Charlie Marq is from the ministry Forge. Today we discuss their work in equipping evangelists and everyday believers to share their faith and engage in missions work, particularly in reaching unreached people groups.
Learn more about Forge: https://www.forgeforward.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 with me, Charlie Mark, from a ministry called Forge. Thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Charlie Marq – Forge (00:13):
Thank you so much. I’m so glad to be here with you. So appreciate it.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:16):
We are here in Zimbabwe together, we just met and it’s really been a lot of fun, ministering together. We’ve been out on the gospel
(00:27):
Truck for a few days, going out into the neighborhoods, preaching the gospel and ministering to people, praying for people out there. And we’ve seen God do good things. And then at the festival every night, thousands of people coming to hear the good news. And today we did a children’s event and you had a good illustration. You put two sticks on the ground and challenge kids to jump across the gap and then you widen it wide it until they couldn’t cross the gap. And you use that as an illustration to show that all of us need help in order to get to heaven, to get across the gap of sin. So Charlie, tell us a little bit about Forge and what you do.
Charlie Marq – Forge (01:16):
Sure. Well, forge started in 1986 as Kingdom Building Ministries. God had led my father-in-law, Dwight Robertson, to kind of launch the ministry. And our vision has been the same from the very beginning. It’s really to see a global movement of more kingdom laborers engaging every sphere of society for Christ. And we really believe that the type of people that Jesus called to follow him in the gospels were ordinary people. He didn’t go after the leading synagogue leaders and others who were highly especially trained, but fishermen, business people, tax collectors, working for the government, political revolutionaries, I mean people in everyday places in society. And these are the types of people that he called up close to him to change the world. And so we want to see those types of people sent out into harvest fields everywhere. So that’s really our big picture vision. And we do that through calling people up close to Christ and then equipping them to advance the kingdom in their everyday places through a team of evangelists or speakers, equipping opportunities and discipleship resources.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:18):
And so you are equipping evangelists to publicly share their faith, basically anybody that invites you or anywhere you can go to preach Jesus,
Charlie Marq – Forge (02:28):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:28):
You’re training them up to go out. What does that training look like? How do you equip people?
Charlie Marq – Forge (02:34):
That’s a great question. So there’s a variety of equipping we do, but there’s really two kind of key different ones, or I’ll say three. One is for those who feel called to be an evangelist or an itinerant speaker from place to place, it’s a two year apprenticeship for those to say, Hey, how do I become an evangelist and do that?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:53):
So what does that two year apprenticeship look like?
Charlie Marq – Forge (02:57):
It’s a variety of things. Everything from reading books that are more practically based and going to build their faith and look at people throughout history, biographies or practical books on preaching, there are sermons that they have to write based on certain topics, so evangelistic sermons, camp sermons, and then also equipping sermons to equip believers. So they’ve got to write those and then they preach them at intensives throughout the year and get critiqued on them. So we’ll sit in a room, they’ll preach, they’ll do it. There’s other activities like they needed to do street preaching once they need to go speak for a church service or a camp, a variety of different ministry activities. So that’s kind of what that looks like. And then as far as the everyday believer, there’s a lot of training and focus in the Christian world, so to speak, globally on church leadership and pastors. But we find that the ordinary person church attendee feels ill-equipped. And so we really do exist also for them. And so we come alongside churches and ministries to say, Hey, we’ll provide equipping a life on purpose conference to train your church or a group of churches your everyday believers. And it’s incredible what God’s doing. We just simply say, Hey, I mean if you find forged content online, you’re going to see that we copyrighted most of it straight from Jesus. We just took it. He is like, alright. So we took that in. Jesus’s
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:19):
Copyright is like, if you’re going to copy it, make sure you copy it. Right,
Charlie Marq – Forge (04:23):
Exactly. So what did he model? He modeled a life up close to people. And we say in the mainstreams everyday places, one life at a time. He’s willing to stop all along the way, people this week here in Zimbabwe have said, Hey, we care about the one, we care about the one Jesus cared about the one. And so we equip people to say, Hey, do that. And what did Jesus do to fulfill that? He would see people stop and spend time. We would literally in the conference, see stop spend time with. And as you spend time with people, you have stories to share. We say, Hey, how has God shown up in your life? Share that. Just share, see, stop spend time and share your God story with people. In doing so, you can invite them also to have, Hey, you can have that in your life as well.
