A Dangerous Prayer for Evangelists | Andy Cook

Transcript: 

Evangelist Daniel King (00:01):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus. Today we have a very special guest with us. Andy Cook is the executive director at the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College and he is also the co-chair for Lausanne North America. And so Mr. Cook, thank you so much for being on the evangelism podcast. Thank

Andy Cook – Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (01:00):
You very much. Call me Andy. We are very much passionate about what we’re doing here at the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center, and we have a ton of researchers who have doctorates around here.

Evangelist Daniel King (01:12):
All right. So let’s talk about what you do at the Billy Graham Center. I’ve been up there several times for the Amplify Conference and it is always such a delight to go through the museum that goes through the history of evangelism all the way up to the ministry of Billy Graham. And it’s very inspiring. I think every evangelist should visit you at least once in their life so they can see the cool Billy Graham Museum there at Wheaton College.

Andy Cook – Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (01:43):
Yeah. I love the museum. I’ve been going to the museum since I was in high school, just to give you a sense of how I was wired up. But really the museum tells the story of evangelism here in North America. It’s a history of evangelism. And so it starts from the first time that people were engaging with native peoples and actually the translation of the Algonquin Bible by some great translators and people who devoted their lives to sharing the gospel. And then it goes through and it tells really, it’s our story of what God has been doing here in North America through evangelism. So the whole first part of it is like a run through a couple hundred years of church history here in North America. And then we tell the story of what God did through Billy Graham and his ministry and his connections to the different places.

(02:31):
And it’s interesting to walk with people through the museum at different points and they’ll point to the picture and say, “I was at that crusade or I was at that moment.” And it tells all these amazing parts of Billy Graham’s ministry, how God worked in his life. And then you see video after video and picture after picture of people who when the simple message of the gospel of Jesus Christ was proclaimed, they made a decision right there and they walked down an aisle and I still can have people walk through and say, “My dad walked down the aisle in this video or my aunt or uncle was at this crusade.” And then it presents the gospel. Billy Graham did not want a building or a museum in his honor. He wanted a museum that was telling the story of the gospel of Jesus Christ so that Jesus would be the one that is really worshiped throughout the museum.

(03:22):
So you’ll see a walkthrough the gospel presentation that every evangelist will love because they get to actually walk from one part of the gospel to another to another. And we have people who come to Christ even this month as they go through the Billy Graham Museum here at Wheaton College. So if any of your listeners are looking to have just an incredible inspiring time, a great afternoon, I invite them to join. I will say I’ve spent several hours starting in high school and then as I’ve served in different ministry assignments over the years, it’s a great way to like go and expand your vision and to pray the deep prayer again. “God, would you do it again? We know what you’ve done in previous generations. Would you do a similar thing in this generation?

Evangelist Daniel King (04:09):
Another cool thing you have there at Wheaton College is the evangelism and missions archives. I’m kind of a amateur historian and last time I went up there, I looked at some of the boxes from Billy Sunday, Katherine Kulman, you’ve got Corey Ten Boom, you’ve got Luis Palau and it’s really neat to go through some of evangelism history and be inspired by what God has done in the past.

Andy Cook – Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (04:39):
Yeah, it’s really an incredible set. We have the archives of the National Association of Evangelicals, Christianity Today and then we just opened up the archives of Layton Ford. And so some of our archives we have, we actually open up at different times based on what the families or different people wanted. And so those are now available for scholars to come look at. Part of what I love about having all those different things is again, as evangelists, we understand that we are part of a broader group of people that are in communication with each other. One method, Billy Sunday’s preaching style comes out in the Billy Graham style. They’re all building on one another and there’s so much rich content in our archives here in the Evangelism and Mission Archives. So excited to welcome any scholars. I’d even say even some evangelists who just want to be able to read some of those original documents and see what God did.

Evangelist Daniel King (05:37):
Yeah. It’s great fun getting into the archives and I love seeing the history, but let’s go to today, you are helping to lead Lausanne North America. And so I attended the Lausanne Conference last year over in South Korea or a couple years ago now and it was really beautiful to see God bring together people who have a heart and passion for evangelism and missions and the world from all over the world. And so talk to us a little bit about some of the trends that we’re seeing here in North America and what we need to do to reach people for Jesus right here at home.

Andy Cook – Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (06:20):
I was at that Lausanne Congress and it was really a global gathering and what was nice is we got to sit with our sisters and brothers from all over the world and even at our table and to hear some of them talk about what the context is that they’re in. I remember sitting with a dear brother who it was in a context where he was unable to share his faith in certain contexts for threat of his family being hurt. They were under persecution there and so their struggles and they’re saying,” Well, certainly in North America, you’re sharing the gospel all the time because you have this ability to share the gospel. “And I kind of had to reluctantly say,” Actually, we have a different challenge in North America, which is we have some Christ followers who are apathetic, who have experienced the greatness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and they’re not feeling like they need to share it with their sisters or brothers or their neighbors or friends.

