Paul Durham used to be a pastor, but God called him to be an evangelist. Today we talk about the importance of being faithful with the small things and how God will give us big things to do for His kingdom. We also explore how to battle pride and ego as an evangelist.
Learn more about Evangelist Paul Durham: https://proclaimgoodnews.org/
Summary:
- Paul Durham started as a pastor but felt called to full-time evangelism, launching his ministry “Proclaim Good News” in 2011.
- Paul has partnered with other evangelists to conduct large-scale evangelistic events in Africa and smaller, more targeted events in places like Eastern Europe and Costa Rica.
- Both Daniel and Paul emphasize the importance of being faithful in small opportunities, as well as the big ones, and how collaboration allows them to achieve more together than they could individually.
- They discuss the challenges of overcoming ego and pride as evangelists, and the need to give all glory to God.
- Paul shares his heart for reaching small towns and rural areas with the gospel, in addition to the large-scale events.
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 special guest with me, evangelist Paul Durham. Thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Evangelist Paul Durham (00:12):
Thank you, Daniel. It’s an honor to be here with you, my brother.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:15):
So the name of your ministry is Proclaim Good News, That is a good mission to have. Tell me a little bit about how you became an evangelist.
Evangelist Paul Durham (00:25):
Okay. Well, I was pastoring a church in North Carolina, outside the Charlotte area back in, I started in 2003. Actually. Before that I was just traveling locally, preaching in churches and things. One of those churches ended up asking me to consider being their pastor. The first year I didn’t do it, they asked me again. I eventually prayed about it with my wife and we did. And I pastored a church for about six and a half, seven years. But I always felt called to evangelism. I had a heart to reach the lost, and I felt that pretty early when I first came to know Christ, because I came to know Christ through really listening to Greg Laurie’s ministry on the radio
(01:14):
Huge impact. And I think also God used that to put a passion in me, maybe for the gospel, for the loss for my friends family. So as a pastor, the church needs a good Bible teaching shepherd, and I did my best and God was gracious and kind to use me in that capacity. But I noticed I was kept pushing for the church to be more outreach oriented, more externally minded. But I felt what the people are needing or at least wanting and needing is more shepherding and more Bible studies and more growing in their knowledge of the word and their relationship with Christ. So there was that tension in me, and it wasn’t a large church with the staff or anything, so a lot of it depended on me. And there was that tension inside of me pastoring, shepherding, teaching an evangelist. And we made the decision actually through Jose Z, meeting Jose in Charlotte, learning about his ministry and went with him to Uganda in 2010.
(02:27):
Got a taste of the festival, crusade, evangelism, loved it, God praying about it. And I realized you have to take a step of faith like everything in life. So when God made the transition, he orchestrated the change. I stepped out of the pastoring to go full-time evangelism, big step of faith. I went from having a salary every week to trust in God. Father, please provide. And still to this day, same. So that’s kind of how it began. And that was 2011, we started the ministry. It was originally called Ripe for Life, but with my southern accent, people on the radio and on telephone calls, they couldn’t get ripe, RIPE number for life. It was always ripe for life, all kinds of things. So the board made a decision together. We believe it was the Lord to change the name, to proclaim good news, and we’ve just done that in the last couple of years.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:36):
And so tell me kind of the process of being an evangelist. What are some of the things you’ve done over the years that have really been impactful?
