DJ Moz leads the Kubamba Youth Movement in Kenya. These young people are using upbeat music and dance to reach school children with the Gospel. You will be amazed and inspired as you listen to his story of how DJ Moz went from DJ to evangelist!
Connect with Kubamba on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kubamba.Tv/
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, DJ Moz, from a tremendous ministry in the nation of Kenya named Ku Baba. Yeah. Thank you so much for joining me today.
DJ Moz (00:17):
Thank you, Daniel. Thanks for having me over. So,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:20):
Tell me a little bit about your ministry and, and what you do. I I was just exposed to your ministry yesterday. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, I went with some of your team members out to one of the schools here. Mm-Hmm. Near Embu. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, Kenya. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And you had a team of young people Yeah. That went into the school. They had some kick in music. It was that they had a DJ who was playing music Yeah. And they were all dancing. Yeah. And they captured the attention of the kids. Yeah. And then they ministered to them led them to Jesus. Yeah. And it was so beautiful to see what God was doing. And this is just one of, of many different teams that you
DJ Moz (01:00):
Have. Yeah. Yeah. First man, I love your energy. <Laugh>. Guys need to know, just waking up, you know, it’s excellent, man. You should join Kuku Bamba <laugh>. You have the right energy for it. So but thank you for having me on your podcast. So what Ku Bamba does, and first let me explain what Ku Bamba means, just in case for guys are wondering what’s, yeah. What’s Ku Baba? Ku Baba is a slang word from Swahili. So young people in Kenya you know, people have different lingos, you know in their, from their ba in their community. So we have a language that’s called Shang, and Shang is the language young people use. So it has like Swahili and English and Chinese and Indian. Like, it has a mixture of things. And so KU Baba is a word from that, and it means something catchy, something attractive, something cool.
(01:44):
And you know, God allowed us to start this 23, 23 years ago. And what you got to experience yesterday, it’s not something that we really had sat down and planned. And we are like, you know, this is what we you know, when we look back and see what God has allowed Ku Bamba to do, it’s not something we are sat down and strategized and say that this is exactly what we want to do 23 years down the right down, down the road. It’s just how God opens up your eyes and shows you what can happen. But a background is I’m a DJ by profession. I love music. And I used to work in the clubs. I got saved when I was still in the clubs. And I’m a product of music. Like music has had a, a significant influence in my life.
(02:27):
And so Ku Baba is pretty much built around music like urban gospel music. So we so when I became a believer I started looking for gospel music. That was the kind of music that I used to play in the club, something that would relate, I could relate with. And I was happy to come across, you know, albums from guys like Kirk Franklin and Mary Mary, and there was an amazing gospel hip hop crew called Cross Movement. I don’t even know if you remember them. They were like our Wutang clan at that time. And there was Toby Mac, you know, just come across the album by d dc talk that had, that’s called Jesus Freaks Now, that Jesus freak was like, man, I like this title. You know, that’s who I want to be. And so when Ku Baba started you know I believe in my heart that God, you know, God showed me that I needed to go back and reach out to my younger brothers and sisters who in the clubs and, you know, because I’d seen the impact the music had had on my life and their life.
(03:22):
And see how we can drop them in.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:24):
So, all right, now I want to take you live to the festival from last night so you can hear the music and feel the energy that Ku Baba brings when they minister.
DJ Moz (04:21):
And so I just, you know, when I became a believer, I told God, this is the gift that you’ve given me. I’ll give it back to you and use it for your glory. And so of course, you’re a new believer. The church doesn’t know what to do with you, the club where you’ve come from, they don’t know what to do with you. So you, they’re stuck somewhere in the middle, but was a beautiful journey. And I thank God that when he opened the first door for me to get on, let me say, let me let me say radio was a key significant part because media influences lives. So when that opportunity came up for me to get into radio May 15th, 2000, it was a turnaround point, not just for my life, but for the lives of many young people, because young people said, listening to the show and engaging and listening to what was you know, to loving the music, they’re like, oh, man, I can’t believe there’s such cool gospel music. So as they’re
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:13):
Doing that, so you didn’t really go into ministry having a specific plan of what you wanted to do. You just had the opportunity to do a radio program. Yeah. And you had a love for music mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And you started bringing the gospel music Yeah. Here to Kenya. Yeah. And young people started listening to it, and their lives were changed. I just come from
DJ Moz (05:32):
The clubs. So I have, and before that, I’ve never been to church for nine years, so I have no idea what ministry is. In fact, ministry was a term that I’d never heard. And I come from a Presbyterian background, which is very,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:44):
They don’t have your type of music in the Presbyterian
DJ Moz (05:47):
Church? No. My church my mom’s church where we used to go when I was growing up had no guitars and keyboards and things like that. Those were things of the world. <Laugh>, you can imagine I’m a DJ from that kind of having come from that kind of background. So but you know, the, what, when young people are engaging with this kind of music man, I can’t, from the first day when I did the altar call, you know, just inviting young people to come and experience what I had experienced through Christ, the listeners would call and giving their lives to Christ. And it, it was amazing. And so as this, as this continued, we’re like, okay, a couple of my friends now came and joined me a year later. And we said, okay man, what do we do to, to continue engaging with these young people who are listening to us on radio?
(06:34):
And one of them said, you know, he’s calling Gush. He said, you know, why don’t you go to the high schools? And so we went to high school and the impact, you know, those alliance girls, the impact was incredible. The young people dancing to the music. So, of course, I’m a dj, so, and dancing is a big thing in Africa. So the kids were dancing. The music helped us break the barriers, and we shared the gospel and the kids gave their lives to Christ in the droves. And it also helped that I had a cool dance crew that had met along the way that called All Lova who were amazing guys. And so together with the logo, we say, going around to the schools and then ano a music artist some of the few gospel music artists were say, rising up at that time.
(07:19):
They would come alongside us and join us to go for these tours. But it’s incredible. And I’m really glad that God opened up our eyes to allowing us to see the opportunity that lies in the high schools. The good thing about music, and I was, I was sharing with you yesterday, is music breaks barriers. I mean, it crosses borderlines. And, you know there’s one person who said the word, one good thing about music is when it hits you feel okay. And you know, music carries you through places and you know, it brings out emotions. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. But if you have godly music, the spirit of God moves. And, you know, he just you know, he, he changes. You start singing you from the inside out and the music carries you through those spaces when you’re going through a difficult time or when you’re having a good time.
(08:03):
And David, in the scriptures, you remember there’s a time when King Soul would be tormented and David would play the music and he would settle, king Soul would calm down. That’s the power of music. And so I’m so grateful that you know, God allowed us to use music. And we say the music is our tool of influence as Ku Bamba because we have seen the power of music. And now through this journey, as you got to experience yesterday in the high schools, I mean, the energy is electric. It’s just like being in a concert, just a smaller concert.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:36):
The energy was absolutely huge. Everyone was dancing, they were celebrating. Yeah. But then I noticed that when the gospel was shared, everyone quieted down. Yeah. And they listened very, very intently. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And the message that your young evangelist was there Yeah. Speaking mm-hmm. Went right into their hearts.
DJ Moz (08:54):
Yes. And the good thing is, and you thank God that, you know, once you’ve done that concert you’ve connected with them, you’ve bonded with them, you are now, they’re now that now feel like, man, I can listen to these guys. And we don’t take it for granted that they would actually sit down and listen to us because they don’t have to. You need to remember that among some of those kids who are sitting in that space, some of them are Muslims, so this, this should be offensive to them. But they do sit down and they listen to the gospel. And what we’ve gotten to experience is young people from different religious backgrounds coming and accepting Christ as their Lord and Savior. And so, and that’s the beauty about what sees that God has allowed us to do. And that we can be able to share the gospel with them in a manner that’s relevant in a timely way.
