Learn more about Derek Gaskill: https://derekgaskill.com/
Transcript:
Evangelist Daniel King (00:01):
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, Derek Gaskill. Thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Derek Gaskill (00:19):
Thank you, Daniel. I appreciate it.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:21):
Now, you have a very unique gifting for evangelism. You are using your skill and background as a baseball player to help people. Tell me about that.
Derek Gaskill (00:38):
Yes, sir. Well, I grew up rough and I grew up playing all the three main American sports, football, baseball, and basketball. And by the time I was 12, my heart geared a lot more towards baseball, but then that and my dad was an alcoholic and he owned his own business, was never home. And I had moved from being with my mom to with him, and so I was by myself all the time with bad friends. So one plus one equals two, and I was getting in a lot of trouble or almost not getting in a lot of trouble. And all those friends ended up in prison or dead later on. But the Lord saw to it to move me out of that.
(01:23):
And my dad said, “We got to get you out of here.” And I went and lived with my grandma in a place called Portsmouth, Virginia, which is actually funny to people here locally because Portsmouth is the place most people move out of to get out of trouble. And I moved into it to get out of trouble and it worked. But part of the reason it worked is because I had given my heart to the Lord when I was seven, although you wouldn’t have known it until I was about 19 or 20. But I always had the Holy Spirit in me and his voice guiding me. And even when I was in my worst junka, it seemed like my friends would get away with it, but I didn’t. It was like the Lord was spanking me. And so by the time I’m in ninth grade, I meet my new best friend who has ministries now and is a pastor now and all of that.
(02:11):
But at the time, he was the best baseball player in the area, 13, 14 years old. And we played catch and he discovered I was throwing the ball just as hard back at him, even though I didn’t look the part at all of a baseball player. I looked like I had been getting in trouble. And he said, “You need to meet the baseball people.” And that got me going again, and it rekindled a dream that I had had since I was young. And then I went out for varsity and JV baseball and got cut from both. And the very next morning in history class, I’m sitting there at the desk, I’m getting made fun of by the kids who had made JV, and I had my head down on the desk. And realistically on paper, I should have cried and said, “What was I thinking?
(02:54):
I don’t belong with these guys.” And instead, the Holy Spirit, the conqueror, the victory, the same spirit that rose Christ from the grave rose up in me. And I said to myself, “I will wear a major league uniform one day.” And literally the next morning. And I knew it. And as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. And so from then on, I had a vision that’s much bigger than me, which as it turns out, we all need a vision because if we’re just left to our own brains and hearts, our life is really small. But when we have a vision we’re attached to much bigger than us, especially when it’s the God-given vision for your life, your life just got a whole lot bigger and mine did. And so from then on, it was whatever it took. And I want to say it was six years later.
(03:46):
Four years later, I was drafted by Milwaukee High School. And then within a couple of years I got to go to major league spring training with them. So it was about six years later I wore a major league uniform, but I didn’t wear it the way I wanted to, frankly. If you fast-forward, I ended up with the Blue Jays and the Mets. In 1998, I’m on a bus going from St. Lucie to Vero Beach to play against the Dodgers, so I’m nervous. And I knew I was probably pitching, and all I could think about was each row of houses that we were passing because the bus driver decided to take a shortcut that day. And I see all these houses and all I could think about was all the lives that are in the houses and that most of them probably didn’t know the Lord.
(04:40):
And if they did, they didn’t know what I had been experiencing those last few years of getting back in church, being involved and the fellowship and the growing in the Lord and how much better it is. And I knew that they probably didn’t know that. And it’s as if the Holy Spirit prompted me to ask myself, or he said, “How does that make you feel?” And I said, “Lord, that’s so sad, so sad.” And he said, “You’re an evangelist.” And I said, “No, I’m not. I just wanted to be the best pitcher on earth.” And what was interesting about it, to say the least, is that I saw crowds as far as the eye could see. It reminds me actually of a picture you have in your background I see right now. And it reminded me, and I saw it with Reinhardt Bunke of crowds as far as the eye could see at night and then parts of it lit up and you could tell there was more people beyond it.
(05:40):
And it scared me to death. And then I’m up by the stage and I look at this runner that kind of goes out and they’re standing Billy Graham. And that scared me even more because I knew in my heart that that’s the type of ministry eventually me to. And I’m thinking, I don’t want to do that. And so I said no, because I’m stubborn. And after that, nothing in baseball worked out. It was like the Lord’s want. And it seemed like the better I did, the worse things got. So the better I’m doing baseball, it got worse because the Lord’s up there shaking his head and almost seven years later to the day, I meet my wife in church and the opening prayer, I go, “That’s her.” And I said it out loud before I could stop myself. I went to meet her in the meeting, in the greeting, I mean, and then got her number afterwards.
