Normally on The Evangelism Podcast, I interview other evangelists, but on today’s episode, I am the one interviewed. Recently I sat down with Mark Thomas. His podcast is Evangelism by Fire. He had lots of questions for me and I thought you would be interested in hearing our conversation.
Learn More About Mark Thomas: https://evangelismonfire.com/
Transcript:
Evangelist Mark Thomas (00:00):
Welcome to today’s episode of the Evangelism on Fire podcast. I’m your host, Mark Thomas, and today we have a very, very special guest missionary evangelist Daniel King. Daniel has traveled over 70 nations preaching the gospel through massive gospel festivals, distributing literature and training leaders. His vision is bold and listen to this vision that Daniel has evangelism on fire listeners, his vision is to lead 1 million people to Jesus every year. Get ready to be inspired by his passion for souls and his heart for evangelism. Daniel King, how are you doing? My brother?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:51):
Hey, it is wonderful to be with you today. Mark, what a blessing to be on your podcast. Thank you for having me.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (01:00):
I am so excited that you made time to be on our podcast today, man, it is just a big, big deal to me. I want to talk about your personal journey. You traveled over 70 nations preaching the gospel. What sparked your passion for evangelism and how did God call you into this ministry?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:21):
Yeah, when I was five years old, my father pastored a small church in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, and one day he invited a prophetess to come and speak and God gave her a word that there’d be someone wearing a blue shirt and she was to prophesy, is called to be an evangelist. And so she came to church the next day. The only one wearing a blue shirt was this cute little five-year-old boy and that was me. And so she prophesied over me that I was called to be an evangelist and to go to nations all over the world, so I didn’t waste any time. I launched out a ministry right away. I preached my first sermon at the age of six and my parents still have that cassette tape. And even at the age of six, I sounded like an evangelist. One of the things I say is if you are saved, stay saved.
(02:06):
If you’re not saved, you need to get saved. And so when I was 10 years old, my parents became missionaries in the country of Mexico and we did lots of children’s evangelism on the streets of Sud Juarez right across the border from El Paso, Texas. But my heroes were always people like Oral Roberts, Billy Graham, Tia Osborne. I would read their books and I’d look at the pictures of them preaching to massive crowds of people and I would dream about doing that someday. And then when I was 15 years old, I was reading a success book that said, if you want to be successful, you need to write down your goals. And one of the goals they said would be good for young people is to try to become a millionaire by the age of 30. But I realized that because of my upbringing as a missionary in Mexico, that money was not what was important to what was important was souls.
(03:00):
And so at the age of 15, I wrote down I Daniel King want to lead 1 million people to Jesus before I turn 30 years of age. Instead of trying to become a millionaire, I wanted to lead a million heirs into the kingdom of God to become a soul millionaire. And so I went to Oral Roberts University and while I was still a student there, God opened the door for me to do my first big crusade down in Honduras. Then the next year I did two, and then the next year I did four. By the time I was 30 years of age, we’d preached face-to-face to over a million people, led over a million people in a salvation prayer. And I was praying like, God, what comes next? And I felt like God put it in my spirit to go for a million souls every single year.
(03:46):
And so that’s our focus, that’s our goal. And we haven’t hit the million and one year yet. Last year we preached about 350,000 people. But that’s the vision. That’s kind of the direction we’re headed. In the natural, it seems impossible, but with God all things are possible. And so if you want to learn more about some of the different countries that we went to or kind of hear the stories of what God has done, the miracles around the world, you can see that journey on our website@kingministries.com. A lot of great stories there all over the world. God has done amazing things.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (04:25):
Wow. You know what I’ve got to tell you, Daniel, I feel like a lightweight, my vision for evangelism on fire ministry and podcast is 1 million Souls within five years. So when I hear your vision, it just gets me excited and I’m like, man, I just need a step up my game a little bit.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:46):
Yeah, I think we all do. I think God’s heart is for souls. God’s heart is for people to be saved. And whether your vision is to reach a million people for Jesus or whether it’s to reach your next door neighbor, I think that is a vision that comes from God. And so God is calling every person in the body of Christ to be soul winners and all over the world there are people who are ready to give their lives to Jesus If someone will just go talk to them about Jesus and give them the opportunity.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (05:20):
Amen. My brother. And you know what I think people aren’t rejecting Jesus, they’re rejecting the silence of the church because God’s church, we’re not getting his gospel message out He designed us to do. What would you say to that?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:37):