(05:05):
And so that’s kind of a very brief overview of that equipping. But what we found is believers being ignited and empowered. There was a CEO of seven different companies that he runs. Came to one of these trainings at the Billy Graham Library that we hosted and just ignited. Him and his wife went on vacation and they reported back like we’re leading people to Christ on vacation. We never thought we could do this. And he’s like, this is influencing my business. And I think all CEOs need to get this ingrained into their businesses, into their everyday spheres of influence. So it kind of looks like those kind of entities. And then we also have other programming for young adults intensive, like two week up to month and a half program where they can take these concepts but practice them together, put them into action in a variety of places.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:53):
How do people get connected to your program? You have these different apprentices that come. How do you find them and decide to a great question, decide to be discipled?
Charlie Marq – Forge (06:05):
Okay. So as far as, I guess it’s kind of the same whether somebody’s looking to be a speaker or somebody’s like, Hey, I’m a young adult, I want to get on fire for Jesus. Or I’m a church leader and I want my church to be equipped. They find us online or through relationship. We have a team of about 20 speakers. And so when we’re out on the road speaking for camps, retreats, conferences, evangelistic, crusades, you name it, people say, Hey, we like you guys, could you come here? Could you come there? And so really just word of mouth, since 1986 to now, 39 years has mostly been just word of mouth.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:42):
And you are also going into different nations around the world, and you’ve developed strategies for reaching into some very unreached places. Tell me some of where you’re working and what you’ve seen God do.
Charlie Marq – Forge (06:58):
Yeah, so we’ve been in many, many nations, probably well over a hundred throughout our history, but most recently really working in about 20 or so over the last five years. And seeing Jesus just blow our minds. I’m amazed thank him for what he’s doing. I think it’s a revival awakening season. But for example, in Pakistan, there are a high number of not just evangelized regions, but still ethnic people, groups that are 0% Christian, whole tribes, whole valleys, whole regions of people never heard of the gospel. And so God burned Pakistan in our hearts a number of years back about four or five years ago. And so we just went with this vision of raising up more kingdom laborers, ordinary people getting into the harvest. And also what about targeting the unreached people groups? And so God ignited a movement by casting this vision and equipping the churches and challenging them to get outside their four walls and into the everyday places where people don’t know Jesus and what’s really being effective in the Muslim world.
(08:04):
And some of these tough places like Somalia, like Pakistan, where we’re seeing a lot of people come to Christ out of Islam and out of strict, even terrorism. Islam is the love of Jesus. There are people who just see stop, spend time with them authentically care about their life, provide for their needs, meet them at their point of need as a labor saying, I’ll just roll up my sleeves and do what is in front of me. And they’re saying, we want to know about your Jesus now. And so for the sake of security, I’m not going to share exact regions or names of people groups on this, but there’s, I’ll say, scores of people, groups that were 0% Christian just a couple years ago now all have believers among ’em. One particular one went from 0% Christian to 28% Christian in six months.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:51):
Wow. Praise
Charlie Marq – Forge (08:52):
God. Just multiplied. We believe in every life from day one has the opportunity, like the woman at the well or the man with the legion of demons, they encounter Jesus. And from day one, Hey, you can go and share in your village and reach your people and reach your community. And just this ripple effect of dominoes, you may impact Juan, but what’s the next one that comes after?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:13):
Yeah. What are some of the other nations that you have personally visited and share with me some testimonies of what you’ve seen God do.
Charlie Marq – Forge (09:23):
Let’s see. I’ve been to about 30 some now.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:27):
What have you done this year? Let’s talk about,
Charlie Marq – Forge (09:29):
There we go. Yeah. What’s been happening recently, all. So a couple of recent things that have been really incredible in East Africa, we did an evangelistic outreach and had about 20,000 people come. And amazingly almost 4,900 gave their lives to Christ.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:45):
Wow.
Charlie Marq – Forge (09:46):
First time decisions.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:48):
Which country was that? In
Charlie Marq – Forge (09:49):
Kenya.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:49):
In Kenya. Wow.
Charlie Marq – Forge (09:50):
And yeah, I’m western Kenya. That’s amazing.
(09:53):
And I love the, we talk about one life, the individual testimonies. There was a gang member, his wife was killed, a bunch of his friends were gunned down by the police. He was going to commit suicide. And so he was on his way to go commit suicide, passed by the field where this event was happening and decided to stick around, gave his life to Christ, and now has led several other gang members to Christ. There was a girl, because of the shame, unmarried was going to go get an abortion, ended up at this event on the field, gave her life to Christ now has a baby.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:25):
Wow.
Charlie Marq – Forge (10:26):
And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:27):
Incredible two lives there.
