousand people that are ready to hear because we are preparing them for it. And if you do a lousy job as a crusade director, you have just few hundred people. Evangelists can do his best. He can preach his heart, and it doesn’t have too much impact because there is just few hundred people. But if there is already 10, 20, or in your case, I would think that the first night it was already like 70,000 people. It was mind blowing. In other crusades, we typically see five, 10, maybe 15,000. But in here in Congo, everything is twice or three times bigger. And we are really excited

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:49):
Now. Something very special happened this last week here in Muji Maya. Your daughter preached a woman’s crusade. And tell me about that and how that came to pass.

Bret Sipek | CFAN Crusade Director (13:01):
No, Yana, Ava, our daughter, she’s here with her husband David. He’s working as a technician. She had a dream to preach gospel in Congo. She was preaching now in Uganda and in many, many different places in churches doing kind of this crusade director’s work. Now she’s transiting, although to being evangelist, and she’s doing I believe very, very good. And the dream was like, I want to preach gospel in Ji Mai. But when we shared with a local bishop, they were like, yeah, well, we don’t like women to preach. They should rather sit at home and maybe do cooking or cleaning of the house, all these old school mentality. So you cannot change the whole culture in one shot. But we didn’t want to just submit. We were like, okay, okay, what we can do, what the woman can do. Okay, she can sing. She can prophesize. She can teach ladies. Oh good. If she can teach ladies, she can preach like the ladies conference or ladies crusade. Yeah, for sure. No problem. So that was the discussion. So that’s how we jumped into this ladies crusade. Of course, many children and many husbands came, so no doubt.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:16):
Well, I heard her preach the other night and the adulterous woman, and she did such a powerful job. Amen. Your daughter is a great evangelist. Amen. You were sitting on the platform with your wife and I could see you are a very proud papa.

Bret Sipek | CFAN Crusade Director (14:29):
Proud, proud papa. Yeah, definitely. Honestly, when I was young, it was my dream to preach Crusades. Now my dream is a little bit different. I want to train crusade directors. That’s my dream to see that there are evangelists trained by evangelist Daniel Kolenda or other evangelistic ministries. But we also need to train crusade directors because without crusade directors, the impact of evangelists is limited. So that’s my dream. So we are now training teams of these crusade directors, and that’s how we can do six crusades in three weeks because we have six teams. And that’s the beauty

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:04):
Of it. Well, I say thank God for that vision. Every crusade evangelist needs a good crusade director. And so I believe that as God raises up more evangelists, more people that have gifts with administration and organizing and meeting pastors and all of the logistics of doing the crusade, God will raise them up as well. Praise God. We need them

Bret Sipek | CFAN Crusade Director (15:25):
All. Amen. Thank you so very much for,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:27):
Well, brother Brent, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast and thank you for your work here. And thank you for organizing such a beautiful crusading. It was wonderful.

Bret Sipek | CFAN Crusade Director (15:38):
Daniel, thank you for coming. We really honor you. We appreciate your hard work. We know that it’s not easy to come to travel in and out to fundraise. Thank you so very much. We really honor you and let’s pray and strategize for the future, how the impact on the territories can be even bigger. So thank you so very much and God bless you and thank you for having me.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:00):
Amen. Amen.

 

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How to Take a City for God | Evangelist Daniel King

How can we take a city for God? As evangelists we want to take cities and regions and nations for the Kingdom of God. But as we find out today in an Old Testament story, sometimes it is not easy to take a city for God. Recently I was asked to give a devotion to the organizing team for a crusade in Gandajika, Congo. On today’s episode of The Evangelism Podcast, you will find out that the people who take cities for God are heroes in heaven.

 

 

Transcript:

Evangelist Daniel King (00:00):
The devotion that I want to talk about is how to take a city for God. I’ve gone to many different cities around the world and we do big evangelistic events, and our goal is to take the city for the kingdom of God. The city I want to talk about is the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is very significant. It is the capital of three different major religions. The Jews claim it, the Christians claim it, and Islam claims it. And so Jerusalem is known all over the world. But what made Jerusalem famous, it’s not a port city. Usually the famous cities of ancient times were port cities where the ships would come bringing goods. It’s not on a river, it’s up in the mountains. It’s hard to get to. So what made it famous? The thing that made Jerusalem famous was King David decided to make Jerusalem the capital of his kingdom when he decided that he didn’t own it.

(01:17):
It was known as the city of Jab bbis, and it was owned by the Jbu, the Jebusites. And so how did King David come to own the city of Jab bbis? The story is found in two Samuel chapter five, verses six through nine, it says, and the king and his man went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David saying, you shall not come in here, but the blind in the lame will repel you, thinking David cannot come in here. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion. That is the city of David. Now, David said on that day, whoever climbs up by the way of the water shaft and defeats the Jebusites, the lame, the blind who are hated by David’s soul, he shall be chief and captain. Therefore, they say the blind in the lame shall not come into the house.

(02:21):
Then David dwelt in the stronghold and called it the city of David. And David built all around from that region inward. So the city of Jab bbis was on top of a mountain. It was surrounded by high walls of stone. There were large wooden gates that guarded the only entrance to the city. When David and his men arrived, the gates were slammed shut, and it was impossible for anyone to enter the city. The men of jab were extremely confident. The Jebusites felt safe. They were hidden behind their eye walls of stone, and they began to make fun of David. They stood high on the walls and they shouted down, you cannot enter here. They said, even if the only soldiers in the city were deaf and lame and blind, you would not be able to enter. And so they’re taunting them from the walls. I don’t know if you remember the Monty Python in the search for the Holy Grail. There’s a group of French soldiers on top of a wall, and they’re making fun of the knights who come. You remember that scene? I don’t remember what they said, but it was funny at the time. Does anyone remember to quote it? You know what they say? You are a monkey. You are so smelly.

(03:55):
I mean, that’s what the Jebusites were doing. They were standing on the wall saying, oh, you can never take our city. It’s impossible for you. You are so stupid. We are here in the city. Even if every one of our soldiers was dumb and deaf and blind, you would not be able to take the city. But somehow, perhaps through a spy, David heard about another way of entering the city. It was a tiny water shaft that extended from the valley all the way up the mountain and came out in the middle of the city of jab bbis. And so here was a flaw in the city’s defenses, a tiny chink in its impenetrable armor. And David said, I am tired of these heathens making fun of me in saying that even the blind in the lame could defeat me. And so David gathered his men together and he promised who whoever climbs up by way of the water shaft and defeats the Jebusites, he shall be chief and captain.

(05:16):
And so for many years when I read this passage, I thought of a water shaft with fresh water going down to a well. And I had this picture of a soldier climbing up with his sword strapped to his back and his shield. And as he climbs, there’s a little bit of moss on the wall and the water is splashing in his face, but he manages to climb all the way up this water shaft, and he comes out at the top in the middle of the night, pulls out his sword, and begins slashing and takes the city. That’s kind of the picture I always had of this story. But as I studied this passage, I discovered that there are several commentaries that suggest that my picture of old fresh water well is not entirely accurate. Instead of being fresh water, it’s possible that this water shaft was actually a sewer.

(06:21):
And that’s why the Jebusites thought that it was impossible for anyone to climb up this water shaft. What’s in a sewer? It’s full of trash. It’s full of bones from dead animals, it’s full of feces. It stinks to high heaven. It’s full of rats flies and creepy crawly bugs. Climbing the water shaft would require more than just physical strength. It would also require a strong stomach and a stopped up nose. And so never in their wildest dreams did the Jebusites imagine that someone would climb up the sewer, who would push their way through the trash and waste altogether in a cramped up space. They didn’t imagine that it would be possible for anyone to attack the city through this sewer shaft. And so imagine the slime. Imagine the smell climbing this shaft would make you want to gag, and it would make you feel like you’re going to throw up.

(07:36):
By the time you reach the top, you would not be in the mood to fight a battle. Your sword handle would be slick in your hand. This attack was not a picnic, but sometimes in order to take a city for God, you have to go through waste. I don’t want to be too crass, but what would you call it? I mean, it’s waste feces, poo dung shit, kaka, stinky. It doesn’t matter what words you use, the reality is foul. And so David was surrounded by mighty men, but this mission required someone who was exceptional to lead. Usually climbing through the sewage is not heroic. It’s a job for a trash man. So who would step up to take the lead? Who would lead David’s men? Who would win the award that David was offering to the person who could take this risky climb? In 1 Chronicles 11:4-6, we find the name of the chief who volunteered for the job.

(08:59):
His name was Joab. And so Joab lifted his hand and he said, I will be the one to climb up this sewage shaft. I will be the one that will go first in the city. And he grabbed some of the other mighty men of David, and he grabbed and said, come on guys. We can do this. We can work together. We can get up there and we can take this city. And so Joab was a hero. And because he was the one who ascended the shaft later, David appoints him as the leader of all of his armies. And so taking a city for God requires heroes. It’s not easy. It’s not a stroll through the tulips. It’s not just a walk in the sunshine. Coming to a city like Ganja, dika requires sacrifice. Sometimes it’s hot. Sometimes when you take a city, it’s cold. Sometimes you have to take a cold shower out of a bucket. Sometimes it’s smelly. Sometimes you have to use an outhouse. Sometimes the road is bumpy. Sometimes there are mosquitoes. Sometimes you have to leave your wife and children at home for long periods of time. Sometimes there’s conflict. Sometimes there’s not enough money, and you have to bargain for everything.

