Can God use a chicken farm as a tool for evangelism and church planting? Find out on today’s episode of The Evangelism Podcast. Daniel King interviews Ryan Brown, the CEO of Open Doors, a ministry dedicated to helping the persecuted church. The organization was started by Brother Andrew who was known as God’s Smuggler for his work smuggling Bibles into the former Soviet Union. Today, Open Doors continues its work of standing up for Christians who suffer persecution and discrimination.
Learn more about Open Doors: https://www.opendoorsus.org/en-US/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Can God use a chicken farm as a tool for evangelism in church planting? Find out on today’s episode of The Evangelism Podcast, I’m going to interview Ryan Brown, the CEO of Open Doors, a ministry dedicated to helping the persecuted church. The organization was started by Brother Andrew, who was known as God smuggler for his work, smuggling Bibles into the former Soviet Union. Today open Doors continues its work of standing up for Christians who suffer persecution and discrimination.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:48):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast with Dr. Daniel King, where Daniel interviews full-time evangelists, pastors, missionaries and normal everyday Christians to discover how they share their faith, their powerful testimonies and amazing stories that will inspire you to reach people with the good news. And now here’s your host, missionary, and evangelist Daniel King.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:15):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a very special guest with me, Ryan Brown from Open Doors. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Ryan Brown | CEO of Open Doors (01:28):
Oh, Daniel, thank you. It’s such a privilege to be here with you today.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:31):
Well, tell me a little bit about what your organization Open Doors does.
Ryan Brown | CEO of Open Doors (01:37):
Yeah, so Open Doors this next year will actually be 70 years ago that the organization was started and was started by a gentleman that’s come to be known as Brother Andrew. And he smuggled Bibles behind the Iron Curtain and that work gave as he responded to the needs of the church that was experiencing persecution in those areas that work, smuggling Bibles and gospel materials gave birth to an international ministry where we are now working in over 70 countries around the globe where Christians are most persecuted or discriminated against because of their faith in Jesus. So every year we put out a world Watch list in which we highlight the 50 countries around the globe where Christians most suffer because of that decision to follow Jesus. And we are really honored and humbled by the privilege that we get to come alongside the church in all of these areas in which it’s being persecuted to support the church in those contexts so that they can continue to be the hands and feet of Christ right there.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:47):
So on this year’s World Watch list, what are some of the countries where our Christian brothers and sisters experience the most persecution right now?
Ryan Brown | CEO of Open Doors (02:58):
Yeah, question. I think one of the big trends that we have seen this year, and I should say that this has really been a multi-year trend, which is continuing to escalate at alarming levels, but has been just the incredible violence in Sub-Saharan Africa. And more specifically, I think one of the areas where you see that played out the most is actually in Nigeria. In Nigeria, we saw more people martyred for their faith this last year than all other places in the globe combined. But there has been massive of displacement that has occurred throughout Sub-Saharan Africa just because of the instability. And it’s not just Christians that have been impacted, but Christians have been uniquely impacted in that there are about 16.2 million Christians across Africa that have been displaced and currently living in either internally displaced people’s camp IDP camps or some of those are formal, some of those are informal and Christians have been targeted and Christians have been the focus of much of the instability, the targets I should say, of much of the instability there.
(04:24):
For those folks that are living in IDP camps, it’s been a difficult proposition. Many of them because of their Christian faith have been overlooked or have been neglected in the distribution of aid and those types of things by others that might share the same faith of the folks running the camps. So a very, very difficult situation for Christians throughout Sub-Saharan Africa and we see an increase in the number of countries there. We continue to see other areas where some of the totalitarian regimes just continue to exert influence and make things very, very difficult for Christians where the solidarity and the community that Christians exhibit is seen as a threat to the state. And so governments will crack down harshly on the church and those areas, these are places like North Korea and places like that. Just to give people a little bit of context, North Korea is on the top of the world watch list.