(06:32):
We dated all the way up till we got married. But on our first date, she’s very concerning, on our first date, on our way back from the restaurant, we’re talking and we’re talking deep and spiritually and she says, “You’re not a baseball player. You’re more like an evangelist, like a Billy Graham.”
Evangelist Daniel King (06:53):
So she found that gift in you?
Derek Gaskill (06:55):
She had no idea about my vision or anything. I about pulled off the road almost, but she could see it. And then it’s chased us down ever since. And then he did something very interesting with me. We were helping plant churches and I thought I was ready to leave baseball behind completely. And we knew the Lord was directing me to do one-on-one baseball lessons until. And I think a lot of people listening will know that until is a dangerous word. It can mean a lot. And so the Lord’s like, “I want you.” And I’ve learned so much from it because it’s one-on-one evangelism. And then when the students come long enough, it becomes one-on-one discipleship, both with the students and the parents. And so I’ve had so many stories that have come out of that from salvations to save marriages, to healing of cancer and this and that.
(07:50):
And I mean, you name it, it’s happened. But what the Lord spoke to me about that is that you can never preach to millions until you can preach to the one because Jesus cares about the one. And so each time I see them, I’m saying to myself, “Precious Holy Spirit, help me to see them the way you see them.” And then that’s led up till now. And now we’re getting the urgent, we’re feeling the inklings of the Holy Spirit leading us and more facing us out of that and now into more of what I saw on that bus and we’re headed in that direction.
Evangelist Daniel King (08:30):
Of ministering to the mass crowds.
Derek Gaskill (08:34):
Yes, sir.
Evangelist Daniel King (08:35):
I think that’s such a tremendous testimony because God gifted you in the area of baseball and you began to use that gift as a way to reach out to people. And so you’re training people one-on-one with baseball skills, but that’s giving you an opportunity to present the gospel and lead people to Jesus and then to start a discipleship process. Do you have any testimonies of someone whose life has been impacted by interacting with you through baseball and now coming closer to Jesus?
Derek Gaskill (09:15):
Oh, sure. Yeah. I mean, of course I have so many, but one of my favorites though is a young man from near here. We have some baseball powerhouse areas here, and he’s from that area of Hickory, Chesapeake, Chesapeake, Virginia, the Hickory area. And he came to me when he was in ninth or 10th grade. They didn’t think he was a pitcher, the so-called all the know-it-alls. No, you’re not a pitcher. And I said, “Don’t you listen to them?” And he became a great pitcher. And he gets through high school and does that. They win the state championship, and then he goes to division one and does all that. And he came home after one summer of playing summer ball for a reputable college league that gets professional attention. And he came up and he’s just a strong bulldog type of pitcher. He’s walking up. And this is where the Holy Spirit’s leading is so important, of course, one of many ways.
(10:12):
He’s walking up and I just knew, I knew something was wrong. And he comes up and he’s all confident. I say, “Hey man, how you doing?” And all this, “Oh, I’m doing great.” And he starts reeling off all the stats that he had for the season. Two strikeouts, Brandon, and best in league for ERA and whatever else. And then I go, “Well, what’s wrong then?” And he goes, “Nothing. I just told you. I was the pitcher of the year for the whole summer.” And I said, “Well, then what’s wrong?” And he starts crying. And then I knew and he broke. It’s been the darkest summer of my life. It’s the best I’ve ever done pitching and the darkest I’ve ever lived. I feel depleted. I feel like nothing. And then I rolled my sleeves up. I go, Here we go. And I just took him through Genesis one and John one in the beginning and in the beginning.
(11:11):
And I shared with him where God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were there together in the beginning.
(11:20):
So for me, my take when the Father said, let there be light initially, it was like he was saying, let there be Jesus. And him was life in light and the life of all men and so on, and that Jesus is that light, John said. But then the Holy Spirit kept functioning me to talk about the snake, the serpent. And I’m thinking, Lord, I don’t want to talk about the snake. And where we live, we live near the dismal swamp of Chesapeake, Virginia. So we’ve seen snakes out here. And I kept thinking, I don’t want to talk about the serpent. And it was kind of like one of those things I’m like, okay, Lord, I’ll tell him about the serpent. And so I start to tell him about that and how in the movie, the passion of the Christ, Jesus is depicted as stomping on the head of the enemy and twisting.