(10:53):
Sometimes you have to sleep on a hard bed or even a hard floor. My bed over in Muji Maya, it was a nice room, but the bed had slates in it. It was very uncomfortable. Sometimes you’re sick. Sometimes you have to go for a long period without eating food. Sometimes you’re thirsty. Sometimes you have a gun pointed at you. I’ve had that happen to me in a couple of different countries in Pakistan. One time we were shot at. But in order to take a city, you have to be willing to go through dumb. Taking a city requires hard work in sacrifice, but the man or the woman

(11:49):
Who is willing to make the sacrifice to take a city will receive a great reward. And so I want to tell you today that each one of you are heroes. Some of you have been coming with C fan for many, many years, and that’s one of the greatest things about Christ for all nations is the years of dedication that people have given to it. And it’s not easy. When you read Reinhard Bonnke’s autobiography, there have been sacrifices, even people that have died. If you listen to Brother Winnie, he tells the stories of traveling across parts of Africa and some of the adventures he’s gone on would make a great blockbuster movie. It’s not been easy what CA has done, but that is what is required in order to take a city for God. It’s required your sacrifice to take ganja dika.

(12:56):
And for that, you are a hero. And I want to say thank you to each one of you for your sacrifice, for the effort you put into this, and not just this one. Some of you were here last week. Some of you are going to be here next week. We’re going to go from this city. We’re going to take the next city. We’re going to take all of Congo for Jesus. We’re going to take all of Africa for Jesus from Cape Town to Cairo. Do you know how audacious it is to say we’re going to take 50 cities in one year for Jesus? Never been done before, never even been attempted. But 50 different decap events. I mean, this is historic, but what are we doing? We are taking cities for Jesus Christ and we couldn’t do it without you. And so thank you. Let’s pray together.

(13:45):
Dear Heavenly Father, I want to say thank you for the heroes who are in this room. Thank you for their sacrifice. Thank you for the effort that they put into ganja and into Congo and into the other cities where crusades are happening. And Lord, I pray that because of them being willing to go through the challenges of operating in a nation like Congo, Lord, I pray that you would give them a great reward that just like Joab became the captain of all of David’s armies, he received a great reward. Lord, I pray that you would reward each one of my friends, my brothers, every staff member that’s here. Lord, I pray that they would receive a great reward. The type of reward that only comes through you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

 

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Evangelism Bootcamp Graduates On the Field

At our crusade in Gandajika in the Democratic Republic of Congo, I had the opportunity to sit down with some of the graduates of the Christ for All Nations Evangelism Bootcamp. They all came to Congo to help with organizing the crusade. Today on the Evangelism Podcast they share about what they have learned as evangelists and about the calling that God has on their lives. You will be inspired by their stories to do great things for God.

 

Transcript: 

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King, and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus. Today I am in Ngandajika. Congo DRC, and we have a tremendous team here that has been helping to organize everything. And so I have with me some of the graduates from the Christ for All Nations Evangelism Bootcamp. And so they came to Orlando to be trained and now they are sent out and we are together here in Congo. And so let’s just begin by each of you introducing yourself and telling me who you are and where you’re from. My

Jasper Kim (00:41):
Name is Jasper Kim, and I am from Los Angeles, California.

Anastasiia Dvoinikova (00:47):
My name is Anastasia Awa, and I was born in Russia, but now I live in Orlando, Florida.

Grace Smith (00:53):
My name is Grace Smith. I was born in Zimbabwe and I now live in United Kingdom.

Maxie Smith (01:00):
My name is Maxie Smith. I live in England, but my parents come from Jamaica. I live in London, England.

Jacob Habiye (01:08):
My name is Jacob Habiye. I am from Tanzania. ausa.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:14):
Well, let’s start with you Jacob. What did you learn in the Evangelism Bootcamp? How did you end up at the Evangelism Bootcamp? And then what did you learn while you were there?

Jacob Habiye (01:27):
So the bootcamp, I learned about to have a heart for the lost, and I know I did before I preaching in the local church. But from there I just thinking now I’m going international and thinking about the loss. That is what I learning. And then as evangelist to have a personal relationship with God, that is really what are learning and yeah,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:54):
Can say that. So Maxie and Grace, the two of you are married. How many years have you been married Now?

Grace Smith (02:00):
We’ve been married 28

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:02):
Years. 28 years. Congratulations. And so how did you end up at the Evangelism Bootcamp?

Grace Smith (02:11):
Okay, I think he gives me the mic. Personally, I’ve been following Reinhard Bonnke’s ministry, Christ for All Nations for years. So I’ve been stalking the ministry and eventually there was a time that they were actually asking if anyone wants to come to the Crusades to sit in the crusade. And we were dreaming of that. So I told Max we were dreaming of that. So one day I saw on the website bootcamp, that was the first bootcamp. So my husband applied for that. He was accepted, applied for the second one. He was accepted. But we didn’t have enough faith to step out financially. But eventually this year’s bootcamp, we went for it and that’s how we ended up there.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:01):
And so the two of you are really a power couple. God has called you together. What did you learn while you were at the Evangelism Bootcamp?

Maxie Smith (03:13):
Yes, we learned practical evangelism that could be applied on the road. We’ve been so empowered, impacted to go out and preach the gospel. It’s been so excited. We’ve learned the need to pray and be constantly before God. We’ve learned how to apply ourself and the things that we’ve been learning. We’ve come out to DRC to practically use them. And we’ve seen through the training of bootcamp that we have been able to apply the stuff. And for myself personally, it’s been so life transforming and changing, and I’ve learned so much practical things that I’ve been able to apply and I’ve seen lives so changed and transformed. It’s been awesome.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:03):
Anastasia, you came to the Evangelism Bootcamp and you feel called to be an evangelist, and God’s really put the Slavic people on your heart. What were some of the big things that you got out of your time at the Evangelism Bootcamp?

Anastasiia Dvoinikova (04:22):
One of the things, the biggest thing which I get out of the bootcamp, it’s no compromises when you’re preaching the gospel because this is what many people doing when they’re preaching the gospel. Either they’re not mentioning sin or something, but this is a critical in the gospel to mention sin, to mention repentance. And in the Slavic community, it’s often you can see that they’re not preaching about that stuff. And so when you’re growing in your faith, it’s not really mentioning. And in the bootcamp, the big part for me, it was preaching the clear gospel, not only simple gospel, but the clear gospel and the true gospel.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:01):
Jasper, it has really been tremendous to be a teacher in each different year that the bootcamp has been running. And so I’ve had the opportunity to come and do several days of training for each bootcamp. Do you remember anything that you learned in my class that really impacted

Jasper Kim (05:23):
You? Oh man, Daniel, you know what I really remember was when you came and you were critiquing all of us, when we were giving our stories, I believe it was a boat story. And you really gave us really practical advice on what we need to do to do things better and what we could add, what we could take out. And these little tips are critical tips that only like an experienced evangelist can really see and identify. So I believe that part of you coming to bootcamp was awesome. Also, just your story and your testimony when you told us about what you do, how long you’ve been doing it, and just seeing someone with such a heart for evangelism, it truly inspires us to see that, to see someone actually living what we aspire to do for the Lord. So I think that was a big thing,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:13):
And God’s brought us together here in Gica one more time. And so it’s just been wonderful to spend time with each of you, and all of you have had a very significant part to play in helping with the outreach here. And so Jasper, one of the things that you were helping with, which was a big hassle here, was generators. Talk to me about the generators and what happened here in Conica trying to get the generator to the crusading.

Jasper Kim (06:43):
I’m going to try and do this in just a little jam packed kind of explanation. But yeah, so the roads out here in DRC are so just treacherous and rugged. It’s probably the most difficult terrain that I personally have seen, and I’ve driven in snow, I’ve driven in mud and all these different terrains. DRC is on another level. So logistics is really a nightmare to move things from one city to another. And yeah, we have big semi-truck that need to get things across. So my personal responsibility was getting power to our sound system, getting power to our lights through these generators. But finding a good generator and being able to transport it across cities has been such a big task. It’s been really difficult, but the Lord’s really been making it possible. We do everything we can on our end, Daniel, but in the end, the Lord is the one that really, really comes through and really pulls miracles

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:45):
For us. On Wednesday night, we were in Muji Maya and one of the generators stopped working. Yes. And that’s a horrible tragedy for a crusade because suddenly the people cannot hear. And that’s the whole reason we’re here, is so that people can hear the gospel. Exactly. And so for 25 minutes it wasn’t working, and finally the repairman came and he fixed it and it got working again. But he was supposed to be there all the time. And he’d wandered off. Yes. And he wasn’t supposed to. Exactly. And you talked to him. What did you tell him?

Jasper Kim (08:20):
Oh man, I, I don’t like having to raise my voice unless I don’t have to. But in this moment I had no choice because we literally had no power, no sound for 30 minutes. And that’s probably the worst case scenario when it comes to what we do, mass gospel crusades. So yeah, I had to really tell ’em like, Hey, you cannot leave. You have to stay here. And I had to say it in a kind of a loud tone, so that’s what I had to do.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:49):
But it’s worked every night since. It’s worked

Jasper Kim (08:51):
Every night since. And he’s been great and I apologize to the guy. And we’re on great terms now. So

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:58):
Here in Ika, there was a need for a generator and you found one that was actually built into a house. And so you had to rent a backhoe, a big shovel truck to actually lift the roof off the house and then lift the generator out of the house and put it on a dump truck to bring to the crusade. Exactly. So it is quite the challenge to have power. So your job is to get power to the sound system. My job as the preacher is to get the power of God to the people. Hallelujah. Come on. But both are needed. We need both kind of

Jasper Kim (09:38):
Power. That’s so

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:38):
Amazing. Alright, so I want to ask each of you, what has been your big role that you’ve played here at this crusade?

Anastasiia Dvoinikova (09:47):
So my big role here, overall, I’m interning with the senior director, but in Gada Gica, I’m a crusade photographer.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:57):
I gave you my camera. You’ve been running around getting pictures. I told you to take lots of pictures. I think the other night you came back with over 500 pictures and many of them were so good.

