Kevin Stark is an experienced Youth With a Mission (YWAM) missionary who leads Team Xtreme. His teams do feats of strength as a way to attract young people to Christ. He has traveled to 70 nations preaching about Jesus. On today’s podcast, he shares his advice for young evangelists.
Read “Warrior’s Arise” the story of Kevin Stark and Team Xtreme: https://amzn.to/3KuJRgF
Website: https://www.teamxtremeintl.com/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Kevin Stark is an experienced youth with a mission YWAM missionary who leads team extreme. His teams do feats of strength as a way to attract young people to Christ. He’s traveled to 70 nations preaching about Jesus on today’s podcast. He shares his advice for young evangelists.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:33):
Welcome to the evangelism podcast with Dr. Daniel King or Daniel interviews. Full-Time evangelists, pastors, mission and, 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 (00:57):
Welcome to the evangelism podcast. I’m Daniel King, and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I’m here with my great friend, Kevin Stark. He is the leader of team extreme, a missions team that has gone all over the world and tell told literally thousands and thousands of people about Jesus. Kevin, thank you for being with me today.
Kevin Stark (01:19):
It’s an honor to be here, Daniel I’m to not only do the interview, but do missions with you in several countries around the world and see so many people come to Jesus.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:29):
Now, I think we originally met on an airplane headed down to Honduras. We were, we were doing One Nation One Day in Honduras. Yes. And in that event, 18 crusade happened simultaneously. And I was doing one of the cities. And I think your team was doing one of the other cities. Yes. And since then we’ve become friends. Yep. And we have gone to several countries together. Right now we’re in the nation of Ethiopia. We just finished a beautiful week where we saw thousands of people come to Jesus Ambo, Ethiopia. And before that we’ve been in Mongolia Belize. I know there’s another one.
Kevin Stark (02:13):
Oh gosh, Belize, Mongolia, Honduras…
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:25):
Yeah. So, so here we are. We’ve done so many things that we can’t remember what countries we’ve been to.
Kevin Stark (02:31):
It’s funny. Yeah. It’ll it’ll come one of those countries, but yeah, it was good. It was, oh,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:37):
Myanmar
Kevin Stark (02:38):
Myanmar, Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:39):
And we’ve seen God do great fruit from the festival in Myanmar. That was just tremendous. I in fact Myanmar was really wonderful. We were there with my friend do Lao and, and because of that festival in, in Myanmar now there has been lots of ministry that’s happened in the nation of Myanmar and your ministry is helping to facilitate some of that, that ministry there. All right. So let’s talk about team extreme, this ministry that God has given you, first of all, what is team extreme?
Kevin Stark (03:09):
It’s a long story. I’ll give you the short version, but Team Xtreme is an evangelism team. So we preach the gospel everywhere. Anyplace schools rise, stadium events, VBS does any place. There’s an open door and open ears will preach the gospel. And it’s really a, the, the, the main part of it. It’s it’s Jesus, it’s the gospel it’s signs and wonders miracles, but we use athletes and strength feats in other things to on non Christians to an event. So that’s sort of the hook and the draw. And then we have guys that are breaking bricks and bending steel bars. But we also have guys that are, you know, dunking, basketballs, dribbling, soccer balls, all sorts of different things, but it’s you know, sports is sort of that universal language that sort attracts people. So they think they’re coming to see some strong man lift some weights, but we talk about the strongest man of all Jesus. And they come to the Lord in the droves. It’s a, it’s been a great 25, no about 30 years. We’ve been doing it all around the world.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:16):
And so when someone breaks a brick or a steel bar or rips a, a phone book in half or, or curls up a frying pan using their bare hands. Yeah. Each one of those feats of strength have a little object lesson that you use to, to share the gospel. Well, what are some of the object lessons that you teach from those feats of strength? Well,
Kevin Stark (04:37):
The steel bar is we talk about being behind bars of sin and the phone books. We rip phone books in half when we call those the devil’s book of death and your sins are written in the devil’s book, but when God comes, he grabs the book. And when you give your life to him and he rips the book up and throws it away far as from east and in the west the bricks, a lot of times we’ll talk about sin. So each brick will repent different sins. It could be, pornography could be, addictions, could be lies, get to be anger. And then we do a little drama where God’s on one side and man’s on the other side. And man, you know, he is trying to break the wall down, you know, cause we all have walls in our life and, and trying to get rid of the sin through good works or, or whatever. But then when he gives us life to Jesus, Jesus comes in and breaks the wall down and they hug each other. And there’s that show of a, you know, of unity. And so yeah, just, we, a lot of the guys are big, huge, strong guys that love to lift weights. They love to eat, but they love to to battle the devil and see people come to Jesus. Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:45):
And you have team extreme teams that are in nations all over the world. I remember one time I was in the nation of India and I met a man who actually was one of the strongest men in all of India. He had competed in Mr. Universe and in some really big strength competitions. Yeah. And I started talking to him and he is like, yeah. Kevin Stark has been training me how to share the gospel using my strength and this guy could pull cars. Yeah. It was amazing. And so tell me about some of these different countries that you’ve impacted. Yeah.
