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Activating the Local Church

Chris Kingston | Identifying, Affirming, Training, and Mobilizing Evangelists

Chris Kingston is the Executive Director of ETeam Global, an evangelistic ministry founded by Dr. Tim Robnett. Their goal is to equip Ephesians 4 evangelists by identifying, affirming, training, and mobilizing evangelists worldwide. The organization partners with local churches to equip believers for evangelism through various training programs and outreach opportunities. Today you will be inspired as Chris Kingston shares why he is passionate about evangelism.

Learn More About E-Team Global: https://www.eteamglobal.org/ 

Learn More About Nick Hall and Pulse Evangelism: https://www.pulse.org/

Transcript: 

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Chris Kingston is the executive director of ETeam Global, an evangelistic ministry founded by Dr. Tim Robnett. Their goal is to equip Ephesians for evangelists by identifying, affirming training and mobilizing evangelists worldwide. Today you will be inspired as Chris Kingston shares why he is so passionate about leading people to Jesus.

Evangelism Podcast Host (00:38):
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 (01:02):
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, Chris Kingston. Thank you for joining me on the Evangelism Podcast.

Chris Kingston – ETeam Global (01:16):
Absolutely, Daniel, it’s definitely a pleasure and it’s good to be talking with you and the rest of everyone today.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:23):
And so you are the executive director for ETeamGlobal. Tell us a little bit about what ETeam Global does.

Chris Kingston – ETeam Global (01:33):
Absolutely. Great question. So ETeam Global is a partnership of evangelists and basically we identify and affirm train and mobilize evangelists worldwide. But how we do that is through three different ways equipping in the local church here in the United States regionally and nationally. But then we also do quite a bit international kind of forum training with evangelist pastor leaders. And our ministry is now 14 years old and we continue to, we’ve had the blessing being invited to 28 different countries and over the 14 years and currently we’re really focused where God’s had us for 14 years actually in Nigeria. But Ethiopia we’ve been serving in for three years, Slovakia the last three years, as well as southern Spain with tons of African refugees that are coming across. So our team is small, but we function at a high level. We’re all very passionate to share the gospel and Jesus Christ, the greatest hope we have. But we really do work in and through the local church and we believe in the local church. So that’s a quick little shot of who E Team Global is.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:53):
That’s so wonderful. E Team Global was founded by Dr. Tim Robnett, who used to be with Luis Palau for many years, helping to lead the Next Generation Alliance, which I’m connected there. And I met Dr. Tim and he invited me to come and take a class with him at Multnomah University. And he has what is probably one of the greatest training places for evangelism in the world. I don’t know of many universities that offer training for evangelists at the doctorate of ministry level, but they have a great program there at Multnoma. And I went, I took a class with Dr. Tim Robnett and learned so much from him. How did you get connected to Dr. Tim?

Chris Kingston – ETeam Global (03:51):
Yeah, well that’s a great question, Daniel. In life and in ministry, it’s all about relationships and Jesus was all about relationships. So another evangelist, probably your friend as well, Brad Butcher, Dr. Brad now. He and I have known each other for years. I served with passionate people for about a year and a half, and I was introduced through Brad to Dr. Tim And Dr. Tim came one day and sat down and he was invited by Brad and there was a bunch of evangelist pastors that were praying together on a regular basis. And Tim came and kind of shared with us like two or three times. And I met him years ago and then got reconnected with him I would say in the summer of 2017 through another evangelist, Mike Parker. And so I’ve known Tim since 2010. I consider him since 2017, my mentor friend and also the head founder of ETeam Global Ministry.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:55):
So the goal of ETeam Global is to equip Ephesians for evangelists. And you mentioned it, identifying affirming training and mobilizing evangelists worldwide. Let’s just talk about what each of those things look like. How do you identify a firm train and mobilize evangelists?

Chris Kingston – ETeam Global (05:17):
Great question. Yeah, I’ll try to make that quick. The identifying is, as you’ve probably seen when you’re out in the field, when you’re doing evangelism or especially in our case when we’re training others, especially our laser point is the evangelist, but we are blessed to go into local churches. But once we train the believers in the local churches, we go out with them. So we go and mentor, we go and model it. And when you’re doing anything, whether it’s street evangelism or festival evangelism or just school evangelism, you see which evangelist kind of rise up from the whole group. And so that’s one of our ways that we identify just through other evangelists who invite us and we do trainings. And then the affirming is really, that’s the long-term relationship. And just as I said, I’ve been knowing Tim since 2010, but 2017 has kind of been pouring into me.

(06:16):
And so the affirming side is another area, but it’s one-on-one relationships. It’s being invited by other ministry leaders, especially evangelists like Nick Hall with Pulse 100 evangelism to kind of affirm younger evangelists or firm. And then the training side, I think that is really the core of ET global. There’s so many great and unique evangelist ministries out there. I really believe through Dr. Tim and his 50 years of faithful ministry and just my heart and passion for the local church is the training side. And so again, we could have a room of 10, we could have a room of 200, and typically those evangelists are usually the ones who come up after the fact or during breaks, ask us questions, say, well, when are we going to go street evangelizing? And so that’s kind of the training side. And then the immobilizing is just the going and doing.

