Pastor Jose Zayas leads a church in Portland, OR, but he has a strong calling on his life for evangelism. Today we talk about how to equip the local church to reach people for Jesus. We talk about creating a culture of evangelism in the church by encouraging members to share their faith and inviting people into their homes for discussion and connection. We also talk about Pastor Jose’s process for putting together an evangelistic sermon.
Learn more about Jose Zayas: https://www.josezayas.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 and good friend with me, Jose Zayas. Thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast
Pastor Jose Zayas (00:12):
Daniel King. It’s an honor. It really is.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:14):
So you are a pastor and an evangelist, you pastor in the Portland, Oregon area, which is one of the great mission fields of the United States.
Pastor Jose Zayas (00:26):
It’s not the Bible belt.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:27):
It’s not the Bible belt, but you’ve been involved in evangelism for many years and we’re here together in Zimbabwe this week with the global network of evangelists. Both you and I serve helping to, I forget what they call us. We’re the global council or global, it’s something
Pastor Jose Zayas (00:49):
Cabinet.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:49):
Cabinet,
Pastor Jose Zayas (00:49):
Something like that. Yeah. We’re the hangout crew to help just give oversight and guidance as to where
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:55):
It’s, but it has been wonderful being part of the global network of evangelists because their goal is to bring evangelists together to collaborate with many different expressions of the gospel, but with one message. Yeah,
Pastor Jose Zayas (01:12):
Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:13):
So you kind of grew up spiritually under the Louis Palau organization helping to organize events for Louis Palau. Kind of talk to me how that happened. You were a student at Oral Roberts University?
Pastor Jose Zayas (01:29):
Yeah, I was a student studying evangelism and just this passion to share the gospel. But I think you can attest to it when you’re in school, you have all the drive, the passion, you’re getting some foundation tools, but I felt like by the time I was leaving, there was so much more to learn. So my prayer, when people ask me in my senior year, what are going to do next? I’m like, well, more study. I feel like there’s more to learn, or I’m praying that the Lord would connect me with someone who’s doing it because I think things are better caught than just taught. And that’s when Luis Palau came to Tulsa in 1994 to do one of his crusades. And to me that was the aha. My wife and I were in a church that was involved in one of the partner churches, and I’m like, I’m going to go. So I volunteered, did an internship and learned everything I could and fell in love with how they were approaching it. And God opened the door. By the time the actual outreach happened, October in 94, I was finishing the spring of 95. They actually hired me the day after graduation to say, we want to take you on the team and use your gifts to help us reach more people.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:41):
And so what were some of the things that you learned from being around Louise Palau? He was a great evangelist.
Pastor Jose Zayas (02:49):
Yeah, there’s too many, but a few that just stick out. He was a lifelong learner, and so he learned a lot of his methodology from Billy Graham and other teams doing it. So he was humble enough to say, there’s more to learn and you can always grow. And so innovation has always been a part of their ministry. And so just because we’ve done it doesn’t mean we need to always do it exactly the same way that’s in their DNA. And I learned that from Luis Palau. I think a love of the local church. It was never about the event. It was never just about numbers. It’s always about how can we bless the local church, build a local church and equip the local church for ongoing evangelism. And I think just the simplicity of the gospel. So many organizations in a sense try to do too much like this. One thing we do preach the
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:51):
Gospel, the simple gospel and keep preaching the same message over and over again.
