Daniel Liberek is from the nation of Belgium and he leads the Global Evangelists Forum in Europe. On today’s Evangelism Podcast he talks about how his movement is training lay evangelists within the local churches of Europe. He shares his insights for reaching people for Jesus in the European context.
Connect with Daniel Liberek: http://liberek.net/
Learn about the Global Evangelists Forum: https://uwm.org/projects/65475/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Daniel Liberek is from the nation of Belgium and he leads the global evangelist forum in Europe. On today’s evangelism podcast. He talks about how his movement is training, lay evangelists within the local churches of Europe. He shares his insights for reaching people for Jesus. In the European context,
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:31):
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 (00:55):
Welcome to the evangelism podcast on Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a very special guest with me, Daniel lek from Belgium in Europe. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Daniel Liberek – Global Evangelists Forum (01:08):
Pleasure being here and pleasure meeting you the last few days.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:12):
Now you are helping to lead the global evangelist forum and you are raising up evangelist in the continent of Europe. Tell us, what is God doing in the area of evangelism in Europe?
Daniel Liberek – Global Evangelists Forum (01:26):
Well, about 20 years ago, we discovered that evangelism had fallen into distribute almost. It was not the fashion. It was on the order of the day. And so with a few friends the global evangelist forum was launched. Now. It was called the <inaudible> evangelist because it was a French speaking venture out of Belgium and France and Switzerland Quebec joined it joined pretty quickly. And our goal was to help local church pastors identify mobilize, train, and deploy local church evangelists in Ephesians. The Bible says that God gave to the church, obviously apostles prophets, pastors teaches and evangelists. And in many churches, pastors don’t have time or don’t know how to train the local church evangelists. So what we do with the forum of the evangelists, we tell pastors, send us your evangelists. We will train them. And then you can have them back to minister in the local church.
Daniel Liberek – Global Evangelists Forum (02:27):
We’re not trying to take anything away from the local church. We wanna invest in the local church. And so we started doing this through forums. These are times where we speak to the heart of the evangelists. We, we try to impart skills through workshops and we were doing this in Belgium, in France, in Switzerland. Then quickly, we moved to Africa in many countries in Africa, all in French. And we liked the specificity of having this in French for French speaking people, but then English speaking countries came knocking on the door and suddenly we became the global evangelist forum moving into some of the English speaking African countries. It was going great. COVID hit which has made it hard. It’s difficult for evangelists to be mentored, to be trained without contact evangelists. I, I think I could say are by nature very personal people.
Daniel Liberek – Global Evangelists Forum (03:23):
They like contact. They like to be with people. And so not being able to mentor in a personal way was difficult, especially the forum also establishes mentoring communities. So we think evangelists need to be mentored, not simply trained, but mentored, not coached mentored. And we try to establish vertical relationships. So we try to pair an evangelist with a younger evangelist, but also horizontal mentoring relationship relationships. We try to get four or 5, 6, 10 evangelists that are about the same age do the same kind of ministries in a supporting group. And so they can share difficulties, problems, solutions. Sometimes they can share platforms and different things. In evangelism.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:16):
Now you are specifically working to help develop evangelists that are sharing their faith. One on one in the context of the, the local church. And, and, and tell us what are some of the, the methods that you teach them that you feel are so important for evangelists to learn, to be able to do that?
Daniel Liberek – Global Evangelists Forum (04:40):
Well, it’s important for us to realize that doing evangelism should be natural. It’s not something that we put on suddenly that sometimes I, I interview missionaries or missionary candidates. And I, I ask them one of my first questions. When is the last time you share the gospel? Because sometimes you get in our minds. If I fly 3000 miles, suddenly I’m an evangelist. No, that ain’t true. If I’m not an evangelist here, why would, would I be an evangelist across the ocean? So we have to think that Evangel being an evangelist is a way of life. It’s like breathing now in the church. I, I distinguish between regular church, people who are witnesses of what Christ has done and evangelists, those that God has given to the church. He has imparted special gifts and he’s put a seal on them to be evangelists.