Kevin Stark (06:18):
You know, we started with one team, we weren’t planning to multiply, but you know, that’s what God does. He multiplies. And a lot of my team members are from different nations and God just sort of brings them in different ways, different means. And then eventually they say, well, I think I want to go start my own team in New Zealand. And we have a team in para way and we have teams in India and Philippines. And so they just sort of stay and train with us for a couple years and then they go start their own evangelism team. And so that’s been the fun thing. I mean, you know, in Ephesians four talks about training other evangelists, just you’re evangelists. That’s like one of your main things is to train other evangelists. So, but it was just sort of organic. It was like, God did it. We got to be really close friends. And then we commissioned them now to, and it’s just a way to multiply, getting evangelism evangelists all over the world. Now
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:07):
I’ve heard you share a, a great testimony of your team in Norway that we’re on a television program. Tell me what happened.
Kevin Stark (07:14):
Oh yeah. It’s just, you know, God is opened up. You knows supernaturally, suddenly doors. We weren’t looking Isaiah 22 says he’ll open up doors that no man could open. And so several of our teams have been on the talent shows. So Norway has talent. It’s their own sort of, sort of like America’s got talent. And so they got invited to that. And our Norway, our team of nor just crazy Vikings, they have long hair. They seem like they just got off the Viking boat. They’re crazy insane. But yeah, they, they did their show and I think they got to the semifinals and they only have about three minutes to put all these different strength feats in there. And so they’re running through two by fours, breaking big, blowing up hot water bottles, band need steel bar, breaking baseball all within three minutes. And it’s just as fast, you know, high energy. And at the end, they all get together in the middle. There’s about five of them. And they’re speaking this broken
Speaker 5 (08:11):
Jesus is Lord over nor Jesus is Lord.
Kevin Stark (08:16):
And this is secular show. It’s going all over the Nordic nations. And then they run up to the judges and they say,
Speaker 5 (08:22):
We want to give you a Bible, read the Bible. Jesus loves
Kevin Stark (08:26):
You. And so this is being show all over the place. And then the judges, you know, they’re not Christians at all. And the one judges go, that’s amazing. That’s not like my Lutheran church growing up. But anyhow, they did really well went to the semi-finals and it was a great open door. They have, they think they have their own TV show that they do now. So, you know, people like things that are extreme different, but then you just, it opens up their heart cuz to hear the gospel. So that’s a beautiful thing, thing about it.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:57):
And your ministry is connected with YWAM. And for many years you worked with Mark Anderson who actually wrote a great book on crusade evangelism. I reviewed his book as part of my doctor to ministry at U and into it and, and his defense of, of why crusade evangelism sure can be effective. And, and so tell me like some of the things that you did with Mark Anderson and, and his ministry over the years,
Kevin Stark (09:26):
You know, mark launched this whole thing called impact world tour. It was his vision to fulfill the great commissioner, being a part of fulfilling a great commission. And he just had this idea to use three different teams. One is team extreme international. One is a group called GX international and they’re hip hop dancers and, and, and skateboarders and, and rap artists. The other one’s called island Breezer Polynesian dancers. So it fits and reaches different demographics, you know, and I think one of the key key things with evangelism is reaching felt needs, you know, so young kids have felt needs, you know, we would fill stadiums all the time because they wanted to see some people that were doing hiphop dance or spoken word or skate or, you know, but they would never step in a church, you know? So mark started to organize these things, big visionary, very Apostol.
Kevin Stark (10:17):
We probably went to over 70 nations, over 3,400 cities in the last 30 years. And our citywide campaigns are not just one, one event. So it takes him six months to two years to set the event up. So he brings all the church together. He organizes the cities, they book all the venues, they raise all the budgets. So I mean, as an evangelist and I’ve talked to other evangelists, like we didn’t have to ever raise the dime of budget. He set up all of these, you know, events in over 3000, 400 cities over, you know, 30 year span. And we just got to go do the things we love to do to preach the gospel. So it’s like, I just took it for granted at that time. But now we’re not really doing a lot of stuff with mark and we’re raising our own budgets and, you know, grinding it out for finances and stuff. But yeah, it,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:08):
That’s a great way to do it. If you can find someone to raise the budget for you.