Charlie Marq – Forge (10:28):
Yeah. Hey, that works. And then the other noteworthy, one out of that would be a witch doctor went to that field ahead of time to put curses on the field for the event to fail. And so he came during the event to see how well his curses were working. Not too good, because lots of people came and I guess when I was preaching, he passed out, hit the ground, somebody drug him to a hospital, and he woke up in the hospital and said, I saw that preacher saying Jesus is the way. And so he’s like, I gave my life to Jesus. I’m in my six. I’ve done witchcraft my whole life. Pray for me that I could start a business to provide for my family now. And so that’s the type of thing that’s just incredible to see God do. And we’re seeing young adults across the US as well being ignited for Jesus and families restored at a revive outreach event. Recently, there was a mother and her son who responded, a teenage son, and they wanted to talk to us afterward. And both in tears, she said, I was at the end of myself. I didn’t know what to do. I saw an advertisement online for this event. So I drugg my son here and this is changing everything for us. And he was going, yes, yes, yes, yes. And so the effect of the gospel and people getting up close to Jesus is reuniting families and transforming regions.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:50):
Tell me about what you’ve been doing in the United States. What sense do you have among the young people in the United States for their engagement with the message of Jesus?
Charlie Marq – Forge (12:03):
I think well stats prove that the next generation is the most spiritually open generation that we’ve seen while simultaneously the most anxious generation. So what happens when the most spiritually open and the most anxious collide? I think it collides into a revival opportunity
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:19):
That is interesting. People are very anxious. They went through COVID economic turmoil. It seems like this generation has gone through more than its fair share of trauma and just challenges. And so you can see why there’s
Charlie Marq – Forge (12:37):
Anxiety.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:39):
And then they don’t have the religious hangups that maybe their parents did. Their parents probably maybe came from a religious background and rebelled against it. And a lot of kids these days have grown up with no exposure to much a traditional church.
Charlie Marq – Forge (12:59):
The biblical literacy is also at an all time low. And so they don’t really know. But the cool part is if you’re willing to spend time to answer their tough questions or wrestle through their tough questions with them relationally, they’re in, they’ll listen. They’re all for it. But if you’re like, don’t have the time for it, they’ll move on to someone else or something else quickly. Kind of like social media. Oh, next thing, next thing, next thing. But if you’re that person that will answer their call, sit down at a meal table, say, yeah, let’s talk about your life. What’s your struggle? And love them. No matter what their struggle is, no matter where they’re at, they’re in, you’ve got ’em.
(13:35):
And we’re seeing young adults get set on fire for Jesus and fired up to go represent him wherever they go, wherever that looks like. And when that happens, a heart on fire and a life on purpose, we’re seeing ’em lead people to Christ left and right. It’s incredible. I think we’re going to, I mean right now stats are also, church attendance is higher than it’s been in 10 years. Commitment to Jesus is higher than it’s been in 10 years in the US and it’s all through Gen Z. And something else that’s shifted is it’s through males, former generations, females were leading the charge. Next generation males are leading the charge. And so it’s a really fascinating time of history for that.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:13):
Yeah, that’s awesome. Let’s talk about your personal testimony. How did you give your life to Jesus? And then how did you know that you were called to be an evangelist?
Charlie Marq – Forge (14:27):
Yeah, good question. So I grew up with really great godly parents taking us to church. They would share the gospel with us, share Bible stories with us. And so we knew, and they all said, you need to make a decision. Give your heart to Jesus. So I was five years old, walk out of school, get into the van with my mom picking me up from school, and I said, today’s the day, mom. I’m give my life to Jesus. Let’s pray. I’m going to pray with you right now in the car. I just wanted to prayed with her in the car, went home to my three-year-old brother and immediately told him his name is Will. If Jesus comes back today, you’re going to hell. You need to give your life to Jesus. Now, I changed my tactics slightly since then as a five-year-old, but immediately had to proclaim, and
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:11):
That’s very similar to my testimony. I was saved at a very young age, so young that I don’t remember. But I know that I was called to be an evangelist at the age of five, and I preached my first sermon at the age of six. I wish
Charlie Marq – Forge (15:24):
I could have heard that sermon.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:25):
My mom and dad actually kept a cassette tape for the sermon, and I put it up on YouTube a few years ago. I preached 45 minutes when I was six.
Charlie Marq – Forge (15:34):
What? No way.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:35):
And I knew way more back then than I know now. I talk about eschatology and the mark of the beast and don’t get the mark of the, and now I don’t know anything about end times, but apparently when I was six, I knew a lot. That
Charlie Marq – Forge (15:48):
Was it in with the times. I guess you’re watching left Behind, huh?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:53):
It was before left behind. Yeah. But one of the things I say is if you are saved, stay saved. If you’re not saved, you need to get saved. And so even at the age of six, I said like an evangelist. No
Charlie Marq – Forge (16:07):
Kidding.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:08):
Yeah. But it’s neat that God calls people young. So you were saved at a very young age.