Daniel Liberek – Global Evangelists Forum (05:36):
And it’s, it’s a fabulous vocation. My father was a pastor evangelist, and I guess I was infected because that’s what I became. And now our youngest son, Timothy is is an evangelist. Now he’s also a platform evangelist, but he’s an evangelist in his life. Always inviting people to his home, always trying to see, to share the gospel. It’s the way also I live now, when I go to my barber and I go to the same barber, I have gone to the same barber for over 20 years. Maybe I should change. Some people will say, but Hey, that’s the way I like it. So I, I just go there. He’s not a believer yet, but every time I go, I plan ahead in my mind, how am I gonna steer at this conversation? Which questions am I gonna share? Okay. Where have I been? So next time I’ll go.
Daniel Liberek – Global Evangelists Forum (06:23):
I probably will talk about being in Portland, being with evangelists. And somehow I’ll try to have him ask me a question about what evangelists are. I want to be in charge of the conversation, but in a discrete way, always planning ahead. Now, if the weather’s very bad, what kind of greeting am I, am I gonna share? When I walk into a store, I’m gonna share something that will elicit a response. It’s like the Lord said we have to be salt. So I’m trying, how can I be salty and create a response from the people? It’s a way of looking at reality and everything we do to be an evangelist is always looking for the open door and trying to create the open window so that, that we can share. Now, the Bible says that we evangelists have been given to the church, not simply to evangelize outside of the church.
Daniel Liberek – Global Evangelists Forum (07:19):
Efficient chapter four says that we have been given to the church for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry. So evangelists in the local church have the responsibility to partner with the, the local body of believers. And we should do team. I often encourage church members if they have a barbecue and they’re inviting friends, why not invite one of the church evangelists? Not so he can lay it on people. That’s not the goal. Evangelists ought to be very sensitive people. I remember a couple that came to, to Belgium. They were evangelists and they wanted to evangelize. They didn’t speak any French. And after a couple days I noticed they were going downtown and they would talk to people and they would corner them and they wouldn’t let them get away. I actually saw them push people into a corner and they were sharing the gospel to me.
Daniel Liberek – Global Evangelists Forum (08:17):
That’s not evangelism, that’s proselytizing. Maybe it’s imposing on people. And it gave out George a bad name because we were not respectful. Evangelists ought to be very sensitive to where a person is at and lead them little by little. My barber is still not a believer. And it took about 15 years for him to ask me questions. Some people will say, well, he’s a very bad evangelist. Well, Barbara’s, you know, Barbara’s, they can talk about anything and they never take a position. And that was my barber. He would cut my hair and we’d talk about politics. We’d talk about everything under the sun, but he’s always very neutral. And that was the way with faith. But finally, after about 15 years, he started asking questions and I’ve had the opportunity to share the gospel, not once, but several times. And I’m longing for, for the day when I’ll call him, my brother and Christ might take another five years. Might take more, but I, I I’m. I will be there gently prodding, gently pushing to share the gospel with him.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:25):
Let’s talk about evangelism in the local church, because not only do you lead the global evangelist forum, but you also pastor a local church there in Belgium, how can a pastor empower the believers in the church to do evangelism and to share their faith?