(09:44):
And they can be and hopefully they’re like, man, this Jesus, who these guys are talking about, I want to have a relationship with him and some of the young people who I dunno if it’s Erica, who was sharing yesterday at the school that you went to. Erica was a crazy kid. You know, in high school he gave his parents drama, <laugh>, he was kicked out. He was, I think he was expelled from five different high schools. Wow. Just from being truant or being rebellious. And so when he shares, when he goes in that pulpit or on that platform and shares with the young people he’s experienced, ’cause he was there where they are. And some of them are thinking about being rebellious. You know, they’re able to see their lives you know, through the guys who they’re seeing on stage ministering to them.
(10:29):
So I’m very grateful again, to see what God has allowed us to be able to do. And and maybe Daniel should let you know that the other thing is now seeing other other people from, you know, young people from other African countries reaching out to us and saying, man, we’ve been following you guys for a while. Wow. And we’ve started doing something similar to what you guys are doing in our country. Man we just wanted to know that what you’re doing is going beyond your borders, <laugh>. Like it was, it was interesting about maybe three years ago getting a getting a, a message from some young guys from Burundi who were doing exactly ministry, like how we started here, about 20, 20 something, 23 years ago. But I was so happy because that journey is so fulfilling. Like, they would go and set up their sound system in the, in the community, like in the marketplace, and they do a gig for the people in the market and share the gospel. You know? So it’s just encouraging them and telling them, man, where you, what you guys are doing right now is exactly where we started.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:32):
Wow. Yeah. Let’s talk about your team. How many team members do you have?
DJ Moz (11:36):
So I have about team of 69 that’s including myself and <inaudible> are the co-founders. We, 69 people,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:42):
And the team divides up into several different groups about how many would go into one school at a time.
DJ Moz (11:49):
So we have about 10 people per team who go out and so we have about, we have six vans. Okay. like you got to see the there’s some big vans, they’re called, you know, the Mercedes printers or the Volkswagen Crafter vans. So 10 people per team. But then when we get to a place like here in bu, where we are this time around is we also do get a couple of people from the community coming alongside us in advance to go to, to go to the schools. Because once we’ve been to a school, it’s the local churches that follow up with with the young people who give their lives to Christ. And what we try to do is we take the names of every single young person who gives their life to Christ. And we follow up with them now beyond that, like on social media and also sending them messages of encouragement. And, you know, we’ve come up with that like a discipleship plan for the young people. And it’s the same young guys who you see going around in the high schools from the teams. They’re the ones who who check on them during the holidays. They’ll come and do a gig for the young people in the communities here. So we try to make sure that we are always constantly engaged with the young people.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:57):
Yeah. I was very impressed yesterday mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, because you collected the Twitter and Instagram and TikTok Yeah. Handles for all of the students Yeah. That were in the school. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And so that allows you to continue to have influence Yes. In their lives even after you’re gone. Yeah. You can disciple them mm-hmm. <Affirmative> 30 seconds at a time on TikTok.
DJ Moz (13:24):
Yes. And you know, the thing is, that’s the, that’s their world right now. That’s where they, they’re gravitating towards. That’s how they, those are the new communities that they’re making, that they’re building. And that’s a new space of influence for them. And so we try to be intentional being in the spaces where they are. And and I think I’m really glad that the church is also waking up and realizing that we cannot ignore those spaces. And so, man, we cannot afford not to be with them on those social media platforms.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:54):
Let’s talk about results. Last night you were sharing with me that about a year ago you set a goal of reaching 425,000. Yeah. Students. It
DJ Moz (14:06):
Was about two years ago.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:07):
Two years
DJ Moz (14:08):
Ago. Yeah. We wanted to reach out to 450,000 students by June of this year.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:12):
Okay. Yeah. And so you’ve just completed that time period, and you’ve looked at your numbers. What results have you seen in this two year period? Oh man,
DJ Moz (14:22):
<Laugh>, it’s unreal. It hit me, so hit me Good. Because you don’t even realize it. But we had just crossed the 1 million mark.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:35):
Wow. So you more than doubled more than initial goal. Yes. 450,000. Yes. You’ve already hit a million.
DJ Moz (14:42):
We’ve already hit a million. Wow. God is good. God is good. And it, it reminds me of, you know, when Jesus Christ says that the open your eyes, the fields are white, the harvest is plenty, but the laborers are few. That’s very, very real with what we are experiencing. And I know there’s some people who might be like, you know it’s responsible what you guys are doing, but be like, man, Jesus Christ said that the harvest is plenty, but the laborers are few. All we are doing is harvesting what we need are more laborers in. And what we also do need is for the church to rise up and to come and walk along and be able to disciple the young people and not just here, you know, it’s happening all over the world, like sitting with you and you’re telling me that you’re planning to go to El Salvador and you know, God is opening those doors. Think about the highway that’s gonna come.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:33):
Amen.
DJ Moz (15:34):
You know? And so some really, my mind is blown away. And I know we are just starting off in terms of so we, we, we, as we were dreaming about what to experience in the next two years, the 450,000 we’re believing in trusting God that by 2030 we will see. Because when we’re coming up with this plant, it was in 2019, then Covid hit <laugh>. So our plans were delayed by like two years. When we were dreaming, we wanted to reach out, wanted to see 10 million young people coming, giving their lives to Christ through our ministry. And from what we’ve seen we know that in order for us to get to those numbers, we need to reach out to at least 20 or 30 million young people through the school tour that you’re seeing. And so I know that we are just starting off, but it excites me because I’m like man, that number, God has shown us that it’s actually possible, it’s achievable. It’s not by power, it’s not by might, but by his spirit. But then the other thing is we can never sit and settle because Africa has a population of 1.3 billion people. Daniel, out of the 1.3 billion people, 70% are below the age of 30.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:46):
It’s a very young continent. It’s a very young, young. So if you want to reach this continent for Jesus, you have to have a strategy for reaching the young people.
DJ Moz (16:53):
Exactly. So if and even to break it down farther, 41% are below the age of 14.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:02):
Wow.
DJ Moz (17:03):
So if you’re not speaking to this young generation, then who are you speaking with? But I share those numbers just to, just to highlight that even though we are thinking of reaching out to 13 million young people, that’s like an a drop in the ocean. Yeah. Because there’s such a huge population of young people to reach out to. And so my prayer is that that God would raise more and more ev you know, evangelists and you know for more churches to be planted where we can be able to do life together with the young people who are giving their lives to Christ. And maybe even a bigger challenge is to challenge those who are listening to the podcast that don’t just listen to the podcast. I believe that God has called each and every one of us to be actively involved with sharing the gospel.