(07:12):
And so we’re actually trying to work to get churches more engaged so that every believer everywhere would be sharing Christ here in North America. So I would say our biggest challenge here is that we’ve grown comfortable with the gospel and the good news we’ve started to take it for granted a bit and we haven’t been as active in sharing it as I see in some other regions of the world. And so that’s one of the biggest challenges we face here in North America is really Christ followers who aren’t sharing the gospel as boldly as we possibly can.

Evangelist Daniel King (07:45):
Another thing that you have is different initiatives at the Billy Graham Center where you are helping different groups to be better at evangelism. And so you have on group for African American pastors, then another group for rural pastors who are really serving God out in rural parts of America and you also have a preaching cohort. So talk to us some about how you help people be better at sharing their faith

Andy Cook – Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (08:22):
Yeah, that’s great. So we’ve noticed and some of the evangelists who are our listeners right now will know that sometimes there’s a gap between evangelists and the local church and some of this is a natural thing of we have people who over the years, I’ve even had people have been like, “Oh, well, Billy Graham did evangelism and then we’re going to do spiritual formation or discipleship within the local church context.” And so we’ve kind of created this dual thing where churches are doing discipleship and evangelists are out there doing things and there’s not as much connection sometimes to the local church. We don’t think that’s how it’s meant to be. And so we have a number of different programs that are designed to help pastors do evangelism better within local church context. And so it’s really been a movement of God in the last number of years around the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center because our vision is every believer everywhere sharing Christ until he returns.

(09:20):
And so part of that means every church is sharing Christ. And so we’ve created these cohort programs where pastors get together in a group of about eight to 10 pastors with a trusted coach who’s walking them through the research that we’ve done around what it means to build an evangelistically thriving church. In North America, part of our challenge is 60% of churches are in decline right now. Another 30% of churches, if they’re growing, they’re growing primarily through transfer growth, believers moving from one church to another. At the end of the day, as evangelists, we know that’s not going to help more people come to Christ. And so we looked at the 10% of churches in America and we wish that was 15%, that’s our dream, but we looked at those 10% of churches that are growing by actually reaching new people with the gospel and we said, “What do they do different?” And we studied, okay, these are pastors who are engaged in personal witness in a way that their congregation can imitate them.

(10:23):
They’re naturally saying, “Hey, I was talking to a friend the other day who doesn’t go to our church and they were asking me these questions.” And then we also know that they’re regularly investing their church’s resources and building teams around evangelism. And so we’ve studied all these different practices of what the 10% of churches that are growing by reaching new people with the gospel, what they’re doing and we’ve built out basically a two-year process so that every pastor can roll up their slaves and get involved in evangelism. What I often like to say is the trouble with evangelism and with just unchurched people is they’re not knocking on the door of the church saying, “Come reach me. ” If you’re a pastor, you’ve got a lot of things to do. You’ve got to care for people, you’ve got to do a budget, you’ve got to figure out building … There’s so many things on the list.

(11:13):
Nobody’s knocking on your door saying, “Come reach us.” And so part of what we do here in the Graham Center is we’re the ones who say, “Hey, we’re going to knock on your door and we’re going to say, how can we help partner with you to reach your community?” And so we do it in a lot of different segments. You mentioned several of them. I was just with a bunch of our rural pastors and about half of churches in America are in a rural setting and they do evangelism differently in rural America than we do here in suburbs or urban contexts. And it’s just a joy to see the gospel is the same and how it gets contextualized here in North America is really important.

Evangelist Daniel King (11:51):
Every year you host the Amplify Conference. Tell us a little bit about the Amplify Conference, who is it for, who should attend and what can people get out of it if they come?

Andy Cook – Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (12:05):
Yeah, I love that. So the Amplify Conference is our annual flagship event and we really bring together all of our different areas here at the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center, all of the latest research from throughout the kingdom to really say, okay, what does it mean for every church to be on mission and sharing Christ? And so our audience for it is local church teams. I will say it’s probably a little bit more local church teams that are thinking about not just the next year or two, but the years ahead of that. Some of them are pastors who are going, “Hey, we’ve got a great thriving church, but we’re not reaching the next generation. What adjustments do we need to make so that we’re a church that’s reaching the next generation?” We’re also, we bring in the latest research from Barna. David Kinnamon will be with us again this year.