Kevin Stark (11:11):
Oh, it’s, it was amazing. But you know, gosh, from the very first alter call, you’re doing stuff today. It’s still, I still weep. I still, it still breaks my heart. It’s like you know, I know mostly Evangel watch this show and it’s the thing we live for. It’s the thing God created us to do. So you never grow tired of it. I mean, I turn 66 tomorrow and I still travel and preaching the gospel, telling people about Jesus. Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:37):
Yeah. You are a, a very experienced evangelist. I described you to my friend pair office as a, as a battle scar general, you have been through a lot of battles and, and you have done a lot of evangelism and now God is raising up a new generation of young evangelists is really exciting to see what’s happening. And, and so what’s some of the advice that you would give to a young evangelist or someone who has a heart and passion for evangelism. Yeah. What would you say to them?
Kevin Stark (12:07):
I mean, it all goes down to the word of God to great commandments. Love, God, love people. I mean, you gotta go a basic, I used to be an Olympic coach for a number of years in a division one football coach. And it goes back to the fundamentals. You do the fundamentals, right? You stay humble, stay faithful, be obedient to the next thing God wants you to do, you know, and, and be faithful. And it’s all those basic things, you know, it’s just like, sure. Some of them, some people are gonna see more miracles than others. Some are gonna see more salvations, but it’s really just loving God. And that means spending time in the world, spending time in worship, you know, our team would you know, be in locker rooms before a show and just crying out for the presence of God, crying out for souls, weeping for people.
Kevin Stark (12:53):
And anytime we could get into the presence into the glory, into where we would get filled up, that would be the passion into the word. So it’s just like you can get so busy that you forget the basics and you know, you know, it’s the, the things that, you know, like great evangelists, like bill Graham, don’t touch God’s glory, God’s gold, God’s girl girls, you know, it’s like those basic things. But I think if you’re, you’re in fellowship with Jesus, you’re in his presence daily, it keeps you from falling in those pits, you know? So in the word, in his presence and just loving God and loving people, having other people around you to keep you accountable, you know, that you can say to them, if you see something that’s wrong in my life, I want you to run to me and tell me exactly what it is, having those people around you and not just having yes.
Kevin Stark (13:46):
People around you. And you know, also listen to wise council you know, at the early days, I’d go to every revive I could got prayed over by every great evangelist I could impartation. And that’s really good too. And just listen to the people that had gone before you, you know, get a chance. I know you sat down several times with TL, Osborne and others, just sit down and ask some questions and be willing to be humble and just sit there and listen, you know, I think pride to is another thing that takes out a lot of evangelists. You know, you start to get a little bit of success. So success and failure are both things that can crash you, you know, so sometimes you start to get a little success or see, see a few good miracles and you start to think you’re all that and more, but we’re just all still, we’re humble servants of Jesus, you know, seeing that place of humility and obedience and you you’ll run the race and you’ll finish it. Well,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:39):
Let’s talk about what’s happened this week. We are here in Ethiopia, we’ve just finished a great crusade in ambo Ethiopia you partnered with us and, and together we partnered with Joshua campaign here in Ethiopia. And the crusade started with just a few thousand, but by the end we had thousands and thousands of people on the field. What were some of your impressions? What, what, what did you you think about the ministry that happened this week?
Kevin Stark (15:08):
I mean, some some of it’s just that I unit, he always demands a blessing. So with you and, and you know, just Joshua campaigns and I think as we come together, just that just pleases God, and then just having the pastors there and serving them and serving their vision. I mean, I think that’s the one thing that, you know, evangels need to, to work on. And, you know, you might be the one who gets to preach, you know, every event, the whole thing. But I think when you do the unity thing, you know, that brings the glory of God at a new level. And then just the passion of the African people, just like, I think they just get, I think the people in charge in heaven are gonna be Africans. You know, they just, they just love to worship man.
Kevin Stark (15:50):
And so just sit there watching you just enjoy them, jump up and down in the cloud of dust, you know, fill the air. And, you know, you look at ’em, they got dust all over their face and you just see their eyes out of the dust. And, and then all of a sudden, just incredible miracles. You know, one of the things where you preached one night and you just ask, you got on your knees and it’s just a simple message of the gospel and you ask everybody else to get on their knees. So most of the people are in the dirt, you know, on their faces, on their knees, just crying out for salvation. I mean, that just really wrecked me, really touched my heart to see. I mean, there was, I don’t know the exact number, but there was over several thousand people. Everybody kneeling, everybody asking for forgiveness, everybody crying out for God. So so, so good. Such a great three or four days. And even though they lost my luggage and I had one pair of pants and one shirt, I was still praising Jesus, but I got clean clothes on my own luggage. Oh, I’m so happy.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:51):
That is a Acker Fe to only have one pair of underwear for a whole week, but thank God you made it.