(17:46):
Otherwise how will they come? Amen. You know, how will they come? And so for those who are listening to the podcast, I just want to say you know, just do not look down on what you have or the spaces that God has placed you in, where God has placed you. He was intentional to place you there because there are people who need to see your lifestyle being lived out of about being a believer. You have an opportunity to share your faith with people when they come and ask you, what’s different about you? Why do you do things this way? Those are such good opportunities to be able to share the gospel or when you do life with them, when you celebrate birthdays with them, or you know, when they’re having weddings or when they’re going through a difficult time, your presence just being there speaks a lot. And they’ll be like, you are different from other people. What’s happening in your life?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:31):
Amen. Yeah. Well, it’s impossible to do what you’re doing without partnership. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, I see that you are partnering with Love Kenya Festivals with Andrew Palau. Yeah. You’re also partnering with One Hope. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, you’re distributing some of the literature from One Hope. Yeah. And Rob Hoskins leads such a great ministry. Yes, yes. And I saw even you’re partnering with the First Lady of the Nation of Kenya. Yes, we
DJ Moz (18:57):
Are <laugh>
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:58):
What a tremendous privilege. And so she’s opened up doors into the schools. Yes. Yes. And, and it’s impossible for, for you to do what you do without partnership. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And so for people who are listening mm-hmm. <Affirmative> who maybe want to invest in helping to reach the young people in Africa mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, they, they want to become maybe a, a partner, a friend mm-hmm. <Affirmative> with your ministry. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, how can they find out more about you?
DJ Moz (19:24):
So they can log into our website that’s www.kubambateens.com.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:29):
Alright. You’ll have to spell Ku Bamba so people can find it.
DJ Moz (19:33):
It’s K U B A M B A. That’s Kuku Bamba and teens like teenagers teens.com.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:40):
Yeah. Mbba teens.com. Yes. And so I encourage you, if, if you want to help reach young people here in Kenya, and now you’re expanding, you want to go to other nations in Africa. Oh bro. I encourage you to, to find out more about DJ Moz. Yeah. And, and support this ministry because what a tremendous impact that you’re having. Thank you. I mean, this team over a million people now. It’s unreal Minister too. <Laugh>.
DJ Moz (20:05):
It’s unreal. And I’m really excited about, you know meeting and just hearing what’s happening and the beauty about working together with like global network of evangelists is meeting fellow evangelists, you know, being able to encourage each other and be able to rally each other around and just see how the great work that God is doing out there. I believe that God says, the Bible says that, you know, we’re seen abound, grace abound even more. And so the world is getting more darker, but then grace is even more readily available. And the thing is, God will never stop pursuing people to their last breath. He’s intentional. He’s intentional man. And the way that God turns people’s lives around is through individuals like you, like me and others who are out there reaching out. And so again, my great call to, you know, again, people who are listening to this podcast is, man, the harvest is plenty.
(21:05):
Whether it’s one that’s a celebration in heaven or whether it’s a million, that’s a celebration in heaven. We just need to be intentional and to engage with God in the task that he’s calling us to do. And we are not alone, bro. You know, God is with us. And if God before us, man, we’re more than conquerors who can be against us, we can be able to raise that culture that we call the culture of the unashamed of in where we’re not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because the Bible says every knee will bow. So it’s not a matter of if, but when.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:36):
Amen.
DJ Moz (21:36):
And every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Let’s give people the opportunity to do now, to do that now while they’re on this side of the sun. Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:45):
Wonderful. Thank you. Well, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism podcast.
DJ Moz (21:49):
No, thank you so much, man. And keep, keep doing the work that you’re doing. Keep this podcast going on. And I’m really grateful for the platform and the opportunity to be part of this.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:58):
Yes, sir. I’m bless
DJ Moz (21:59):
You now. God bless You too, sir. Thank you, man.
Moses Muguro pastors in Nairobi, Kenya. He completed his Doctorate of Ministry at Multnoma University. The focus of his research was evangelism in the local church. He is implementing his research in his church with innovative ideas like using sports for evangelism. You will be inspired as you listen to the story of what he is doing to reach people for Jesus in Kenya.
Connect with Pastor Moses Muguro on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/moses.muguro
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 am in Nairobi, Kenya with my good friend, pastor Moses Muguro . Thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Moses Muguro (00:15):
Thank you very much Dr. Daniel King for this coming to Kenya and this moment to be with you. This is a miracle
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:23):
<Laugh>. Now, yesterday we had a wonderful time. I flew in 7:30 AM I landed. Yes. And you came to the airport. You picked me up, took me straight over to your church. And I had the wonderful privilege and opportunity of, of ministering. And you have such a beautiful church. It’s you, you’re so
Moses Muguro (00:42):
Blessed. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Yeah. The Lord has blessed us in amazing ways. But one of the things with our church is we are a church that has a focus to reach out, not to stay within the four corners of the church. We have an obligation and we usually, I usually tell the church and we tell each other, we are not just building a church. It’s Jesus who said, I will build my church. Our work is to go out and bring sinners to Christ. So we are there to be equipped in the church. It is an equipping station at the congregation. This is just an equipping station. You get equipped, but you don’t stay inside. The work is out there. We minister to the people inside when they get saved, and then we release them into their destinations, into their fields. That is what we feel as a church. God has called us for
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:37):
Now. What is the name of your church?
Moses Muguro (01:39):
It is called Pentecostal Evangelistic Fellowship of Africa. All Nations Gospel by Church Perfa per stands, Pentecostal Evangelistic Fellowship of Africa.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:49):
Wow. It was such a, a privilege to be there yesterday. Now, you and I have been friends for a while now. Yes. We first met at Multnomah University Yes. In Portland, Oregon. Yes. You were there studying with Dr. Tim Rob net. Yes. And he has one of the only evangelism programs at the doctoral level in the entire United States. And so you are going through the, the doctorate of Ministry program there at Multnomah University, and the focus of your research was evangelism. And so I, I had the opportunity to take one class, and so we met, we became friends. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And you also have a brother George. He a twin
Moses Muguro (02:31):
Brother
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:32):
George, who is your twin. And so both of you love Jesus and are serving the Lord. Indeed. Indeed. Now, now tell me a little bit about the research that you did for your doctorate to ministry.
Moses Muguro (02:44):
Yeah. it was a miracle meeting with you at the Morton University, and just God connected us. And my, the, my research, the focus of my paper is raising evangelist in the local churches. And I specifically gave that to my church because I began raising local evangelist in local churches. The evangelist, especially in Africa, is not the, the, the evangelist is not recognized. He’s not identified. Is that is a By the way, we are planning evangelism meeting next week. So where is the evangelist? But in my, in my focus, I began raising local evangelist. And every fortnight, every two weeks, I began a class for evangelist. Every Sunday afternoon, bring the evangelist from my church and other churches and just begin to train them to work with them, to equip them. We get to hear their testimonies, what God is doing.
(03:46):
And in my, in my church, I have evangelist and some of them are in the pay, pay payroll because the, the, the evangelist is a very vital part of the body of Christ. Christ gave us the apostles, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor, the teacher. So the evangelist is part of the part of the minister to equip the body and also to go out. And so that’s what we do. Every fortnight, the evangelists come, and I also invite other evangelists outside to come and share with them to equip them. And it is amazing what God is doing when we begin to align ourselves and hear the voice of the Holy Spirit on the place of evangelist and then time harvest.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:37):
And so how have you implemented this research in your church? What results have you seen?
Moses Muguro (04:46):
Thank you very much. I have seen for the last actually more than three years, I have seen the evangelist gaining, number one, gaining confidence and recognize and being recognized in the body of Christ. As ministers, they’re being recognized and they’re being identified, and they’re being helped even financially. I mean, people standing with them and saying, yes, this is very important. This is very key. And even the church recognizing we have to embrace the evangelist, the office of the evangelist, and also the local evangelist. We have to work with them. We have to allow them to minister both within and outside. So I’ve seen churches, not just even my church, I’ve seen churches realizing this is important. Pastor Moses is doing this. I’m a pastor and an evangelist. I’m an evangelist and a pastor. I don’t know which comes first. I, I, I realize I, I operate in both offices. And by the grace of God, I have been able to identify, equip, and even empower and begin to release to release evangelist into the harvest field.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:06):
I think this is so important because often in the church, the pastor is recognized mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, if you feel called to be in ministry. Yes. Then people say, oh, you must be called to be a pastor. Yes. But the, the gift of the evangelist is a little bit different than the gift of the, the pastor. And sometimes what you find is that evangelists who are called to be evangelists, they get pushed into being pastors. And, and then if they, they try to do evangelism, there doesn’t seem to be a place for them. And so I think it’s so important to elevate and lift up the, the understanding of the office of the evangelists. We need evangelists in the church.