(12:10):
And I told him that, and then I kind of moved on. And then I asked him if he wanted to change his life forever, say the prayer of salvation and so on, and he did. And then we went into actual baseball and we warmed up and he’s going through his wind-ups. I have on the back of our property, a makeshift infield, batting cages, et cetera. And he’s on the main mound there. And I go to go get something at my station where I sit to come back and catch for him while he’s doing his windups. And as he’s doing his windup, he lands and he goes, “Oh my gosh.” And he looks down and there’s a snake right by his foot.
Evangelist Daniel King (12:55):
Wow.
Derek Gaskill (12:56):
And I said, “Well, you know what to do.” So he stomped on the head of the snake and twisted. And we hung that snake around the pole of my backstop there for a couple of weeks, I think, until a critter got it. And that’s one of my favorite ones. And every time, if I see him or whatever, he brings that up right away. And of course, his life was radically changed from then on. So yeah.
Evangelist Daniel King (13:19):
Wow, what a great testimony. I think that God will continue to use your baseball background in the area of evangelism. There are several countries that really love baseball. One of those countries is the Dominican Republic. I’ve been down there before. They’ve got great pitchers coming out of the Dominican Republic, great hitters, and it’s really popular. They love baseball. And so if you ever have the opportunity to go to the Dominican Republic and you did a baseball camp or a seminar for baseball players, you’d fill up a stadium and then you could have a big graduation ceremony and invite all the parents and the entire city would come and you could fill up the stadium and preach the gospel to them using baseball as a means of attracting people. Because as evangelists, we’re fishermen, and so you got to look for the right bait to catch people.
(14:20):
And for some people, baseball is their life, and so that’s the right bait to catch them. Another country that loves baseball is Cuba. Cuba, all over Cuba. They’ve got these big baseball stadiums, and my dream someday is to fill up those baseball stadiums with people. And of course, right now with the government in Cuba the way it is, it’s not necessarily possible to do an outdoor gospel festival, but I believe the day is coming. I put it on my list of the top 10 places I want to preach before I die, and I got a picture of a Cuban baseball stadium. It’s kind of all worn out and built long time ago, but my goal is to go to Cuba and fill up those baseball stadiums. Maybe we can go together and do something
Derek Gaskill (15:11):
With
Evangelist Daniel King (15:12):
Jesus.
Derek Gaskill (15:13):
Amen. You’re reading my mind. I believe it’s going to happen. Amen. And I’ll share you something about the Dominican, Cuban, and some other Latin American countries and so on like Venezuela, Mexico, but especially the Dominican. Of course, I’ve played with a lot of those guys and they are no joke. They can play because of what you’re saying. So what I tell guys is I say, look, the biggest talent that God ever gave anyone is desire. If someone wants it more than anyone else, they’re eventually going to be better. Even if they’re the worst in the beginning, they just won’t stop getting better. They won’t give up. And so their biggest talent is their heart. But what I tell guys is your heart has to be in the right place though, because how are you going to know who you’re created to be if you don’t know your creator?
(16:06):
You have to know your creator. And it’s such a great idea. I can see it. A stadium full of people whose hearts are on fire for baseball. It’s the same thing. It’s the same type of hearts that if they hear the truth could be on fire for that as well. I’ve noticed that they go together a lot. And another thing I’ve noticed too is that when hearts are on fire, the Lord blesses it because it’s rooted in faith. And it’s like the Lord says, “That’s my boy right there. That’s my girl. I’m going to bless that. I’m going to bless them.” And I’ve seen it over and over again, and that’s why the Dominicans do so well. They want it, sadly, more than a lot of students I have here. They want it more, and so they do better. So we see that a lot.
Evangelist Daniel King (16:51):
Now, I got a question about presenting the gospel to professional athletes. To be a professional athlete takes a high degree of commitment, it takes a lot of work, and you’re competing against the very best in the world. And so professional athletes tend to be very driven, very motivated, and very focused on achieving their goals. And for someone like that, how do you present the gospel to them? Because often they’ve suddenly have these big paychecks, they’re living life to the fullest, but yet there’s something on the inside that every human being needs God. And so if you are presenting the gospel to a group of professional athletes, how would you tap in to speak to them in a way that they can understand you?