(05:37):
It has been for a number of years and this is a country where Christians and their entire family can be in prison just for being in possession of a Bible. So very, very challenging and difficult for Christians there. We also see the world watch list areas like in Central and South America where as you take a look at the cartels, the drug cartels and those types of things in these areas as pastors have either spoken out against the cartels or have been reaching out to their communities in ways that are pulling young people into the faith and out of the cartels and out of the lifestyle that would financially support the cartels, the leaders of those cartels see the church as bad for business and so they’ve targeted those churches trying to tear them down. So those are some of the trends that we’ve seen emerging over the course of the last year.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:43):
Okay. Let’s talk about some of the things that you mentioned. First of all, Nigeria, I’ve been over there to Nigeria and actually taught at the largest mission school in Nigeria, run by the Redeemed Church, which has churches all over Nigeria. And I remember the leader of this mission school he had was telling us stories about some of their graduates that had gone up into northern Nigeria, planted churches and the churches were burned down, the Christians were killed. In one case, they actually took all the members of the congregation, put them inside a church building, burned the church down around them. And I saw pictures, very graphic photos of the charred bodies that were left there. And so tremendous persecution, South Korea or North Korea. Last week I was at the Uzon Conference
(07:49):
In Korea and it was really beautiful to see the South Korean church praying for the North Koreans. Their society really has tragically been split in half for many years now and technically they’re still at war. And the South Korean Church is earnestly praying for God to bring peace to the Korean Peninsula. And it was actually really beautiful to see. And then the drug cartels down in central and South America. My parents were missionaries in Mexico. We grew up in Juarez, Mexico, right across the border from El Paso, Texas. And at one point that was the area that had the largest number of murders of any city in the world because of the drug trafficking that was coming through Juarez. And so in our services we would often have drug cartel members that would come to our services, sometimes would persecute the Christians. One of our close pastor friends that we worked with in Juarez in his church, he had a drug rehab program and obviously the cartel was not happy about him helping to set people free from an addiction to drugs.
(09:15):
And so they came in, they told him to stop, he didn’t stop. And the next time they came in, they came in, they shot four people including the pastor that we were working with. And so this persecution is a reality on the ground around the world. What do you think should be the response of Christians here in America who hear these stories? We live sometimes very comfortable lives, but our brothers and sisters are being persecuted for their faith in these different countries. What should be the response of people that hear these stories about what is happening to Christians worldwide?
Ryan Brown | CEO of Open Doors (09:59):
Yeah, such a great and beautiful question. I think first and foremost, that response should always be one of prayer because when the people of God are persecuted or discriminated against because of their faith in Jesus, that first and foremost is a spiritual issue. And so prayer is not a strategy of last resort in this case, prayer is the frontline of what we should be doing. It’s the first way that we should be engaging. And I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard from our brothers and sisters that are experiencing persecution when asked in what ways we can be supporting and helping them. That is so often the very first things off their lips. It’s just don’t forget us. It is such an encouragement for folks to know that brothers and sisters around the globe are lifting them up in prayer. One of the byproducts of persecution can often just be this feeling of isolation that individuals are alone and whether that be because they’re imprisoned or just because they’re cut off from different aspects of their culture and to know that they are part of a global body of believers that is lifting them up, that’s a powerful encouragement.
(11:19):
I think one of the other ways that we truly looked to support and come alongside is the church can experience, and we kind of characterize that persecution in two different ways, painting with a broad brush in some ways we characterize as smash of persecution. So these are some of the things that we’ve been talking about where persecution is carried out with violence and whether that be through actual people being martyred for their faiths or physically beaten or assaulted or property being destroyed or burned, that idea of a physical violence is a smash of persecution. But there’s also another very real reality that threatens the church in these areas and that’s what we call the squeeze of persecution. And this is a dynamic in which churches, individuals have been denied access to education, they’ve been denied access to employment. And for Christians in those areas, if they can’t feed their families, they’re forced to leave.
