Tim Innes has been involved in evangelism for over twenty years. He’s worked for Billy Graham, Miles McPherson, Luis Palau, and now he is the International Vice-President of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingrim. He is a master at building relationships with people. Today you will hear his story of how God has used him to build the kingdom of God.
Website: https://livingontheedge.org/about/
Key Thoughts:
Ministry does not happen without relationships.
We do ministry with the people that we love and we trust. It is the same thing when you go global.
Kingdom is spelled WE. We have to work with others to build the kingdom of God.
Listen to The Evangelism Coach Daniel King on The Evangelism Podcast
Transcription
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Tim Innes has been involved in evangelism for over 20 years. He’s worked for Billy Graham, Myles MacPherson, Louis Palau, and now he’s the international vice president of living on the edge with chip Ingram. He is a master at building relationships with people today. You’ll hear his story of how God has used him to build the kingdom of God. Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be welcome to the evangelism podcast with dr. Daniel King, where Daniel interviews, full-time evangelists, pastors, missionary, 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. Welcome to the evangelism podcast. I’m Daniel King, and I am excited about telling people about Jesus and about coaching evangelists. I have a special guest with me today, brother, Tim Ines. It is so wonderful to have you on the podcast. Thank you for joining me.
Tim Innes (01:19):
Thanks Daniel. It’s great to be with you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:22):
So mr. Tim, I originally met you when you were working with the Louis Palau Association and it was really wonderful getting to know you and, and your heart for evangelism. And I know you have a great heart for telling people about Jesus. Could you just tell us a little bit about your story and how you got saved and then how you got to where you are today?
Tim Innes (01:52):
Thank you, Daniel. It’s wonderful to be with you. And I I have a story that begins and Glasgow, Scotland. I grew up in Scotland for the first 20 years of my journey actually was raised in a Christian home. My, my father was an evangelist and so I, I grew up around the church and around the, the story of the gospel. And it was actually a young age. I was a young boy as a teenager went along to hear an evangelist from Argentina called Luis Palau. And I I went forward at Lewis Palau crusade responded to the good news. And then a couple of years later, another well-known evangelist, Billy Graham came to the United Kingdom. And my my dad took my brother and I along to hear Dr. Billy Graham and ended up volunteering with the ministry for a few weeks in London got exposed to some great relationships and, and God just began to bring forward the, the work of evangelism and the gift of the evangelist in my own journey where I just fell in love with sharing the gospel and seeing lives transformed and changed. And, and I never dreamt when I was starting out that one day, I would have the opportunity to travel the world and, and to support the gift of the evangelist, but that’s that’s really what I ended up doing for the last 24 years.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:37):
So over the last 24 years, you’ve worked with a variety of different ministries. Could you tell me about some of the people you’ve worked for?
Tim Innes (03:46):
Absolutely. I I’ve worked actually now for three evangelists. I worked with the Billy Graham team for a decade. I also worked with Myles McPherson. Who’s the pastor of the rock church of San Diego and supported his work in different places around the world. And then for the last nine years with the Louis Palau Association and, and my role in all three of those areas was primarily supporting the work of crusades and festival evangelism. And so I, I was very much as a crusade director, like a John, the Baptist going in ahead of the time to unite the churches, to work with the pastors and to, to bring the body of Christ together around preparing for a festival.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:44):
The, the work that a crusade director does is so important to doing evangelism and often it is behind the scenes work because people always see the picture of the evangelist on the platform ministering to the crowds of people, but really it is the blood, sweat, and tears of the crusade director often that has worked very hard along with a team of other people in order to, to organize everything. Tell us some of what you’ve learned over the years about organizing evangelistic events.
Tim Innes (05:21):
Wow, well I it’s every, every city, every place is a unique from a standpoint of the leaders and the people, the culture of the communities and the cities, you know, of course you go to somewhere in Africa and then somewhere in Asia, and there are going to be cultural distinctives and relational elements that are different in those places. But the principles involved in uniting leaders, relationally, and bringing leaders together and then inspiring them with a big vision, you know, for their city and encouraging them to believe God for miracles in their space is it’s just been a real joy and a privilege to, to do that. And you’re right. It, you know, the people see the big crowds and they see the pictures of you know, you were just in Tanzania recently and had a massive crowd of people there.