Yeah, absolutely. I think sometimes the church gets stuck behind the doors of the church. They’re not going out to where all the lost sinners are. They’re praying for the lost, but lost people don’t really have any good reason to come to church because they’re lost. And so if we’re going to reach ’em, we have to leave the church and go out into the community. Jesus talked about going out into the highways and byways and compelling people to come into the kingdom of God. And so the church needs to get outside the church and out into the community. It’s time to take the salt out of the salt shaker and get out there where the people are that need Jesus.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (06:23):
Amen brother. Amen. In a moment, I’m going to ask about your first conversion experience, but how did you personally come to faith in Jesus Christ?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:35):
Well, I was so young that I don’t remember the exact moment that I gave my life to Jesus. I just remember my entire life serving Jesus, loving Jesus. And as I told you a little bit ago, I was called into the ministry at the age of five. So I was actually younger than that when I came to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior. And so now when I’m sharing my testimony, I like to tell people like God saved me from a life of crime. He saved me from a life of drug abuse. He saved me from alcoholism, he saved me from murder. He saved me from being in prison. Why? Because I was saved so young. I never had to go through any of that.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (07:19):
Yes, that’s the most powerful testimony that anyone could ever hear. Wow, that’s just so powerful. So let’s talk about your first conversion experience. Do you remember the very first time you led someone to Jesus and what impact did that moment have in your life?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:37):
That’s a great question, and I’ve never specifically thought about that before. I don’t remember the first person I led to Jesus, but my father told me a story when I was very young, when he was pastoring this church in New Mexico. One day he decided to have a revival in the church, and so it was kind of a tourist town. So we went downtown and we were passing out flyers, inviting people to come to the revival. And I was only five or six years old at the time, and my father found me sitting on a curb and there was a flyer torn up into pieces at my feet and I was crying and my father felt bad for me. He says, Daniel, are you crying? Did someone reject you? Did you get your feelings hurt because someone said something mean to you? And I was crying, but I was saying, no, I don’t have my feelings hurt.
(08:37):
I’m crying because I tried to give the flyer to a man. He tore it up and threw it at my feet and I’m crying because I don’t want him to go to hell. And so even at a very young age, God put a heart in me to pray for the lost and to have compassion for the lost. And that’s what Jesus had in Matthew chapter nine. It says, when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them. And so Jesus put that compassion inside me. And I think that’s something that all of us can ask God for and say, God, I pray that my heartbeat would be the same as your heartbeat and that I would have compassion for those who are lost.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (09:24):
Yes. Yes. That is very powerful. Daniel, you’ve seen God moved powerfully across nations. Can you share one of the most memorable or miraculous moments you’ve witnessed at a gospel festival? I know you’ve seen many, but can you share one that really sticks out or a few that sticks out to you?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:49):
Yeah. Every single opportunity to share the gospel is special. Just last week I was in Zimbabwe and I was there with the global network of evangelists and we were doing a festival in the city of Bhu, which is the second largest city there in Zimbabwe. And we did a variety of different outreaches. We did a leadership meeting for all the business leaders in the community. So it was in the nicest hotel in the city. And so the mayor and the governor came and all these people came dressed up in their suits and we presented the gospel to them and many of them indicated their decision to follow Jesus. But then the thing that really was powerful to me was going out and doing a children’s festival in one of the neighborhoods, and we had probably about 95 kids that were there, and we had a truck with a little sound system on it and a generator.
(11:00):
And so we played music and to all the kids from the whole neighborhood came and then we began to play games with them. We had a little bouncy castle. They were jumping up and down in, and then we took them inside the church and presented the gospel to them. And I just presented a very simple form of the gospel using my hands. And so I told all the kids point up to heaven and say, God loves me. So all the kids repeated it. Then I had all the kids point to themselves with their thumbs and say, I am a sinner. Then they held up three fingers because Jesus died on a cross between two thieves. So the third finger stands for Jesus died for me. And then after three days, Jesus rose from the dead, and then this finger is the ring finger, which represents a commitment to my wife that I would love her forever and ever.
(11:58):
And so this finger stands for I receive Jesus, and then this finger means I may be small, but I will grow with God. So I took that little simple presentation of the gospel and all the kids repeating it, God loves me. I am a sinner. Jesus died for me after three days. Jesus rose from the dead. I received Jesus, and I may be small, but I can grow with God and they all repeat it. Then I asked the children, do you want Jesus to forgive your sins? Do you want Jesus to make you a new creation? And if you want Jesus to save you right now, just lift up your hand to heaven. And in that room there were 95 kids and 95 of them lifted their hands to receive salvation. And I wanted to make real sure they understood, do you want Jesus to forgive your sins?