Moses Muguro (06:47):
And, and, and what you’re saying is very true, especially for Africa. It is been bad. We, we had stretched to the extreme where the evangelist was like evangelism work, and the evangelist was left for the young people, the guys who have nothing to do. If you’re called to the ministry, go to the Bible school. You are sent to the church to be a pastor. And many of them struggled because when you are an evangelist and you’re fixed into an office that is not yours or into a ministry that is not yours, you’ll always struggle. You’ll always have scam something like, no, there is something. I’m missing the calling of God. The mantra of God in my life is I am an evangelist. And when I began to equip evangelists, like some of them, I’ll buy them even portable public address system and give them, they’ll be so excited the following day I’ll see them reaching out, and I’m like, you are an evangelist.
(07:47):
You have been fixed to be a Bible teacher. But look, you are now your voice. Look at your passion. Look at the heartbeat, everything about you. You actually realize this is who God called me into. This is from the creation of the world. God wanted me to be a proclaimer of the good news of Jesus Christ, and to proclaim it as an evangelist. So I have, it is one evangelist, is one of the people who are actually, we are waiting for the ministry of evangelism to be fulfilled. Then Jesus comes the gospel to be proclaimed everywhere. And Jesus comes. So he’s one of the key persons who is very vital in this time season.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:35):
Take a moment to talk to other African pastors if they want to lift up evangelism in their church. First of all, how do they identify people in the church who maybe have the gift of an evangelist? And then second, how do they start to give opportunities to evangelists, to, to preach the gospel. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And then how do they train them so that they can be equipped to really do the ministry that God has called them to do? How can we here in Africa start to lift up more evangelists?
Moses Muguro (09:08):
Yeah. Thank you very much. The first and the most important thing is when, when, when, when a believer has come to Christ and has been discipled given raised and given the word of God and now reached, and then this person begins, usually you find people who begin to volunteer. They’re giving themselves, they’re saying, I need to serve. I need to do somewhere. And then you realize this is, this is a, it’s like a baby, and I can see a talent. They’re, they’re, they’re pulling well on this side, they’re doing well on this side. And then you begin to, to tap that talent. And all of the things I do is identify them in the church. And then I create a forum. You, you, you, you, you have a passion. You, you want to, and I begin teaching the whole church the importance of evangelism.
(10:00):
And there are people who will volunteer, call them out. Please come. If this is your heartbeat, if, if you feel that God has laid a burden for sins, come, we want to walk with you. So I identify them, and then I begin to see little talent. This person is flowing in the outdoors. This person has a talent in this area. I begin to sharpen them to walk with them. You, you are in the marketplace, evangelist. I want you to go there. You are a full-time evangelist. I want you to be quit. I have sent some to Bible school not to be quit as pastors, to be quit and nourished and given the right staff. Then when they come out, I begin now to give them to, we create the class. When we created the class, the people we had sent to Bible school, they also need to come to the evangelism class.
(10:50):
Then I give them public address systems, drugs, materials. And then I give them opportunity. I give these people opportunity even to teach, to teach in the church the importance of evangelism. Another teachings, some of my evangelists have given them topics. Topics. This is an evangelist who was growing up, teachers about Stephen was an evangelist. Bring to us a character of Stephen. And then I give the evangelist to do that homework, and they give, bring it out that well, but I’m building also these evangelists to pick these characters and to build up with them. And then I give them also Sunday service to minister to the church, because the ministry of evangelism and the minister of the evangelist has a lot of blessings. It carries with it healing and encouragement, comfort, both within the church and outside the church. And I see God using them in different aspects.
(11:46):
They’re releasing different encouragement to the body. And then they go out. They have a lot of boldness. The pastor has commissioned us because if they’re not commissioned, they’ll not be, they’ll be operating within any umbrella. I mean, outside an umbrella, they can be attacked. So I commission them go to this direction but come back and report and tell me what happened. Go to the school, come back and report what happened. So the pastors in Africa, we must first of all identify. They’re already there. They’re already there. The giftings of the evangelism evangelist is already in the church. Identify, then you recruit, beginning listing. In my church, I had to enlist. I had to write down, write down your name in that particular class. Then from there, train them, equip them, send them to Bible school, have classes within the church. Then opportunity, open opportunities for them. Because if you don’t also open opportunities for them, they might not have the strength to knock doors, but when they go with a, like, they need a letterhead, an introduction letter to go to this school, that gives them a, a very big platform. They’re recognized. You’re coming from this direction. So it is very important we begin working those steps by steps and begin to create an awareness in the church that evangelists are part of the ministry of the church.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:17):
Now, you have actually implemented these ideas in your church, and one of your innovative ideas is to do evangelism by sports. Yes. And so you are starting a basketball tournament inviting many different basketball teams from your neighborhood to come to the church. And then you plan to sponsor them playing against one another, then feed them and, and give them something. And, and then evangelize, tell these basketball players about Jews. So yesterday we went and we anointed the basketball court as a tool for evangelism. Yes. And then you also plan to do the same thing with football. Tell, tell me some about those plans and what you hope to see God do.
Moses Muguro (14:04):
Yeah. you know, evangelist King, one of the things that God is doing with the, this generation of evangelist is we just have to ask God for ideas. Yeah. because God is not limited with ideas. Even in Africa, we don’t have those big resources, but God can give us fresh ideas because God is a God of freshness every morning, fresh manner. Yeah. And so we’ve been doing different approaches, which I can share of evangelism going out street evangelism pray, walking in our estate evangelism. And recently we said, why don’t we now begin to be to create a very good awareness, friendship to these young people in the community. And we we, we just begin to brainstorm and say, Hey, what are the approaches? And one of the approaches, sport evangelisms evangelism through sports, and we said with the young people, we are starting with the basketball.
(15:08):
And guess what? We changed our parking lot into a basketball co a pitch. So Saturday, I called the painter, paint this place and make it a basketball pitch. And I had told the, the, the young people on Sunday, we’ll be anointing the ground and releasing the game. And the, by the grace of God evangelist King is here on Sunday. So we anointed that basketball pitch, which is our parking lot. And I’m sure some of the members of the church are like, oh, pastor’s bringing sports into the church. But you see, the thing is, when I went there yesterday after the church by five, I was in the, in the, in the church. And the boys were playing, and they were about a hundred and something boys and girls who had come to watch the game. And my, my, my evangelism, young people were evangelists, were the, my evangelism team were witnessing to these boys.
(16:11):
And we had put Christian music. And these are boys I’ve never seen in church. These are boys who are not Christians. And remember, we have anointed the field and we have said, whoever steps in here, the power of God must touch them. I was excited because the only way for us to reach this generation, like the young people, is to befriend them, is to go to them and tell them, I’m a friend. I am a parent. I have a, I have a, I have a young boy you prayed for who graduated my son wisdom. And for me to become a friend to wisdom, I mean, to reach him, I have become, to become a friend. And I know with sports, every boy loves sports. So I could see all these boys, and they are happy. They’re like, dads have not come here to bo bundles with the, with a gospel message.