Pastor Jose Zayas (03:55):
He had, and it was some British or Scottish quote that he had in his office. God loves it when people speak well of his son. God loves it when people speak well of Jesus and he called it, we need to keep preaching the same old thing, not like the gospel’s old and relevant, but people are looking for the new thing. No, we need to keep preaching the good news, which is the same old thing which people have been sharing for 2000 years until it’s dying day. He kept it to the same old thing, which is not old. But yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:38):
Now you bring a unique perspective to evangelism. You’ve been involved in evangelism for many years and now you’re serving as a pastor. Where do you see that partnership between the evangelist and the pastor? What should that look
Pastor Jose Zayas (04:54):
Like? Yeah, I think, and again, I learned this from Luis Palau, that evangelist has a responsibility to the local church and whatever happens out of their life and ministry, it begins and ends with a real connection to the local church. So for me, the story started, I was just an evangelist traveling our own ministry, but loved, supported by my local church, and I was on the preaching team and they had me do all the evangelistic preaching in our year long. They invited me to do it. So that relationship within the local church wasn’t new, but when our church exploded with growth, the spirit was moving, people getting saved, left and right. Church planting within our city became a reality, and they’d invited my wife and I to help lead one of these new church plants. So for me, I didn’t go into it saying, I’m going to pastor and be an evangelist. It was more of, I just want to bless my uncle church.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:49):
That was it.
Pastor Jose Zayas (05:51):
And I think that no matter what it looks like an evangelist without a deep connection to a local church ends up being a danger for them and for the local church, because an evangelist brings a unique blessing calling insight, wisdom, emphasis like passion for the gospel. So I would say for one to every church pastor, where are your evangelists? Now, they may not all be in your local church, all members and growing there, but there ought to be two, three, at least one evangelists that you’re a partner with all the time because God gives all the gifts for the building up of the whole body. And a church without an evangelist connection is only going to stunt their growth and blessing. So there ought to be a deep connection from the pastor. Where are your evangelists? If they’re in-house better, if they’re also partners and guests, great.
(06:54):
And to the evangelist, likewise, where are you submitted? Where are you growing? Where’s your family? Where are you tithing? Who knows your name? Who knows your name? And who’s praying for you when you’re gone? Who knows where you are, what you’re doing and is interceding for you? My whole life, I don’t say it as a boast, but I learned it from Luis. He was connected to his local church from the beginning to his dying day. And for him, he was the same church. He was planted in the same church for 40 plus years. And I would say with passion, I’ve always had that. Now it just turns out I get the blessing of doing both shepherding, guiding a church. But funny thing, Daniel, I do it from the seed of the evangelist in that there needs to be multiple perspective leadership in Mary Church, you ought to have prophetic, you ought to have equipping and teaching. You ought to have evangelistic, you got to have care. All those Ephesians four gifts need to be expressed. But when we’re in our church, I actually sit in the seat of thinking as the evangelists. But on our team and on our elders and on our staff, we have shepherds teachers
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:08):
To kind of bring balance. Because if you have too much in one gift, the church becomes unbalanced. And it could be unbalanced on evangelism or it could be unbalanced in teaching. And so God gives all the
Pastor Jose Zayas (08:21):
Gifts he does
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:22):
For the edification of the saints and equipping them for ministry.
Pastor Jose Zayas (08:25):
Exactly.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:25):
And we need all of them. So in your church, what does the evangelism component look like of what you do? What are some of the unique ways that you reach out to your community?