(12:52):
And they all said yes. And so I led them all in a prayer and all 95 kids gave their lives to Jesus. And so sometimes we preach the gospel to tens of thousands of people, 50,000 people at a time. But in that room, those 95 kids just a few days ago, it really moved my heart because it doesn’t matter how old you are or how young you are, you need Jesus. And it is our privilege as evangelist to have the opportunity to share the gospel with those whether they’re young or old who need Jesus. And it was cool with those kids because the kids responded to the gospel and the business leaders of the community, they also responded to the gospel. And so for the business leaders, we dress up in suits and preach the gospel to them for the kids we’re playing games and doing juggling tricks and bouncing soccer balls and having fun with them. And there’s just different baits and different methods of getting people to listen to the gospel. But then once you present the gospel, it has the power to literally change someone’s eternal destiny forever and ever.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (14:07):
Absolutely, man, I love that story and as a father I can tell that that encounter just really was something special for you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:18):
Yeah, absolutely.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (14:20):
I love you have children of your own, right?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:22):
Yeah. I have two kids. My son Caleb is 15 right now. My daughter Katie Grace is 13. And just recently I took my daughter with me to Thailand for a big evangelism conference. We had 167 evangelists that came together in the city of Piston Alo. It’s about halfway between Bangkok and Shanghai right in the middle of Thailand. And for five days we trained these evangelists in evangelism. I think my daughter, she’s 13, she was kind of bored during the preaching part of it, but she found a little girl her age and they had lots of fun together. But then my last day of the trip, we were in Bangkok and I got to take my daughter around to see some of the tourist sites. And the thing that she loved the most was going to a mall in Bangkok that had lots of cheap clothes for sale. I think the mall had seven different stories and it was selling all kinds of different cheap clothes, and she managed to buy something on every single floor. And she said that was her highlight from the mission trip.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (15:33):
Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, that’s true. True success there, right?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:38):
Yeah.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (15:39):
That’s awesome.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:40):
So
Evangelist Mark Thomas (15:40):
You’ve been around,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:42):
Let me just say this about kids. We’re trying to raise our kids to love God and to have a heart for the world the same as we do.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (15:50):
Yeah. And I know I’m certain that your children are being trained up by you and they know the heart of God through you, and I’m sure that they have that passion for evangelism as well like their father does. So you’ve been around many, many nations. You have shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with many people. Let’s talk about some of the places that are hard places. You’ve ministered in countries where Christianity is those environments.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:35):
We have gone to the hardest to reach nations in the world, and that’s really where my heart is to reach people. In the early years of our ministry, we really focused a lot on Central America and South America, the Spanish speaking countries. It was because of my upbringing in Mexico. I speak some Spanish, I can preach in Spanish. And so God opened up a lot of opportunities there. But as we matured in ministry, I started asking out where can my time be most effective? And I really started looking at the 10 40 window, which is on the map between the 10th and the 40th parallel lines. And so it extends from North Africa all the way through the Middle East, India, Pakistan, and then Southeast Asia. And if you are looking at where on reach people groups are, the vast majority of them are in the 10 40 window.
(17:44):
And unfortunately the church doesn’t invest high percentage of their resources into reaching people in that area. The church, especially here in America, they give money to missionaries, but a lot of the need is where the least money is given. And so I was looking at Pakistan and there’s one missionary for every million people in Pakistan. And compared to Latin America, there’s churches all over Latin America that many of them doing a great job reaching people for Jesus. And so we decided to start focusing on the hardest to reach nations of the earth. So India, Pakistan, Southeast Asia, these places where Islam is big, where Buddhism is big, where Hinduism is big, those are the areas where there is the most need. Sometimes it’s difficult to go to those areas. You don’t see as big a crowds as you would if you went to someplace. That might be easier, but I think that’s where you really see the most fruit. And I think as evangelists we’re called to go where no one else is going and to go to the hard to reach places. And God has called evangelists to be the special forces, the Navy Seals to go in and break open a new area for the kingdom of God.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (19:19):
Yeah, amen. I love that. I love when you say that God is well, evangelists are like the special forces, like the Navy seals to get that word to where it needs to go, going into places, nations that most people they don’t want to go and won’t go. So you mentioned earlier about training leaders. You touched on that briefly. Beyond large events, you put a big emphasis on equipping leaders. Why is leadership so important to you and why is training so critical to long-term evangelism?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:03):
Yeah, absolutely. I think that in order for us to reach the whole world, we need to raise up leaders in every country that have a heart for evangelism. And so that’s why I am connected with different evangelistic groups, the global network of evangelists. Then another group I’m a part of is the Global Evangelist Alliance, and we are working hard to raise up evangelists that will leaders for reaching people in their community for Jesus. One of the ways I really love to train people is through a lot of the books that written, I have over 20 books that I’ve published. And so I wrote a book for evangelists called How to Preach the Gospel, and this book talks about how to present the gospel in a clear way, how to work with a translator. It’s a very practical book, how to pray for the Sick, what to do if a demon suddenly manifests in a meeting.