Evangelist Paul Durham (03:44):
Yeah, yeah. Well, we started, when I first started, I started in Africa, east African Nations, back to Uganda, partnered a lot still today our ministry is more a collaborative effort with other evangelists. And even from the beginning, I partnered with PJ Mad and his ministry quite a bit. I’ve learned so much. PJ’s really helped me a lot when I first got started as a mentor. So I would go with him and he and I would partner together and do these crusades or festivals. And it took off. I mean, we were seeing in Rwanda, Africa, in remote areas, they’d be 30, 40,000 people at some of these things. And I was just blown away. And I’m talking about no big stage, no big sound system. It’s like a wooden stage kind of rocking back and forth. Some speakers hanging out of a tree and maybe a light surrounded by mosquitoes we’re just preaching the gospel and folks we’re coming and coming and hungry for the word
(04:49):
Seeing God move. So that’s kind of how it started with this big explosion. And I was, I’m like hooked. Woo. But then reality started to settle in and we’ve done some things and what I have learned, and I think God is showing that it might be encouraging for some other evangelists, every soul matters. And so God allowed me to be a part of some really big things in the beginning. Then I does some things on our own with our ministry, much smaller. We’ve been in Eastern Europe doing affinity events. Maybe there’s a hundred people in a restaurant, but 40 out of a hundred receive Christ a high percentage of salvations, and then we
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:37):
That’s a great miracle in
Evangelist Paul Durham (05:39):
Eastern Europe. Yes. Yeah. Well, praise God, right? Every soul matters. And then we’ve done some things in Costa Rica where in the mountains of, I’ll never forget this, in the mountains of Costa Rica in the coffee country,
(05:53):
Very small town, Santa Maria, if I said that correctly, maybe 10 churches working together, big coffee factory. There was some of the best coffee in the world. But these 10 pastors or 10 churches or so, small festival, about 600 people. But to them, and they told me those pastors, we’ve never had anything like this, their little town square, to be filled up with people and to hear the gospel and see the response, it was amazing for them and for me, but on a much smaller scale than the big thing. So what I’ve learned, and I’m happy with it, small is significant, largest, significant. And you know, us evangelists, I like the big pictures and the video.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:45):
Sure.
Evangelist Paul Durham (06:45):
Small things are significant too, because that one person, I
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:49):
Think an order for God to open up the door for you to do the big things, you have to be willing to do the small things. Because if you can’t talk one-on-one to someone about Jesus, you don’t deserve to be on a platform talking to thousands of people. And God tests our faithfulness in some ways. And what I find often in my ministry is that right after we do a real big successful event and something that’s really great, then God will give me the opportunity to do some small, little, tiny event that nobody knows about. I really think it’s just God testing my heart. I want to make sure you’re still a servant, you’re still willing to serve the one or the few, and then you show yourself faithful and then God gives you another big opportunity Again.
Evangelist Paul Durham (07:37):
I agree. A
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:38):
Few months later,
Evangelist Paul Durham (07:39):
Brother, we are just alike. I concur everything you said. That is exactly my heart. Everything. I agree.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:46):
I mean, today we’re here in Zimbabwe and I was going out on one of the trucks, the mobile rallies, and so we just pull into a little station where there’s little shops and stuff, and I started preaching and no one was listening. I mean, they’re over there shopping, buying tomatoes, and we try to gather a crowd, but the sun is hot, so no one wants to come out of the shade. So they’re all way over in the shop in the shade and stuff. And I was preaching good. I know it’s a good sermon. It works good. I’ve used it a lot for thousands of people, but no one’s listening. I know. And here comes one guy walking along and he is got a beer in his hand. And I said, if no one else is listening, I’m going to talk to him. Talk to that guy. Said, Hey, listen to me. Like, hey. He stopped. He put down his beer, looked at me. He’s like, who are you? I said, Hey, come here, come here, come here. And just started preaching to that one
Evangelist Paul Durham (08:49):
Guy
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:50):
And shared the whole gospel with him. Jesus set you free. Put the beard down as are you ready to give your life to Jesus? He said, 100%, I’m ready. And so right there in the microphone, I had him, there’s one guy
Evangelist Paul Durham (09:06):
Share,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:07):
I mean say a salvation prayer with me. And so Jesus saved
Evangelist Paul Durham (09:11):
That
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:11):
One guy out there who was walking to get another beer today. And Jesus changed his life.
