1 877-431-4276Ron Luce | Reaching the Next Generation for Jesus
Ron Luce was the legendary leader of Teen Mania. For over thirty years he has done stadium events around the world and taken thousands of teenagers on mission trips. He is driven with a passion to reach the Next Generation for Jesus. Today you will hear about his vision for Project 13 and for Jesus Global Youth Day. He also gives me advice as a parent for how to raise my teenager to love Jesus.
Learn more about Ron Luce: https://generationnext.me/
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 we have a very special guest. He is a legend Ron Lu. For over 30 years, you have been passionate about reaching young people for Jesus. Thank you for joining me on the Evangelism Podcast.
Ron Luce (00:19):
Sure. It’s great to be with you, Daniel.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:21):
Well, let’s start at the beginning. How did you first get this passion from God for reaching the next generation?
Ron Luce (00:29):
Well, there’s nothing I asked for. I just got on fire for Jesus when I was 16. And even in my years right after that, at o u I started reaching out to young people. Cause I figured if God could get to me, I was the worst rascal of the bunch he could get to anybody. So I started in youth ministry while I was a student. And then right after I graduated from oru. My wife and I started in this ministry called Team Mania, which we developed a number of facets. One of them was acquired the fire conferences. And so by the grace of God, he let us stand in front of a lot of young people and, and our whole heart was let’s present the gospel in a fresh way. In maybe a way, even if you’ve been in church your whole life, that you’ve never understood it before.
(01:16):
And if you’ve never been in church a way that you’ve never, it’s never dawned on you. And then invite them to go on the, on a mission trip because we figured if we can get ’em for a weekend at a conference, that’s great, but if we can get ’em for two weeks, for a month on a mission field, we’ll wreck ’em forever in a good way. You know, we’ll wreck ’em for the American Dream and all that. So we took thousands of young people on mission trips over the years, thousands of thousands to some 80 different countries teaching them to share their faith and have quiet time and to, you know, all the, you know, discipleship kinds of things. And then they teach ’em to go back home and go change the world. So
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:51):
Yeah, team Mania had such a tremendous impact on so many young people. And I remember when I was about 14 or 15 years old, I lived in El Paso, Texas and you were doing acquire the Fire, I think here in Albuquerque. And so I was on a youth bus. We drove up here. There are thousands of people there and you just challenged us to live for God, and you gave an altar call and I was already saved. I grew up in a Christian home and my parents were missionaries, but I wanted to make double sure that I was going to heaven. And so I responded to that. Yeah. even as a, as a young person and just that, that challenge to, to give your whole life for God.
Ron Luce (02:36):
Well, and you know, we were, we’ve ki we kind of got branded as the Oh, you’re the radical guys. Cuz we would challenge people like read through the Bible in a whole year, like the whole Bible in a year kind of a thing. Or break up with your girlfriend or boyfriend and date God for a year. Like radical stuff. And other youth ministries are like, yeah, you don’t need to be that ra we want everybody to go on a mission trip, even if you’re not called full-time, just go one time. And, but think that’s how Jesus was. You know, he didn’t water anything down. He like, like, eat my flesh, drink my blood, or you have no part of me. And then people started leaving, he goes, anybody else wanna leave? Kind of thing. And so there, there is something to, I think the, what we found over the years is the more radical, the more you ask for, the more of their heart and their life they’ll give to Christ.
(03:19):
You know? And so if you ask for less, that’s what you’ll get. And you end up wa wondering why they respect their football coach more than they respect the youth pastor. Well, the football coach demands more out of them, you know, kind of a thing. You’re going to, you’re gonna sweat bullets, you’re gonna sweat blood, you’re gonna, you know, you’re gonna, you’re gonna, you know, in all of this Eat nails. And then the in mu usually in the youth ministry where they’re like begging people to come back. Coach doesn’t beg people to come back. If you don’t come, you’re off the team kind of a thing. So anyways we just, we found that like even the devotionals that we did, you know, to help young people grow in their faith, the tougher they were, the better kids came back and go, this changed my life, this changed my life. But it was like a whole bunch of memory, scripture, memory and things like that. So.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:02):
And so now your ministry is called Generation Next. Yep. And you’re really still focused on reaching the next generation. Right. How have things changed since you started? It seems like in some ways the, the young people today are dealing with even greater challenges than they were 30 years ago.
Ron Luce (04:21):
Well, there’s a lot of challenges and you don’t have to look very far to find them with technology and social media and pornography and all kinds of things. However if you look at data still, most people come to Christ before they’re 20. You know, the, and the closer you can get to 13 years old, the, the, the more likely, you know, we’ve had this, this thought in kind of youth ministry culture that if you get the cool football players saved at 1617, then he’ll influence the youngers. Well, we keep trying, but we don’t reach those guys that are not influencing. And so, but the data shows that the closer you get to 13, the more likely they are to come to Christ. So one thing that’s really beautiful that hasn’t changed is that sort of, that Bar Mitzvah age 12, 13, 14, the openness to the gospel, the openness to Christ.