(07:20):
And so that’s kind of where we get on fire when we can go out, share Jesus and some of our friends. It’s many different looks, many expressions, but it’s all the same message whether what it is for me, my wheelhouse and area where I love to go most, where not everyone likes to go is drug rehab centers and just where people have addictions. And I come from a background in that and God pulled me out of the darkness. And basically that’s just one of many areas that we will go, but we will support others like your ministry with missions and just being on the ground for a festival style. But it’s a little bit of all kind of ministry when we mobilize, but we always model it to the individuals that we’re training.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:15):
That’s wonderful. You mentioned Nick Hall and Pulse evangelism. Nick is doing such a great job of bringing evangelism back to America and then raising up this young generation of evangelists. And I know that you have been involved in helping to coach some of the young evangelists with Paul’s evangelism. What does that process look like?

Chris Kingston – ETeam Global (08:42):
Yeah, great question. Well, as you know, Nick and his ministry is based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and they have this vision, and they’re on year four now where it’s a season ministry where they basically put out to the whole country for younger individuals who are already identified as evangelists or just growing in ministry, but they’re passionate to share Jesus. And so the process with Nick’s team is it’s typically ages 18 through about 28, and they have an application process. And a lot of times, just as I mentioned, when they’re out doing outreach, when they’re sharing the gospel, when they’re partnered with different ministries around the country, those evangelists kind of rise up and are the ones on the front lines. So they have an application process, but basically it’s a process once you get kind of accepted for the next year, these young individuals, there’s a hundred of ’em I think this year, I believe there’s over 14 states that are easily represented amongst a hundred evangelists.

(09:48):
They’re men and women, A lot of ’em are university age students or just post university. And what Nick does is just they have some wonderful, it is gathering four times a year in person. And with that, typically that’s a two and a half, three day gathering. And then what we’ll do is there’s worship, there’s time of coaching, mentoring and teaching. And then myself and many others are coach mentors who are evangelists. And so then we connect with our smaller group, which is typically a group of 10, and typically men with men, women with women. And so I’ve got three young men that I’m mentoring right now. I’ll talk to ’em probably twice a month. And then we gather on Zoom to do a core training once a month as a whole entire group. The whole process with Nick through that, they have an internship program, and I think at the end of May, we’ll go out and all be a part of a larger festival style outreach that Nick and Pulse Evangelism 100 are planning. And so that’s kind of like the base of what it looks like, but it’s a great feeder program for them to then take some of those students who are passionate or make the time and then they become interns with that ministry and then they can continue to grow. So that’s just some of the quick DNA of I believe, how they do it.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:19):
That’s awesome. Well, let’s talk about your testimony and how you got excited about evangelism. What brought you to a place where you are passionate about training up evangelists?

Chris Kingston – ETeam Global (11:33):
Yeah, thanks for asking. Great question. So I didn’t come to know Jesus until I was 30, and so I have,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:43):
That’s very rare. A lot of people that are saved today are usually saved pretty young under 18. And so thank God that he can also save older people too.

Chris Kingston – ETeam Global (11:56):
Absolutely. Well, to your point, my aunt who was 90 years old in Indiana, she had her 90th birthday many years ago, and I went and stayed with her and that weekend she received Christ as Lord and Savior as a 90-year-old.

(12:14):
So God, it’s never too late. That’s always the messages never too late to come to the hope of Jesus and to know him. So my testimony came to know Christ at the age 30, I’d hit rock bottom. I was living in the country of Australia. I used to my previous life, as I said, I was a sports marketing guy, and basically it was the business world. It was event management, it was just working all the time. But I just always had this emptiness, this spot in my heart that just wasn’t fulfilled. It was always like I needed more. There was the next thing to achieve or to purchase, and it was just empty. And so I came home from Australia after working there two and a half years, and I was really broken. And at that point I had this, it really hidden from almost everyone but my brother, a pretty serious drug addiction that kind of kept building over my years with pain and hurt that I have mask.

(13:14):
But then God sent me to San Diego, and once he sent me to San Diego, I kind of hit rock bottom. But through that, someone, a stranger invited me to church and they invited me and I went for the first time in years. And I got to tell you, Daniel, it wasn’t like church, it wasn’t all about the religion. It wasn’t about all these traditions or liturgical things, it just was worship with young people in this gymnasium. And the pastor got up and he shared the gospel, and I just, in my heart, the Holy Spirit moved and he’s just like, Chris, this is what you’ve always been looking for. This is it. You don’t need to look anymore. This is it. And I got to tell you, Daniel, I mean the whole room for me out of a thousand young people, it got smaller and smaller.

(14:03):
My eyes were just locked on this pastor sharing this truth. And I was like, why hasn’t anyone ever shared this with me? Why have I never heard this? And so anyways, praise God for his patient waiting and loving kindness, even through all my past sinful things, I walked forward that night and asked Jesus to come into my life. And I got to tell you that night and the next morning I woke up, I was a different person. No more desire for drugs and alcohol, just really cold Turkey, just that. But what really propelled me into what is my call as an evangelist. So I was growing. Finally, I got connected with this church. I was part of Men’s Bible study weekly. I started serving on the hospitality team, low level things. But then I moved in with these three men who were believers and they were discipling me in San Diego in this really small apartment that I didn’t even know what the word discipleship meant, or they’re discipling me.

(15:11):
And through that, I just kept reading God’s word. It says, go therefore and make disciples in all nations. And about a year and a half into my walk with Jesus, I was just like, I keep reading this word go, especially in the New Testament and well, I want to go. And so anyways, long story. After I prayed that prayer, I think it was probably just like two to three months later, I meet this guy through a roommate of mine and they’re going to Nepal and they’re going to go do a door to door evangelism, mission outreach during the largest Hindu Festival of the year in mid October in Nepal, in the Capmandu Valley. So God says, go, I have my Bible. I didn’t know any of these other people. And with that, we went and it was just faithfully reading God’s word. And we would go and knock on people’s doors, and it was almost like Christmas time in America, but in their festival and their culture, all their family members were all together and they were all there and we’re knocking on these doors. And they invited us in. We started telling ’em why we were there. And Daniel that week amongst our group that was 16 people, and I was one of those, there was over 376 people that came to Christ.

