1 877-431-4276Chris 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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Nick Hurst | Young Evangelist Launches Out
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):
- So you’re just launching out in the evangelistic calling that God has on your life. How did you know that you were called to be an evangelist?
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.