Anastasiia Dvoinikova (10:08):
Praise God. Praise

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:09):
God. So you just jump in with your talent.

Anastasiia Dvoinikova (10:11):
Yeah, this was happening when you on the crusade, you need to fill the need where it’s the most needed.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:19):
Yeah. Now Grace, you have a couple of different roles here. You are one of the scribes that is recording everything that happens. Why is that important? Tell me about what you do there and why it’s important.

Grace Smith (10:35):
Okay. So I have to make sure that I’m there when the service starts, and then I’ll record every moment of what is happening on the stage in from when you come on the stage, the mc. And it’s so important because then it allows everybody to know what is actually happening in. So it’s like a live scribe of what is happening. So anyone who is in the United States can actually know that, okay, we are starting the worship, the the worship team is there. So that’s what I’ve been doing. So it’s been important, but the most important thing is the testimonies as well. So if there’s no picture, if there’s no’s, no story. So I take the picture and then I write literally I have to type as the testimonies are going on. But I think one of the most challenging was trying to get the names because the names are French,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:36):
They’re hard to understand,

Grace Smith (11:37):
They’re very hard to understand, hard to spell hard. The pronunciation I, I’ve done my best to actually make sure that everything is in place up until the evangelist leaves the stage and leaves the field. I think of that time I have to be really focused in what is actually going on on the crusade.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:00):
And then you also are in charge of hospitality, and so you have been helping with the meals. You can’t go to the supermarket to buy food. Where do you find the food to feed everyone? Mama Grace.

Grace Smith (12:13):
That has been very challenging. I mean, this hotel that you’re staying in is quite a new hotel. So there’s no kitchen, there’s no food. But we’ve got another hotel that some of the C fund stuff are staying. There’s food there, but you cannot go to a supermarket or a store and buy stuff. So the lady who actually cooks there has to buy things from Ji Mai. So all the transport that goes to Ji Mai comes. So I’ve given her, which

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:41):
Is a challenge because Muji Mai is four hours away over very bumpy roads, is very difficult to travel from there to here. So you have to send a shopping list and then they send the food back.

Grace Smith (12:54):
So before the crusade I had to sit down with her. We went through a list of what we need, things like a burger. They don’t eat hamburgers here. They don’t eat chips here. So I had to actually take a picture to mama and show her what chips are,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:10):
What are chips, because we don’t know what those are in the United States either. Fries, french fries. In the United States, we call them french fries.

Grace Smith (13:18):
So in United Kingdom we call them chips. So the fries. So we made a list prior to the crusade and then she had to buy those things in Jamay and bring those things over. Wow. Yeah. Wow.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:31):
Brother Maxie, what have you been in charge of here?

Maxie Smith (13:34):
Yes, thank you. Yes, I’ve been in charge with working with committees. I’ve been involved with the prayer committee. People of DRC have a passion for prayer. They pray very powerfully. I’ve been organizing them and having meetings to see how best we can pray for the crusade and pray for the salvation of the people of DRC. It’s been awesome. It’s been challenging at times, gathering people from different churches, but God has been faithful and we’ve been able to gather very powerful prayer team who have prayed throughout the crusade and it’s really been an awesome time.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:12):
Brother Jacob, what have you been doing while you’ve been here?

Jacob Habiye (14:16):
Before Crusade, I was helping in promotion. So to put all material

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:22):
Posters for How long have you been here in the city

Jacob Habiye (14:24):
For three weeks here, inand

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:26):
Chica. Okay. And so you were helping to put up the posters?

Jacob Habiye (14:29):
Yes.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:30):
You have done a good job. The wall in front of our hotel, it’s a big wall. Every inch of the wall is covered in a yellow poster. It looks like a billboard. And so you were helping to coordinate the local teams that were

Jacob Habiye (14:47):
Putting out the publicity? Yeah, so the local team, we start with a three by two billboard and then we come with light poles. And then the last week before crusade we put some posters. And so that is before crusade. And during the crusade I’m helping in security and technical.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:05):
Wonderful. Yeah. Well, God’s call is upon each one of your lives, and I want to hear a little bit about what you feel that God is calling you to do in the future. You’ve got your training, you’ve come here and you’ve done work on the ground. What do you feel God is calling you to in the future?

Jacob Habiye (15:28):
For me, this is what I feel, and I already start even doing is for youth ministry. That is what God called me to do to evangelize with youth. So I did like for 10 years ago, before even I meet with Han, so I was doing in the local, preaching the schools is what God put in my heart to do. So when I go to the bootcamp, I’m learning also, it is not about going to the maybe pulpit to preach. You can evangelize, you can do evangelism, even one by one, everywhere in the bus, everywhere you can do that is really what I learned before. It’s like, okay, maybe I need to go on the stage to preach, be Avengers. But when I went there, no. So there’s Jesus at the door one by one. And then so for me, everywhere I go, even when I came here, when I saw those youth and kids, and it is really touched my heart is what God’s called for me to really put to help youth to know Jesus,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:36):
Maxie and grace. What do you see God doing in the future in your ministry?

Maxie Smith (16:42):
Yes, we feel called to crusades and we would hope to step out and do some mini crusades. We’re learning all the time, learning how to,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:51):
Where do you want to do crusades? You’re from Great Britain and Jamaica and Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe. So those are three good countries to start in. Do you see yourself doing crusades in those countries?

Maxie Smith (17:05):
Yeah, we would love to go to Zimbabwe to do a crusade and looking at Jamaica also. But the first goal would be to go towards Zimbabwe.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:15):
My wife and I, we did a crusade in Jamaica in Montego Bay. One week after our honeymoon. We took a big team with us and we took all the money that people gave us at our reception and we used it to pay for the crusade. That’s amazing. And the team was out to ministering every day. But we were just home from our honeymoon and we mostly stayed in the hotel. We were not interested in going out and ministering. We came out to preach at the crusade, but we pretty much stayed inside the hotel the rest of the time. But I believe God will use you in Jamaica. Jamaica needs a touch from God and Zimbabwe and even Great Britain. When you see what is happening in the news in Great Britain right now, it needs a revival. So many people there are in a post-Christian world, they don’t even consider themselves to be a Christian heritage anymore. And so I believe God will give you an opening in each of those nations and to other nations across Africa and around the world. In Jesus’ name. Anastasia, you speak Russian, you have a heart for the Russian speaking world. Tell me, what has God put on your heart to do in the future?

Anastasiia Dvoinikova (18:43):
So after finishing bootcamp, I’ve really felt to organize not only a massive crusades in the countries where nobody wants to go, like Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Stan, even South Korea, North Korea, in the countries where I don’t hear people doing a crusades or if they had a crusades. It was long time ago, and I don’t hear anything at this point, but I really want to see not just like a cities coming to Jesus, but like a nations, a massive transformation of a whole nations coming to Jesus and just coming to him and finding him again because for the Slavic, we have an inheritance in the Christianity, but the more generation is going, the more people forgetting about it. And I want just to see them coming back to the feet of

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:42):
Jesus and to have the fire of the Holy Spirit.

Anastasiia Dvoinikova (19:44):
Amen.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:46):
Amen. Jasper, what’s God put on your heart?

Jasper Kim (19:50):
Oh yeah. I believe the Lord has put on my heart just really like Asian nations. I just always felt like a, now

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:00):
You’re Asian in

Jasper Kim (20:01):
Heritage

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:02):
From South Korea.

Jasper Kim (20:03):
Yeah, my parents are Korean. But

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:05):
You grew up in

Jasper Kim (20:06):
Born and raised in America.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:08):
America, born

Jasper Kim (20:08):
And raised in America. So

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:09):
You’re American by culture, but you look like you’re

Jasper Kim (20:12):
South Korean. My blood is Korean, but I am actually born and raised in California. So

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:19):
Yeah. So God’s put Asia on your heart.

Jasper Kim (20:21):
Yeah, God’s put Asia on my heart even I kind of feel even Asia, Africa obviously, because here now, and I’ve been here for the past couple years with C fan kind, I feel like this is a preparation season for me, but also our home nation of America. I know the Lord is going to, there’s going to be a time where the Lord calls me back to our home and really start evangelizing out there because the Lord knows America needs it. Amen. Really bad America needs him right now.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:52):
Amen. Especially la, the area you. Exactly. California. They need Jesus.

Jasper Kim (20:58):
Pray for California.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:59):
Amen. Amen. Well, let’s finish with a word of prayer. I want to just pray over each one of you a dear heavenly Father, I thank you for these mighty evangelists. They’ve graduated from the Evangelism Bootcamp and they are pursuing your call upon their lives. Lord, I pray that you would open up great doors of ministry for them. Lord, I pray that through their ministries, through their influence, many thousands of people all over the world would come to know you. Lord, I thank you that you are raising up an army of evangelists that will go all over the world preaching the gospel. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen. Amen.

 

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Mike Kasonde | Crusade Organization in Gandajika, Congo

What is the process for setting up a crusade? How long does it take to organize a crusade? What are the vital phases of crusade organization? On today’s Evangelism Podcast, I speak with Pastor Mike from Zambia. He has just finished organizing a successful crusade in Gandajika, Congo. If you want to learn how to organize a crusade, today’s episode is for you.

 

 

Transcript:

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus. Today I have a very special guest with me, Pastor Mike Kasonde.

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (00:10):
Oh yes.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:11):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast.

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (00:13):
Thank you very much, evangelist. I’m so excited.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:16):
It is very special being here with you. We are in the city of Ngandajika, Democratic Republic of Congo, and you have been living here since last February as a crusade director for the Crusade, which we have done here this week, and we have seen God do amazing things. Tell me what excited you about what you saw God do this week.