(17:03):
But they are creating a forum for us to have fun. As they’re having fun. I’m also taking care of their health. They’re not at home just watching cheap televisions that we get from China, wasting their time. They’re exercising. Number two. Number three, I’m keeping them engaged in the right environment. They’re not going out there where they can do all kinds of things. Drugs. They’re within the safe environment. Every parent would want to release their boys and girls. I could see the girls there. I could see children there. Parents were very comfortable. Number four, it is an opportunity for these boys because many of them are not working. We have a lot of joblessness. Yeah. So now we are beginning to see, we can form a sports club that can go very far. That was begun by a church. That is a vision for the young people. And the vision for the, for president and the leadership in Africa is to engage in our young people in productivity. So they become product. And now the main thing, number five, we are winning them to Christ. Wow. So this is the focus for the men. We have begun, we have begun soccer evangelism through through sports soccer.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:21):
Now here in Kenya, do you call it soccer or football?
Moses Muguro (18:23):
We call it football.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:24):
Okay. So, so football, half, most of the world calls it football. In America, we say soccer. But let’s think about the math. Yesterday in, in, in church, you said that you had 20 teams that signed up for the tournament. And each team has 20 players. Yes. And so, 20 times 20, 400, 400, you are going to have the opportunity to impact the lives of 400 young people. And plus, when all the boys come to play soccer, all the girls will come to watch them. Yes. The parents will come to watch them. And you will have the opportunity to have a major impact in your area.
Moses Muguro (19:04):
I have never worked this way before, but I believe it’s the vision of the Holy Spirit. ’cause We’ve been praying, we have a prayer center. We’ve put the map of Africa, the map of the world, and we’ve been saying, Lord, give us a nation ask of the Lord. And he give you the nation for an inheritance. Yeah. And even for a community. And the men, as we were talking, they said, why don’t you do soccer, football? And as, as, as I told you, they have invited 20 teams and they have invited the member of Parliament for our community. They have invited the, the member of County Assembly. They have invited different groups. They have hired public address system. We have hired the biggest field in our community, the biggest field that is owned by the Kenya Airport Authority. They have allowed us, because it is a big tournament, tournaments are coming.
(19:55):
They’re hearing that this is happening. We are sponsoring as a church. It is not cheap. But the gospel is not cheap. The gospel is not cheap. And I think many times when we make it cheap, that is when we get cheap results. So we are saying, as a church, we will do everything possible. Let these things come, let them pray, let them play. Let them go the professional way. We’ll have professional coaches, professional referees, and everybody, but we are winning these people to Christ before the games. We pray after the games, we pray for them. We share the gospel with them. They have accepted that. And because we are we, we, we, they have accepted us. We are not condemning them. We are telling them, come, come on, come with your friends. This is a nice time. Because we have a lot of, you see these men and these young boys and girls, many of them are not working.
(20:51):
This will be holidays, especially for the soccer. So they’ll all be there. And we have three days. We are doing it for three days, three consecutive days. We have a winner, a cup that will be donated. We are asking the member of parliament to come and present it. And we want him also to hear the gospel plus his enter, plus his team and the whole community. And this is what we, this is what I’ve come to realize eventually is also have to keep asking God for step past. What is the next level, Lord, if you are in this community, how will you reach them? And Christ will use all these avenues. He’ll use the boat to sit down. Yeah. He’ll use the net. He’ll use all those things. And we now have to begin using the boats, the nets, the donkeys of our days, all those opportunities that are there to bring people the recreation.
(21:50):
Christ would go to the seaside and minister to people, because that’s a good place. That’s a good spot for people. There was grass where Christ was teaching, and he was organizing all these people. Disciples let them sit in 50. And when we begin to see the aspect of Lord, give us direction, give us freshness. Give us all these platforms that are in this planet for us to communicate the gospel, then these sins, they’re ready to receive the gospel. They’re ready to hear. Actually, I think we’ve, I’ve come to realize the biggest problem has been the church. Because the church, we closed ourselves to the four corners. And we thought our, our main business is a four corners. We have the best choir in the church. We stay there. Seniors will not come there. There’ll be one or two or three. And that’s why in our sports evangelism, like yesterday, all these bad boys were outside comfortable.
(22:52):
They’re comfortable. They’re like, oh, we don’t see here guys. The pastor with the collar and everybody chasing us and telling us, can you be seated here? Well, and can you be quiet? They were all cheering. They were all loud. Wow. I was telling them, cheer your team this is a beach and be happy, have fun. But at the end of it, I know I am breaking an ice. Where they have seen the church is like, I’m not welcome. We are telling them we are actually not inside the church. We are outside where God is. And I believe this is the direction the, the, the Lord is showing us as a church. We just have to keep out going out. We are an equipping sta station as a church to be equipped. And then we can’t stay with all this energy. If we stay with all this energy. Oh, they’re like the fallers. If we stay here, we die. We’d rather go out. We’d rather at midnight wake up, go meet this army. And we realize God is at work. The angels are at work. The Holy Spirit is at, and he’s waiting for just the fallers. So in Africa, we are like those people, but we are realizing the light has come. The light has come. Well, I
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:07):
Love your heart for evangelism, your heart, for raising up evangelism in the local church. And I believe God will give you a great harvest of souls.
Moses Muguro (24:18):
Amen. Through
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:19):
This evangelism by sports. Amen. It is a big investment for your church. Yes. But I believe that it will produce great results in the years to come. And, and God will give you many people that will, will come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. These young people. God’s gonna raise them up to be Yes. Leaders here in Africa. Amen. And pastors and evangelists and, and great business leaders and politicians and Amen. And so God’s gonna do many things through this outreach.
Moses Muguro (24:49):
You know, one young man who came there, had, had, had gone back was once a Christian and went back and he came and he was drunk. He was a young man. I knew him. Yeah. And his name is David. And he told me, you know, pastor, I’m back. I’m back to me, for him to tell me I’m back, it was like the prodigal son coming back home. And you see, I could try many ways to reach him, but he saw his friends outside the church court playing and his arm back. Wow. So we have to, you know, all these people they’re waiting to be received. Mm-Hmm. The, the, the, the, we have just to open our hands, our hearts and our resources, and receive all these sons and daughters because they’re the God loves them. God caress for them.
(25:46):
God is thinking while we are inside the church, God is saying, but I have other ship who are out there, and I leave the 99, I go and I go for those ones. So you have to partner with God when he’s leaving the 99 to go for the one ship. And that’s what, as a church, we are saying, there’s this one ship. And when Christ is leaving the 99, I don’t want to be in the 99. I want to be with Christ when he’s going for this one to bring this one to the 99. So that’s what God has put into my heart as an evangelist. And even raising other evangelist. We now have to be uncomfortable. We have to be uncomfortable where we’ve been so comfortable. Things are like everything is okay in the church. No. I believe even the reason why there is a stirring up in many churches is because we don’t go out. If we go out, then we’ll bring freshness. But if we don’t go out, there’s no freshness in the church. So that’s what I told my church. If you don’t go out, we’ll be fighting the choir. Do not sing good songs today. But let’s, let’s take the choir outside and you realize those songs are good <laugh>.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:55):
Wonderful. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you being on the Evangelism podcast.