Pastor Jose Zayas (08:35):
I just want everyone able and willing, the passionate to share Jesus. So the simplest strategy is in sharing the gospel all the time and making the gospel ordinary language. We want to model and teach. Everyone has the good news and everyone could do it. So our strategy isn’t much event as it is. Who’s on your list? Who are you praying for? Who are you inviting into? And for us as a culture and our church, because Portland’s a very cynical culture, most of our entree to people come to our church is actually coming to someone’s home first. So we’re big on groups. 85% of the people who come on Sunday are in an active group in a home. And so we use the message on Sunday as the tool for conversation in homes. And the goal is invite your neighbor into that conversation. And because we’re all digital and coming, hey, just invite. You’re going to listen to what happened, and let’s have a conversation about the Bible. Bring your questions, bring your doubts. So people often are in someone’s home. And I think the gift of hospitality, a meal together, the life on life, the kids playing together is the bridge, especially in a secular and a skeptical culture like Portland. And so most people end up in a home and then out of that start watching online
(10:00):
And then end up feeling the confidence to come. And we also use tools like Alpha where it’s conversational based. And the majority of the people actually come to Christ though are through our youth group, which is the most healthy sign. And students, inviting students doing the same thing, inviting ’em in their house, inviting ’em to hang out, inviting ’em to youth group, inviting ’em to camps, inviting ’em to concerts, invite. So it’s a mix of relationship and invitation.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:26):
And you really create, which is the same old thing, you create a culture where you celebrate that and encourage people
Pastor Jose Zayas (10:31):
To reach out, celebrate. And we’re given the gospel all the time and every Sunday, even though we do it through the avenue of prayer, rather than come to Christ and do this, it’s hey, begins with following Jesus. And so part of our worship is we pray for one another. And so this morning or whatever, if you would like to receive prayer for anything, there’s a struggle in your family. There’s a struggle in your soul if you would like to start following Jesus. And we do it through prayer team, I think it’s really key. I want people in our church leading them to faith. So I’ll give the gospel. But I think the joy is like if you’re a part of our church, and man, you didn’t get the chance to share it from the stage, I want you Daniel, to have that celebration of Mark May have come to receive prayer, but the first question our prayer team is going to ask is, how long have you been following Jesus?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:29):
Yeah, that’s the most important question there
Pastor Jose Zayas (11:31):
Is. And I had love to pray for you. How long have you been following Jesus? Well, it hasn’t started. Well, can I just remind you what Jose just said? And it’s that culture of expectation and anyone could do that. And I love that I get to do both. I get to do big evangelism like this and also get to do it week by week in the local church.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:57):
So you’re going to be preaching the gospel one of the nights here in Zimbabwe. Give us a little preview, a nugget of what you’re going to talk about and how you pull people to Jesus.
Pastor Jose Zayas (12:09):
Yeah, that’s a good question. I always come with four or five messages stirring in your heart. Partly, I can’t answer it in that we heard from Paul last night, we’re going to hear from Bob tonight. I want to see where they’re at and then pick up in a sense, not do the same exact text or whatever, but to me it’s through story. So I think as of now, it will be my worst day and my best day. And they actually got combined on the same day. That’s the hook. So I’ll talk about, well
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:44):
That’s intriguing. What’s your worst day? What’s your best day?
Pastor Jose Zayas (12:46):
Well, you have to come, you have to listen. So I’ll start with some of the hard moments of my life, and I’ll throw a picture on the screen of an image like, lemme tell you what happened there, and then lemme tell you what happened. People can identify with struggle, especially if you’re coming from a Western context, people might assume you have it all.
(13:08):
So I’ll start with like, man, have you ever been in the spot? Or Hey, have you ever experienced? And that to me, grabs the identity clear statement from Jesus. More than likely it’ll be John 10, 10, there’s a thief. It comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Unless Bob preaches on that tonight. Then you flip it, but simple pointed what Jesus said and then unpack that in story. So lemme tell you what the thief, what happened, which was my worst day. And the thief wanted to steal, kill, and destroy my wife. But she said, I’ve come to give you life and life to the full. Explain what happened to her. And then use that visual and that illustration to remind people what everyone needs to know, created to know God. Sins broken that down. But God’s been after us chasing, wanting to rescue. And we can know it and see it because he sent his very best himself, his son Jesus.
(14:17):
And Jesus died rose again. So I try not to read too much text because in a field, I don’t know if they’ve been to church, I don’t know if they know the Bible, but I want ’em to hang on to one small statement or one small story illustrated through my life. And what do we need to do? We need to receive. And when’s the time to do it now because life and death isn’t how we respond. And it happens that my wife almost died in the hospital and it was the gift that a doctor brought in that she received that gave her new life. So I think visuals help, which you’re such a visual illustrative preacher, so that seems to be your mojo too.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:03):
Yeah. Thank you so much for walking us through that process of how you build a sermon. And I think there’s several elements there that are so important. Putting your own story in it. You’re not just yelling at people, you’re like, this is what is real to me. And then tying it into the gospel. And then I think one of the most important things for every evangelist is to that have that moment where you’re calling people to make a decision. If you don’t call them to decision, what’s the point? And say, apply this to your life. Are you ready right now to cry out to Jesus?