(16:33):
And I was just like, is this normal? I’m asking the other leaders, is this what normally happens? They’re like, this is pretty special. God’s spirit is moving. Holy spirit’s moving. And so with that, there’s a lot more to that story. But I came back after that mission trip and I ended up staying an extra five weeks radical things were happening. God was using four of us that stayed back. And basically that is where my passion for evangelism came. I never knew I was an evangelist. I really, honestly, I had my Bible, I had little tabs and I would read one scripture. I was still such a new believer. Then I flipped to the next scripture and the next one through that, I came back and I was like, what just happened there in Nepal? I want that to be the rest of my life. God was so faithful to continue to open doors. And basically he led me three months later to an evangelist disciple making school in San Diego with Pastor Mike McIntosh, who’s an evangelist. Greg Laurie and Mike McIntosh were part of the Inner Circle with Chuck Smith out of the Calvary Chapel. But from there, I entered the school and I just continued to grow. And so that is where I really found my calling as an evangelist. And that was in 2006, and I really haven’t looked back from there.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:03):
Wow. What an amazing story. Thank you for sharing. I noticed on the wall behind you, there’s lots of flags from different countries.

Chris Kingston – ETeam Global (18:12):
Yes.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:13):
What are some of the favorite places that you’ve been and what have you seen God do in some of these places?

Chris Kingston – ETeam Global (18:19):
Loaded question. Okay. Well, I would say one of the flags back here is Haiti. And Haiti is a very special place for my wife and I. And we had the privilege to go three different times back in 2012. And that was just, it was a reconfirmation for me that I was supposed to be basically a missionary living in the United States, but going and coming back and partnering with local churches and denominations. But that trip to, let’s just say that trip, the first mission trip to Haiti really reignited some passion of mine that Satan was kind. He was honestly stealing a lot of joy. And at one point I got married, we moved up to Portland, Oregon, and things got kind of rough. And I wasn’t really, I was serving in a ministry for a year, and then the ministry was growing. I was a youth pastor.

(19:19):
Kids were getting stayed. We were doing multiple collaboration outreaches with other youth pastors and other churches. And one day they just came back. I came back from visiting my dad who’s dying of brain cancer, and the people were like, Hey, we’re just going to go another direction. And I was like, well, what do you mean? And they’re like, well, this is going to be your last week. Ministering to the kids as youth pastor and Daniel, there was no sin. There was no ministry fall. They just were going to go a different direction. And so I kind of sat in that for a year and a half, which was a very dark time for me. But Haiti was the place that God used to reignite my passion. So I have a very special place in my heart there. Obviously the Nepali flag, you heard that story, but I would say that one of the flags that I probably, I don’t even have it up, it’s not in all, but my second mission trip in May of 2006 was to Poland.

(20:20):
It was southeastern corner of Poland. What I didn’t know at that point, Daniel, was we got a chance as our ministry school, 56 individuals that were all more or less evangelists or growing into being evangelists. We did outreaches and collaborated with the local church, but God selected myself and this other guy, Nick. And every day, the missionary couple would pick us up early in the morning right after breakfast, and we would be whisked away in a car and we would go to all these public high schools all across Southern Poland. And we were sharing our testimonies. We were sharing most importantly God story, and kids were getting saved inside the local public schools. And I just remember the whole culmination was we always had invitations. And at the end of the three weeks, we invited them all to come to where we were staying at, and we did a large outreach, and there was just tens and tens of kids that got saved that day.

(21:19):
And so Poland for me is also very special just because the fact that I originally went to Europe as a kid in 1985, and then there was all this time in between. And then what I didn’t know about what God knew was he sent me to Poland in 2006. But since then, I’ve gone numerous, numerous times to Europe and really had a very special place, especially with central Europe and Eastern Europe. And one of the other flags is Slovakia. God has led our ministry to, and we’ve been partners for just with other evangelists, a family, a dad, and two sons. And God’s used that in very powerful ways. So my heart is the great commission. My heart is to win the loss. My heart is all nations. But it’s one of those things. At the same time, I’m thankful to be able to go, but then come back home. And also being a equipper in the local church or a pastor that I was for 10 years locally in the West Coast, and now we live in Ohio, so now it’s a new season. We’re not sure what God’s doing.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:27):
You bring a unique perspective as both a pastor and now an evangelist. What are some of the things that you would do to encourage pastors to involve their congregation in reaching out to their community?

Chris Kingston – ETeam Global (22:44):
Oh, that is such a great question. Thank you for asking it. So a lot of times we realize, I think our wheelhouse, what we do and encourage pastors, usually it’s like mid-size churches or smaller churches. And the reason we say that is let’s use the smaller churches like a standalone pastor. They maybe have one admin assistant 10, 12 hours a week, but we say, Hey, this is what we just want to get to know them. We want to pray with them and then hear their hearts and hear where their congregation is. And so much of the time, as you probably experienced too, Daniel, it’s the fact that the congregation, they might have the desire to go reach their neighbors, their family members or their coworkers, but the fear sets in. And so we just have some very basic trainings that it’s baseline, but it really takes evangelism and makes it very practical.

