Werner Nachtigal is the German founder of the GO Movement. He started the Global Outreach Day, a day when churches around the world set aside a day to send believers out witnessing. On this podcast you will hear the story of how God gave him the vision for this powerful ministry that has now reached millions of people for Jesus Christ.
Website: https://www.gomovement.world/en
What has the GO Movement accomplished?
- Christians trained in evangelism: 15+ Million
- Christians sharing their faith: 100+ Million
- People reached with the Gospel: 1.4+ Billion
- People decided to follow Jesus: 42+ Million
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Werner Nachtigal is the German founder of the GO movement. He started the Global Outreach day. A day when churches around the world set aside a day to send believers out, witnessing on this podcast, you’ll hear the story of how God gave him the vision for this powerful ministry that has now reached millions of people for Jesus Christ.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:24):
Well, Jesus said go into all the world and preach the gospel.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:31):
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:36):
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 (01:01):
Welcome to the evangelism podcast. I’m Daniel King, and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a very special guest with me from the nation of Germany, Werner Nachtigal. He is the visionary architect behind the GO movement originally the Gospel Outreach day. But now they have gone into so many different areas, brother Werner. Thank you for being with me today.
Werner Nachtigal (01:31):
It’s a pleasure. Absolutely. So good to be with you in Malawi.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:34):
So let’s begin with what is the goal movement?
Werner Nachtigal (01:39):
Actually, the goal movement is a collaboration of ministries during the nation prayer movements, digital ministries it was one goal to activate every believer to be a witness and to reach every person on earth within the next decade.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:53):
There’s a lot of people on the earth. I think the statistics say 7 billion people. How can we reach so many people with the gospel?
Werner Nachtigal (02:00):
Well, I mean it sounds impossible, but I believe that we are living in special times, mess 24, epidemics are coming earthquakes. Well, verse 14 at the end, this gospel will be preached. So I believe we are living in a great time. We had a meeting where the was a lot of leaders and the general secretary of the WRA said COVID brought humidity and unity. So here, some of these huge determinations and ministries are working together and some of them are in countries. You will not believe it was going on in the world. And then with digital, I’ve seen the reporting of one of our partner, how they’re reaching people, especially in the Muslim world, I believe it’s possible.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:40):
So tell me a little bit about what the goal movement does and how you do it.
Werner Nachtigal (02:45):
Well, we’ve started, it was a simple starts 10 years ago. The Lord gave me a vision and honestly, for two days I wasn’t the president of God. It was so powerful. I saw a wave around the world, Christians everywhere, sharing the gospel. And then after two days, I said, Lord, it’s only me. You know, I’m a simple evangelists. I’m doing my job. I have crusades was up to 10,000 people. At that point, I had only a small budget and a few connections. I said, Lord, this will not work. So we started 2012 and in the beginning was a connection of prayer and evangelism. So first of all, there is no revival was our prayer. We mobilized a lot of believers to pray for the harvest. It’s all about the harvest, nothing else. And then to send out Christians to share the gospel, because there are still a problem that over 90% of Christians are silent. We have the best message to the world, but, well we are shouting in the church, but we are silent outside of the church. So the goal is to activate the whole church to go out and to win salts. In the beginning, it was a day. Then 2020 was a whole month. Now we are talking about a whole decade. A full year was many activities, was one goal. We want to reach world.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:55):
Now I saw some statistics of the people that you’ve been able to reach. And according to these these statistics here, you have had so many people that you have activated to go out into the world. According to your website, you have trained 15 plus million people in evangelism with Christian sharing their faith more than 100 million Christians who have gone out sharing their faith. You have reached 1.4 billion plus people with the gospel and recorded 42 million salvations. How has this
Werner Nachtigal (04:35):
It’s happened? Actually, the last number is wrong. It’s much higher. It’s now over 85 million salvations. I mean, it was a simple start, 2012. I mean, what can I say? Simple. I mean, we’ve started at the biggest arena in the world in Nigeria, pass out of Bowie with a million people. My dream was to activate a million around the world. And then 2012, I was standing in front of a million. Everybody was shouting, Lord sent me. So it was a small start. But now with some of these huge partners, and this is a collaboration, it’s not that I have reached a 1.4 billion and I’ve led 85 million people. But this is a collaboration of big ministries where they’re all standing together to pray and to activate the whole church like this year, we decided one a day in may to share the gospel every day in may.