(12:29):
And that’s what can gut the church in these areas is that when leaders have to leave the area because they can no longer survive or live in these areas that decimate the church. And that’s one of the ways that the church comes under attack. So one of the areas ways that we come alongside is to support the church in these areas with things like livelihood programs or literacy programs that allow the church and individuals in the church to remain rooted in those very very areas and allow them to continue to be the church in those areas. And so you’d mentioned that in many ways, many of us live in a position of comfort that’s not necessarily something that we should inherently feel guilty about. Paul talks about the God of all comfort has extended us comfort, but the reason that he’s extended his comfort is not just so that we can be comfortable, but so that we in exchange can be a comfort to others.
(13:30):
We can extend that comfort as the hands and feet of Christ to others. And so with some of these blessings and some of these resources that Christ has given us, we have an opportunity to mobilize those to our brothers and sisters. Scripture also talks about when one part of the body hurts, we all hurt. And as we believe that, as we act according to that, it gives us opportunity to come alongside and support these livelihood programs to support these education programs that again allow individuals to continue to remain the church right there in these areas that so desperately need the gospel, but areas in which the gospel is so aggressively attacked.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:19):
What does your organization open doors specifically do to help Christians in these persecuted areas? You mentioned just now literacy programs. You mentioned helping them out with vocational training. Are you still smuggling Bibles like Brother Andrew did back in the day?
Ryan Brown | CEO of Open Doors (14:41):
Yeah, so it was over a million Bibles or so that were distributed this last year. Obviously it is changed quite a bit with the internet, those types of things as far as what access looks like to some of those things. And so getting people access to the word of God has and will continue to remain a priority at a core part of our organization, the word is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. And it’s the tool for discipleship and to grow in our faith with Christ. And so the word of God is just critical and central and so that very much is still remains apart in some cases, yes, it does require a covert type of presence to be able to get those Bibles distributed. Other times it’s not the case and it’s just a matter of being able to mobilize some of those scriptures in some cases too.
(15:49):
I mean especially where illiteracy is high, there are things like digital audio bibles that we’re able to provide so that people can hear the word of God in places like North Korea, like we’ve mentioned we have, it’s very, very difficult to operate within the country and their are economic sanctions and things like that that have to be observed. But we are able to broadcast radio across borders and proclaim and read the word of God in those contexts as well. So yeah, the Bible is a big, big part of what we continue to do. We also do other things such as providing trauma counseling and care and operating safe houses in different locations. I don’t think that it’s hard for us to imagine that even with the presence of Christ in our lives, there are people that have experienced horrific expressions of persecution that can be emotionally and psychologically damaging and scarring.
(17:05):
And to be able to offer with Christ as the center piece of that counseling and support and to walk people through that and help walk with them back to a position of health, spiritual, emotional, and physical health, that can be a big part of our work in places like North, excuse me, in Sub-Saharan Africa rather where talked about the IDP camps and things like that. There’s some of that that very much looks like some of the emergency relief type of a situation. Like we’re bringing in food items and providing area access to food for folks in other areas, it is more kind of that socioeconomic development. There are places where I won’t necessarily mention specifically just for the security of those believers there, but there’s one country that I know of that I think by all accounts most of us would kind of consider close to the gospel.
(18:16):
But in that area we’re working with about 500 house churches and that when we’ve come alongside those churches, one of the things that they’ve said is they would say that over the coming years they would like to double, they’d like to see 500 more house churches planted. And so the way that they have asked us to come alongside was to actually develop a chicken farming school in which these pastors, one, they, they’re able to draw a livelihood from that, but it gave them a cover under which they could be going to a lot of different houses and a lot of different people to meet people to provide training. And under that umbrella that gave them opportunity to provide the training to help plant additional house churches. And so it can look different in different types of context. I think that the big thing is that we recognize that the Holy Spirit is living, working and active in all of these places.
(19:20):
And so it’s not about what open doors is going to import through customs or smuggle or those types of things. It’s about how do we come alongside what the Holy Spirit is doing right there in these different places? How do we come alongside and support the church in what it is doing and what Christ has called it to do and who Christ has called it to be right there in those contexts. So that looks different. God is working in ways in Eastern Asia that looks different than even central Asia. It looks different in Africa or South America, but God is at work in these places. His Holy Spirit is present. And so we really looked to contextualize it according to that work that Christ is doing.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:10):
Well, I’ve done evangelism in a lot of different parts of the world and I’m a student of different evangelism techniques and ways for reaching out, but that’s the first time I’ve ever heard of the Chicken Farm Evangelistic tool starting a chicken farm as a way to give people an excuse to go door to door and to plant house churches. What a tremendous story. So if someone is listening and they want to find out more about your organization or they want to help to support you in your mission to help the persecuted church, what is your website? What’s a way for them to find out more about you?