(23:45):
And so I would say to pastors out there, sometimes you hear the word evangelists and you’re like, oh boy, what does this guy want? Is he going to swoop in? Is he going to just be all focused? But then you’re never going to see him again. I want to encourage pastors to ask the question of any evangelistic ministry, any evangelist, well, what is this relationship going to look like and how long do you plan to partner with us? And so with the ETE Global, we do a minimum of a two year partnership with any pastor, local church, and even our ministries overseas obviously. And some of those are 10 years, eight, 14. But for the local pastor, I’d say give the evangelist a chance. But I think one of the core things that hopefully the evangelist would do first and foremost, just even having the privilege to maybe come in where the pastor’s opening the church up to equip their saints for the work of the ministry is the fact that as evangelists, we would just have a heart of prayer and we’d be people of prayer.

(24:50):
Just as Billy Graham said, it begins with prayer, and the middle has to be prayer, and the end is always prayer. And so that’s one of the encouragement I would give to pastors. Sometimes those pastors, smaller, mid range size churches, they’re just so maxed out and they need to have a brother in Christ who’s very specifically called to equip the saints and to show and to go model. It’s not just to tell, but it’s to go model with the people and looking at what would that special outreach or what are simple things they can do in their community to begin winning the people around them. And as you and I know, I mean the Holy Spirit always has to be at the center of this, and it’s not us, and it’s not our words. It’s God’s word and the power and the Holy Spirit moving and convicting in people’s hearts and minds to draw them in. And so that would just be a few little pieces of advice I’d share with a local pastor.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:54):
Well, that is tremendous advice. If someone is interested in connecting with ETE Global, finding out more about you, maybe even supporting your ministry, helping you to go to different nations around the world, how can they find out more information about you?

Chris Kingston – ETeam Global (26:12):
Thank you. Our website is the best centralized place, so that’s obviously WW Debo, and then ETE Global, all one word, E-T-E-A-M-G-L-O-B-A l.org. So ete global.org. And they could learn so much more about the ministry. We’re always looking for prayer partners and other future ministry partners that would love to come alongside us financially or even go with us. And so we’re always open. And even for pastors that might be listening to this, we would love to talk to you by phone, zoom, and then start praying with you to see if this might be a fit to come alongside your church and be able to bless you and the congregation.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:56):
Awesome. Well, Chris, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast. I appreciate it.

Chris Kingston – ETeam Global (27:02):
Such a privilege, Daniel. Have a blessed Merry Christmas and thanks for the opportunity.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (27:07):
Yes, sir. Bless you.

Host of Evangelism Podcast (27:08):
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.

Daniel King (28:10):
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 (29:31):
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.

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Giles Stevens | Church Multiplication in Brazil

Giles Stevens is the evangelism pastor for a huge network of churches in Brazil. His goal as an evangelist is to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. You will be amazed as you listen to his story about how the church grew from 70 people to tens of thousands.

Learn more about Giles Stevens: https://gilesstevens.com/

Learn more about the church GIles Stevens is part of: https://www.igrejavideira.com.br/

Buy the book about “The Eleventh Question”

Transcript: 

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
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, Giles Stevens from Great Britain now in the great nation of Brazil. Thank you for joining me today,

Giles Stevens (00:15):
Daniel, a joy to be with you. Thanks for having me.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:18):
Alright, you are passionate about evangelism. Tell me a little bit about your testimony and how God has brought you to where you are now.

Giles Stevens (00:27):
Well, I’m the first believer in my family. I like to say I got saved by mistake. I was looking in all the wrong places for life and for adventure. I’d rather thrown out the idea of Christianity as a young teenager because of my rather negative sort of traditional church experiences. And so I went to look for life and adventure outside of the church and that took me down all sorts of wild and paths and so forth. But thank God in his rich mercy, he sent along a couple of nice friends of friends who preached Christ to me and it kind of tricked me up, woke me up, brought me out of my lost state and showed me what life was all about, where told me the truth. And it just radically changed my life. And I think the fact that I’d come from a family where we didn’t know Christ personally and didn’t have that relationship and the fact that I suddenly realized there was an eternal realm and the decisions we make here during our lives affect where we spend our eternity.

(01:29):
I kept thinking to myself, well, how come nobody’s ever told me this before I could have died and if I’d have died, where would I be today? And so in a sense, I became a natural evangelist. I just thought there would be thousands, millions of people out there just like me who had no idea about these eternal consequences and destinations who’ve never heard. And so I just began. Once I was saved and knew the Lord, I just thought, boy, I’ve got to tell everybody else. So I preached at everything that moved. That’s how it started.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:56):
So you definitely have the call to be an evangelist on your life. And now you’re living in the nation of Brazil. How did you end up going to Brazil?

Giles Stevens (02:06):
Well, I married the girl.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:09):
Where’d you meet?

Giles Stevens (02:10):
Well, my wife, who is Brazilian as I’m indicating, she had won a scholarship to go and study in a Bible school in London, a place called the International Bible Institute of London, run by the quite well-known church, Kensington Temple. And so she was there and I was a full-time evangelist traveling around London at the time and other places with a big gospel tent and putting it up in downtown parks and using music and test me and other things to bring people in. And then preaching, there was no tomorrow to the crowds. And her church brought in the whole tent and all the equipment. I noted her in the kind of gang of young people. But being a classic Englishman, we have this slight reserve on us. So you shouldn’t really in decent society introduce yourself. So I saw this girl wanted the local pastor to introduce me and he didn’t. And so in the end, at the end of this mission, I went away having seen her thought, well she looks lovely and she’s full of the spirit and there’s something different about her. But I didn’t get introduced. But interestingly, a year later I was in a Reinhard Bonky fire conference in Birmingham and I saw her again. And thankfully by then I had more kingdom culture than British culture and I thought, I’m not going to miss my chance. Second time round,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:34):
God is the God of a second chance he brought her back.