(21:11):
And so this book, how to Preach the Gospel, you can find it on Amazon. I’ve also got this book. You Can Become a Master Soul Winner, and I give this book away free to anybody who goes to my website, king ministries.com and gives me your email address. So if you go to my website and there’s a button there where you can sign up for our email newsletter list and I will email you an e-copy of this book absolutely free. And then I also want to train evangelists in apologetics for defending their faith in a modern world. And so I noticed that atheism and agnosticism is really big in the West, in America and in Europe a lot of people have questions about God. And so I wrote this apologetics book, proof God is real. And so if you want to know how to prove that Jesus really rose from the dead, whether Jesus really existed and different ways of knowing that there really is a God, this book will help you to defend your faith, which apologetics is pre evangelism.
(22:24):
First you got to prove that there’s a God before people realize that they have a need for God. And then if you want God to use you in the area of healing, I think that in the Bible you see that evangelism and healing is often very closely connected. And so this book, healing Power, experiencing the Miracle Touch of God will help you to begin to flow in seeing Healing miracles in your ministry. And so I have developed these different resources, these different books in order to share the gospel and in order to train leaders. And so we’re developing lots of different materials and resources because we want to do everything we can to get as many people out there sharing the gospel in as many places as they can. And so kind of a way to illustrate this is last week I was in Zimbabwe and I met an evangelist in Zimbabwe.
(23:24):
His name is Obey. And he actually was my translator on a radio program. So we went on a radio program and I got to preach for 20 minutes on the radio program and he was translating for me. And as he was translating, he’s like, Hey, I recognize your voice. And after we were done, he pulled up his phone and he showed me on his phone, he’s like, I’ve been listening to your Evangelism podcast. And he says, I downloaded many episodes of your Evangelism podcast and I’m learning so much from your Evangelism podcast. And he says, I even went to your website, I downloaded some of your books. And so he showed me and he is like, and now here you are in person. He said, I had no idea I would ever meet you, but I’ve already been learning from you. And so that was so neat to meet him.
(24:14):
And he’s going out, he’s done seven Crusades in the last two years in Zimbabwe going out into the little towns and villages, and he’s going to places that I could never go because I just don’t have the time or ability to go everywhere. But he is actively going and preaching the gospel. And he said his vision is to reach every town and village across Zimbabwe with the gospel. And so by training him, by giving him our resources, by doing our evangelism podcast, helping people to develop in the area of evangelism, we’re able to multiply the fruit of our ministry and go places that I’ll never be able to go myself.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (25:01):
Yes, absolutely. I like to say I tell people that, Hey, God is going to use you to reach people that no one else could reach on planet Earth except you. So I can relate to his story. You know what, I’ve been listening to your podcast for years now, and to have you on my podcast to interview is really an honor. It really is a tremendous honor for me. I’ve learned so much from you, your podcast, you’ve just so, so much into me and I’ve read some of your books, how to Become a Master Soul Winner. Absolutely love it. I think everyone should get that. I think everyone should get all of your books. And what I’m going to do is I’m going to include a hyperlink in Yes, that book will change your life and totally equip you on how to share the gospel message with people. And I’m going to conclude Daniel. I’m going to include a hyperlink to where people can get your books, your website, your podcast in today’s show notes. Yeah. Why would you encourage people to listen to your podcast in all the episodes that you put out?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:14):
Well, thank you so much and I want to compliment you on your podcast. I love the name of your podcast, evangelism on Fire, evangelism by Fire. My podcast is just called The Evangelism Podcast, and I started it just a few years ago during COVID. And the reason I started was because COVID Man COVID was an attack on evangelists because they said, you can’t travel and you can’t have big meetings with people in crowds, and that’s what an evangelist does. The evangelist travels and he does big meetings. So I was like, man, the devil is trying to attack my calling as an evangelist. What can I do to attack the devil back? And so I started the Evangelism podcast and just started talking to different evangelists and missionaries and pastors around the world that have a heart for evangelism. And so now we’ve recorded over 370 episodes from nations all over the world.