Werner Nachtigal (05:24):
And the church of God in Latin America said, well, we will mobilize all our believers to do that with a goal is to await the sleeping giant, the church. So they’ve activated over 250,000. I saw a report. It was quite long. They’ve reached over 6 million. It’s only one example. And 1.1 million God saved. So here, many ministries and denominations are working together. And it’s very simple. I mean, our main thing is every believer is a witness. So every believer can share the gospel and reach somebody. And well only it was our own mobilization with Maura. So many believers. We have country coordinators in many countries like Ghana. We have 150 coordinators on the ground activating the church so well, the Lord is moving pretty amazing.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:12):
So if a church wants to be involved in the go movement and activate their members to go out and share the gospel, what are some practical ways they can do that?
Werner Nachtigal (06:23):
Whereas quite similar. I mean, first of all, check the webpage go moving.world register. But I mean, if you check the webpage or not in, it’s always in may between Easter and Pentecost, what does Pentecost received the holy spirit and be a witness that is our program. So in may, we’re starting first with equipping believers and prepare believers to share the gospel before may. Then, then in may we start with prayer early, may we estimated over 60 million. Christians are praying for the harvest already. I mean, the number is growing every year, then the gold days, the last Saturday of may and the world evangelical Alliance, we’ll put this day into the calender for all the churches globally to say, let’s go out and win souls. So if, if people are checking a webpage or not make sure in may that the pastor is activating the church to go out well.
Werner Nachtigal (07:14):
I mean, every pastor is interested that the churches growing, we had a pastor in ivory coast and he said, well, today’s go day 50 believers. I recos. He sent them out. 200 people got saved. And 20 immediately came to the church. We have seen church grows, absolutely amazing in some places in Uganda, our big guy planted over 25,000 churches. But what I really like, and this will inspire pastors and Christians, God is using every believer. I mean, I can tell stories until next week, what the Lord has done with simple ordinary Christians, amazing story. One pastor in Peru, went into a hospital to share the gospel. The spirit of God led him to the fourth floor. There was a guys who run of policemen. He told him about Jesus. The prince of God came. He got saved. Couple of hours later. This pastor saw that man in the national news, you can still see the clip.
Werner Nachtigal (08:06):
It’s the most dangerous, most known criminal Aquila. He led him to Christ. There was a young girl, 13 years old. She got saved on the go day. And then couple of weeks later, her father died. This young girl came home. The man was in bed for four hours. He was called Leanne girl began to pray. Guess what I mean? I was there with a camera team. We had taped the whole story. God raised him from the dead. What I really like God is using believers. And there was a research from Barna. Why people are quitting, especially the young generation, good churches, the reason number one, they’ve never experienced it. God used them. So this could be a good star where Christians could experience. God can use me. God can use me to share the gospel. I can lead people to Christ. I can pray for the sick.
Werner Nachtigal (08:52):
This is only the beginning. I believe in the lifestyle of evangelism. I mean, I many years ago, I decided to share the gospel at least once a week, outside of every programs and church meetings for this year made a commitment every day. I mean, there’s a really tough, but I mean, this is the date is only a piece of a whole concept. We want to inspire Christians, live a lifestyle of evangelism. You can share your face while you are working as a nurse in a hospital, a businessman to another businessman. So we are not talking about a program. Everybody can do whatever he wants to do. I was in a meeting in the Dominican Republic. It was a lot of leaders and everybody was sharing what they have done on the go day. And so many stories and so many moving stories in avert. A lady Vonda in the Dominican Republic was on her way to a bridge to commit suicide. Well, the ch the city was packed of believers. It was go there. Everybody was sharing the gospel and she got saved. So it’s, it’s, it’s a simple program to activate the church to go out into when souls,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:51):
Well, I have been so inspired being around you first, I’m inspired by your, your visionary leadership. God has given you great relationships with so many wonderful denominational leaders and people from many different walks of life and even very important people. God has just given you these great relationships and you have this great vision to reach the entire world with the gospel. But also we are here in Malawi. We were out on the street yesterday, going from house to house, inviting people to come to the crusade. And I saw you out on a corner by yourself with one young man, and you were giving him a flyer. Then I saw you put your hand on his shoulder and you began to pray with him. And so you are practicing the witnessing, not just telling people to do it.
Werner Nachtigal (10:41):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I was excited. You preached last night. I bet I did my job as well. And that’s what I just said. I share the gospel every day. I made a commitment. Yes, Lord use me this year, every day. So I had COVID in March. What should I do? I downloaded an app. I will not talk too much about that, but I could share the gospel online, talking to people everyday. I was just on vacation with my wife every day. Even in holiday, I’ve shared the gospel today. I’m struggling a bit with my stomach and I really feel sick, but just three hours ago, I was out of share the gospel. I led somebody to Christ. So I really believe we, it’s not enough only to preach about it. We have to do it. We have to be an example and let so many people to the Lord and in a restaurant.