Ryan Brown | CEO of Open Doors (20:53):
Yeah, it’s open doors us.org, open doors us.org. And as you go there, you’ll see it a number of resources. And one of the things that I often will point people towards is that World Watch list that I mentioned earlier that highlights the 50 countries around the world. That is a resource that we’ve been doing it for 30 some years now. And originally started as an in-house tool just as we were looking to understand how the face of persecution was changing and evolving and emerging or declining in different parts of the globe. We had our teams in place to help inform that and began putting a very systematic approach to look at that. And we began to realize that others ministries might find this helpful. And so we began making that available. And I think we were, many were surprised by just the reality that it wasn’t just churches or Christian ministries, it began to reference this information.
(22:01):
But people like the State Department and the UN and other types of academia began to utilize this as a resource because under that broader freedom of religious belief discussion, it can be difficult at times to look through the specific lens and understand for different faiths what that looks like as far as what does persecution look like for Christians. And so we’re able to provide that resource, but that resource, when folks engage with that, I mean, it’s not just the information talking about the horrors or the realities that believers face there, but it also provides very specific prayer points. So many times in these situations it can be difficult to even know how to pray in some of these situations. And these prayer points are prayer points, not just things that we’re praying for the church there, but they’re things that the church has vocalized as ways that they would ask for us to pray.
(23:06):
So we’re not just praying for the church, we’re praying with the church because these are the ways that they’re praying as well. And so would always point people towards that as a first resource to engage with that. You’ll see different things on there as far as different prayer calendars and things that people can utilize just to even get a little bite size piece of information that on a daily basis that they can work that into their daily cadence of prayer and their routine of locking arms with our brothers and sisters as one body of Christ around the globe. And so yeah, we pray that those resources would be a valuable resource to folks here in the United States.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:52):
Let’s finish up with a specific story. Can you tell me about an individual or a family that opened doors was able to help during a time of persecution?
Ryan Brown | CEO of Open Doors (24:05):
Yeah, there are many, and I think one, I have the opportunity to read many of these stories, but I think that we can always be impacted in different ways with individuals that we’ve had opportunity to meet and to dialogue with. And so there’s a gentleman that I won’t mention the country that he’s from because for security concerns, but he was a leader in the Muslim church in that area, and he was sent to a country in Europe as part of his training for Jihad. And I know for many of us when we hear Jihad that we can focus on a specific aspect of that, the idea of terrorism or things along those lines. And that can be an expression, but that there can be a broader definition of that where in some cases we might also consider a bit more like we would maybe missionaries or things along those lines.
(25:23):
But he was sent to this European country and had a hate for Christians. He’d been told a narrative of who Christians were and what they stood for all of his life. And as he came to Germany, he had to find a place to live. He had to find some employment as he was learning about the culture there. And it just so happened that he got a job and ended up living with a family that were Christians and they knew he was Muslim. They said, we’re not going to try to convert you, but we want you to be part of our family and all of these things. And he began to experience through them something that he couldn’t reconcile with everything that he had learned about Christians up to that point in time. And it honestly sent him on a tailspin because he started to question everything.
(26:18):
He got involved in drugs, he got involved in alcohol, and at a point of desperation, he cried out and said, God, I don’t know if you’re real, but you need to tell me who you are. And fairly quickly thereafter, he had a dream one night and he was in the market shopping and a shopkeeper invited him in. And in this shop mean it was just tables filled with diamonds and gold and jewels. And the shopkeeper gave him bags and he said, take, this is for you. And he started loading up his bags and he walked out of the store. And in his dream, he was just ecstatic that he was rich beyond anything he could have imagined. And a roommate woke him up and he was so disappointed and was even in a little bit of depression when he realized that that dream wasn’t real.