(27:21):
It really is a global podcast. And so if you listen to it, you’ll kind of get a sense of what God is doing all over the world. God is bigger than just one nation or one part of the world. God is actually doing amazing things in nations everywhere. And so it’s really inspiring to hear those stories. And usually for my podcast, I just ask questions and say, what is God doing in your country? And some of the stories have just been absolutely amazing. So yeah, if you are interested in an Evangelism podcast, which you must be because you’re listening to an evangelism podcast right now, make sure you check out the Evangelism Podcast with Daniel King. It’s on all the major platforms. And so find it and listen. And you might even want to go back through it. And if you’re interested in a particular part of the world, find some episodes from that part of the world and listen to some of the interviews.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (28:27):
Absolutely. And I’ll tell you how much, look everyone listening, you need to listen to his evangelism, the Evangelism podcast. You need to find that and subscribe right now. Right now, I’m telling you, I love his podcast so much. Look, September 22nd, 2020 was the first episode. Okay? That’s how much I love your podcast. It will really equip you on how to share your faith in Jesus with others. So yeah, you got to find his podcast and listen to it today. So one of the questions I get a lot, we just did an outreach this past Saturday and we go to all the government housing projects in our city where most people don’t want to go to. We go to the least of this past Saturday, we had an outreach in this place called Hillside Court, and praise God, we had 72 people give their life to Jesus.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (29:27):
And
Evangelist Mark Thomas (29:27):
We had 19 on the spot water baptisms. It was amazing. It was an amazing time. One of the first questions I get whenever God uses me to lead someone to Jesus is, well, what about follow up? You know exactly what I’m talking about. So question,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (29:45):
I’ve heard that the question once or
Evangelist Mark Thomas (29:46):
Twice, I’m sure you have. So let’s talk about the role of the local church. When people come to Christ at your festivals, what role does the local church play in ensuring the new believers are discipled and care for?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (30:04):
Yeah, absolutely. Follow up is extremely important. In Matthew 28, Jesus says, go make disciples. He didn’t say, just go make converts. He said, go make disciples. And so once someone indicates a decision to follow Christ, then it is our obligation to help them to begin to grow in Christ. And I think that the solution to follow up is by involving a variety of ministry gifts in the follow-up. And so the evangelist is especially anointed by God to go after souls. If you know anybody who has a calling for evangelism, they are always talking about how can we get people saved? What can we do? I heard about a place that needs Jesus. How can we go do an outreach over there? And so the evangelist has been gifted by God with this ability to go after the lost, and that’s a unique gifting, but there are other ministry gifts in the body of Christ that do a great job at follow up and discipleship.
(31:20):
And so pastors, they have been gifted by God to care for the sheep. They’re called as shepherds. And so their job is to care for the sheep. And then you have teachers in the body of Christ that take someone who might be a baby in Christ and begin to help them grow. And so in Ephesians chapter four, you have the fivefold ministry gifts, the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor, the teacher, and we really need all five ministry gifts in order to properly follow up on the new believers. And so in Acts chapter eight, we really see a picture of how God wants us to do follow up. And in that chapter it’s about Philip the evangelist. He’s the only one in the whole Bible who specifically called an evangelist. And he goes to Samaria and he begins to preach, and there’s multitudes, there’s miracles, demons are being cast out, people are being baptized.
(32:22):
And it’s this amazing revival that Philip begins to see in Samaria. And then word goes to the church in Jerusalem and the church in Jerusalem, they send the apostles, Peter and John to Samaria and they pray for the people in Samaria to be filled with the Holy Spirit. So we see this partnership between Philip the evangelist and then these apostles, Peter and John who come and help with the revival that’s going on. And so that’s why it’s so important for the evangelists to be connected to the local church. We always work with the local church through the local church and for the local church. And I really like what Reinhard Bonnke used to say to the pastors when he would go to a city, he says, we are going fishing and I will bring my nets, but I ask you to give me your boats.
(33:26):
And he says, when I leave, I will leave all the fish for you. I’m not taking any of them with me. He says, but I need your boats, so please bring your boats so we can put the fish in your boats. And I think that’s a good picture of our partnership with the local church as an evangelist, we go out, we catch fish, and then we bring them to the church so the church can begin to clean the fish where we catch the sheep, and then the pastor can begin to give the dirty sheep a bath, help the sheep to become the pure sheep that we are all called to be. And so we need that partnership. And so every time someone asks me, what do you do about follow up? I always ask them, well, what can you do to help me with the follow up?
(34:21):
Because obviously I like that if they are asking that question, it’s something that God’s put on their heart. And so I’m like, Hey, we need Bibles to follow up. Can you help me buy Bibles? We need literature. Can you help me print some literature? We need to start a cell group or a Sunday school class. Can you help me with that? And so you just shared this amazing testimony of going to this low income housing area and you saw so many people get saved. Is there anybody that is partnering with your ministry that could go and start a weekly Bible study there or something? There are people that are gifted for that, that have a heart to disciple, that have a heart for training people. And so you usually the ones that have the heart are the ones that are asking, what do you do about follow-up? And I always turn it back on them and say, well, what can you do to help me with do it together?