Werner Nachtigal (11:27):
I mean, even in a restroom, I’ve led people to the Lord. And if we could inspire the church to go out, honestly, I think that’s, that’s a big plan behind it to reach your world. They’ve asked Billy Graham, who is your successor? And Billy Graham said the whole church. And imagine we could awakes a sleeping giant, the church, 1.2 billion Christians to go out and to share the gospel. I tell you, this will shake the world. I’ve met the president of Malawi years ago. At that time, he was the president of the assemblies of God. And he said, he heard about the global Russia. He was so excited. He said, what if every Chinese person would jump from a chair at the same time they can shake the world. I’m not sure about that really, because they are so small, but what if every is a witness we can reassure. That is what the president of Malawi said, and that’s true. We can reach a world. And so that’s what we’ve seen in court with COVID last year in the beginning, it looks like a disaster, but it brought unity. Big ministries came together and say, let’s stand together to reach a world.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:32):
So many Christians, they know that they should be out witnessing, but sometimes they don’t really know how they don’t know what to say. And so can you give me in a nutshell, what you say when you’re trying to lead someone to Jesus?
Werner Nachtigal (12:46):
Well, I mean, I have so many ideas. I’m a very creative person. I mean, here in Malawi I usually I start a conversation talking about the president because I met him and everybody is excited. But I mean, if you have no idea in the beginning, it’s not good to preach into getting, it’s not good to say, Hey, I want to tell you about Jesus. I’m from a Baptist church. And we want to, and talking about the blood of the lamb be normal, be friendly. Ask a good question. Like I was sitting in a taxi in Brazil and I saw a cross in person. I know this guy is from the Catholic church and I asked him, sir, I see the cross. What does it mean to you? So in the beginning show interest. And sometimes I ask a question, have you ever heard that Jesus loves you instead of, I want to tell you about God, you have to repent, be nice and friendly. Have you ever heard that he loves you? Not really. I mean, I haven’t heard that for 21 years. I’ve never heard the gospel and I’m not from a Muslim country. I’m from Germany.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:50):
Tell me some about your testimony. How did you get saved?
Werner Nachtigal (13:54):
Well, it’s a pretty amazing story. On one side, I’ve never heard the gospel. My dream was to become a rockstar and I was living like one of them, parties and everything. And I met them. All I was sitting backstage was Ozzy Osbourne. I was celebrating was kissed. And that night when I was celebrating was kissing, I was so shocked. I saw the empty eyes of the lead guitarist in Australia. And I was so shocked. I bought a Bible and began to read, but if you serve as Genesis, I gave up soon. But on the other side my grandpa was a revival. Preacher. I’ve never met him. He got arrested after the second world war. He was in prison in Siberia and he prayed for his family. Especially for me. He prayed that somebody would stand up and preach the gospel. So this is the amazing part of my story. I saw Jesus when I was three, he stood in front of me. I had a dream about Jesus when I was 15. And she said, I love you. I woke up God, are you real? I was 18. I had revelation I a surf guard as a missionary, never heard about God the gospel. So there are so many people like the Bible says the harvest is plentiful, so we have to go and we have to reach them.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:02):
Amen. Well, thank you so much for being a guest on the evangelism podcast. I’m so inspired by your example. And after listening to you these last few days, I think I must dream bigger for Jesus.
Werner Nachtigal (15:15):
Yes, please do it because for God, all things are possible.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:19):
Well, thank you so much. God bless you. It’s a pleasure. Thanks so much for listening to the evangelism podcast today, our ministry is supported by people like you, who help us go to the nations to preach the gospel. Our goal is every soul. It only costs us an average of about $1 for every person. We’re able to tell about Jesus. And so could you do me a favor, go to my website, king ministries.com and become a partner with us for as little as $1 a month, you can start to partner with king ministries and help us lead. At least one person to Jesus every single month. Imagine for $1, you can start a party in heaven every single month. So right now, go to king ministries.com and partner with us and help us to preach the gospel to those who need to hear the gospel. The most, the least reach people in the world. Also, I’d like to ask you to go to apple podcasts and give the evangelism podcast a five star review. Your positive review will help other people find this podcast who are excited about evangelism. Thank you so much. And God bless you
Evangelism Podcast Host (16:41):
For more information about how to share your faith or to financially support our worldwide evangelistic outreaches. Visit king ministries.com. Again, that’s king ministries.com.