Evangelist Paul Durham (09:19):
Every soul matters. That’s right. Yeah. The 1 0 1, I love those times. We’ve even tried, this is new for our ministry, but I went up to the mountains and really right on the border of North Carolina, Georgia area, me and a friend, and did some one-on-one interviews with people. The challenge I learned, there wasn’t a whole lot of big crowd of people to talk to and was hard to get ’em to stop and talk. But the few that did, the culture, they grew up in the south, in the culture, if you ask them, Hey, what do you think about? Everybody knows Jesus, everybody’s saved, but you still share the gospel with them and end up praying with them and a young man there and a young lady both that we got to just spend time with and pray for them and they pray, I guess more of a recommitment to Christ. But those things matter. And even the one-on-one times in life with people, my dad, man, I remember he’s a hard, my whole life, tough guy, blue collar, southern, tough, exterior mental man. And when I was saying,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:31):
I’m glad you’re a Christian because I mean you’re smiling a lot, I think, man, if you didn’t have Jesus, I think you’d be kind of like
Evangelist Paul Durham (10:39):
That. I may have, well, I grew up in that environment, but my dad, he was hard, tough, may argue with you about anything and always have to be right. And I love him. I love my dad. And today we still have a great relationship. But he left when I was young just to live his life and all. But I got saved. I would try to talk to him. I remember he would just shut me down. It was hard. It was hard. I’d keep praying for him and praying for him. That man finally broke. God got his heart, tough heart, older in life, and God softened his heart and he came to Christ and he told me, now he’s going to church. And he’s
(11:22):
Older, took a while. And I wasn’t even the one that necessarily, I didn’t pray with him on the spot to receive Christ. But all those years of praying and having those conversations, it has an impact on our families. We need to be praying for and serving and loving our families. And anybody God puts in our space, if it’s the one person at work, school, wherever, or the crowd like here, thousands of people in front of you, love them, serve them. Share the gospel, the truth with them like we know Christ changes the life, softens the heart, saves the soul we had love people, serve people and proclaim good news of Jesus to
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:13):
Them. Amen. Let’s talk about the power of collaboration.
Evangelist Paul Durham (12:17):
So
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:18):
We’re here in Zimbabwe with the global network of evangelists, and you’ve done many events with the global network of evangelists. You’ve been in several different countries with them. And right now we’re in Zimbabwe. In a few weeks you’ll be in Argentina with them. And so that comes through collaboration. And I think there’s a principle that together we can accomplish more
Evangelist Paul Durham (12:43):
Than
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:43):
If we were separate. And when you don’t care who logo is on the poster and whose face is on the poster and give all the glory to Jesus, he’s the one who gets the glory
Evangelist Paul Durham (12:56):
Anyways,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:57):
But not care about your logo or your ego. You can accomplish far more for God. And so talk to me about how collaboration has helped your ministry.
Evangelist Paul Durham (13:09):
Oh wow, brother, you are right. I liked what you said. Well, if you don’t care about your logo or your ego, that’s pretty cool, man. I’ll just be quite frank about it. I believe God moves even. You read scripture, the body, we’re a body. It’s us. It isn’t me, it’s us.
(13:30):
And collaboration with evangelist, the factor of partnership and collaborating together, we can do more. Our ministry isn’t a large ministry, it’s like a small business. So if I do something on my own with our ministry, it’s still a significant, but you can do a small thing or only reach a few where if you collaborate together, you can go further and deeper and reach more. So why not pull our resources together? Why not? It takes humility, but pull our resources together. Be willing to say, when Daniel King’s on that stage preaching the gospel, I’m your biggest fan. I’m praying for you, brother. I know you. I love you. I want to see you do well for Jesus. And I want to see those people respond. And then when I’m preaching, it’s good to know these brothers understand the battle. It’s a spiritual battle
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:34):
Going on. Last night you were preaching at the festival and me and Reed Saunders and Jose Zia were on the side looking over the fence and watching you and praying for you while you were sharing the gospel. Thank you brother. And even I was watching the audience and some of the young people were losing interest, starting to get antsy and stuff. And I just started praying. He said, Lord, calm everybody down. Let the gospel hit their
Evangelist Paul Durham (15:06):
Heart.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:07):
Let every word that brother Paul says, come straight from the throne room of heaven.
Evangelist Paul Durham (15:12):
And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:13):
After me and Reid and Jose started praying, I think it brought a change in the atmosphere.