Evangelist Mark Thomas (35:25):
Oh, I love that. I love that. You know what? I’ve just recently started doing that. I realized these people that are asking me that, they have a heart for that. And as you just said, I just recently, and I’m just talking about two weeks ago, Daniel, I started doing this, how can you help us out with the discipleship? So that is such great wisdom. So let me ask you this, Daniel. So what do you tell people who say that I don’t share the gospel of Jesus Christ, I don’t evangelize because I don’t have the gift of evangelism. How would you guide them through that?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (36:07):
Yeah, the great commission that Jesus gave to the disciples was given to every follower of Christ. And it was very important to Jesus because he repeats himself several different times and in several different ways, and it’s recorded at the end of each gospel. So Matthew 28, Jesus says, go make disciples, mark 16. He says, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Luke 24, he says, forgiveness of sins will be preaching his name to all nations. John 20, he says, as the Father sent me, now I am sending you. And then Acts one, eight, you’ll receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you’ll be my witnesses into Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, into the uttermost ends of the earth. And so those words commanding us to go and make disciples to go preach the gospel. Every creature were given to every single follower of Jesus, not just the evangelist.
(37:17):
Now the evangelist does have a special gift from God, and we find the purpose of the evangelist in Ephesians chapter four that I mentioned earlier, with a fivefold ministry gifts. Each of the fivefold ministry, the gifts are given to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. And so the evangelist, of course is called to preach the gospel, but then the evangelist is also called to equip the body of Christ to fulfill the great commission. And so the evangelist has a special gifting from God to get people involved in evangelism. And I think every single member of the body of Christ is called to be an evangelist. And so when Paul writes to Timothy in Second Timothy, he tells him, do the work of an evangelist. And at that time, Timothy was actually serving as a pastor in Ephesus. And so Paul had seen lots of people get saved in Ephesus.
(38:29):
He set Timothy there to pastor the churches of Ephesus. And so here he is, he’s a young man serving as a pastor, but yet Paul tells him to do the work of an evangelist. And so all of us are called to do evangelism. We’re all called to share our faith. Even if you don’t feel like you’re specifically gifted for it, know that God gives you his Holy Spirit power so that you can have a boldness to be a witness. You may not know what to say or how to say it, but if you’ll pray and say, holy Spirit, help me, give me the words to say, you may not be able to reach everyone, but there is someone that you can reach and bring them to Jesus. And then the job of the evangelist, I think God does call people specifically to be evangelists. I’m called to be an evangelist, and so I love preaching the gospel, but then I also love equipping the saints to do evangelism. And so that’s what the evangelist does.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (39:32):
Powerful answer. Thank you so much. I love that explanation. So you’ve interviewed evangelists from around the world. What’s one reoccurring principle or lesson you’ve heard that really just really resonates with you?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (39:51):
Well, they all get the question, what do you do about follow up?
Evangelist Mark Thomas (39:56):
I know that’s right.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (39:59):
The thing I love about interviewing evangelists is just their passion for the lost. Every evangelist that I interview, I come away from the interview thinking, wow, I need to be more excited myself about reaching people for Jesus. And I think that that is the uniqueness of all the different evangelists that I’ve talked to. They get excited about going and telling people about Jesus, and it’s this drive. People are dying and going to hell, and we don’t want them to go to hell. We want to take them with us to heaven. And so that drive, that passion is really what is so inspiring about so many different evangelists around the world. Some of them are preaching the gospel in areas. People have never heard the gospel, and then some people are going to places where there’s lots of people who know about God but have wandered away from God and it doesn’t even matter. They’re like, we want to get people into relationship with God.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (41:17):
Yeah, so powerful. So powerful. What do you think, Daniel, what do you think that we can do as evangelists to really, really inspire every born again believer that knows Christ that’s following Christ? How can we better get that message out to them that, hey, God has called you to engage in the mission of the Great commission? That’s my heart. When I got saved, I immediately started sharing the gospel. And then I learned as I started reading the Bible that God calls us to engage in the mission of great commission to go and preach the gospel to all the world. And then as I got saved and started attending church, I realized that most local churches don’t teach that to their congregation. And I couldn’t figure out why. That’s one of the reasons why I started teaching evangelism. But what do you think that the local churches in the West, what can we do better to train our congregations? Are people at the local church level? Number one, what evangelism is, what the great commission is, what it means to preach the gospel to the loss, the hurting the people who are going to hell. How can we better train and equip the local church pastors to do that
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (42:50):
As evangelists? I think number one, we can give people opportunities to be involved in evangelism. And if people have opportunities, then I think they will get involved. And I think every evangelist should be connected to a local church and be in that church serving a local church pastor. And even going to your pastor and saying, pastor, what can we do to reach out to the loss? What can our church do to reach more people about Jesus? Can we have some Sunday school classes to help equip people to be bold in sharing their faith, or can we schedule some outreaches? I think every church should do at least one evangelistic outreach to the community every quarter. And so at least four times a year, a church should have an opportunity for people to reach out to the community. And whether that is a fall school supply giveaway or a special event at Christmas time, a special Easter outreach, a 4th of July picnic in the park, like something every single quarter, churches should do something to reach out for the loss.