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (00:45):
Wow, wow, wow. I think first and foremost, it was really, really an honor to have you come as a guest evangelist to Gica and just how God uses you, especially when it comes to delivering the gospel. It was more than I expected to see. I’ve been in different crusades, but this one I really want to really, really keen into one particular thing, the delivery of the gospel, how people receive the gospel, how connected they were, and we could see instant transformation. I would set an example when you did the children’s crusade, how before that, how the children were so they could move around. They were so

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:41):
Yeah. One night the kids were at the front, they were pushing, they were fighting and the people from the back were pushing them and it actually was a little dangerous. It looked like in a moment, very, very dangerous. It could all get out of control. But then we did the children’s Festival Festival and the demeanor of the children completely changed. Exactly.

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (02:01):
It completely changed. And when they came in the afternoon for the bigger crusade, they were calm. They were just there enjoying what was happening. And of course, talking about the great miracles that God did, healing the people, especially the brother who had an injury in his chest because he had an accident of the motorbike.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:23):
Yeah, he was driving down the road on his motorbike. He hit a hole in the road and it threw him off the bike. He hit his chest and for one year he had trouble breathing. One

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (02:32):
Year he had trouble breathing and you could even tell the excitement after God touched him. And also not forgetting the fire conference man, when you did that, the pastors rejoiced the bishops. It’s something that they’ve never experienced, where pastors come together and experience the move of the Holy Spirit filled with the Holy Spirit where we could see people speaking another tongues. And in the evening you did the same on the crusade. I saw this guy sl under the Holy Spirit speaking in new tongues. So God has really, really did wonderful things on the field. I’m super excited.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:17):
So you are working with Christ for All nations. Yes. Tell me, where did you first get connected to CAM?

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (03:24):
Alright, so way back in 2022, CA came to Zambia to do five crusades. They plan to do 10, but because of one or two things, they scheduled for five. So now our city was among the five that they concluded.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:41):
In which city were you in?

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (03:42):
That was in Zambia, the city called soi, the north part of Zambia. So the city called soi, that’s where I’m coming from. So Chan came, did a crusade. I was just the vice, I mean the secretary for the youth committee because they have different committees. So I was helping out as a secretary in the youth committee, and I remember working, just gave myself to just work to see people saved. And after that I joined the protocol team during the crusade so I could ritually get on the field early leave. I would be the last person to leave the Sade field because I needed to make sure that everything is done, the evangelists are well taken care of, and they leave the field and everything is done. So from there now Chan came back to Zambia last year. They wanted to do do 10 crusades. They ended up doing 11 crusades.

(04:50):
So they were looking for local people whom they saw really had put in, sacrificed, like they really worked. So they were getting recommendations from the five cities prior to that year, last year where they did those crusade. So they were getting recommendation for local people who will be trained by C fund and they work as managers, which means that last year they had a director and the director had a manager. So they were looking for 10 people. And by God’s grace I was picked to be one of the 10 people they were looking for to work as a manager. So it was last year that I was fully, fully direct connected. I worked as a manager where I was helping the director. When the director is away, I was literally doing anything. And my director last year had two cities, one big city and a smaller city.

(05:55):
So we were two managers under him. So he took this other manager to the big city because it had a lot of concentration. Then this smaller city said, Mike, I want you to manage this ritually directed. So he just gave me what to do. He gave me what to do. So basically I could give him reports where I got stuck, I could call him, hear from him. So I literally directed and managed the crusade. So from there it is where Chan saw something and they asked me if I am willing to help in different crusades because of the outcome. Then we did the fire camp with them. So I’m a graduate for fire camp, which they did last year.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:44):
And so you were chosen to come here to Ngandajika you came in the month of February. Exactly. And now it is August. So you’ve been here for a long time. Many months. You’ve been working very hard. And first I want to say thank you so much for your hard work. I know that it is not easy to organize an event like this. There are many challenges, but I’m very grateful for you because you have done a good job. You can always tell the first night if the manager, the director, has done a good job because the number of people that come the first night is up to the organization, the posters, the flyers, everybody knowing about it. And then I always tell the crusade director, how many people come the second night is up to the preacher. If the preacher preaches good, then many people will come the second night after that, it is in the hands of the preacher, but the first night is in your hands. And every night here we have just seen God do amazing things. So tell me a little bit about the process each month, what were you doing to prepare for it? So you got here in February, what was the first thing you did?

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (07:56):
Alright, so the first thing we did is to scout the place, like go around the place, be familiar with the city. Then you do a Google mapping of all the churches. You ritually go around, you try to map the churches. How many churches are there? So the first thing we do is you do that. Then you must make sure that you find a hotel, a place to live. That’s the first thing you really want to do. So when you are settled, then you create a relationship with the big fathers of the city. So you literally ask around how many fathers are here? So

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:34):
You went and met with them, you ate with them, you became friends with them, and you began to share the vision of doing a crusade. Yeah.

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (08:44):
So when you meet those fathers, then you organize a meeting for them, and then the senior director who is Voer would come to the city and Mr. Brett probably, if he’s around, they’ll come to the city to meet these fathers. So that they’ll be the one really just emphasize on what already you’ve been talking to them about. So they really emphasize about the vision of C fund. They really need to ask them from a personal level, do you really want the crusade here? And then it is from their response and their involvement that the crusade will be chosen

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:24):
To you either say yes or no for the city.

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (09:26):
Exactly. Exactly. So once,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:28):
If there’s disunity among the pastors, I think you shake the dust off your feet like Jesus said, and go find a city that really is ready for a move of God. But thank God this city said yes, yes,

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (09:39):
Yes.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:40):
The bishop was ready,

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (09:41):
So excited. The fathers were so excited. So when we did that, then we had to break. Then we had to come back again for the second phase. Now the second phase is where now you need to run because now the BOA, the board of advisors who are the fathers of the city, they needed to give us the person we call the ECC executive committee chair person. So the executive committee chairperson needs to have his vice. So there are two people, these people are pastors. You want to choose a pastor who is young, not like a bishop, a young pastor, but well respected, well connected and has got influenced over the pastors and over the city. So when the bureau, the board of advisor gives you that person, that is the person we call the engine of the crusade because he’s the one now that needs to supervise different committees. So the first two committees that we start with is the prayer committee like Evangelist Rena Bon always said one leg preaching the

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:49):
Phe,

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (10:50):
One leg prayer. And we have a successful crusade. So you have the prayer committee, which consists of 10 or five to 10 people. So now when you have that prayer committee, they need to begin to pray for the crusade. They need to begin to pray for churches. Then the important committee that you form immediately is the church mobilization committee. So remember in the first time you did the scouting and mapping of churches, so you have an idea. But now these people comes to give you now the reality of what is on the ground, how many churches are on the ground. So you have 10 people in that committee. So those are the people who go around the city to ritually mark the churches. They get the phone number for the pastor, they get the name of the church, and at least they get an approximation of how many people are in that church.

(11:45):
But what we’d want them to do is to get all the churches, small, big, large, all the churches in the villages. So you work like with them just marking the church, marking the church. Then when they bring these churches together, then we do now what we call planning for the FTM, which is the all pastors meeting, where now we need to bring these pastors together in one big place and so that we can sell the vision to all the pastors. So these two committees are very critical in the second phase as you’re preparing the crusade. So when they bring the contact of pastors, you now come up with what we call a call center. So the same committee begins to call the pastors the same committee. You come up with letters like letters, invitation letters to the A PM. So they need to go to give letters they need

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:46):
To find And do they take them by hand to each church and deliver them to the pastors?

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (12:51):
Yes. So you divide the city in zones like this. JI was divided in four zones. So we had kaban, kaban, jiji and Luga commune, we call them zones. So you divide these guys into each zones. So this person maybe let’s say three of them in one zone. So they’ll ritually go and hand over the pastors in that zone, the invitation letters. Then you do calls. Then we do bulk SMSs where you send messages to these pastors, the invitation for the A PM, then I did radio. You need to go to radios to make an announcement. All the pastors, we are calling you to this important A PM. So now when the pastors come for the A PM, that’s when it’s like now the crusade begins to run. Now the executive director comes, the senior director comes and all top C fund officials, they come to meet these pastors. They sell the vision to them. And what do in that all pastors meeting, we ritually give them testimonies of their past crusades that we’ve done. And then we encourage them about volunteers, about counselors. We tell them we need your counselors, we need your,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:15):
How many counselors did we have trained for this crusade?

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (14:18):
Alright, so registered counselors, we had 8,000. Then I did training for those counselors. I did 4,000. I trained like 4,000 because the other 4,000 actually discovered that they were counselors from the far villages.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:37):
So they didn’t know if they could make it.

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (14:39):
Exactly. So in the A PM, the old pastors meeting, we discovered that 40% of the pastors came from these villages around because the radio message could reach them. So they had to come

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:55):
Do people from those villages, are they coming to the crusade? Yes, yes,

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (14:58):
Yes, yes. I had one lady give the testimony, I can’t just remember the testimony that she gave. She said she literally came from one of the five villages. She literally came from there. So we trained counselors. So we encourage the pastors to give us volunteers. And so what follows after the all pastors meeting is now to begin to run with the volunteers committee to go and get now the names of these counselors, they begin to call pastors or we want names. So what I did is that before we can push the pastors to give you counselors, we needed the pastors to give us two key leaders in their church. These are the people we trained as captains and we trained about 400 captains. And this time around CfAN had introduced a very wonderful thing. They gave them certificates. So if you’re trained as a captain, we give you a CfAN certificate signed by Daniel Kolenda.

(16:02):
So to them it was like an owner, they felt this, they bought into the vision. So when we train those two people, those people are very key because they’re the ones who will give you volunteers from their church. The pastor is busy, can’t start writing down names. So those two are the point of contact to that church. So they’ll give you counselors, they’ll give you volunteers, and then after that is done, you think of forming. Now the different committees. So the committees we have apart from the prayer committee, church mobilization volunteers committee, we have what we call the youth committee, youth promo committee. We have the women’s promo committee, then we have the promo committee itself to help us to do the promotion and everything.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:54):
That’s putting up all the posters. Exactly, the banners, the billboards.