Evangelist Paul Durham (15:20):
I think you’re right because last night this happens to all of us. Sometimes it’s like you’re just tracking with Jesus and everybody’s listening, this is going well and this it’s like, man, I’m running in
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:31):
Mud. And last night was the first night of the festival, so that’s always the toughest night. Anyway, they gave you the tough
Evangelist Paul Durham (15:38):
One. It was a little bit of a harder audience maybe, and there were a lot of movement. But the ones right up front. And I did sense your prayers, brother, because even as I was preaching, being faithful to the Lord, as much as I know how and give people the gospel, there was a moment there where it’s a lot of movement. This is people are, but the people right up front, all of a sudden there was a time it felt like the Holy Spirit kind of fell over that group right there. They were tuned in right in the middle and up the front and the distractions on the side or in the back didn’t even matter. It was like, God, you’re speaking to these people and those are the ones that responded at the invitation. They prayed, some of them raised their hands
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:27):
And we had a good response last night,
Evangelist Paul Durham (16:29):
But that’s what you said, God allowed me last night to have the honor to proclaim the gospel. And you guys were praying and doing spiritual battle. Sometimes he lets you have the honor preaching to God and the rest of us are there to lift you up,
(16:47):
Pray and help do that spiritual war going on because souls are on the line, man, the enemy if he wants to stop all that. So back to collaboration, we’re so much better together, not just in numbers, but in the spiritual battle and to be able to encourage one another. And if you have a hard night, something doesn’t go well, somebody, we are all people. Somebody might say something that hurt your feelings or whatever. We got each other because you understand, we all go through it, but we’re in it together for Jesus. But that ego thing, I’ll be quite frank, I have to battle that same time. I think
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:29):
It’s in every evangelist. I mean, there’s something, it takes a big ego to stand up in front of a big crowd and to proclaim. And sometimes it can go to your head like, wow, look at me. I’m the amazing man of God. But you got to remember on Palm Sunday when Jesus rode in, everyone was cheering for him and the donkey might’ve thought they were cheering for him.
Evangelist Paul Durham (17:54):
Yeah, that’s
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:54):
Right. It was the one he was carrying. That’s right. They were not really cheering for us. They’re cheering for the one we carry. We carry
Evangelist Paul Durham (18:00):
Jesus. Yeah, I’m the donkey, that’s for sure.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:05):
But it is beautiful to see collaboration. Collaboration gives you the opportunity to serve.
Evangelist Paul Durham (18:13):
And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:14):
Really, Jesus said, the greatest in the kingdom is the servant of all.
Evangelist Paul Durham (18:18):
Jesus
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:18):
Said, I’ve come not to be served but to serve. He said that if your faith with the small things, I’ll put you in charge of many things.
Evangelist Paul Durham (18:26):
And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:26):
So what collaboration does too is it allows you to serve and to be a part of something. And then as you’re faithful in the collaboration, then God will advance your ministry and give you more and more opportunities.
Evangelist Paul Durham (18:45):
And quite frankly too, from the beginning, my heart, I grew up in a small town in South Carolina with my accent. You may have thought I was from Brooklyn. No, I’m kidding. As a joke, small town, South Carolina, and I do have a heart for small towns. I would love if God ever made a way or opened a door through collaboration or on our own to reach some of those small towns like that, like a high school football stadium
(19:13):
And give them something that the cities get a lot, but they don’t get a lot of just like those guys in those mountains of Costa Rica to do that in America or anywhere in the world. I love that. My heart is there, but that’s how I grew up. I understand. You always have to drive an hour or more to get to anything. Nobody comes here. Somebody come here, minister to them. They got all the same challenges. The city, it’s drugs, there’s broken homes, there’s all the same challenges are there too. And people are there, and every person matters. Every town matters. And if God called me to reach those outskirts, fine with me. I love those people. But I love doing this too, and the collaboration and to work together and to be a part of some of the bigger things. It’s beautiful. I just thank God for any opportunity and Phil, use us it all. Amen. It is amazing. Right? It’s all his grace.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:17):
Amen.
Evangelist Paul Durham (20:17):
Yeah, brother.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:19):
Well, brother Paul, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast. If someone wants to find out more information about your ministry or help to support you and all the missions that you’re going on, what is a good website for them? They to find out more information about
Evangelist Paul Durham (20:34):
You. Well, thank you Daniel. It is proclaim good news.org. If you go there, you can find out everything.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:41):
Awesome. Well, thank you for being on the Evangelist Podcast. Thank
Evangelist Paul Durham (20:44):
You for having me, brother. God bless you.