Giles Stevens (03:37):
So I made a beeline for her.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:39):
Oh well that is a good place to meet your wife at a Reinhardt Bonky fire conference. I know you know that here is someone who loves Jesus.

Giles Stevens (03:47):
Well that’s right. People who go to those fire conferences, they have to have a certain are type of believer. They love the fire, they love evangelism. And so I like to say it’s a good place to find a partner better than the pub.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:01):
Alright, so you met her, you got married, how many years have you been married now? 23. Wow, congratulations. And she’s from Brazil, so you ended up going to Brazil with her?

Giles Stevens (04:14):
Yeah, we married in England. And so it was only really after our marriage that we went down to Brazil to meet the extended family. And we have completely different upbringings. And this is one of the challenges, but also one of the exciting things about our relationship is I was brought up, my father was a general in the British Army. I went to private schools, studied at Oxford, been traveling around the world ever since. My youth,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:43):
A classic British gentleman. Well,

Giles Stevens (04:47):
I trying to be, be gentle. Anyhow, Sylvia, in contrast, she was brought up out on a ranch in the back end of nowhere. I think you Americans, if you can picture in your mind the little house on the prairie, then you’ve pretty much got how Sylvia was raised. She’s the oldest of four girls. Her father and mother had this ranch literally miles and miles away from the big city. And they were brought up without electricity, without a car, without telephones. They would go to town once a week in a horse and cart to go to church and buy a few supplies. And she tells these incredible stories about how sometimes in rainy season to get to town you’d have to cross rivers and if if it had risen through the rain, they would have to sort of camp by the river until it had gone down so that they could cross over in their cart.

(05:39):
And so it was completely different upbringing. But as I’ve often said to young single people who are looking and praying about their married marriage partner, I’ve said, look, it’s not the past that counts. It’s the destination, your future that counts. Scripture says how can two walk unless they are agreed. And so when you’ve got a similar vision, a similar heart, a similar passion, then I believe that partnership can be a success. And thankfully, like we were talking about Sylvia being in a fire conference for evangelists, I knew that’s somebody with a similar vision. So it’s been a great, great marriage.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:16):
And what city are you living in? Brazil?

Giles Stevens (06:20):
Well, it’s a place that nobody knows and nobody can pronounce even if they know it well, certainly us foreigners. It’s called Goya. And it’s actually a large city, 1.5 million. So it’s big, but it’s kind of, it’s cowboy country. So people think when they think of Brazil, they either think Amazon or they think of Rio de Janeiro and the beaches kind of carnival football on the beaches. So we are more than a thousand kilometers inland, if you know where brazilia is, a couple of hours drive from there, right in the heart of Brazil below the Amazon and to the east of the Panol, which is the equivalent of our Everglades or your Everglades. And it’s a lovely region, beautiful countryside, jolly hot, but great place to be. Goana itself has no tourist attractions apart from an old zoo where there’s zebra that’s lost its stripes, there’s a lion who’s forgotten how to roar. And an old bear who strolls around. That’s our only tourist attraction. But Ang is not known for a tourist center. It’s known for something much more superior. And that is the move of God that’s happening there. It’s an extraordinary, it’s a city of revival.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:29):
Wow. Tell me about the revival.

Giles Stevens (07:32):
Well, I mean my experience mean in general. I can tell you about Brazil. I mean, it’s just extraordinary really what’s happened over the last 20, 30 years. I mean, Pentecostal, the Pentecostal missionaries came in and we’re here at an evangelist conference. So these sorts of conversations we’ve been having. But Swedish Pentecostals came in 112 years ago to the Amazon and started that sort of whole Holy Ghost move. But it didn’t really take off numerically until the last 20, 30 years. And so we’ve seen multitudes coming to the Lord in a general sense. I mean literally millions and millions, remembering that Brazil is a country of 230 million people. So that’s a big, big country. But I’ll give you more of the context with the network of churches with whom I’m based and principally work for, even though being an evangelist, I’m a kingdom man. So we started that church, which has now grown into a large network. About 24 years ago, I joined up with one of Sylvia’s youth pastors, my wife’s youth pastors, who had started this new church with a group of people, 70 people in a garage or on a veranda. And now that church is over 30,000 people.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:51):
And what’s the name of the church in port in

Giles Stevens (08:53):
Portuguese? It’s called Reja Viera, which translates directly as the Vine Church. The Vine Church. So we’ve now got over a thousand churches. And

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:01):
So there’s many branches all over Brazil.

Giles Stevens (09:03):
Yeah, I mean originally we just, the growth is so organic, the thing just kept growing and growing. And then before we knew it,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:15):
Well, if you name your church the vine, you figure it kind of spreads. We used to have a vine on our house and it would cover the entire thing. And so I think that’s a good name for a growing church. Yeah,

Giles Stevens (09:25):
I agree. I agree. I agree. It’s very biblical John 15. Of course. Yeah. But we did mean we were intentional as well. I mean some of the growth came just because people would get saved, become a member. And we have quite a strong church culture. So the people who sort of like what we teach and the way we do church, we’re a cell church. We have a lot of encounter weekends, and it’s a very busy active church full of young people. And so people who have been in that environment, if they get moved to another city for, I dunno, work or something else, they tend to, because of the culture they carry, they love having church at home as well as in a big building. So they’ll automatically start a group at home, a cell group. And so we just found these new groups growing up in other cities as well. And then we thought, well, we better send a trained pastor or a leader down there to help them. And suddenly we found that we had a network and then we did become a bit more intentional saying, well, let’s get a church into every one of the capitals of each state that 26 states. And then we thought, well, let’s get a church into every city with over 200,000 and so on and so on. And now we’ve become actually a growing international movement as well.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:31):
Wow, that’s amazing. And so tell me your position and what you do.