Charlie Marq – Forge (16:12):
So that happened then grew up in a church, helping with youth ministry stuff, doing all the things the church family does. But over that kind of time of junior high and throughout high school, I became very arrogant, very confident in myself
(16:30):
In the vision I wanted for my life, I wanted to join the military for an entire career. Ended up being nominated by Vice President Senator for West Point Air Force Academy, full ride, ROTC, scholarships to leading engineering schools. And that’s what I was going to do. Nobody could stop me. My mom would say, are you sure this is what you want to give your whole life to? And I said, stop asking me. This is what I’m doing.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:49):
Wow.
Charlie Marq – Forge (16:49):
And then I ended up at a camp, a youth pastor at the church I was at, said, Hey, we got invited this camp. Could you come check it out with me to see if you’d be good for our church and youth ministry? I said, sure. So I went with him and I had just taken oath to defend the constitution, and it was right before military training would’ve started
(17:09):
End up at this camp, hearing these phenomenal messages by itinerant speakers and evangelists. They’re really exciting and compelling to me. Messages like getting up close to Jesus, what it looks like practically. And I thought, man, I really need to do that. That’s exciting. A message about passion for Christ and willing to suffer for him no matter what, and reach people. And hearing these stories of the book of Acts alive and present now, I was going, wow, I’m missing something here. And then I heard this message on reaching people all around the world, unreached people, and how for that speaker, it started with listening to God in prayer. And I went to the end of his invitation. At the end of the message was just in prayer, ask God if he has anything to show you or you have a question, ask him, go to prayer. And I literally thought, I have never heard about this side of prayer before. I don’t even know what I think about it. So I prayed, Lord, I don’t know what I think. This is kind of weird, but if you have something to speak to me, I’ll listen.
(18:02):
And immediately I saw this picture in my head of a field in darkness, and then fire and light came through the field. What is that? That wasn’t my idea, but it was just in my mind. I didn’t know what it meant. Until later, God was starting to show me, I want you to start fires in dark places. Your fire starter go bring my light to dark places. So I had that happen that same week as I was praying, this thought came into my mind, you’re willing to risk your life for your country. Would you do that for me?
(18:33):
And wrestled with that thought. So I came home from that camp and I heard that this ministry happens to be forge. I had a discipleship opportunity for young people, and I was like, man, I think I need more of this. God’s doing something in my life. So I think they didn’t want me to come. I did all these pranks at the camp. I caused them to write new rules. I caused all the problems, troublemaker. And so they’re like, ah, you can come if you can raise the $2,000 in the next two weeks. Done raise the money,
(19:01):
Came on the next 16 days of training. And while we were there, there was this cross and the team was praying at this cross. And I got down on my knees to pray. And again, these thoughts come. I felt like the Lord was saying, would you surrender the military and put me first in your life? It was an idol. I said, Lord, yeah. I mean, this is exciting. I will. And he said, if you mean it, get on your face. And my immediate thought was, oh, there’s ants and dirt. Who’s going to join the military? Who cares? There’s ants and dirt. And then I said, I don’t want to look like a freak Christian in front of these people who prays on their face.
(19:35):
I didn’t go to a church with that kind of dynamic. So growing up, so I’m going to prey on my face if you mean it. Get on your face. So I get on my face, Lord, I’m in. I surrender. You’re more important. Whatever you want to do with my life, I’m in this absolute surrender moment. And I started to notice a difference from that point of feeling empowered by the Holy Spirit to be a witness, to start to reach people, sharing Jesus with people. All of a sudden, people are coming to Christ. I feel compelled to do it. And I go home and I say, Lord, I don’t know what to do. I’m going to go to the military still unless you tell me there’s another plan. I have no other plan. Took my Bible to the woods, prayed that, and I felt like God said open to Romans one. So I open to Romans one, and all the words are jumping off the page and cutting me to the heart
(20:22):
Set apart for the gospel obligated to preach. I have to obligated to preach to the wise and the foolish. And God started putting in my mind, you’re going to do that. And those wise people are going to be those who know Christ, but could grow in their passion for him. And the foolish are going to be lost people and unreached places and dangerous places around the world. So I’m like, oh, I’m going to travel and preach and do that. And so I said, all right, that’s it. So I called up the military and said, Hey, I’m backing out of my scholarship. I’m backing out of everything. And they literally said, why? I mean, I hadn’t even started. Nobody would back out of that. I was like, well, God told me not to. So they probably said if he comes back, psychological evaluation. So I backed out. I had saved no money for college because the government was going to pay for everything. And I said, Lord, I’m going to have to fundraise the rest of my life. If this is what I’m called to, you’re going to have to provide. I don’t believe I should go into debt to just start that way.