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (16:58):
Exactly.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:59):
When do you put those out at what point?

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (17:02):
Third phase. So the third phase is for promo. So when you have those committees and you have all the committees put together, then you need to look now at the promo budget. So now Chan will tell you, okay, we are doing prints from this company, the poster, this is the prints that we are doing. So when C fund gives you the budget, then as a director you really want to sit. You look at the city, how many banners do I want? Should I go for three by four? Should I go for two by one? Should I go for posters? So you have to really sit down and have plan for the city

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:46):
And to know where you’re going to put the publicity.

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (17:48):
Exactly,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:48):
Exactly. And so do you remember the numbers for ganja dica? I’ve seen posters everywhere. I mean even in front of the hotel where we are, there’s a wall and there are hundreds of posters on the wall covering the entire wall. So the whole wall is yellow? Yes. And I think this is very good. Instead of just putting one poster on the wall, you make the wall into a billboard and then if someone tears down one, they cannot tear down all.

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (18:18):
And the idea behind that is also to attract people. Because from a father looking at this, what’s that? What’s the So they really want to look at it. So got gca, if I can remember very well, we had about 40,000 posters. Then I had ordered for 252 by one. Then I had 53 by two. Yeah, I mean one 50. And then I had 24 by three the big ones. Yeah.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:56):
Well you have done a good job when you come into the city, you cannot miss it. So there’s a lot of anticipation. You also go on the radio and you’re telling people and you’re running radio advertisements. Yes. And so is there one station or many stations?

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (19:12):
Okay, so in Gand, GCA is three station. We’ve got the main one in the second, then the third. So you pay for all those radios. So in this city they did 28 jingles per day for three weeks.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:27):
Wow. So how much would one jingle cost?

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (19:30):
Okay, so one jingle would cost probably a dollar. But because you’re paying for a long

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:36):
Time, you negotiate for a good deal, you negotiate for a

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (19:38):
Good deal.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:39):
So you’re running all day long. Yes, they play a song, then they play your jingle. So it’s like

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (19:44):
Every after one hour at

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:46):
The radio, everyone knows

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (19:48):
The jingle plays in all the three radio stations and it runs for three weeks. From the three weeks before the day of the crusade. And you do interviews also at the radio.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:02):
How long before the crusade do you start to train the counselors?

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (20:05):
Alright, so we do three weeks before the crusade. Then we also do a second training two weeks before the crusade.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:15):
And the counselors have books. The books for the adults are given to the adults and they capture their name. And then we also have books for the children as well. And so how are the counselors trained? What are they told to do?

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (20:31):
Okay, so the counselors, they’re told about field logistics where we tell them ritually what the field looks like, what happens on the field, when do the evangelists come on the podium to preach? Then the most important thing is about on how to use the book. So we tell them this is what we do. There are three important things you don’t want to miss in that sleep. So we show them the name. You need the phone number, which is the most important thing because your pastor need to do a follow up.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:07):
And so the name and the phone number is used to follow up on the new believers? Yes,

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (21:10):
Exactly. Exactly. So the phone number and the address. And then when they do that, then they have to take off that slip and they give the book to this person. They keep that slip, but the slip is also divided into two. The lower part is just the signature and the date. So that is for chan to do the counting. Then that which has got the name, phone number and address goes to the pastor so that the pastor comes up with a committee because we also train the pastors to do follow up. So they come up with a committee so that they can begin to call those names.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:54):
Well you’ve done a wonderful job through all this process. I know there’s so many details, but you have worked very hard and I can see that your work has been successful. Amen. And tell me what have you thought about the crusade? Are you happy with the results that we’ve

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (22:11):
Seen? I’m so excited. I’m super excited. The second day I literally wept. I was on the stage, then I went behind looking at the people, looking at how they were involved just to receive Jesus Christ. It is so emotional. You like

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:30):
Even people crying, being touched by Jesus.

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (22:34):
Yes. So you saw that, okay, thank God that God that to use me to put in my effort. And this is more than we expected. So I’ve been super happy, super excited.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:47):
And would you say that Congo is more difficult than Zambia for organizing?

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (22:53):
It’s more, it’s like triple difficult.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:55):
Triple difficult. Yeah.

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (22:57):
It’s like Congo is.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:59):
What are some of the challenges of organizing? What have been the biggest challenges that you faced?

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (23:04):
Logistics. Things are super expensive.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:09):
The roads are not good. The roads are not good. So if you buy anything, it must come from far away. Exactly. Over bad roads.

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (23:17):
Exactly. And here, inand gca, you discover that they don’t have a lot of stuff. So you want to get them from Bji Ma. And you could literally go with a bike on the bike. You are five hours on the bike with this road full of sand. It has not been easy. It has not been easy. Congo has not been easy. And people ritually.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:46):
Now this is the first time anyone’s ever done a crusade in this city. And because of that there is lots of excitement. But there are also some very significant spiritual challenges here. And each night we’ve been praying to break every curse. Yes. As you’ve been living here, you have learned about some of the spiritual needs of the city of Ganja dca. What are the needs of the people here?

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (24:14):
Alright, so two needs. I’ll talk about the most. One lack of development. The city needs development. This city needs just God to make a way. There’s this too much of lack of development, poverty

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:30):
That will come tonight is blessing night. Exactly. We’re going to pray for a blessing on Ika. And when the blessing of God comes, God will elevate the prosperity of the city. Exactly.

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (24:44):
But the other thing is the premature death of young children. When I came to this city, it is my first time to see small coffins like carpenters are ritually, making small coffins to sell out. And you’d see when you’re going in the roads, those small coffins, actually they are more than bigger coffees. So that would tell that they usually have these deaths for young children.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:16):
And so there’s a very high childhood mortality rate here.

Mike Kasonde | Crusade Director (25:20):
Mortality rate is very high. So I asked the pastors about that. They said, yeah, the child mortality is that high. It’s like every week they have to bury a child.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:33):
Wow. Well, we broke the curse of childhood mortality. And I believe that Jesus is working here. We did the children’s festival, which was something I thought the pastors found very interesting because they saw us minister to the children. And I believe that as they minister to the children, that we will see many children get saved here in the city. And I also believe that as prosperity comes, the childhood mortality rate will go down. A crusade like this brings God’s blessing upon the entire region. And so I think this will have a significant impact on ganja dika for many years to come. Definitely. So Pastor Mike, I want to say thank you so much for your work. Thank you. Thank you. You have been a great blessing. I am very honored to work together with you. I know that the crusade does not just happen because of the preacher.

(26:31):
There is a lot of work that it must be done. It’s like an iceberg out in the Arctic Ocean. A small bit of the iceberg can be seen above the water, but under the water there is so much. And so in the months you’ve been here, you have put so much work into the crusade. But we have seen God honor your work. Thank you. And it is an honor to serve God with you. And I want to say thank you. And I hope that we can work together again to do more Crusades. Yes. Let’s go for it. Let’s bring all of Africa to Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. And thank you for being on the Evangelism podcast. Thank you very much.

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Peter Youngren | It’s All About Jesus!

For fifty years, Peter Youngren has been reaching people for Jesus. His ministry reaches out to people from many different religions through his Friendship Festivals. He is known for pointing people to Jesus. On today’s episode of The Evangelism Podcast we talk about the importance of reaching unreached people, the role of grace in evangelism, and the central message of preaching Jesus Christ. Pastor Peter Youngren also talks about his global mission center in Kenya and his goal to train young evangelists. He emphasizes the need to strip away “Christianese” and adapt the Gospel message to different cultures while keeping the central message of Jesus Christ. Pastor Peter also shares some of his greatest memories and victories in ministry, as well as the challenges faced.

Learn more about Peter Youngren’s ministry: https://peteryoungren.org/

Transcript: 

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus. Today I have a very special guest with me, Pastor Peter Youngren. Thank you for joining me on the Evangelism Podcast.

Evangelist Peter Youngren (00:12):
Well, thank you, Daniel. It’s my pleasure and I haven’t seen you for a while. It’s good to see you again.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:17):
Well, I want to start by saying how grateful I am for you and for your ministry. I was attending Pastor Charles Neiman’s Church down in El Paso, Texas as a young evangelist. I told him, I really feel this call from God on my life to be an evangelist says, you need to meet my friend Peter Youngen. So I called your office up in Canada and asked if I could come meet you. And you said, no, I don’t want to meet you in Canada, but if you want to come meet me in the middle of Africa, I would love to see you in Africa. And so I went all the way to Goma, Congo and got to see a great gospel crusade there, a festival. And God moved in a tremendous way. And that was where I met my beautiful wife, Jessica, who was working for you. And so I apologize, I stole her away, but she is a great worker there. Jessica is a great blessing.

Evangelist Peter Youngren (01:16):
Lemme give me, give you the first impression. I knew that this man, Daniel King, was going to meet me in Goma. We somehow arrived in the city and I saw this, obviously you look different than the locals with your white skin, but you were all dirtied and you had been really in the trenches. And I said, who’s that man? They said, oh, that’s the Daniel King. I said, I like him right away. He’s not afraid of getting his hands in the dirt and doing the job. So that was a good start for both of us, I hope.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:48):
Yeah. So just this week I got back from Congo. This was the first time I went back to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since I met you there about 17, 18 years ago. That’s a

Evangelist Peter Youngren (02:00):
Long time ago. Yes.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:02):
Yeah. And we had a great, great gospel festival in Ganja Dika, and God is moving in the nation of Congo. That’s

Evangelist Peter Youngren (02:11):
Beautiful. I saw the pictures that look really wonderful. So

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:14):
Tell me a little bit about what you’ve been doing and what you’re planning right now.