Giles Stevens (10:37):
Well, I kind of wear two hats really. I’m on the one hand an evangelist, and that’s really my principal.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:46):
The reason I’m asking this question is because a lot of evangelists who listen to the podcast are wondering how do they fit into the local church? Not every church makes a place for the evangelist, but I think an evangelist really needs to be part of a church and plugged in doing evangelism as part of a local church using their gifts. So how has that worked in your life? Well, I

Giles Stevens (11:11):
Think I really agree with you, and it’s not only good for the evangelist, it’s good for the church. It’s a two-way thing and it’s good for the family of the evangelists. You can’t just be out there on your own all the time. You should be in a community of believers. And in a sense, I mean I’ve always operated like this. My call as an evangelist is principally to my local church or to the group of local churches with whom I’m based. But obviously evangelists are kingdom people as we referred to earlier because we’re preaching the gospel to get people saved and to join a church. So we work with other churches as well. But for me, I think every evangelist needs to champion the local church. Christ is coming back for the church, it’s the church that will be raptured, the church is his bride.

(11:57):
And so the idea of having, even if you have a parachurch organization, you’re not building up that organization. You’re actually using your parachurch organization, your charity, your not-for-profit to build the local church. And I think pastors, they’ve had an uneasy relationship with evangelists over the years. They perhaps felt threatened by them or they feel that they might be pulling their flock away. But I think if evangelists express that and show that pastor I’m here to do a campaign so that your church grows so that new families come in, then obviously pastors are going to open up their hearts and their doors to them as well. So yeah, it’s always been a passion of mine. And I think also that coming back to the way we do church is that as Ephesians four says, the primary purpose of a five-fold ministry gift is to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. So yes, I do campaigns, big campaigns, but actually I spend just as much time, if not more time training all the believers to be evangelists as well, all the believers to share their faith.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:05):
Yeah, that’s so much an important part of what the evangelist is called to do. So you said you wear two hats. One is the evangelist and are you saying the other one is the equipper or you have another hat? Yeah,

Giles Stevens (13:18):
Well yes, we might have a few hats here. We start breaking this down. But what I wanted to say was I do run an evangelistic association. It’s called the Great Mission, and that is to serve the body of Christ and the local churches at large. So I am an evangelist doing that within the Vine Church itself, I’m part of a presbytery or an apostolic team. I kind of serve as the director of evangelism. And so I train all the members of those churches. I prioritize that multiplying my own gifting and giving them tools and strategies so that they can be fruitful as well.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:58):
And so what does that training look like? Often in church, people want to do something for God and they have a heart to share their faith with others, but they don’t really know what to say or what to do. So in the Brazilian context of where you are, how do you equip believers to share their faith?

Giles Stevens (14:19):
Well, it’s great question. I really like that it’s right at the heart of what I feel like I’m called to do. I think firstly, local churches need to have a structure which allows them members to be sharing their faith and encourages them. It’s one of the reasons I really believe in cell groups where it’s not just now the pastor who’s doing the preaching because in cell groups, all the members of the church and that cell group can get involved in preaching and starting their own groups and so forth. So you are sharing what you’ve received, you are teaching what you’ve learned. And I think that produces healthy growth in the individual believer as well. If the believer is just receiving, then in a sense he grows lazy. If he’s just giving, then he’ll dry out. But you’ve got to be having both sides receiving and giving learning and teaching.

(15:08):
So we need to have church structures where that can happen. But as you rightly say, often people have a heart to win. Others, they just dunno how to start the conversation. They dunno what to say, they dunno how to do it. And so I think one of the things that the Lord has anointed me or gifted me to do is to create tools and strategies that help ’em to do that. And Daniel, you know how it is the evangelist as a character, one of the characteristics, the traits of an evangelist normally is that he’s quite extroverted. He preaches with ease. He burns all the time to share the gospel. And that’s great, but not all believers are like that. Like I say, a genuine believer, somebody who’s born again has a new nature, they’re going to have a heart to see others saved. Of course we are, but they perhaps just dunno how to take that step.

(16:02):
And so one of the things I’ve done is produce tools or materials that help people to share. Back in 2008 now I launched, or 2007 I launched a strategy called the 11th Question, a little booklet I’d spent some time with Reinhard, actually this is an interesting story. And he’d been down to us, he’d come and visited and preached in our conference and he was talking about in those days, I think his vision was to win 50 million people for Christ. Now we were really, really growing. We were really growing. I mean our churches were exploding, but when he started talking about the millions, it kind of makes you feel like you’re doing nothing in comparison. And I remember just lying on my bed after he’d been there and I’m just wrestling it out with the Lord. I’m thinking, Lord, I’m excited about winning 5,000 and he’s winning 50 million.

(16:53):
I said, I’ve got the same Bible as him, the same spirit as him. There’s something wrong here. And I felt like the Lord said to me, Giles, it’s one thing to have a vision, it’s another thing to have a strategy. I think we all tend to have a vision of winning our generation for Christ or something like that. But you’ve got to go beyond the vision and actually have a strategy in place that then fulfills the vision. And it was clear that Reinhard had his strategy of big crusades and all this kind of stuff. So I prayed that through and I felt like the Lord said to me to do two things, write a book for believers to equip them to share their faith, but also write a little booklet for unbelievers so that they can hear about Christ in a dynamic way. And I mean, if you think about it as well, you go to a Christian book shop, there’s pretty much nothing written for the unbeliever.