Moses Muguro (27:00):
Thank you. Thank you, Dr. King. I appreciate you coming to Africa. This is very prophetic. And you, you released a prophetic word in my church. We are going far. Amen. We are experiencing a new level in Jesus
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (27:15):
Name. Well, we are a pair of docs. Amen. Dr. Moses. Yes. Dr. Daniel together. Yes. Winning the world for
Moses Muguro (27:22):
Jesus. Winning the world for Jesus. Amen. And thank you for your testimonies. How when you grew up, you are Jesus. That was
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (27:30):
<Laugh>
Moses Muguro (27:31):
What?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (27:31):
Thank Yeah. In the drama. I always play the part of Jesus in the drama to lead people to Jesus.
Moses Muguro (27:36):
Amen. Amen. You’re an encouragement to the evangelist in Africa. Thank
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (27:42):
You. And
Moses Muguro (27:42):
Keep coming to Africa.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (27:43):
Oh, I love Africa. Amen. It is wonderful to be here in Kenya.
Moses Muguro (27:47):
Amen. Amen. God bless you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (27:49):
Amen. I’ll come back.
Moses Muguro (27:50):
Welcome. And you are welcome, Kenya. Make it one of your headquarters and we’ll be very happy because we have to reach Somalia. We have to reach a Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan right now. Yeah. It is in chaos. Central Africa Republic. We have to Libya. Libya is in Kios, and we have to go out Egypt Malawi, Mozambique, those African countries. I, I’ve been to a few and I shed tears because they need a gospel. Amen. They need a gospel.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (28:24):
Amen. Well, I believe that God will raise up young people in your church that you’ll even begin to send out as evangelists and missionaries. Oh, yes. Across this entire part of Africa.
Moses Muguro (28:34):
Oh, yes. Oh yes. That, that’s, that’s our heartbeat. We have the map of Africa in our prayer room and actually the whole map of the world and also the map of Africa and rich people groups. And we have all these nations and we keep praying for them. But now I’m saying the harvest is playing for the laborers are few. Lord, send the labors. And we are the labors. Yeah. So we also have to begin hearing the Lord saying, now go. Now go. I mean, God answers, but he also comes and says, you, you are the solution. You have the answer. So I’ve been telling them, Somalia, we have to go. If you don’t go, then they will. There will be instability in Somali. They’ll come to us. When they come to us. They’ll disturb us. When they disturb us. We have no option but to go pray for them. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, go speak to them. And we have seen a little bit of that in Kenya. And I tell my Kenyan, my Kenyan ministers, we should be careful because, because we are not going to them. God will bring them to us. Amen. And he’s doing
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (29:33):
It. Amen. Amen.
Nick Hurst is a young evangelist who is on the brink of doing big things for God. He was one of the Pulse 100 evangelists who were trained by Evangelist Nick Hall. Over 1.48 million people have already subscribed to Chelsea and Nick’s YouTube channel and today he gives some advice to evangelists who want to be used by God on social media.
Follow Nick Hurst on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialnickh/?hl=en
Check out Nick and Chelsea’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ChelseaandNick
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, Nick Hurst. Thank you for joining me on the Evangelism Podcast,
Evangelist Nick Hurst (00:11):
Man. Honored to be with you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:13):
We are in Kenya, and we are involved in a gospel festival here with Love Kenya. It’s organized by the global evangelist or global network of evangelists, a ministry under Luis Palau Ministries. And you came here as one of the guest evangelists, and I’m also here participating in the event. And so it’s been so good to get to know
Evangelist Nick Hurst (00:42):
You. Yeah, man. Likewise, just hearing your story, you know, I’ve looked up to your ministry for a long time, but seeing you in the flesh and hearing details and just what God sent in your life and through your ministry, and the lessons learned along the way, I mean, it’s been really insightful for me as a young guy, you know, just kind of working my way into, you know, the, the festivals a bit more and just hearing different perspectives on it has been really, really valuable. So I appreciate you, appreciate your ministry and appreciate this podcast and how it helps, you know, other evangelists too.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:11):
Yeah, absolutely. Now you say you’re young. How old are
Evangelist Nick Hurst (01:14):
You right now? I’m 25.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:16):
Evangelist Nick Hurst (01:26):
Hmm. That’s such a good question. Yeah. You know, I was 14 years old when I gave my life to Jesus. I was at a summer camp in boiling Springs in North Carolina, and I gave my life to Jesus. But that same night, I sensed that God was calling me to the ministry. Now, in my context where I come from, I thought that I was going to take over the family farm with my brother, and that we were going to be co-owners. And that was really the future that I saw for myself. And then God just really got a hold of my heart, and Jesus really became the biggest part of my story, became the biggest part of my life. He became the central focus of everything and really changed my life in a moment. And I knew that God was calling me to ministry. Now, the tougher part of that story is I didn’t know what part of ministry.
(02:13):
I didn’t know if I was called to be a pastor. I didn’t know if I was called to be a teacher. I didn’t know if I was called to be in worship ministry. I didn’t know if I was called to be an evangelism. I, I, I really didn’t know. So I prayed for six months after I gave my life to Jesus, knowing that I was called to ministry, but seeking an answer from God as to where in ministry I was supposed to be, where he had gifted me and where he was calling me. And so I prayed for six months and in early 2013, so the following year, so summer of 12, I give my life to Jesus. And early the next year in 2013, I I attend an event in Jacksonville, Florida. I’m from the north north central region of the state of Florida.
(02:58):
And I go to event and I hear this evangelist, remarkable evangelist, great friend to you and I both named Nick Hall. And Nick is at this event, and he is preaching. And all of a sudden I just sense the room go quiet. And I thought it was really awkward because I thought, you know, the tech guy’s gonna run out on the stage, you know, give Nick a new mic so that he can keep preaching. But that’s not what happened. And in fact, the whole time that the room is silent, I see my friends who are sitting next to me, who came with me to the event writing and taking notes in this arena, looking down at their notes, looking up at Nick, looking down at their notes and, and writing a bit more. And that’s when I realized that I was the only one who couldn’t hear Nick.
(03:41):
And in that moment of stillness, it was like the Lord placed a a moment of stillness on me and for me, and I just sense God, say I want you to go and preach the gospel, whether that’s big settings, small settings, anywhere in between to the one or to the a hundred thousand doesn’t really matter. But the, the important thing that I took away from that night was, Nick, I want you to preach the gospel to the lost, to those who don’t know me. And so I began to tell pastors, friends, leaders in my life at that point that I sensed God wanting me to go and share the gospel with the lost. And they began to affirm the call as an evangelist. Now, I had never heard that word. I didn’t even know what the word meant. And I was like, an, an evangel, what is an evangelist?
(04:29):
And then that, that’s when I finally understood, like, you know, they take me to Ephesians and they show me that when, you know, God has given different ministries to different ones, and one is evangelism, meaning that we take the gospel to the ends of the earth to the lost. And that day I realized, and it was affirmed and very, very clear to me that to be an evangelist was what God was calling me to do. It’s looked a lot of different ways over the years. It’s looked digital, it’s looked in person, it’s looked festival, it’s looked conferences, churches and then one-to-one peer-to-peer even as well. But that’s what the early days of, of God calling me to be an evangelist looked like.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:06):
Now you just recently finished up a program mm-hmm. <Affirmative> with Nick Hall. You were part of the Pulse 100 where he gathered a hundred people who had a calling for evangelism. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. What was that like? And what’d you learn?
Evangelist Nick Hurst (05:18):
That was incredible. You know, that was really incredible to learn from someone who, you know, has really traveled the world and in such an extensive way, like Nick has. And I have so much respect for Nick. I’m fortunate to call him friend, as are you. And you know, Nick’s a Nick’s an incredible man. He’s an incredible leader. He’s a faithful husband and and father to his children, and a great father of Jesus. So I have a immense respect for Nick. Being a part of Nick or being a part of Pulse 100 Rather, was truly a privilege because I think that, you know, I took away so much learning how much my story matters in the context of person to person, evangelism and, and even presentation proclamation, evangelism. People want to relate to a story. They want to see that you’re a real person, that it hasn’t always been rosy and, you know, and wonderful for you in every regard.