(44:15):
And I actually wrote a book on how to grow your church, and in that book I put 153 different outreach ideas that churches can do to reach out to the community. And there’s a bunch of, they’re all real ideas that have been used by real churches. And any church can take them and go through it and pick two or three or four outreaches to do in a year. And so as an evangelist, you can go to your pastor and say, pastor, what can we do to reach out to more people and offer to help lead some type of outreach or to train people in that? And I think every church wants to grow, and if we as an evangelist find a way to serve our local church to go with the heart of a servant, say, what can we do to help the church grow, to help us reach more people?
(45:13):
I think that there is a natural desire for pastors to reach out to the lost, and they don’t always know how to go about it. So God calls the evangelists to be part of the church to help out, but you have to do it with the heart of a servant, not going in and imposing, this is what we need to do, but go in really as a servant and say, let’s reach people for Jesus. And then as evangelists, I think just in our own ministries, often evangelists have a parachurch ministry, building a ministry that allows other people to be involved in the outreaches. And like we did a couple of years ago, we did a big outreach for the Tulsa State Fair here in Tulsa, and there are 1.1 million people that go through the Tulsa State Fair over an 11 day period. It happens every year.
(46:12):
And so I was praying, saying, God, how do we reach people in the United States because to do stadium events in the United States can be really expensive, really quick. And I said, man, that’s so expensive to try to fill a stadium full of people. But here at the Tulsa State Fair, people are just wandering around with a Coca-Cola in one hand and a Turkey leg in the other hand, looking for something to do. And I was like, that is a built-in audience. So what we did is we rented a booth at the state fair, and for 11 days we had people out there just offering to pray with people as they went by. And so say, Hey, we’re out here praying with people. Is there anything that you need prayer for? And then whatever they would say, my grandma needs healing, or just pray for world peace.
(46:59):
And we heard every different thing that you could imagine. We would pray with them and then say, Hey, I want to make real sure you’re going to heaven with me. Could I share a quick message from God with you? And then we’d share the gospel. And from that, we had hundreds of people that prayed with us for salvation, but it was a great opportunity to get a bunch of different churches from Tulsa involved. And so we are out there for 10 hours a day for 11 days. And so we had different churches sponsor each day of the outreach and send their people to come and help pray for people. And so that way it gave the churches an outlet to announce on Sunday morning, Hey, if you guys are interested in being involved in evangelistic outreach, our churches sponsoring Thursday at the Tulsa State Fair, anybody who wants to be involved.
(47:52):
And every day we would have people from the local churches send people out to help us. And then right there on the ground, we would train them and help them to become better at their sharing their faith. And so people would come for a couple hours, then at the beginning, they’d be too shy to talk to anyone and say, Hey, just come with me and we’ll pray together. And then by the end, they were like, Hey, should I run over to the other side of the fair there? I see some young teenagers over there that need Jesus. And so it was a great way to just train them, equip them. And over the course of 11 days, we trained hundreds of people from local churches, from a bunch of different churches in evangelism here in Tulsa.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (48:35):
You know what? I love that story. And a mutual friend of ours, Evan Herman, I think it was a part of that event with
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (48:43):
You, you and I saw you recently interviewed Evan. He is a great friend. And yes, we did it together. So we did it in partnership with Evan. So his ministry and our ministry and some other ministries partnered together for that outreach. And that’s how we do many of our outreaches. We do everything through partnership. And so God doesn’t call us to minister alone. He calls us to minister with other people.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (49:07):
Yeah, that’s so good. Immediately when I listened to that episode, that’s what I’m going to do here at my city of Richmond, Virginia State Fair. Here we come. That was an amazing outreach. So you would join together, different churches would join you, and then you would train them on evangelism in real time.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (49:27):
Yeah, we would be out there. Me and Evan and other evangelists were out there all day. And as people came and volunteered to help, we would just train ’em, say, Hey, come with me, watch what I do. And then after they see it a few times, they kind of begin to step out and I say, okay, you do it, and I’ll watch. And then finally, they were ready to start doing it on their own. By the way, as you begin to do it, Evan and I, we wrote a manual, which can be found on my website, on how to do a free prayer booth at a state fair. And if you want to go, we have the logo you can download to put on the t-shirt, put banners, a manual that you can use to put it all together, and all of that is offered free on my website@kingministries.com.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (50:21):
And it’s free to use king ministries.com.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (50:24):
And
Evangelist Mark Thomas (50:26):
That in our show notes for today’s episode, king ministries.com, make sure you go there and just check out Daniel his website, and he’s got a lot of free resources for us to take advantage of. So Daniel, thank you so much for taking the time. Really, I’ve said this several times, but man, I’m going to say it again. It is an honor to have you on Evangelism on Fire Podcast. I have one more question for you. For the everyday believer listening right now who feels nervous about sharing their faith, what’s one simple step they can take to start evangelizing today?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (51:12):
Yeah, one of the resources I offer on my website is little stickers called The Three Circles. And so I just take this sticker and put it on the back of my cell phone, and it’s a real simple way of sharing the gospel. And so if I’m standing in line at the coffee shop, I just ask the person who’s standing in line with me, Hey, have you ever seen this picture before? And they say, oh, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it. It’s like, well, lemme tell you what it means. And so I start here with his heart. God loves you and he has a wonderful plan for your life, but this man is running away from God. When we run away from God, it’s called sin. And sin leads to a broken life. And when people’s lives are broken, they begin to look for change.