(21:14):
So you’re going to have to provide for college. I applied for a Bible college on Friday and school started Monday, got in, graduated within a month debt free. God provided everything and haven’t looked back since. Been doing this now for about 14 years.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:29):
Wow. That’s awesome. Well, thank you so much for sharing on the Evangelism podcast. Oh, one other question I wanted to ask you. Tell me about how you met your wife.
Charlie Marq – Forge (21:41):
Hey, good question. So yeah, I had mentioned my father-in-law started Forge in 1986. So she was at that camp crazy enough, in the same room at the same time, the same message and invitation I was having my encounter with God, she was having one. She felt like God allowed her to hear children’s voices and laughter and putting a burden in her heart like, I’m calling you to be a mother. And so we had these significant spiritual moments in the same room without realizing what God would do in the future, we became acquaintances. Then for a time after that, I was a youth pastor and needed someone to do music. I knew she was gifted in music. So I called her through that. She said, yes, we became good friends. One thing led to another even where I was like, Lord, should I ask her on a date? I mean, I had put before God, I’m willing to be single my whole life and I surrender this to you, but if you want to give the gift, I’ll take the gift
(22:37):
That kind of prayer. So when that time came, I was like, Lord, is this a good idea? Should I ask her on a date? And I did. And I said, I want to talk with your dad first before we go, but I’d like to ask you. And then that same week, the pastors at the church where I was serving at the time, said, Hey, it was a Valentine’s Week. Are you going on a date with anybody for Valentine’s Day?
(22:57):
I said, no, there’s not really anybody to go with. And they’re like, come on man. What about all these girls that serve in the youth ministry and all the rest? I said, well, funny you ask. I’ve been thinking about Dara and asking her out this week and that same week when I was asking her, and the pastor looks at me and says, my wife and I have been praying about that for a long time. We think you should do it. So that one thing led to another, and we’ve been married now for about 10 years. And it’s a joy. She’s an incredible mother to our two kids. How
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:27):
Old are your kids?
Charlie Marq – Forge (23:28):
Five and almost three.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:30):
Wow.
Charlie Marq – Forge (23:31):
And she’s a great worship leader. Kind of holds down the fort often. It’s a hard behind the scenes job while we travel a lot. And so it’s a joy to be called and do it together in that way.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:44):
That’s awesome. So if someone wants to know more information about Forge, maybe learn more about your apprenticeship program and how to become effective at sharing their faith or even support you guys in the international missions that you do, what is a good website where they can find out more information?
Charlie Marq – Forge (24:06):
Yeah, it’s at forge.org. That’s F-O-R-G-E-F-O-R-W-A-R d.org. And people can go there if they want a discipleship resource, if they want to join us on any sort of trip or see where we’re preaching across the US in the globe and go to an event or say, Hey, we want to do equipping together. Can we collaborate and do an equipping opportunity? It’s all there.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:28):
And you guys have already developed a lot of discipleship material You’re working on more. Tell me a little bit about some of the resources that you have.
Charlie Marq – Forge (24:36):
Yeah, one of the primaries called Multiplying Movements, it’s on our website as well where you can go to multiplying movements.com. It’s basically a discipleship pathway or resource for every believer. Often as I know you’ve seen well around the world, believers are saying, Hey, I want to make disciples, but what do I actually do? Or as evangelist, okay, we’re there, but what’s next for those people when they make a decision? So it’s really designed to be relational, which is highly important, but also with an end goal and vision. And so it’s not only programmatic and it’s not only relational, it’s both designed for one-on-one mentoring or small groups to say every believer can grow in their depth on their heart, on fire, for Christ and their life on purpose. For him to then become a laborer who says, Hey, with my unique gifts, if it’s bacon cookies,
(25:26):
It’s riding a bike, if it’s fly fishing, I can use my gifts to reach others for Christ in my life and now train them to go and do the same.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:34):
That’s awesome. Well, Charlie, thank you so much for being on the evangel of
Charlie Marq – Forge (25:38):
The podcast. Hey, love being with you and just talking about all this.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:40):
Yes, sir.
Charlie Marq – Forge (25:40):
Appreciate it.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:41):
Thank you.