(06:14):
And so that was one big takeaway that I learned at Pulse 100. The, the other really big thing when people ask about my experience and time in Pulse 100 that I just always refer to, is, I think it just reaffirmed the importance of relationship. And I think it reaffirmed the importance of being in collaboration with other people who are like-minded as you, and want to see the same gospel of Jesus Christ, go into the world, reach every soul, and by God’s grace, save every soul, which it absolutely has the power to do. And so you know, I was just re-inspired, reinvigorated I think equipped in many ways. And then just the relationships that come with something like that was just so, so incredible. I call many of the peers that I went through Pulse 100 with great friends today, and that’s a real joy and privilege to, to do ministry in partnership and in collaboration with other people.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:10):
Now, you’ve developed relationships with several different organizations and great evangelists. What have you learned from some different evangelists that you’ve been able to spend time with?
Evangelist Nick Hurst (07:23):
Yeah, great question. I consider it the, the absolute grace of God to have built relationships with, you know, the Greg Laurie team and guys like Clayton King and the Billy Graham team and Louis Lau team, and obviously Nick and, you know, men like yourself as well. And that’s not to name drop. I mean, that’s just the, the grace of God and just the kindness of him. And I, I, I honestly joke a lot of times with people, and I’ll say that God had to give me the advice from all of those people because he knows that without them, there’s no way that I would be able to ever do it. So very fortunate for their input in my life. You know, one of the big threads that comes up the most when I think about what are the big ticket items that I’ve just learned from all of these great men and leaders, and I think the biggest one is that the personal life and the integrity and the character by which you walk in when no one’s looking is the biggest thing that matters more than anything.
(08:22):
God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. If I’m not living a life in private that I project in public, then God is not going to favor that. So that I think is one of the biggest things. And a lot of times when people are listening to this podcast, even I think that they will think, yeah, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that. But like, what are the practicals, Nick? And there are many practicals, but I think if we skip past the personal life, and if we skip past building our character and building our integrity and building our on the right focus and in the right way, then everything else is, is meaningless. I can have all the contacts, I can have all the practicals, I can have the biggest ministry budget, but if that house is built on the wrong foundation, you can be assured it’s going to fall.
(09:11):
So that’s the biggest thing that I, I would just say on the front end of things. The other things that I, I think are really relevant as far as practicals are taking the time to develop as a communicator and become dynamic. Learn how to speak with one person, learn how to speak in front of many people, learn how to become a great storyteller. This is something I love about you, Daniel, is that I, I, you know, I was telling you this last night in private too, but I just think that you are one of the master storytellers of our day, and that’s something that I look to your ministry for inspiration in. And so becoming a dynamic communicator is a really, really important thing. Knowing what to share, when to share, having a great knowledge of the scriptures is very, very important. And not only a knowledge of the scriptures, but a heart understanding and allowing God to change you and mold you as you minister and as you pour out.
(10:01):
Many times as evangelists, we’re so enamored by how this is going to change the lives of other people that we rarely ever sit and reflect on how God is working and ministering in us through the work that we get to do for his kingdom and with him in partnership. So those are just a couple of the really big ones that come to mind quickly. The last one that I’ll share is how important it is to leverage the opportunities that are right in front of us for the sake of the gospel. Everyone in this modern day and age where we’re all connected has some ability, has some has some fortitude to actually go forth and share the gospel in some way, whether it’s peer to peer, personal, small group, digital however that looks most natural and comfortable for each and every person. But we need to be taking the opportunities that God is putting in front of us and maximizing those to the fullest extent. That’s something that Billy Graham did, who you and I both look up to a lot. He would take every opportunity that was at his disposal, whether it was radio, whether it was newspapers or magazines or tv, anything like that. He would leverage every opportunity to bring the gospel to the front of humanity. And I think that we would be probably wise to do the same.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:20):
This is your first time preaching in Africa, and last night you had the opportunity to preach at a festival mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. What was that like doing that in that context for the first time?
Evangelist Nick Hurst (11:32):
Yeah, that was such a full circle moment for me in many ways. As a young man sensing this call to evangelism, I’m sure this is similar for you too. God begins giving you these dreams. He begins giving you these visions of what a ministry could look like one day, and, and believing for that and praying for that, and leaning into that and toiling. And, you know, working in partnership with God over all these years and just slowly developing those relationships is just such a, a valuable thing. But to see it come to pass and to, to see God deliver on what he promised, you know, to me as a young man, I think of, you know, 14, 15, 16 years old, just having these visions and dreams of what God may want to do with my life and, and, and seeing that happen in its context was just a really full circle moment for me.
(12:27):
And, and I just sense the kindness of God and his face turned towards me in that moment last night. It was a, it was a very beautiful thing and a real honor and a real privilege to get to share the stage with men like you and and some other friends that we have here with us. And more than anything, it’s, you know, not about me. It’s not about the evangelists. It’s not about any of that. It’s not about you or I, or, or even the program that we’re doing. It’s about the message of Jesus Christ. And so to be able to share his message with a generation and with a city, I just consider it a joy. And and I’m very humbled that God would use someone like me to, to, to do that. I, I don’t deserve it. I don’t earn it. I’m not good enough in any kind of way or any kind of facet, but, but he is, and he’s faithful to his promise, to to, to save people. And so he’s calling people to himself. He’s calling cities to himself, nations to himself, and a world to himself. And I believe that we’re just on the front end of it
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:28):
Now. You are right now laying the foundation for the ministry that God has called you to, and you’re going through a strategic planning process. Just thinking through how you’re going to communicate with our generation mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and what God has called you to do. What do you see in the future for what God has called you to do?
Evangelist Nick Hurst (13:50):
Yes. I do personally, I do not think that larger evangelistic events have completely subsided or gone away. I know that there’s a sector of people who really don’t believe in the larger event anymore. And I just think that’s really unfortunate. ’cause I believe that we have a big God, and I believe that he created a big world, and I believe that he created a big message in the gospel. And I believe that big events are awesome. We even see it in the Book of Acts. I mean, considering the amount of people that would’ve attended in acts at, at this day of Pentecost scene that we really see set. And to see this large crowd just gather together, enamored by this message that’s being shared I see that picture still working and still being leveraged and still and, and God continuing to be faithful to it in the days ahead.
(14:39):
I believe that God honors big vision. I believe that God honors big dreams. I believe that he smiles when we believe that he can do big things. And so I don’t see that going anywhere. And I would be telling you a fib if I told you that I didn’t believe that the big event, that the larger Evangelistic crusade event doesn’t work anymore. I just don’t believe that to be true. I believe they still work. I believe that God still has a unique position in place for them. And so over the next few years, I can’t give you a real 10 year, 20 year strategy because it never looks like what you think it will. But over the next five years, what we want to begin to do as a ministry is really break into the university sector. And we want to partner with on-campus ministries in the universities that are maybe collaborating in some sense, but they’re not really coming together for a large evangelistic outreach mission to reach their school.