(12:51):
We’re bringing in great myssiologists like Ed Stetzer to be able to share the latest thinking in reaching North America. And then we have a number of great speakers that we’re going to announce in the next couple of weeks here that are all coming to talk about evangelism within a local church context. I love that we spend a session each year talking about apologetics, kind of brushing up our skills on what’s the key question people are asking. What are the key things that we need to be thinking about as people who love the local church and want to see more people come to Christ in the local church? So our conference this year is October 20th and 21st here at Wheaton College. It’s a great time to have plenary sessions that are really going to inspire and encourage pastors, but then also breakout sessions where we bring in specific ministry areas and say, “How do we help you reach this group?

(13:41):
How do we help you reach this group?” And so it’s a great thing to bring a team for and we’re praying that it leads to the kind of dinner conversations that really can change a church where people all of a sudden go, “We love our church. How do we help it be a place where more people come to find Christ?”

Evangelist Daniel King (13:57):
If it’s all right with you, I’d love to go a little personal. Can you share some of your testimony? How did you come to know Christ and then how did you get excited about evangelism?

Andy Cook – Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (14:08):
Yeah, that’s great. When I was in high school, I was invited by one of my brother’s friends to go to a youth group that was sharing Christ clearly. And so I had a litle bit of church background but not a lot. And so I wanted to be able to, that’s really where I understood who Jesus was, that he was interested in me, that he loved me. And so I made a decision to follow Christ when I was in high school because someone invited me. And then I turned right around and I had a best friend. I was like, “Man, he needs to know about Jesus too.” And so I shared Christ with him. I didn’t realize that that’s not like a normal thing that people do. I just kind of assumed that, “Hey, I found this amazing relationship with God.” I assume every believer is out there sharing this good news of the gospel with their friends.

(14:54):
And so I got to be part of a thriving youth group where we were praying every week for people to come to Christ. We were praying for the bold invitation. I love a youth group where the area just outside the door is populated by Christians who are waiting for their friend who said, “Oh, I might come there.” I served for many years at Willow Creek where we had a bench outside and I loved that bench because it was often where the fellow people who had been like, “Oh, my friend is coming this weekend,” and they’d be waiting for them like, “Ooh, is Daniel coming? Can I see him from a distance?” And there was a sacred community that formed of people who you kind of start to see familiar faces of people who are regularly inviting people to church and to hear the gospel and sometimes your heart gets broken together and you give them a big hug and say, “Hey, I understand that you really wanted Daniel to come today.

(15:49):
He texted you. He’s not able to make it. Let’s keep praying for Daniel to come and walk through the door.” So in my life, I just kind of assumed that it was normal to share my faith starting in high school.

(16:02):
I’ve pretty much been excited about evangelism since then. Then I went on to a Christian college that was in the middle of a rural community and I had to find myself ways to get off campus. I’d go to a nearby university that was more of a secular campus and I’d go and be in coffee shops. I just find it regularly important to be around unchurched people. I want to engage in conversations thoughtfully about where they’re at in their faith journey. That’s a revitalizing thing for my own. So I love when an unchurched person asks a great question that I don’t know the answer to and I can say, “Hey, Daniel, that’s a great question. Would you mind if I do a little bit of research or if we do some research together and see what we think about that? ” And so it’s kind of been a normal part of my life.

(16:48):
Then I’ve been in a lot of different settings and I spent a while at Willow Creek and I will say it’s part of the water at Willow Creek and it certainly was over the 18 years that I was there that we just are part of a whole community of people that are trying to reach people with the gospel of Christ. And so we’d baptize about a thousand people a year, I remember. I was one of those guys. I’d cry at every baptism day and then when I was part of planting a church, I remember the first time we had people come in and I’m bawling in the back of the room.

Evangelist Daniel King (17:25):
Your voice is cracking a little bit even now. It’s just beautiful when people’s lives are transformed by the gospel. So what would you say to encourage those who have a heart for evangelism? Maybe a local church pastor or someone, a young person who is excited about sharing their faith, what would you say to encourage them?

Andy Cook – Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (17:49):
Yeah. So first off, I would say for the evangelists who are regular listeners, I just want to say God has given us the gift of evangelism. And so some of you have a clear spiritual calling towards evangelism and I just want to encourage you like the Apostle Paul did, proclaim boldly, do it in every setting you possibly can and know that the church needs you, that you have a really important gift that matters just as much as leadership or other gifts out there. We want you to know that the good news of Jesus Christ is worth proclaiming. So if you’re an evangelist and you have that calling, stay on track and do it with integrity and do it everywhere you can. For your local church pastors, and I want you to know I love the local church and I want you to know you have a very noble calling.

(18:38):
I would encourage you, make sure that your church is staying on mission, that your church is regularly hearing stories of your personal witness, of times where you’ve taken a risk. Sometimes even when you fail, like you had an awkward conversation with someone and it didn’t go the way you thought. But I encourage you to engage in lives of unchurched people, make them a regular part of your schedule and for every believer, I encourage you to really pray a dangerous prayer. And it’s a prayer that God has answered over and over again in my life. Even times when I look around and I go, “I don’t have a lot of unchurched people in my life.” And that happens sometimes. I work at a great Christian university, I go to a great church and I also want to make sure that I have unchurched people. So I would just encourage you to pray the prayer, God, would you bring unchurched people across my path today that I can share the gospel of Jesus Christ with?