(17:44):
It’s all for the believer. And that’s got to be wrong because we are the salt and the light of this earth. So anyhow, I wrote this booklet called The 11th Question, A Spiritual Self-Evaluation Test. There are 11 questions, you have to answer those questions. The 11th is the most important, and the way you answer the 11th will determine your future. And what I did, it’s a little booklet with these 11th questions in, and we equip believers to share those 11 questions with friends. Now what happened was, this is back in 2007, I equipped 10,000 believers to do this test with seven people over the course of one month. So we evangelized 70,000 people in one month and we baptized at the end of it, 3000 on a day. So that was the beginning of this.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:29):
That’s like the day of Pentecost, 3000 people getting saved in one day.

Giles Stevens (18:33):
Well, we’ve gone beyond that. I then launched more recently another little booklet called Seven Good Things that maybe you Don’t know, same kind of idea. Because remember what I’m doing is I’m helping believers witness to their friends, to their neighbors, to their colleagues. So it’s not me doing the big preach. I mean, I do do the crusades and things, but this is getting the body to do it.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:55):
So let’s talk about the 11th question. What are some of those questions that people are trained to ask?

Giles Stevens (19:00):
You have to buy the

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:00):
Book to find out now is it on Amazon? Yeah, it’s on Amazon. We’ll put a link on the podcast so people can find the book The 11th question. But tell me some of the questions. No, I won’t.

Giles Stevens (19:12):
I

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:13):
Really won’t. The thing is,

Giles Stevens (19:15):
Like I say,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:15):
Because otherwise it

Giles Stevens (19:16):
Takes the kind of thunder out of it.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:18):
I mean, I’ve got a book, but I only got three questions in my book. You’re much more complex money. I just get them there much quicker. I’ll tell you some

Giles Stevens (19:25):
About my last one called The Seven Good Things. And that’s been really effective, which we launched just before the pandemic. And interestingly, when the quarantine came for us evangelists, most of us turned like tigers in a cage. We didn’t know what to do with ourselves. We love being out there doing crusades. You can’t have big gatherings. And I just was praying about, I just thought, Lord, what do we do? I just refuse to let not just kind of regulations shut me down, but also that kind of spirit of fear that was in the air, that everybody

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:56):
Was afraid

Giles Stevens (19:57):
That they were going to die and so forth. And I felt that classic story of David and Goliath. Saul ran from the Giant, but David ran at The Giant and I just thought, I’ve got to run at this thing. I’ve got to do something sort of bold and courageous at a time like this. And so I created a network on WhatsApp and for a hundred days I challenged this big network, thousands of young people to share their faith with one person every day for a hundred days. And I gave them different things to do. But one of the things was this booklet called Seven Good Things that Maybe You don’t know. And they would share these messages. And so some of those things, I’ll tell you those no matter who you are, you are much loved another one. No matter what you’ve done, there’s forgiveness available. I’m a real good news preach. I believe that Jesus Christ came as a friend of sinners to tell them the good news that their sins had been forgiven through his blood and by the

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:56):
Cross. And so over the course of those a hundred days, what were some of the miracles that you saw? Well,

Giles Stevens (21:01):
I mean the biggest miracle as we evangelists will say, is the miracle of salvation. And so actually at the end, it was in October, beginning of October during the pandemic, we baptized 10,000 people in a day.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:12):
Wow, that’s amazing.

Giles Stevens (21:14):
And that was in swimming pools and lakes and rivers and seas. Anywhere there was water because we couldn’t gather them together. We had this online meeting through YouTube and so forth, and all the different churches and places, the cities that were holding these events were baptizing. So we ran at the Giant.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:32):
Wow, what a miracle. Let’s talk about the spiritual atmosphere in Brazil. What do you see God doing in the nation of Brazil?

Giles Stevens (21:41):
Yeah, I mean we really have to talk about that because again, the tendency when we think about church growth and winning souls is to immediately go to strategy. But I think it was moody or one of these guys said, it’s not so much how you present the gospel, just make sure you present it hot. It’s got to be anointed, it’s got to be full of fire and life. And really, if you’re full of fire and life, it doesn’t really matter what sort of strategy you use. I mean, I teach young people these days. I say, look, be filled with the Holy Spirit and then do whatever you like because if you’re filled with the Holy Spirit, life is going to flow through you. So we work, how can I say? We’re very conscious, I suppose, as church leaders of creating spiritual atmosphere, culture, a revival culture.

(22:30):
And so I almost want to talk in tongues. So difficult to put into words this, but you’ve got to have that atmosphere where people are just going after God, where the presence of God is liberated and manifesting the whole time, and a fire will naturally go out unless it’s fed. And so we see that as well. It’s very easy for a move of God to stop very easy unless you make a personal decision. I think this is one of the roles of a church leader. You make a decision that your meetings, your church, whatever you do is you don’t accept anything but a manifestation of the presence of God. Whether it’s in a prayer meeting, a Sunday church, a crusade, an encounter weekend. We are going to pray to have that presence. We’re going to preach. Until we get that presence, it just becomes our life source. We need the living water. Because of that, there’s life manifesting. And of course growth comes because of life. Most people go after growth. I always say, no, no, go after the spiritual atmosphere and growth will be the result.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:37):
Wow. I know you’re a very proud father. Your son is at Oral Roberts University right now. My friend Rubens Konya took him over to Ethiopia for a crusade. And so God doesn’t just call individuals, he calls families. Talk to me about balancing family life and ministry life.