Evangelist Peter Youngren (02:20):
Well, we continue to do the festivals. I call them festivals instead of crusade. A lot of them are in areas we are trying to reach out to people of other religions other than the Christian religion. And so the word festival works very well and parallel with that of, because we have our Bible schools, we have Bible schools in Myanmar, which is formerly Burma. We have a many East Africa. We have two in Indonesia, one in the Sumatra on the one side of the country, another one in Papua, the other side of the country. But we’ve been working on our school in Africa, in Kenya and creating a global mission center there where we train to train evangelists. And we are also just about to start inviting pastors, evangelists, believers who feel called to evangelism to come and spend 10 weeks in Africa. Years ago, a dear friend of mine, he had a tremendous idea.

(03:20):
He bought a hotel in California and invited students from all over the world, India, Africa, come to San Diego. I’m talking about a person who had profound influence of my own life by Morris Cerullo, inviting people to come and study in San Diego, be empowered by the spirit. And that was a tremendous idea to spend three months like that. But there was one little problem, which I think he discovered that was once all these folks from Africa and India and Pakistan and had come to San Diego, they didn’t want to go home again. They wanted to stay in California. Who can claim that, Daniel? I think I would’ve stayed as well. California is beautiful. So what we are saying is that come and join our students for 10 weeks or eight weeks in Africa and be trained and then have your own campaign, your own crusade or festival in Africa. We will help you set it up and then we’ll send you back to wherever you came from, whether that was California or Europe or wherever you came from. Because we need to train workers for the harvest. We need to train people. And I think our particular gift maybe is to reach people, communicate the gospel with Muslims, Hindus, Buddhist, people of other religions. And so I want to pass that on to others. I’ve been doing this for 50 years now, so I’ve been doing this for a while.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:40):
Well, let’s go back to the beginning. How did you know that you were called to be an evangelist? How did you come to know the Lord as your savior? And then how did you get started doing evangelism?

Evangelist Peter Youngren (04:51):
Well, we just got 20 minutes or so. So let me say that I received Christ, it was obviously very meaningful. I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. That was a big change for me, made me very bold so that we could talk a long time about that. But then for me, one of the great influences of my life was the late Dr. T.L. Osborn, who by the way I got to know later on, spent time. He came and celebrated my 50th birthday spending a week with me here in Toronto. So we became friends. So, but he influenced me a lot. And I heard him one time say, all you need is a call, is Mark 1615, go into all the world that preach the gospel and some of that. That really touched me in a profound way. It may seem like it is a statement, but it touched me very profoundly.

(05:40):
So what I did, I started to just share the gospel. I always said that in the town where I was raised, there was a lot of alcoholics and they gathered in a certain park and I would go to that park and preach, you have to start where you are. I wasn’t looking for a ministry. I wasn’t looking to start any great ministry organization. I was just sharing the gospel with Pete. Well, one thing led to another, some pastor heard about it, said, can you share on Sunday night in our church? And so that led to that and that led to other things. And so I, I’m a firm believer is just start where you are, do what you can. Don’t wait for some great opening, don’t wait for some great opportunity. Start with what’s in your hand. Because as I look back, this wasn’t some plan I had at the time. I just looked back on it what caused doors to open for me. I was just doing what was before me to do and the one thing led to the other. So that’s the advice I give to young men and women who are starting in ministry. Don’t wait for some great opening that you’re going to be invited to the world’s largest church and suddenly it’s going to put you on the map. Just love and reach people where you are.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:53):
Amen. Well, you are a very innovative thinker and you have brought some great innovations to evangelism and there really is a huge need for evangelism. I was looking at one page on your website and you have some statistics there. It says, of finances that are given to foreign missions, 87% goes for work among Christians. 12% goes for work among already evangelized. And only 1% of money given to foreign missions is used for work among on reach people groups. And then 0.1% of all Christian giving is used for mission’s efforts into 38 least evangelized countries. Christians spend 95.4% of offerings on home-based ministry, 4.5% on cross-cultural efforts among already reach groups and only 0.1% to evangelize the on reach. The average Christian only gives an average of about one penny a day to global missions. And so your whole life, you’ve been talking to the body of Christ saying, we need to change our methods and our focus. We need to put more resources into actually reaching people who are unreached. Talk to me a little bit about that.

Evangelist Peter Youngren (08:09):
Yeah, because it is very natural. We don’t need to beat ourself up about this. It’s true about all of us evangelists and pastors. We tend to go where we’re invited and if we are invited to a certain place, it means they’re already believers there. Sometimes somebody contacts me and says, oh, we can guarantee a hundred thousand people. We’ve done it before. I’m thinking I don’t want to go there if they’ve done it before, if they’re so sure, they just have such masses already, that doesn’t appeal to me so much. And so to go to areas where there’s not a lot of people to celebrate you, but to break into those areas, you need more money because the television station owner doesn’t feel led to give you a special deal or the radio station has it. So you have to believe God for the finances and then seek a way into these areas.

(09:02):
What I have developed is an approach I call simply the friendship approach, which sounds innocent enough, but we search out religious and governmental leaders that are people at least open-hearted, whether they’re Muslim or Hindu or whatever they are. And we try to make an inroads with them. And once we get to know the leaders, and your wife used to work in this area and she was like, so good. Let me tell you, you took a good worker there, Jessica, I can still see her. She was so good in organizing these things. And once you meet the leaders then and you’re able to, and the people see, oh, this foreign preacher here, he’s here with our head of the Buddhist Monks Association, so then he mustn’t be too dangerous so I can go and hear him. So my friendship approach to these people of other religious is not for the purpose of religious dialogue in the conventional sense.

(10:04):
I stand for a hundred percent for Jesus. I’m not dialing it down. I’m just creating friendship approach. And thereby I eased the way for the people in the certain city to come and listen to my message. After all, I’ve already befriended their leaders. So some of the things we work on and it takes a little bit more effort and we try to work with, I’m just going to be in Madagascar in a couple of weeks time. And so when I was there last year, the Lord really opened the door to the President and to his advisors. And so we are looking for openings to really touch the whole nation, not just have a church meeting or a church conference.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:45):
God has given you a powerful revelation about the grace of God. How should God’s grace flavor the message of the evangelist?

Evangelist Peter Youngren (10:58):
Well, I say, I know people say you preach grace. Well, I preach Jesus Christ. Really. I say to people, we don’t preach miracles. We preach Christ, but miracles follow the proclamation of Christ. And so to preach grace is to preach Jesus Christ, who he is, how he reveals God and what Jesus has done, we call it the finished work of the cross, is one theological expression, the finished work of the cross. So we preach Christ and people say that’s a message of grace. And I think that’s true. Jesus Christ is the personification of God’s grace. So that’s very accurate. And my focus there in preaching that is focusing on very Christ-centered. I make that very clear when I train other evangelists, I was training someone and he was preaching and he was telling all the miracle stories. So it is good to tell the stories of what God has done in other cities, but don’t build your whole sermon on those stories. Preach Jesus Christ and let the miracles fall of the proclamation of the gospel. And in some parts of the world, I don’t need to tell you, but maybe your listeners don’t realize how much they talk about miracles, miracles, miracles all the time. So I want to really make a distinction. We don’t preach miracles. We preach Jesus Christ and miracles follow.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:26):
So what does it sound like to preach Jesus?

Evangelist Peter Youngren (12:30):
Well, I published a book called You are There where I published eight of my most favorite sermons that I preached. And so I usually start the first night and I receive this I think with the watching TL Osborne, I preached Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever because I find that message introduces the city to the concept that we expect to happen today. What happened 2000 years ago. So that’s the first installment of my series of sermons in the festival. I want to introduce the people to Jesus Christ today, not just Jesus of history, not Jesus of the future in heaven, but Jesus today, I say, if you are sick today, it’s wonderful to know that he healed people 2000 years ago. It’s wonderful to know you’re going to be in heaven one day, but if you have cancer right now, you need to know that Jesus Christ is today. So I see my producer brought me this book. You Are There is the book that I published with about eight messages. I give it to future evangelists. I said, listen, these eight messages, some of them I got on my own. Some of them I probably got from listening to somebody. I can’t remember after 50 years I got them. But I tweaked them and I said, take these sermons, preach them. They will work for you. So I have different questions.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:57):
Well, I know I’ve preached a few of your sermons, so thank you for lending those to me.

Evangelist Peter Youngren (14:03):
Well, I probably received them from others. And so our message, people say, well, what do you preach in different countries? What do you preach to Buddhist? What do you preach? I preach Jesus Christ. It’s not that complicated really. You don’t have to adapt your message and make some fancy new formulation. People all over the world understand sin, shame, guilt, fear, bad karma. These are all negative emotions and beliefs that people have. And Jesus Christ answers all those problems. Guilt, shame, fear, bad karma, whatever you want to call it. Jesus Christ responds to all of that. So if you preach him, you don’t have to worry about, well, what do I say to this group? And what do I say to that group? Now, your illustrations of course adapts to your circumstance, but the central message is the same.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:54):
So you’re launching this global mission center in Kenya where you’re bringing evangelists in from different parts of the world to train them. What are some of the key things that a young evangelist should know before they launch out in their evangelistic ministry? Well,

Evangelist Peter Youngren (15:14):
Our emphasis is on reaching people without Christ. So frankly, some young preachers who start, they have to be stripped of their christianese. They’re so full of

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:26):
Hallelujah

Evangelist Peter Youngren (15:27):
Church language.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:28):
Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.