(19:34):
Would you make my heart so burdened for those people in our world that come across my everyday path, would you bring someone in? And I’ll tell you, the Holy Spirit loves to answer that prayer. And I can tell you conversation after conversation that’s happened, not by coincidence, but because our God loves a person who’s willing to say, “God, would you just open my eyes to what the harvest is in front of us?”

Evangelist Daniel King (20:00):
That’s so awesome. Well, Brother Andy, if someone wants more information about coming to visit the museum that you have there at the Billy Graham Center or they want to attend the Amplify Conference, where can they find more information about you guys?

Andy Cook – Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (20:17):
Yeah, thanks for that. So Daniel, the website is wheatonbillygram.com, or you can Google Wheaton College, Billy Graham Center and come join us. The museum is open to the public except for on Mondays. And so if you have family in town or if you’re going to come through, we’d love to see you here at Wheaton College. It’s a great day to be together Amplify Conference is amplifyconference.org. And so we host that in partnership with Outreach Magazine, Lausanne North America. It’s of course our major gathering for that. And of course, we’re excited to partner with organizations like Barna and everything to bring the best research we can. So we’re going to be announcing our speakers soon. It’s going to be an incredible year for the Amplify Conference and I look forward to seeing you this October.

Evangelist Daniel King (21:02):
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast. I appreciate it.

Andy Cook – Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (21:07):
Thanks for having me, Daniel.

Evangelist Daniel King (21:10):
All right, that’s the interview. Great job. Thank you so much. That was really tremendous, very insightful. I really appreciate it. Would you be willing to do a short little blurb for us? Just say your name that you’re with the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College and say, “Hey, if you have a heart for evangelism, I encourage you to listen to the evangelism podcast with Daniel King.”

Andy Cook – Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (21:35):
Great.

Evangelist Daniel King (21:37):
Go ahead whenever you’re ready. Want

Andy Cook – Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (21:38):
To make sure you’re recording? Okay, good, good. Hey everybody, my name’s Andy Cook and I’m the executive director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center and I want to encourage you, if you have a heart for evangelism, if you love the local church and you want to see more people come to Christ, you should be listening to the Evangelism Podcast with Daniel King. Look forward to encouraging you on that.

Evangelist Daniel King (22:01):
Awesome. Thank you.

Andy Cook – Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (22:02):
Cool.

Evangelist Daniel King (22:03):
Hey, that’s great. I really appreciate you. Thank you for taking the time to do this. And man, if I could, I would come and just spend like a month hanging out in your archives. I mean, I’m a full-time evangelist traveling all over the world preaching the gospel, but if I wanted to have fun, I would just come and dive into the historical stuff and I’ve got a book I’m working with on and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

Andy Cook – Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (22:34):
Well, you know what would be fun is at some point, we just opened that Layton Ford collection. It’d be fun to try and do almost an interview of some of the evangelists from the past and do sort of a spotlight on there’s no reason that your podcast interviews should be limited to those who are living. So if you could look at some of those go and like, “Hey, let’s talk through some of the history.” That’d be so much fun. That’d

Evangelist Daniel King (23:00):
Be cool if you could bring something from the archive to show us like this is something touched by Billy Sunday or something that would be cool.

Andy Cook – Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (23:08):
Yeah. I mean, Jim Elliot is of course legendary here at Wheaton College, graduate of ours and then we have his journals so he who’s into a fool who gives what he … Oh man, I’m glad we’re not recording, but so the Jim Elliot Journal is here That’d be fun to just pull out at some point and encourage people on. So yeah,

Evangelist Daniel King (23:28):
Who gives what he can gain to gain what he cannot lose or

Andy Cook – Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (23:33):
Yeah.

Evangelist Daniel King (23:34):
It’s a great quote.

Andy Cook – Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (23:35):
Makes me feel better. You also are like, yeah, it’s like I had it memorized and that stuff just slips out a little bit over time, doesn’t it? So yeah.

Evangelist Daniel King (23:43):
Very cool. Yeah, let’s do that. I’d love to do that sometime. That’d

Andy Cook – Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (23:46):
Be really cool. Yeah,

Evangelist Daniel King (23:46):
That’s

Andy Cook – Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (23:47):
Great. Daniel, thanks for your ministry, man.

Evangelist Daniel King (23:48):
Yes, sir. Look forward to seeing you again somewhere in the world.

Andy Cook – Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (23:51):
Sounds good.

Evangelist Daniel King (23:52):
Bless you. Goodbye.