Derek Gaskill (17:49):
Such a great question. So going back, okay, so I came up rough, but then the Lord got me back into baseball. He used that to help save me and pull me out of junk, because when you have a vision, you don’t get distracted by things on the side. So even if there were things I normally would’ve been tempted to do, I won’t now because it doesn’t fit into baseball. And then my best friend’s dad became a pastor and he took us under his wings. And so everything he knew, he was teaching us. Anything, seminary, divinity, you name it, he’s pouring into us three, four, five nights and days a week, and it changed my whole life. And so then I would go back and play baseball with these guys at 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and I’m trying to witness to them, and I’m learning how to actually have a defense for what we believe.
(18:40):
So I’m reading every type of apologetic book you can think, but I started with Mere Christianity and then pouring through the Bible and learning. One of the things I started doing is I’d read Mere Christianity with someone on my heart that I was already witnessing to that had questions. And then I would highlight and write in the margins whatever the Lord told me for that person based on what I just read from C.S. Lewis. And then when I was done, I’d give them the book and I’d say, “Hey man, I’m sorry it’s all marked up, but here, this is a lot of what we talked about, and I saw one guy after another. I reeled them.” You talk about bait, right? I reeled them in, and then I would read it again for the next guy. And in the meantime, I’m reading it again, and the more you read that, the better.
(19:29):
But of course, I was reading the Bible more than anything. And so next thing I know, again, I’m praying, Lord, help me to see them the way you see them because the person I see, some of them I don’t like, I don’t like how they are, but when you see them through the eyes of Jesus, you see them as they were actually created how they were supposed to be, and you can only see them with compassion and love, and then you’re able to see their heart, and then you know it’s easier, the Lord will show you what to share with them. And then one person after another being led to Christ, and then you catch your groove and people would ask me stuff in a clubhouse, in a baseball clubhouse, and I answer one question, next thing I got someone else answering or asking a question and I’m answering that.
(20:18):
And then I’m surrounded by people, and inside I’m kind of freaking out. I’m like, “What is going on here?” But outwardly, I’m playing it off. “Lord, give me the words. Lord, give me the words.
(20:30):
“And of course, the powers that be didn’t like that, a lot of my coaches and all, and I found out later I actually was persecuted for my faith. They didn’t like it. They didn’t want a guy like me in New York City when they’re running around on their wives and doing steroids and everything else. And I think they thought I would’ve been a whistleblower type, and I wouldn’t have. I would’ve talked to him about the Lord. But that’s when I knew. So when the Lord said you’re an evangelist, I knew he meant it, but I just tried to ignore it. But they are the toughest people for me ever to witness to because you got these young ball players, they got the world on a string, they’re great athletes, they were the deal, they were it where they came from.
Evangelist Daniel King (21:17):
And
Derek Gaskill (21:19):
A lot of them were in these highly atheistic universities that try to reason God out of everything. And they got all these clever little bullets they think hold water, but they don’t, we know. And they’re coming at me with all these bullets, and I just kept coming back at them with the truth, the undeniable truth of the Lord. And so there’s a lot of stories out of that as well. Yeah. But it taught me a lot.
Evangelist Daniel King (21:48):
Yeah. Well, I know God can use baseball players who have a passion for evangelism. One of the most famous baseball evangelists in American history was the great evangelist, Billy Sunday. He was a professional baseball player, got saved, and used his fame to bring people to Jesus all across America. And so if God did it for Billy Sunday, God can do it for Derek Gaskill. And so Derek, if someone wants to know more about your ministry or invites you to come preach somewhere or to come do a baseball clinic to reach people for Jesus, what’s a good website where they can find out more information about you?
Derek Gaskill (22:36):
Well, so it’s my name, derekgaskill.com. We’re revamping it now more towards evangelism because we’re phasing in that direction. I think even my phone number’s been out there for a long time, so I believe my phone number’s still on there and email and so on. So any of those ways will do. I do have Instagram, even though I’m hardly ever on it, Instagram and Facebook. And so same spelling, obviously. And so yeah, any one of those ways will do it.
Evangelist Daniel King (23:07):
That’s awesome. Well, I believe God’s going to use you tremendously, and I believe that that vision that God gave you of massive crowds of people that you’re ministering to will come to pass, and you’re going to see tremendous fruit in your ministry. You’ll preach to bigger crowds than you played baseball for. Amen.
Derek Gaskill (23:31):
Amen.
Evangelist Daniel King (23:32):
Thank you so much. Thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Derek Gaskill (23:37):
Thank you. Thank you so much, Daniel. Appreciate it.