Daniel Liberek – Global Evangelists Forum (09:48):
As I said, it’s all a matter of partnership. I’m the local church pastor. Now, for example, on Sundays after the sermon, I will be at the door, shaking hands and greeting people. I mean, it’s like 30 seconds, 25 seconds with all the people that come by, because there’s always a cue and people want to get out. What, what I’ve done is I know my evangelist in the church. And if there’s a visitor, obviously I will have gone ahead of time. Introduce myself. I, I will have met the person, tried to get a bit of information, but as the person is coming out, we serve coffee. After church and tea, they don’t wanna stay. They wanna get out. They’ve had their first dose of Christianity and they just wanna get out where it’s safe, but I’ll call one of my evangelists and I’ll say, Hey, John, meet Peter here. It’s the first time. And suddenly there’s another link and we have trained them on what to do. You know, you can ask, you ask a few questions about their life, where they work and this and that. And they say, can I ask you a, a more personal question? Is there anything I can pray for you about
Daniel Liberek – Global Evangelists Forum (11:00):
Praying even for regular needs, from physical needs for medical needs touches the person in his heart, because someone cares enough to ask and to pray, but you, if the person says, well, you now have this medical appointment on Thursday, or can I call you on Friday to know how it went? What have we done created a link. We get a phone number and it’s all this partnership. We have a large food bank at the church I pastor. So we have a lot of people who are doing administrative stuff. They are taking names of people filling out the forms, giving out the, the boxes. But we have evangelists who will come. They’re not involved in any of the administrative stuff. They’re just walking around. They’re on the street where the queue is formed and they’re talking to people. So we wanna strategically place our evangelists in the position where they can be very helpful.
Daniel Liberek – Global Evangelists Forum (11:53):
We also tell our church people, Hey, you’re talking to your neighbor and you’re not making any headways. Talk to one of our evangelists, go to some of the church evangelists and ask them, do you have any, any any clues for me? Do you have resources? So while I I’m talking to this atheist and I, I just don’t know how to go. Oh, I read this book it’s called that reason is not enough. Oh, why don’t you read it? So we try to always encourage partnership between those who are witnesses, the regular church people and the evangelists. And obviously as a local shorts pastor, I will often say things from the pulpit. My, my sermons will be into sports with anecdotes, some of my mistakes. And I sure make many mistakes as an evangelist. I, I missed, I miss open doors. I remember one Sunday. I, I went to get food at a store and I do that before the service, I have to pick up all the leftover bread day, old bread and all that. And the lady knows I’m a pastor I’ve, I’ve seen her weekend, week after week. And she asked me a question. She said, what is the difference between your view of extreme function and the Catholic church’s view of extreme function?
Daniel Liberek – Global Evangelists Forum (13:20):
And immediately the theologian in me said, oh, I’ve gotta prove I’ve got my doctorate. So I, I formed this this speech in my mind. And I shared with her the difference and how James chapter five or 13. And she was quiet after that greeted her went, and it was, I got back to the church, unloaded the car. And it was like, the holy spirit hit me with a two by four. Why did she ask that question? Was she looking for the theological answer? Very few people are looking for a theological answer theologians mainly but regular people. They have an existential question and the holy spirit told me go back. So I told the guys, if I’m not back start the service it’s okay. People are more important than the service aren’t they? So I went back to the store and there she was.
Daniel Liberek – Global Evangelists Forum (14:15):
And I said, Hey, I’m so sorry. I, I missed something. Why were you asking this? And she started sharing about her grandfather, who was at the point of death, started crying there. And I was able to share a little bit with her of the gospel, who cares about extreme when we have extreme salvation <laugh>. And so it opened the door. I was able to I had brought with me a couple gospels. So I, I gave those to her and we’re continuing the dialogue. I see her a few minutes every Sunday, except the summer she’s on vacation. So I’m looking forward to September, her grandfather passed away, but the grandmother is open to the gospel. She’s been reading the, the new Testament. I mean, it’s a matter of listening to the voice of the spirit and partnering for evangelism.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:06):
Let’s talk about Europe. Some have said that Europe is a post-Christian continent, but I say that Europe can once again be a Christian continent with people full full of people that love Jesus and, and, but methods are different in EV every nation. And so when we go to Africa, there’s certain methods that we use for evangelism, but tho those methods are different in, in Africa or in central America. What do you see that will work to draw European people often very well educated, sometimes very skeptical often atheist or and, and don’t want anything to do with organized religion. What can an evangelist do to, to reach out to these people in Europe?