Evangelist Peter Youngren (15:29):
Yeah, so Africa, east Africa won. They’re so full of that that they can’t communicate with someone who is outside their realm. They’re so used to God’s going to send a reliable God’s making a way where there’s no way, and he’s opening the Red Sea. 40 people, Buddhists don’t know what you’re talking about. So we want to help them. And I think that act, chapter 17 to me, is a great teaching chapter for anybody who wants to evangelize outside of the church realm. How Paul, though he initially was grieved by the idolatry of the Athenians, he initially was disturbed, probably felt like rebuking them, like maybe we do. But he somehow simmer down and he didn’t. And instead he commenced them. He says, oh, I see you Athenians. You’re so religious, so you have these altars. See, his approach really teaches us a lot about how to approach people that are not from the church world. So act 70, that’s just one thing. But there are many things that we teach people. I’ve written a whole book about menacing to Muslims, how to present Christ to Muslims. That’s the answer for everybody.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:52):
Yeah. I have a copy of your book here, my Muslim friend, which I have read through many times. I also have your book Triumph on the Enemy’s Turf, which tells about some of the early victories over in the former Soviet Union. I mean, you’ve been doing evangelism for a long time. What are some of the greatest memories and greatest victories that you’ve experienced? And then what are some of the greatest challenges that you’ve faced in ministry?

Evangelist Peter Youngren (17:24):
Although that’s very nice, you obviously are in this work yourself. That’s why you ask us good questions, Daniel. But to me, not to another person name is, oh, I saw this person who was paralyzed in a wheelchair or carry it in. That will be the greatest thing. And that is a great thing. I’m not taken away from that. But to me, our greatest victories have been on the occasions where we have gone to a, not just where they haven’t had a festival or a crusade before, but where there are so few Christians that you really couldn’t do it. And we have seen a great breakthrough in a place like that that I consider the highlights where we were allowed to go in somehow got the permit because you always got to work with the politicians and the police to get the permit. And we’re able to do that.

(18:13):
And with our friendship approach, we kind of paved the way for any future resistance. For example, in the Muslim community, by the third, fourth night of the festival, when there are Muslims coming up, Mr. Muhammad is on the stage saying, Jesus has opened the blind eyes of my daughter here, and it can cause quite a ruckus in the community. So if I’ve already taken the leaders to dinner, I’ve already spoken with them, it gives me that opening. So I consider the greatest, I’m thinking of Kuta Pakistan, which is right on the border of Afghanistan where we had an enormous campaign and several like that in Burma. Some places where the total number of Christians, if you count every Anglican, every Catholic in these big cities will be three, 400. And where we see tens of thousands of people come, that got considered great. Now, the greatest challenges have been when we, for some reason, maybe it was a time limitation or whatever limitation, we didn’t maybe communicate adequately with people about the religions.

(19:18):
So we’ve been stopped, like I was in one city in Indonesia. We had, according to the chief of believe, 14 death threats against me personally. I have no way to verify. He was showing them to me, but they were in the Indonesian language. It was a here, 1, 2, 3, 4. That’s why I know it was 14 because he counted them out for me. And of course then they say, we have to cancel your permit for your own safety. And it’s very hard to argue with that because I’m saying I’m willing to go, you don’t have to cancel it for me.

(19:51):
You don’t know whether they’re playing a game with you or whether in that case it probably was actual threats, some of those things. Because I hate to waste the partner’s money. So we have already advertised, we have the stadium, we have the printing. We’ve already spent a lot of money as you know, spend that upfront. And so then suddenly you are faced with these kind of challenges. I find that very frustrating. But my partners, I mean this happens rarely. And our partners have been very understanding. I try to tell ’em the truth. Listen, in our kind of work one time Paul had to escape over the wall and a ladder. So it’s not a defeat just because we have to chased out of town, which happens rarely. But it does happen maybe once every five, six years. So our partners have been very good in understanding on the risk with the work that we,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:48):
Amen. Well, if someone is listening and they want to partner with your ministry, or if someone maybe wants to attend your school of evangelism in Kenya, how can they find out more information about you? What’s your website?

Evangelist Peter Youngren (21:06):
Our website, like everyone peter youngin.org, and there’s phone numbers there that takes some people to what we call the Grace Prayer Center. But this information there, including what we call the Global Evangelism Institute, just to paint a picture of that, we have purchased a very nice facility. There’s even a nice swimming pool there, but I don’t promote that a lot. It just came with the property already. And our Bible school assessment, there’s students from all over East Africa, they’re already, they’re studying a two year program. So when we invite people international to come, they come for eight weeks of studies where we give some very key courses for evangelists and they study some of them side by side with the African students and some will be separate. And then at the end of that, we’re saying if you want to test your own wings, so to speak, you say, I feel a call of God.

(22:00):
We will set you up, we will help you. We’ll facilitate you with a pastor or a group of pastors to have an outreach campaign and connection with a local church. And we’re not going to send them out in the booty, so to speak, and they can test it. I’m a firm believer that theory is very good, seminars are good, but when somebody experiences Jesus Christ working through their eyes, their hands touching people and they see a miracle that changes a life. Many people come with me and 20 years later I meet them and I say, now, when you were with me in such and such situation, what do you remember? Or they say, I remember the time when you sent us out on some street evangelism and this mother brought her the death boy and I prayed. And Jesus healed the, that’s what they remember the most. They don’t remember all the Americans in our meeting. And that’s okay. They remember Jesus working with them. That’s the experience I want to give to people.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:07):
Well, one of my memories from Goma was we got to go to a Pygmy village. I think you and I went and minister to the Pygmies, gave them some food to be a blessing to them because they’re very hunted there and you preach Jesus to the pygmies. I remember it was a very short sermon, which is appropriate for Pygmies, but it was a great experience, something they should

Evangelist Peter Youngren (23:34):
Explain to you, the audience that Pygmys are kind of short people. So I remember that very well because there was a very, their plight, I remembered well, they were poor people, very poor and suffered a lot. Of course within their culture there’s racism in every culture and the pygmies are kind of looked down upon, and I always like to root for the underdog. So I’m glad we could maybe be a little small blessing to them in some way that day.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:07):
Yeah. Well, pastor Peter, I honor you for your many years of dedication, serving Jesus and proclaiming Jesus to on save people around the world. What a great impact your ministry has had in so many lives. And I want to thank you again for giving me your great staff member, Jessica, she has become a great wife, and you actually performed our wedding ceremony. And so we have many wonderful memories. Jessica really greatly enjoyed her time working with your ministry and you’ve had a big impact on our lives, and I’m very grateful for you. So thank you.

Evangelist Peter Youngren (24:49):
Well, let me just respond by saying that Jessica was a great blessing. She was a general, I mean, when she took charge of something, she took charge of it. I’m sure you ever seen much blessing in many ways from her, but also in that area. And so she is, I always think very fondly about what a blessing she was. And then I want to say I rejoice, Danny, when I see you post something on Facebook someplace in the world where you are, it brings great joy to my heart. So God bless you and thank you for this opportunity to share with your listeners.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:24):
Thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.

Evangelist Peter Youngren (25:26):
Thank you, brother.

 

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The Democratic Republic of Congo

Gandajika Gospel Crusade

It was the biggest crowd in the history of our ministry. How big was the crowd? What message caused thousands of people to come to Jesus? What are the three biggest miracles God has ever done? Watch this video above to find out. Tears came to my eyes the first time I watched it.

Power to Preach the Gospel

To preach the Gospel you must have POWER…first you need the power of the Holy Spirit but you also need the power of a generator to run the sound system. Yesterday, our generator got stuck in a muddy rut in the road so the crusade team was scrambling to find a replacement.

In the town of Gandajika, Congo DRC they were able to find only one generator powerful enough to run the sound system. But the generator was built into a little building designed to protect it from the rain. So our crusade director had to rent a shovel truck to lift the roof off the building and then to lift the generator out of the building to put it in a dump truck to haul the generator to the crusade.

Tonight I preached on the paralyzed man who was LET DOWN through the roof. But for this crusade I have a new story about a generator that was LIFTED OUT through the roof. To make a crusade happen we must often go to great lengths and fight great battles, but this is the first time we have literally lifted the roof off a building.

As I preached on the paralyzed man we had an actor play the part in an illustrated drama. The bed he was laying on was carried to the stage by his four friends. The sight of the bed being lifted above the heads of the crowd attracted lots of attention. The friends laid the bed at the front of the platform and we read the story from Matthew 9. Jesus says three things to the paralyzed man.

Strengthen Your Heart

First Jesus said, “Be encouraged.” The local language of Gandajika translates this verse as “Strengthen your heart.” Jesus encouraged the man because he was sad, worried, and lonely. I told the people, “Jesus wants to encourage you tonight. Jesus wants to strengthen your heart. Jesus will take away your sadness and give you joy. He will take away your worry and replace it with hope. He will remove your loneliness and give you His presence.”

Your Sins Are Forgiven

Second Jesus said, “Your sins are forgiven.” I explained, “Jesus came from heaven to earth to forgive our sins. Everyone has sinned and the price for sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. Jesus dies on the cross to pay the price for our sins and tonight Jesus wants to forgive your sins.”

Get Up, Take Up Your Bed, and Go Home

Third, Jesus healed the man’s body. Our actor on the stage stood to his feet and began to dance. “I’m healed!” he shouted. The entire crowd clapped because they were excited to see that Jesus is a healer. After the drama was over, I prayed for three things.

First I explained the greatest miracle is when Jesus forgives your sin. “If you want Jesus to forgive your sin, lift your hand,” I told the crowd. Across the field, thousands of people lifted their hands. I led them in a prayer of salvation. Our counselors immediately got to work recording the names of the people on decision cards so the local churches can follow up on them later.

Second we prayed for emotional healing and third we prayed for physical healing. Many people were touched by God and we had a variety of testimonies to share with the people.