(27:14):
And then a couple nights later, he had another dream and that that shopkeeper was standing in a throne room and he realized that that shot keeper was Jesus. And Jesus said, come to me. And this individual, one of the things in the Muslim faith, there is not a completed sufficient work of Christ to cover in atone for sins. It is much more like a work-based theology. And so he said, I can’t. I’m sinful. And in his dream, his sin, actually, he was wearing his sin almost like it was skin. And Jesus said to him, I forgive you. And he looked down and this physical manifestation of the sin started to fall off of his body. And he woke up and he realized, okay, I need to know who this Jesus is. And he started engaging with the church and came to faith in Christ, began working with refugees from his country that were living.
(28:28):
And the church in this country that he’s originally from has issued several death proclamations against him. Not only him but his wife and also his newborn son. I first met him on, it was a Wednesday and literally the day before the church in his birth country had just issued their fourth proclamation calling for his death. They sent people across the border, they’ve attacked him, he had been knifed, and his wife and children opened doors, has helped provide some safety and security for while he continues to minister to refugees and bring them to faith in Christ, open doors has continued to support him in that work that he’s doing. So just neat to see that Christ wants to be known and Christ is going to great lengths to call people unto himself. And again, Christ’s spirit is active and is working in these places and all that the enemy may seek to do to extinguish the light of the church. We know that the church may come under duress, though the church may come under persecution. We know that Jesus themselves said that not even the gates of hell are going to prevail against the church. And we see that we have the privilege of walking alongside and being part of that church that not even the gates of hell are prevailing against.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (30:18):
That’s awesome. It’s so wonderful to hear a story of a Muslim who comes to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. My parents worked for 12 years in Kabul, Afghanistan, and so we love Muslims and we love praying for Muslims. And Jesus is doing a great work among many Muslims around the world. So thank you Mr. Ryan so much for being on the Evangelism podcast. Really appreciate you,
Ryan Brown | CEO of Open Doors (30:48):
Daniel. Thank you for what you’re doing just to call people into evangelism and to recognize it’s not just a side satellite activity, but it’s core to who we are. It’s core to what Christ has called us to. And so thank you for the work that you continue to do.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (31:05):
Yes, sir.
Evangelism Podcast Host (31:06):
Are you called by God to be an evangelist? Do you want to lead millions of people to Jesus? Do you desire to be trained in the practical side of building a ministry? Then check out the Daniel King School of Evangelism. Learn how to be an effective evangelist from Dr. Daniel King’s 20 plus years of experience. Daniel King has done crusades all over the world in over 70 nations and is seen over 2 million people give their lives to Jesus. But it wasn’t easy. There was no crusade school. So Daniel traveled the world learning from and observing top evangelists, noticing how they successfully won souls for Christ. Now he wants to share decades of knowledge and experience with you. Topics of the Daniel King School of Evangelism include what is an evangelist, how to be a master soul winner, how to give an altar call, how to organize a crusade, how to raise money for your ministry, and much more. If you want to be an evangelist, but don’t know where to start, the Daniel King School of Evangelism is for you. Enroll today in the School of Evangelism by going to Daniel King ministries.com/evangelism.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (32:08):
Thanks so much for listening today. I am excited about telling people about Jesus, and I want to invite you to be a part of helping us to rescue people from Hell and take them with us to heaven. There’s two things you can do to help. First of all, can you go find the Evangelism podcast on Apple iTunes and leave us a positive review by giving a review, you will help other people find these valuable resources about sharing our faith. And second, would you become a financial partner with King Ministries. Every single dollar that people give us enables us to lead at least one person to Jesus. And so that means for only $1, you can help start a party in heaven. And so today I want to invite you to become a monthly partner. You can start out for just a dollar, but if God puts it on your heart to do more, of course you can do more. But please go to king ministries.com and become a monthly partner with us today to help us to lead more people to Jesus. Thank you so much, and God bless you.
Evangelism Podcast Host (33:29):
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.