Pastor Jose Zayas (15:38):
Yeah. And depending on the story and people’s background, or if you’re telling someone else’s story, in one sense, the best is personal. My wife received a blood transfusion and it literally saved her life. And it was the gift someone else before my wife was sick, lovingly gave of themself so that at the right time, if my wife,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:05):
The blood saved her
Pastor Jose Zayas (16:06):
Would receive. And it was someone else’s blood that matched her type. So what did she do? She received the gift. She had passed out, but if she didn’t receive that gift, she literally would not be here today. And so God already did everything to say this.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:26):
Wow.
Pastor Jose Zayas (16:27):
But it’s not until the moment where we receive him to those who receive him, to those who call on his name, and Jesus has given his blood, he’s already given it, and it matches our type. It fits. He knows, I mean, the Bible says he understand. He was acquainted with all of our sufferings. He understands exactly what we’ve been going through. Yet his pure life giving blood can change anyway. So I don’t always preach that message, but the same process goes through.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:00):
Yeah, that’s really valuable to think about how you bring a message into being. Yeah.
Pastor Jose Zayas (17:06):
And frankly, I learned it. If you heard Luis’s preaching, it was always personal. It was always story form, and it really focused on the cross and resurrection. He illustrated that more than anything. And so I think as evangelists, we got to think through, we know the gospel, but to the person who doesn’t know it, how can we make it clear? And you’re right, call for a response
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:38):
And relating it to their life so it’s not just an abstract thing. It’s something like that can really help them in their life.
Pastor Jose Zayas (17:45):
Jesus said, the kingdom of God is like,
(17:46):
And then depending on his audience, he flipped the illustrations. He so many illustrations on what the kingdom was like, you think? Is he schizophrenic? No, we forget. He was talking to actionable. He was talking to farmers in farm language. He was talking to sheep herders in sheep language. And so I think his evangelists, we need to think of where are people at and how do I take the real truth of the gospel and so make it vivid that they’re almost, I want the audience to almost be saying, why in the world would I not go this way? Now the spirit does the drawing, but it’s my privilege and your privilege to think through so that it’s so like ding, ding, ding, ding.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:38):
Yeah,
Pastor Jose Zayas (18:38):
Why wouldn’t I say yes to that right now? Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:41):
Amen.
Pastor Jose Zayas (18:41):
Are you ready, Daniel?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:42):
I’m ready. That’s right. Well, this morning when you were doing devotions for the whole team, Desmond Henry leaned over to me, he’s like, Hey, he’s doing pretty good for an OU grad. What is that? So I’m an OU grad too. So I think he was teasing me a little bit. But you’re doing a great job. It’s such an honor to be friends and to serve with you in so many different places and countries. And
Pastor Jose Zayas (19:09):
It’s
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:09):
Neat to see what God is doing.
Pastor Jose Zayas (19:10):
It is, if I could just take a second what you are. I’ve seen Daniel preach in the school and take a rowdy crowd and have him at the drop of the hat. If you actually haven’t taken the time to hear Daniel preach, I would just say to those watching or listening, get behind this man because the gift and the call and your passion, every time I see, it’s like you’re the first person to talk, the person who’s responding, the first person to jump in, the first person to say yes, and go do it. And you ought to get behind the people with that kind of heart and passion. And if you’re not supporting King Ministries or if you’re doing it at a low level, I would just encourage and challenge you to say, what can we do more to make sure that ministries like this are making a difference? Because there aren’t that many who are just preaching a straight gospel with power. And so you didn’t ask me to say that, but seriously, when you find anointed ministries, get behind them. And it not only blesses him and the world, but it actually blesses our own life when we’re partnering with things that are producing fruit. And so get behind them and get behind the ministry.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:24):
Well, thank you so much for your kind words, and thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Pastor Jose Zayas (20:28):
Love it. Thank you.