Giles Stevens (24:00):
Well, yeah, I mean that’s really interesting. Again, I’m really enjoying your questions, Daniel. We are a missionary family. I’ve got four children. Titus is the oldest, so 21, 19, 18, and 15 little girl at 15. And so let me say it like this. Sometimes you hear Christians say, God, first, family second, ministry third or those kinds of things. But I’ve never seen it like that. For me, it’s all one thing. So it’s not just about Daddy Giles being the minister and everybody else following me. No, we’re a ministry family, we’re a family of priests. We are all in this together. And so also for us, church isn’t a building, church is a body of Christ. And so we’re just as much in church at home as a family as we are if we’re in a pulpit somewhere. And I think that atmosphere and that way of life has just meant that what the gift and the call of God on my life has just been naturally spontaneously shared with the children.

(25:03):
And so they are all involved in the ministry with me. I mean, I was listening to a message that Titus preached the other day, and I had to post it on a pastor’s group. I just had to, on a WhatsApp group that I’m part of, I said, just listen to this coming from a 20 year old boy. Because what he preaches in this message, I think is wiser and more anointed than most ministers I’m hearing who’ve been in the ministry for years. And I don’t say that as a proud father. I’m just trying to say that when you’re brought up in revival and it’s just in you from the get-go, then it just sort of gushes out, doesn’t it? And so it’s just been a joy. Obviously, they’ve all got slightly different and giftings and so forth, but all of them are just full of the Holy Ghost. That’s great.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:52):
That’s awesome. What advice would you give to a young evangelist who really wants to be used by God?

Giles Stevens (26:00):
Well, yeah, really good question. Again, boy, you’ve done this before, haven’t you?

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:06):
You’re my 290th interview on evangelism. Fine. Yeah. Have I got anything new to say? No, it’s good. I mean, it’s so neat seeing how God uses different people, different personalities. There’s so many different methods of evangelism, but God is so wonderful. He uses all of us. Yeah, yeah. I mean

Giles Stevens (26:25):
Advice to a young evangelist is if it burns in your heart, preach it. I started out pretty shortly after I got saved. I remember reading the scripture that Saul, who became the Apostle Paul, he preached Christ immediately. The scripture says in the synagogues immediately after his conversion. So he didn’t hang around to start sharing about Christ. And I think when you’re faithful with the little, God will give you much. And so you can see how Paul’s revelation just grows and grows and grows. He was constantly giving out what he’d received. So I think there’s a principle there. If you’ve been anointed, to be honest, if you’ve got saved, start talking about it, start testifying. At least that’s what we’re empowered to do by the Holy Spirit. But I think really, if you’ve got a call to the full-time ministry and you dream of the multitude, so to speak, I think probably the best thing you can do is something rather like Elijah did with Elijah, serve a man of God, a more experienced evangelist.

(27:25):
Because there’s a certain amount you’re going to learn in the classroom, and obviously you’re going to learn through your own relationship with the Lord principally and the study of the scripture. But so much is transferred in that discipleship process when you’re actually under the authority and you’re serving a man of God who’s already doing it. There’s just lessons there that you wouldn’t get anywhere else. And I again like to teach on that particular story in the Old Testament that scripture gives detail and it says that Elisha, he poured water on the hands of Elijah. And I read that and I thought, that’s really strange that it would say that, but it’s clear that the detail is in the scripture, I think, to show us that if he was doing the menial tasks of just even helping Elijah Elijah wash his hands before dinner, that really meant that he was disposed to serve his master in any possible way that he could be helpful.

(28:21):
Remembering that, of course, Elisha was a rich young farmer, and so he was the rich young ruler, let’s say, who gave up everything unlike the rich young ruler who Christ called and went away. So he served this rather strange prophet. He saw the anointing of God upon him. So if you’re a young guy, then you kind of need to let go of sometimes of your natural world and your natural relationships and get around somebody who’s really anointed, but serve them in practical and menial ways. And you see, this is the glory of this revelation is that as Elijah poured water on the hands of Elijah, what he didn’t realize perhaps at the time was that Elijah was pouring spiritual water upon the head of

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (29:08):
Elijah. I love that story. And then one of the most tragic stories in the Bible is the next one of Gaze who was called by God, I think, to be the next prophet of Israel, but failed his test, and he was serving Elisha, but then for a little bit of money in a few sets of clothes, he gave up his anointing in his bad trade dollars because he didn’t know that being a servant is just a stepping to the destiny that God has for you.

Giles Stevens (29:43):
Yeah. Sold himself out. Oh, dear.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (29:46):
Tragic. I’m going to put a link to your book on the podcast, but do you have a website, a way that people can connect with you?

Giles Stevens (29:59):
Yeah. The ministry that I run, the evangelistic ministry I run is called The Great Mission. Put a.org on the end of that, and you’ll find us or Giles Stevens, old English name, G i l e s, Giles Stevens with a v.com. You can find me there and you’ll find materials. Like I said, my heart is very much to equip and empower others. I’ve often said, what’s best? One guy speaking to a thousand or a thousand preachers speaking to their multitude. So I’m very much about helping not just teach, but giving other young evangelists and teachers and preachers and pastors sermons to preach and strategies to use so that you can be fruitful in your own life.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (30:42):
My passion. Well, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast. I appreciate

Giles Stevens (30:46):
It. Daniel, it’s a joy. Thank you for receiving Titus when he’s been to help you as well and your crusades, and I

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (30:52):
Hope we can, he’s a blessing. Hope

Giles Stevens (30:53):
We can do more together.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (30:54):
Thank

Giles Stevens (30:54):
You. Bless you.

 

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