Daniel Liberek – Global Evangelists Forum (15:58):
We have to live it. That is the first thing my father was an evangelist. He helped to plant several churches and we would go in with a popup tent. We had what we call the mobile chapel. It was on a trailer and we’d pop it out and we’d, we’d have a chapel. And so we would go to a town where there was no evangelical witness. And we still have towns in Belgium where it’s not a single church. I mean, that’s in, in the middle of Europe, we would go preach for three weeks, four weeks, do an extensive crusade. And then hopefully there was AEUs of 10, 15 people. And the church was born nowadays. If I go on the town square and I put up a big screen and I say, Hey tonight, we’re gonna have a the showing of a movie people young, because they have Netflix, they have 25 channels.
Daniel Liberek – Global Evangelists Forum (16:49):
They can have movies day in, day out, all day long. If they want it doesn’t appeal. Or if we come and say, well, we’re gonna have a preaching of the gospel tonight. Not interested. We’ve had scandal up on scandal in Europe as in the us with one church or the other. It doesn’t matter. It affects all of us when there is a scandal. So what we’ve in many, in many places, what we’ve done is to transform the local church into a powerful evangelizing tool. Now there is room for crusades, and I I’m so glad that you are involved in these powerful crusades, but it has to come on the back of regular witnessing by the local church. If the local church says we’re gonna do evangelism, let’s have a crusade. It doesn’t work that way. We have to sew and water for the reaping to happen. So we try to set up the life of the church as a witnessing pulsating life, everything in the church. I, I look at every every message, every service will the gospel be presented today. It might be through communion. It might be through some of the songs and the introduction, introduction to a song, but the gospel is gonna be presented every time we meet. I mean, sometimes I joke, you know, even in the bathrooms, you can have a sign, don’t forget to flush. Remember your sins can be flushed away by the
Daniel Liberek – Global Evangelists Forum (18:20):
Let’s try to have everything. I remember a lady that came to Christ through one of our prayer meetings. She, she realized that on, on the street where she lives, there was this group meeting every Wednesday morning, there were mothers of teenagers. She had concerns. She came and through a prayer meeting, she came to accept the Lord. So if we infuse everything we do with the gospel, it is a powerful witness. Now I don’t condemn any method. As long as it’s biblical ethical. And the gospel is clearly presented, but I think the life of a body, the community of believers as we live the gospel out is one of the most powerful tools. And then as we intentionally make friendships, where in the lives of people were concerned about them were giving were just unusual. I remember one day I was I was leaving and this big car came next to mine and I thought, he’s blocking me, come on, get out of the way I need to go. Window rolls down. And it’s the mayor of our city.
Daniel Liberek – Global Evangelists Forum (19:28):
Now he’s not in the faith. He’s strong, socialist, pretty much. Anti-Religion says, I want to thank you, pastor, because of all that you’re doing, we don’t know what we be, what we do in our city without you and your food bank, our works are being seen, and they’re creating a platform to share the gospel. Our words come on top of our works. And as we share it is noticed in our city that’s the value O O of a local church that is intent on sharing the gospel. I often tell people know the church doesn’t exist for us. It exists for those who, who are not part of it yet.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:11):
Well, thank you so much for being on the evangelism podcast. If someone wants to find out more information about the global evangelist forum and get connected to what you’re doing in your training what is your website? What is a way for them to be in touch with you?
Daniel Liberek – Global Evangelists Forum (20:28):
Probably the easiest way would be to go to my own personal webpage and send us a message. It’s L I B as in boy, E R E k.net, L I B E R E k.net.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:41):
Wonderful. Well, thank you for sharing. And I am praying for Europe to be saved in Jesus’s name.
Daniel Liberek – Global Evangelists Forum (20:50):
Amen. Made the Lord move powerfully like he did in the past. I mean, there were dark days. I remember even in Belgium when the gospel was destroyed by persecution and the inquisition, but during the, after the first world war, there was a powerful movement. The second world war stopped it. So I’m looking for another powerful move of God in Belgium.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:13):
May it be Jesus in Jesus’ name? 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 (22:34):
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