Kevin Stark (16:57):
We made it it’s. But anyhow, I just, it’s one of those little things, the honor privilege to be an evangelist. You know, I got, I know I have two circles of my life. It took me a where to a while to get there, but preaching the gospel, being an evangelist and training another people how to do evangelism. So pretty simple. I mean, I have my family, I, my relationship with Jesus, but my calling around those two circles and I try not to go very much outside those two realms. So yeah. What an honor to preach the gospel. Huh.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:26):
Now I know that your, your ministry has recently launched television program where you’re sharing the gospel in, in different places. And, and if someone’s listening, they wanna maybe watch some of the episodes of your television program or find out more about team extreme and more about your ministry. Maybe even support you, help you do crusade preaching
Kevin Stark (17:46):
From the good job.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:48):
How can they find out more about you? What, what’s your website?
Kevin Stark (17:50):
Yeah, it’s said team extreme. I NTL, but it’s T E a M no, E X, T R E M. So T E a M X T R E M a. I ntl.com. That’s our webpage. So you can get all the information there. The TV show is you can go to YouTube and you can go to team extreme or sorry, impact all nations. And you could get, we have about 40 episodes that are on there and you can watch any of them there. So it’s through also through the now TV network. And you can find that information on our on our web page or Facebook page impact all nations. We’ve got a Facebook page that can, and get more information, how to watch the show weekly, it’s a satellite show.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:34):
Let’s finish by talking about what God will do in the future. It seems like God is doing something new in the earth today. What, what type of sense do you have prophetically of what we’re going to see in the area of evangelism and missions over the next few years? Yeah.
Kevin Stark (18:56):
Yeah, I, I’m so excited about it. I just see an army of young evangelists being raised up. And, you know, I think in a lot of people know this, but the season of big name evangelism, I think it’s still air, but there’s no way that the big names can complete the great commission. So I just see an army of hundreds and hundreds of thousands of on fire totally sold out totally in love with God compassionate in all the different spheres of society preaching the gospel. And, you know, and one time I got home quick story from a crusade and we lived in a, in a house. It was sort of on a farm, but behind my house was a, a wheat field and it just happened to be, I got, I got home and I walked in my backyard and it was harvest time.
Kevin Stark (19:46):
So, you know, only takes some of a few hours to harvest the, the wheat behind our house. And the big John Deere green John Deere tractor was just whacking the weed and, and dust was in the air. It’s like that kind of stuff excites me. And so I’m just looking and the guy, I don’t know who he was, but he had the, he stopped his tractor and he looked at me and he sort of waved at me. He said, come on. So I went and jumped in the John Deere tractor and we’re riding. It was very modern. You had a stereo in there and all these, you know, different stuff in there. And the Lord, the Lord just said, me, the great harvest is coming the billion. So harvest is coming. I just hear him so clear. I’m just sitting in this John Deere tractor with this guy with overalls on, and it was one of those divine moments.
Kevin Stark (20:28):
And, you know, that’s what I’m living for. That’s what I’m believing for. We’re a worldwide supernatural revival. You know, my heart is to we’ve had great meetings, great salvations, but I wanna see, you know, a real transformation of nations. Do you see real revivals? And I they’re coming. I believe it there’s so many prophetic words where just people are getting saved. People are walking outta bars and people are getting healed outta prisons, and people are getting saved all over the streets. And it’s just not an event. It’s so huge that it’s touching every corner of a city and every a quarter of a nation. So the great harvest is coming. Hallelujah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:11):
Amen. Well, Kevin, you’re a good friend. I have such tremendous respect for you. And I’m so thankful for this opportunity to, to work together once more, thank you for being on the evangelism podcast.
Kevin Stark (21:23):
Awesome. It’s been an honor. You’re a great evangelist and a great teacher. Get some of his books. I know you listen to this podcast, but I get a lot of stuff from you. So, and copy some of it, but I change it a little bit. So it’s not, I know, but you’re welcome
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:37):
To have
Kevin Stark (21:37):
It. Thank you so much. All right, thanks. Great. Having me bless you, man.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:41):
Thanks so much for listening to the evangelism podcast. I am excited about telling people about Jesus and we could not preach the gospel without your help. Over our years of ministry, we found that we’re able to reach one person for Jesus, for every dollar that people give us. And so that means that if you would give us $1, we could start a party in heaven. In fact, I’m asking people to join our partnership program and give at least $1 every single month to help us to lead more people to Jesus. This is the greatest investment of your dollar that you can make. It’s the only investment that’s gonna matter 10,000 years from now. So if you would like to help us lead people to Jesus, please visit king ministries.com K I N G king ministries.com and help us lead people to Jesus today. God bless you
Evangelism Podcast Host (22:41):
For more information about how to share your faith or to financially support our worldwide evangelistic outreaches. Visit king ministries.com. Again, that’s king ministries.com.