Tim Innes (06:32):
But for months ahead of time, there was a team preparing the way for that to happen. And oftentimes, you know, I would be the first, first person, two, three, four years in advance of when that event would take place landing in a city where I don’t know anyone getting to know the key leaders in that city. And then over time building a a framework and a, and a team that would eventually mobilize the churches and, and bring people forward towards sharing the good news. And, and ultimately you’re, you’re mobilizing the army of God’s people in that city. So you’re, you’re, you’re actively bringing key relationships of influencers and gatekeepers together so that they can exist and operate together in a way that brings, brings the body of Christ together.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:36):
Tim, one of the things I’ve really been impressed about knowing you is you, you place a very high value on relationships, and it seems like everywhere you go, you are working to build relationships and to maintain relationships. Can you talk a little bit about the importance of relationships in building the kingdom of God
Tim Innes (08:02):
Ministry doesn’t happen without relationships. It’s as simple as that. And you know whenever we’re doing ministry, we tend to do ministry with the people that we love and that we trust and, and, and we have friendship with, and that’s no different when you go global. You know, you’re, you’re connecting with leaders, you’re ultimately engaging with leaders. If they don’t have a relationship with you and they don’t trust you there’s going to be more of a hesitation around stepping in together because they just don’t know you, they may be wonderful, but, you know, if you, if they don’t have a relationship with you, then, you know, the there, there could be a hesitancy. And so what I’ve really sought to do in my own, in my own journey, and as I’ve kind of pushed forward is to really pursue at a high level you know connecting building relationships, but always thinking kingdom. So kingdom is, is not spelled kingdom. It’s spelled “W-E” we do it together. It’s a collaboration. And so kingdom is spelt, “W-E”
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:20):
That’s great kingdom is spelt “WE” W-E that’s true. We’re all in this together. And we’re all are all servants of the King of Kings. And tell me what you’re doing now, you’re, you’re now working with a chip Ingram living on the edge, and that’s a little bit of a change from what you’ve done before. Tell, tell us what, what you’re doing now and, and what you’re doing to build the kingdom with a chipping grim,
Tim Innes (09:52):
Thank you, Daniel. Well, I’m, I’m now serving as the vice president for international ministry with living on the edge with pastor chipping grim and living on the edge is a international discipleship ministry where chip is a loved pastor here in the U S has pastored for 38 years, big churches, small churches on radio stations around the country has written a number of books. And the, the heartbeat of the ministry is to help Christians to live like Christians, and to really look at the, the whole counsel of God and the, the mandate that each of us carry as believers, you know, to be salt and light in the dark world that we exist in. And so as I’ve stepped in with pastor chip our, our, our dream is to, to really help the body of Christ around the world to provide resources to the body of Christ around the world, and to be very intentional around helping cities and churches and leaders and nations to be, to be blessed as they you know, as they navigate. And they, they move forward for God.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:16):
Evangelists usually are excited about leading people to Jesus going out and converting the lost. And then it seems like pastors are often very concerned about discipleship and, and following up on the new believers. Can you talk to me about the importance of, of having an evangelistic heart, but then also looking for ways to disciple the people that, that come to Jesus?
Tim Innes (11:44):
Yeah, well for 24 years, and, and really the issue has existed for much, much longer than that. Daniel, I think it’s been around as long as there has been an evangelist, to be honest with you the question of follow up the question of discipleship, what happens to those 13,000 people that just came to Jesus in Tanzania with you and, and how do they, how did they get plugged in? And, and every evangelistic ministry has an answer for that. And normally the answer revolves around, we’ve got a mechanism. We, we, we do a handoff as the evangelists to the local church and to the pastors and, and we work hard to make sure that handoff is as seamless as possible. And, and we give them a gospel of John and we, we get them into a small Bible study to begin with, but that’s normally about as far as the process goes from the side of the evangelist, because the evangelist is now on to the next city and onto the next place.
Tim Innes (12:51):
And and so, you know, one of the areas that we’re praying into and dreaming about with living on the edge is how could we come behind that type of an effort where, you know, we would stand with the churches for a couple of years beyond, you know, beyond the big event and you know, be able to encourage those new believers and really get them plugged in so that they are they’re, they’re, they’re not just you know, getting caught. So this week by the fishermen and, and, and then slipping out the nets, you know, but they’re getting caught. And then they’re getting, you know, connected into the body in a very meaningful way where they’re growing and learning and coming along in their faith journey.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:43):
That’s awesome. Well, I’ve got one final question for you. What advice would you give to someone who feels a calling to be an evangelist, or to be involved in evangelism? You have a lifetime of experience in, in helping evangelists. What advice would you give to someone who, who has that, that sense of calling on their life,
Tim Innes (14:09):
Pursue it, do it, you know, that Nike that Nike tagline just do it. And you know, God gives an anointing and a, a grace to each one of us in different parts of our gifts and how God has gifted us. And if God has given you a gift to be an evangelist, then it’s going to be obvious to you. People, people are going to be coming to Christ around you, and you’re going to be seeing the fruit of your conversations. You’re going to be seeing the fruit of your burden and a lean into that. And if, if, if you’re getting just getting started and you’re seeing happen and look for, look for ways to cultivate that gift and, and relationships that can keep you accountable and help you on that journey and, and find other evangelists and other leaders that have gone down that road before you, and learn from them, you know, get as much wisdom as you can, but the bottom line is just do it.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:16):
Amen. Just do it well, thank you, Mr. Tim, for being on the podcast. It’s an honor to have you on, and it’s an honor to know you.
Tim Innes (15:28):
God bless you, Daniel. It’s a joy to be with you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:31):
Thank you goodbye. 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.