(51:58):
Some people look for change through relationships, but two broken people in a relationship have a broken relationship. Other people look for change by making money or by studying, but those still lead to brokenness. And the Bible has a word for change, and that word is repent. So this man is kneeling down, he’s crying out to God for help. And then this third circle is the good news. Circle the gospel circle. Jesus, the Son of God came from heaven down to earth. He died on the cross to pay the price for our sins, and then he rose from the dead and he became the king of the universe. And he wants to be the king of your heart. And the Bible says that everyone who calls on Jesus will be saved. So if you’ll call on Jesus right now, he’ll bring you back to God’s love and God’s perfect plan for your life. And so I love sharing this sticker with people who maybe haven’t been used to sharing the gospel everywhere they go, because it’s an easy way to remember what the gospel looks like. And so those stickers are free to download on my website@kingministries.com, and you can download it yourself, print lots of stickers, and you can give those away. But it’s a great way for people to share the gospel who are just starting out.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (53:19):
I absolutely love that simple, but a powerful tool. Anyone could use that for their gospel presentation.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (53:27):
Yeah.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (53:27):
Wow. I absolutely love that. Daniel, as we close today, this is a Christian podcast. Most of the people that are listening to Evangelism on Fire podcast, they’re hearing you talk about Jesus. They’re hearing us speak about evangelism, but with the audience the size that I have, there’s always going to be some people who are not believers in Jesus and they’re hearing about the good news of Jesus Christ. Could you first lead those people giving them opportunity to accept Jesus today? And then would you pray for all of my evangelism on fire listeners that God will empower them and equip them to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with people that they love, their friends, their family members, the people that they work and go to school with? Would you do that as we close out today’s episode?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (54:27):
Yeah, absolutely. As you’re listening today, I want you to know it’s not by accident that you’re listening right now. God loves you and he’s got a purpose and a plan for your life. And the problem is many of us have run away from God’s perfect plan, but Jesus, he died on the cross to pay the price for our sins. And the Bible says that if we repent, if we turn away from our sinful life and turn to Jesus, then Jesus will save us and give us a brand new life. So God wants to make you a new creation. Jesus wants to save you. He wants to wash away your sin right now. If you want Jesus to give you a brand new start and you want Jesus to wash away your sin, then I want you to pray with me. We’re going to cry out to Jesus, and Jesus is going to save you.
(55:23):
And so just say this prayer with me, say, dear God in heaven, I cry out to Jesus. Jesus saved me. I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I believe Jesus rose from the dead. I turn away from every sin and I turn to Jesus in Jesus name. Amen. Now, if you just prayed that prayer with me, then I have a gift of a book I want to give you. It’s available on my website, king ministries.com. Just sign up for our email list and I’ll send you our book that I wrote for new believers to help you grow in God. And if you’re an evangelist, I have a book for you too on my website. So go sign up right now and get a copy of the, you can become a master soul winner. This will really help you. And I want to really encourage you as an evangelist to step out in faith and dream big, do big things for God.
(56:24):
And let me pray for you right now. If you feel like God’s calling you as an evangelist, I believe that that calling, that desire comes from God. And I’m going to pray that God would give you amazing fruit in your ministry. Dear heaven, father, I pray for my friend who’s called to be an evangelist. Lord, I pray that you would expand their thinking, expand their dreams, and Lord, I pray that they would see not just one or two people come to Jesus, but dozens and hundreds and even thousands of people. Lord, I pray for even international opportunities to go to different nations around the world and to preach the gospel to fulfill Mark 1615 to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Lord, I pray that you would release my friend out into the harvest fields and that as they’re ready to be a laborer. Lord, I pray that you give them a great harvest of souls. In Jesus’ name, amen.