(15:36):
I personally would love to see state schools, private schools, and every school in between come together for the sake of the gospel, every on-campus ministry from every sector and denomination of the faith to really to, to, to come together for a night of worship or a series of nights of worship, see the gospel proclaimed, have a great evening, and then call the loss to be saved. And then see them funnel back into these on-campus ministries and the churches that they’re partnered with for follow up and further discipleship and, and obviously us doing our part to stay connected with them, bolster them, uplift them, encourage them in any kind of way that we can, and remain in friendship, remain in partnership, and remain in ministry together in the days ahead. So really into that university sector. In the coming days, I just don’t believe that there is hardly a greater place on earth where we see a young lost generation, so concentrated, so gathered in the same place, and the opportunity is ripe to see a harvest for Christ in universities today. I truly believe that
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:41):
Now you’ve been blessed to grow a significant YouTube following and you even coach people on how to be effective at using YouTube. So what advice would you give to listeners who want to use YouTube to tell people about Jesus?
Evangelist Nick Hurst (17:02):
Great question. First thing I think I would say is that it is hard and that it takes time. Many of the creators I talk to get very discouraged early on because they’re not growing. They’re subscribers all that fast. They’re not growing, they’re video views all that fast. But in reality, it’s just like anything else. If a young baseball player steps onto an M l B field, they’re going to be severely outshined. And the reality is that it takes time to develop and to get good at something. Your skill in communicating the gospel is like very few on earth. I mean, you are a true master at, at, at sharing the gospel in every context. And I highly doubt that you just came out of the gate as a young evangelist with such a skill, with such a variety, with being so dynamic. And certainly God has gifted you, but it takes time to hone that craft.
(18:01):
It takes time to develop and to move and begin a really gaining skill. And YouTube is no exception. It takes time to develop the muscle for YouTube. It takes time to develop the muscle for social media. But as we are faithful to that, as we identify who we want to talk to, and, and the YouTube sector, we call that our target audience. As we develop our channel focus, meaning, you know, are we gonna have a channel around tech cooking vlogging, or are we gonna have evangelistic missional content on our channel? That’s the, if that’s the channel focus, then our target audience obviously needs to be the lost. And so we need to be positioning ourself not from a preaching, not from a, here’s my message. Very rarely does a lost person go on YouTube and type in a message about how to know Jesus Christ.
(18:50):
Most times a lost person is going to look for how to have hope, how to have peace, how to deal with the anxiety that I feel. And Billy Graham was a real master at this. His crusades would be censored around how, how to have hope in the midst of crisis and things that were pertaining to a broad audience. But it was something that everyone was dealing with, and it was a question everyone was asking. And so I think the more that we can center and position ourselves like that, if we are evangelists and, and begin to grow an audience in that way, that people come to us looking for hope. And the hope message that we have is the gospel. It’s everything. It’s the, it’s the central message of how we have hope now and how, how we have hope for eternity. And I believe that growing is social media audience is not just a numbers game.
(19:43):
I believe it’s a community game. For the longest time, it was, how many followers do you have? How many subscribers do you have engaged? Where the real emphasis now is moving towards a community, fostering a group of people, and, and almost in a sense, creating a family, a family dynamic where everyone is exchanging ideas, everyone is in communication with one another. Everyone is rallying around the same idea in harmony, almost like a big volunteer team. In a sense, that’s kind of the new community dynamic of social media. And I personally, I would much rather have a very highly engaged community of 25, 30, 50,000 people than I would have a large subscriber audience of three, four, 5 million people. Because the reality is we’re gonna get so much more done with those 50,000 who are all in, bought in a hundred percent with you than we are the three, 4 million people who it looks very impressive from a numbers standpoint, but you boil it down and you only see about five, 6,000 people engaged. Engagement is the key ticket item today in social media. And so that’s what I would encourage creators to look for, and that’s how I would encourage them to grow their channels.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:58):
If someone wants to connect with you, find out more about what you’re all about, what is a good way for them to follow your ministry?
Evangelist Nick Hurst (21:06):
Yeah, that’s a, that’s a awesome question. I appreciate you even being willing to tee that up. So my personal best way to connect is honestly over Instagram. I’m official Nick h on all socials. And my wife and I, we have a YouTube channel. You can go and find it. Just type in Chelsea and Nick, it’ll pop right up.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:27):
Now, how many followers do you have on YouTube?
Evangelist Nick Hurst (21:30):
We have a million and a half subscribers on YouTube. That’s
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:33):
Amazing. On YouTube. And, and what does your channel focus on?
Evangelist Nick Hurst (21:37):
Honestly, our channel is not an evangelistic channel. Oddly enough, our channel really focuses on our life and kind of our family dynamic with one another. And the things that we’re learning and the things that God’s teaching us, it’s more of a place for us to take time and, and devote videos to that. More than anything, it just tracks along the way as we grow as a family, as God’s teaching us, as he’s changing us and molding us and some adventures here and there along the way. So that’s the real impetus of our channel, and it’s a real joy to share those things with the world. And I appreciate you even allowing me to be on the podcast today. Yeah. It’s a real honor, real privilege. So I appreciate you and your ministry a lot, Daniel.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:16):
Well, I believe in your ministry. It’s been a pleasure to get to know you this week, and I believe that God’s hand is on you. And in the years to come, God’s gonna give you a great harvest of souls. Mm. I think God’s raising up a new generation of young people who he’s going to, to use to reach millions around the world. And it’s really exciting what God is doing right now. Like, like it’s amazing that someone could start a YouTube channel, even at the age of 25, and, and have an audience that would number in the millions, like technologically that wasn’t possible 50 years ago, but it’s possible now. And so even for young people who are dedicated to serving God and they, they’re, they’re willing to give their all for Jesus, I think God’s looking for people like that and he’s promoting them very quickly. Amen. And so what past generations took 50 years to do, I think your generation is going to see happen in a 32nd TikTok.
Evangelist Nick Hurst (23:16):
Mm-Hmm. Wow.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:17):
So thank you so much for being on the Evangelism podcast. I appreciate
Evangelist Nick Hurst (23:20):
It. Yeah, it was a real privilege. Thank you, Daniel.
The purpose of our Gospel Festivals is to reach everyone with the message of Jesus Christ. We want to reach the young and old, the rich and poor, the influential and those forgotten by society. From the highest to the lowest, everyone deserves to have the chance to be saved.
In order to accomplish this goal, we plan ministry designed to reach into every level of society. The main vehicle we use for evangelism is the big festival but with each one there are many opportunities to extend the impact.
Jesus called us to be “fishers of men.” If you have ever gone fishing, you know that different types of fish require different kinds of bait. That’s why we do multiple events in a variety of different venues in a city in order to reach all kinds of people for Jesus. Each event is designed to appeal to a different segment of society.
At our recent Love Kenya Festival that we did with the Global Network of Evangelists in the cities of Embu and Murang’a, we were able to minister at many different events in our quest for souls. Here are some testimonies from ten different outreach events.
In addition to these targeted outreaches, we also had thousands attend each night of the Gospel Festival. Every night, a crystal-clear Gospel message was preached, and many people were saved. In the city of Embu, we had 50,591 total attendance at all our events and a total of 5,593 documented decisions were made for Christ. Through all our efforts in Murang’a, we reached 45,113 people in person. In this second city a total of 5,650 people made first-time decisions for Christ!
On one trip to Africa I had a brief layover in Kenya. I was invited to preach at a small street meeting in Nairobi. Here’s some raw footage of what God did.
Jessica King lived in Kissi, Kenya for one year. She fell in love with the people of Kenya.
Evangelist Daniel King is on a mission to lead people to Jesus. But he cannot do it without your help. Can you give a financial gift today to help us “plunder hell to populate heaven?” To support King Ministries in our quest for souls, click here!