Let the Little Children Come

Here in Congo ministering to children is unheard of. Typically, pastors tell the kids to sit in the back of the church and to be quiet. So when we announced we were doing a “Children’s Festival” at the crusade grounds on Friday morning the children began to cheer.

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me.” That’s exactly what happened. The children came running from all over the city. They had big smiles on their faces.

We sang with them. We played games. We had a dance competition. Several of the graduates of the Christ for All Nations Evangelism Bootcamp told stories to the children. Hidden in each story was a Gospel truth. Repeatedly, the children heard the message, “Jesus loves you!”

Before I became known as an international evangelist I was a children’s minister. In my teenage years I dressed up as a clown as a tool for reaching children for Jesus. So, even though I am here to preach at the crusade I jumped at the opportunity to juggle for the children. As I threw balls high into the air, the kids laughed and clapped.

I balanced a pole on my finger. The key to keeping it balanced is to look at the top of the pole. I told the children, “If you keep your eyes on Jesus, your life will stay balanced. But if you take your eyes off Jesus, your life will fall apart.”

Then I told a story about a monkey who lived in the jungle. Some monkey hunters trapped the monkey using bananas. In the same way, Satan uses a sin trap to capture us. But Jesus came to set us free from the trap of sin. All the children shouted, “Jesus sets me free!” After the altar call, we gave each child a mini-book written by Daniel Kolenda. The book uses fun illustrations to teach the children how to follow Jesus.

 

The Father of Hugs and Kisses

On the third night of the crusade I preached on the Prodigal Son. The story is one of three stories found in Luke 15. First is the story of man with one hundred sheep. He loses one and he leaves the 99 to look for the one. Then there is the story of a woman who has saved ten silver coins. When she loses one, she searches the house until she finds the lost coin. Finally, is the story of a lost son.

In this story Jesus reveals God the Father to us. Many people think of God as an angry judge who is ready to condemn people who sin. But Jesus reveals that God is like a father who is searching for his lost son.

The son asks for his inheritance and then he wastes the money by living a sinful lifestyle in a faraway land. The son runs out of money and is stuck feeding pigs. He remembers his father and he decides to return home and beg for forgiveness. But as he walks the long road home he wonders if his father will be angry at him.

But the father (who represents God the Father) is out in front of his house looking for his lost son. He sees him coming from a long distance and the father runs to his son. The son falls to his knees in shame, but the father lifts him up and gives him a hug and kisses him. He gives his son his coat and puts his shoes on his son’s bare feet. He puts a ring on his finger and calls his household together to celebrate the return of his son.

In this story, Jesus reveals the Father of Hugs and Kisses. I told the crowd, “God is not angry at you. God loves you. God is looking for you.” I asked the people, “Will you come home to the Father’s House tonight? Will you turn away from your sin and come running home to your heavenly Father?” The crowd shouted “YES!” and I led them in a prayer of salvation.

Jesus said that all of heaven rejoices when one sinner gets saved. Tonight thousands of people came home to their heavenly Father and heaven is rejoicing!

 

I Will Pour Out My Spirit on All People

We invited all the local pastors and church leaders to a Fire Conference on Saturday morning.

Here in Congo many of the churches do not believe women can preach. Because of this religious doctrine, they have silenced half of the body of Christ. Also many of the pastors are older because they tell the young men they are not old enough to preach the Gospel.

So I preached on Acts 2 which tells about what happened on the Day of Pentecost. After the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit Peter began to preach. He quoted from the book of Joel, “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit.” I asked the pastors, “Do you want God to pour out His Spirit.” They all shouted “Amen.”

I continued to read, “God will pour out His Spirit on all people.” I posed the question, “Do you believe God can pour out His Spirit upon all people? The pastors shouted, “Yes!”

“Your sons and daughters shall prophecy,” I read, “Your young men will see visions…Even on my servants, both men and woman, I will pour out my Spirit in those days and they shall prophecy.” I asked the pastors, “Do you believe God can use the women and the young men?” They pastors were a little hesitant this time, but a few replied quietly, “Yes.”

I told the story about the time Reinhard Bonnke was asked, “Do you think God can use a woman to save someone?” He replied, “If I was drowning, I would not care if it was a man or a woman who threw me a life preserver.”

I explained, “God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.’ God can use your sons and your daughters if you will let Him.” I asked the pastors again, “Do you believe God can use the women and the young men?” This time they answered with more enthusiasm, “Yes!”

Then I invited two of the women evangelists who are on our team to share. Their names are Grace Smith and Anastasiia Dvoinikova. They both shared a powerful word and by the time they finished, the pastors were all shouting, “Amen.”

At the end of the Fire Conference we laid hands on every pastor and the fire of God fell.

 

Holy Spirit Night

Saturday night at the crusade in Gandajika was Holy Spirit night. I preached on the three greatest miracles in the Bible. Creation, Calvary, and Pentecost.

Creation: At creation is where we see God the Father’s greatest work. I told the crowd, “God created you. You are made in the image of God. You are God’s special creation.” I explained that God created the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, to be His friends. Every day God walked and talked with them in the Garden of Eden. But one day they disobeyed God and this sin broke their fellowship with God. I told everyone, “You were created to be God’s friend, but your sin separates you from God.”

Calvary: At the hill named Calvary, we see God the Son’s greatest work when Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the price for our sins. I announced, “At Calvary, Jesus saved you.” Jesus, the Son of God, came from heaven to earth. Every day he walked and talked with His disciples. Then Jesus gave his life so we could once again have fellowship with the Father. The price for sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus. The crowd listened intently as I explained, “If you will call of Jesus, He will forgive your sin and you will be saved.”

Pentecost: The day of Pentecost is where we see God the Holy Spirit’s greatest work. One hundred and twenty disciples were gathered together in the upper room when suddenly a mighty wind began to blow. Tongues of fire rested on every head and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, the Holy Spirit wants to come walk and talk with every believer.  I prayed for everyone to be filled with the Holy Spirit. As the thousands of people began to pray in the Holy Spirit, it sounded like the roar of a mighty lion.

 

Jesus Breaks Every Curse

People in Africa are intensely aware of the supernatural world in a way that the Western world often does not understand. They believe in curses and they often go to witchdoctors in search of a cure or a benefit. For example, a businessman might go to the witchdoctor and pay her to cast a spell upon his business rival. A barren woman might ask the witchdoctor for a potion to help her get pregnant. The witchdoctor makes money off of curses, so there is often a spiritual struggle when a Gospel crusade comes to town.

On Thursday night a witch doctor came to our crusade. She intended to walk through the crowd and place a curse on Christian believers. But as she walked around she found that her magic was not working. She stopped to listen to the message and she heard about how Jesus has the power to break every curse. She was convicted by the Holy Spirit for her evil ways of living and she decided to cry out to Jesus for salvation. She repented of her witchcraft and she was saved!

I pointed to two big barrels on the field and said to the crowd, “Tomorrow night we are going to burn every work of Satan. I want you to bring your juju beads, your witchcraft charms, and anything that represents your life of sin. We are going to burn everything in the barrels and send the devil’s curses to the fires of hell.”

The following night the former witchdoctor brought a paper with the names of all of her curses written down. She came to the front and threw the cursed paper into the barrel.

We doused the contents of the barrel with gasoline and threw a match in. Woosh! The fire burned hot. Our team of intercessors danced around the burning barrels and shouted, “Jesus! Jesus!”

From the platform I proclaimed, “Jesus breaks every curse. When Jesus died on the cross, He destroyed the power of sin and the power of Satan. Be free from every evil curse in Jesus’ name.”

 

Night of Blessing

The final night of the crusade in Gandajika was awe inspiring. The crowd size increased substantially. No one in the city wanted to miss the final night of the crusade.

The theme of the night was Deuteronomy 30:19 “I set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life!”

I gave the crowd a list of words. Some of the words were God words and some of the words were devil words. I asked the crowd to point up to heaven if a shared a God word and I asked them to point down to hell if I shared a devil word.

The first word was “LIFE.” Everyone pointed to heaven.

The second word was “DEATH.” Everyone pointed down. I explained that Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus comes to give us abundant life (John 10:10).

“BLESSING” It is a word that comes from God.

“CURSING” It is a word from the pits of hell.

The next word was “SALVATION.” Every index finger on the field pointed up. “SIN” Everyone pointed down. I repeated the word “SALVATION” and listened to my translator say the word in the local language. I tried to repeat it after him. I must have messed up my pronunciation bad because everyone laughed at me. “Do you think I should learn your language?” I asked. “Yes,” they all replied.

“HEALING” comes from God. “SICKENESS” comes from the devil. The people knew the right answer even though some theologians get this concept wrong.

“PROSPERITY” is from God. “POVERTY” is from the devil. “LOVE” is a God word, “HATE”  is a devil word.

I preached, “Everyone must make a choice. You can choose to go to heaven or hell. You can choose to trust in Jesus for salvation or you can walk away from God. There is a broad road that leads to hell and many people are following it. There is a narrow path that leads to God. The name of that narrow path is Jesus! If you cry out to Jesus, and turn from your sinful ways, you will be saved.”

“Do you want to choose to follow Jesus?” I asked.

“Yes,” roared the crowd. I led them in a prayer of salvation and the councilors moved through the crowd giving books to all the new believers.

Everyone chose blessing instead of cursing. At the end of the evening, we burned two barrels full of the curses of witch doctors. Then I prayed a powerful prayer of blessing over the crowd. “You are blessed, blessed, blessed!” The whole crowd went home full of God’s blessing and thankful that the crusade had come to their city of Gandajika.

CAN YOU HELP US REACH PEOPLE FOR JESUS?

Evangelist Daniel King is on a mission to lead people to Jesus. But he cannot do it without your help. Can you give a financial gift today to help us “plunder hell to populate heaven?” To support King Ministries in our quest for souls, click here!

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