(05:06):
And so in fact, one of the things we learned as I, I spent several years studying churches around the world, Lord of the most remarkable at reaching and discipling the young generation. And one of the things that I found they have in common is, I found ’em mostly outside of America, was that they really focus on reaching them when they’re 12 to 14, like the, the sweet spot, reach ’em then, and then put ’em on a pathway of growth, of radical growth in their faith for the next seven years. So that they end up at 20, 21 years old. Like they want ’em like you would hope that they would turn out lot, lot like just get ’em saved and hope for the best or get ’em saved and just bring ’em to church. But they actually put them in a rigorous, we call it deep dive disciple making, like they’re really growing intensely and they’re helping other people grow.
(05:53):
So we call it Project 13 and helping churches to adopt these best practices that we found. Because, you know, we, I love big events. I’ve stood in front of millions of kids, but big events are not enough. You have to have a process that the church falls in love with because it’s a life giving process that takes a new follower of Christ in terms of them into a solid believer that’s then multiplying their faith. Most churches kind of would ascent to that. Like yeah, they’ll nod their head, but they don’t know how to, so this is what we learned from these churches, how to, and now we’re just trying to make it simple for churches to adopt it.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:27):
Okay. So let me ask you a question as a parent, last week, my son Caleb turned 13 and he’s already been acting congratulations, like a teenager for about six months. Yeah. And now he is a teenager. And so I’ve just been praying, God give me wisdom on how to raise this young man to love God. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> what advice would you give me as a parent to, to raise this 13 year old to be close to
Ron Luce (06:56):
Jesus? Well,
(06:58):
First of all, I would encourage you to start right now a, a a a set of like a, a set of practices or a, a habit or almost fo like spiritual folklore where say, Hey, through your teen years, I want to see you become a better follower of Jesus. So at 13 we’re gonna do this, and at 14 we’re gonna do this. At 15 we’re gonna do this. Part of what that can be is taking discipleship tools and going through them together. So you don’t have to sit there, I’m so wise I’ll teach you. But like, hey, let’s go through this book together and then talk about it once a week. What’s the Lord teaching you? What do the Lord speak to your heart? So some of the tools we develop to help churches do this, and parents are using ’em as well, is like there’s a daily quiet time thing.
(07:44):
So they’ll write stuff down, what does this first mean to you? And then at the end of the week, there’s questions that you can discuss some questions. So what that does is it makes it makes first of all use a parent a sign of respect to your young person. Like, Hey, what did the Lord speak to you? What do you think that meant? You know, and you also get ’em in habit, like of having quiet times and talking about it, having quiet times, applying the scripture and talking about it. So if you do it all through their 13 year, and then they’re 14th year and they’re 15, this is part of what we
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:13):
Do. It’s by the time they’re 18, they’re, they’ve love
Ron Luce (08:15):
Jesus. All the fundamentals. They’re don’t just love Jesus, but they’ve developed character in their life and like they’re, they’re hardcore. You’ve memorized scriptures together, you did all, you’ve kind of been on a journey together. So that’s what I really encourage all parents take your kids on a journey with you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:30):
That’s awesome. I’ll definitely do that. You also have the Jesus Global Youth Day. Tell me about that.
Ron Luce (08:38):
Well, we did our first one a couple years ago, we had about 50,000 young people come from 30 different nations. And it’s sort of a it was a global event that we signed Mal Casta to like a hundred thousand churches around the world and where they were gathering young people. And it was a kind of a, a stake in the let’s, let’s let a generation stand up for Christ and let the world see. But it also is a way to make the church aware the global church, like we need to, we, the church need to focus on young people and and let them know they’re important. Let them know they’re valued. And help pastors then have tools to go back to their nation, to their city, to their town and reach and disciple the young generation.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:21):
What do you see happening in this generation? Are there signs of hope?
Ron Luce (09:28):
Well, of course in the last few weeks we’ve seen this thing at Asbury and some other schools, and I think that can be a sign of hope a beginning of something. I would just encourage people you know, for a long time what we’ve heard is for a strategy reaching the next generation, just pray for another Jesus movement, Jesus revolution. Which is really not a strategy. I mean, it’s, it’s great that it looks like it may be starting to happen, but sometimes people look back at the Jesus movement back in the sixties and seventies and they see it with rose colored glasses. There were a lot of problems too, like a lot of churches didn’t want those young people and a lot of people got saved that didn’t get discipled. So this is the chance for us as a church to go, okay, if this is really the Lord breathing on a generation, let’s lean in and do our part. They’re coming to Christ. Let’s en welcome them in our church. Let’s make sure they’re growing in their faith. They’ve had an encounter with Christ, but an encounter is not enough. They have to have repeated encounters, but they have to grow deep in their faith. And so the discipleship side of this thing, really helping them grow deep in their faith is essential. And so that we don’t have some of the catastrophes that did happen in the Jesus movement in the sixties and seventies.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:38):
I have so much respect for you and just honor you for just giving your life for so many years, for, for young people, if someone’s listening and they want to connect with you and take advantage of your, your resource, I know you’ve written a bunch of books, you have a lot of material. What’s the best way for them to find out more about
Ron Luce (10:56):
You think? You just go to GenerationNext.me, me and you can find out all everything you’d want to know about our resources, discipleship Tools, project 13, Global Youth Day, all kinds of things.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:08):
Well, thank you so much.
Ron Luce (11:11):
Keep up the good work takes all of us doing our part
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:13):
Right. Amen. Thank you.
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Evan & Madeleine Threlkeld | Is a Gospel Awakening Coming?
Evan Threlkeld is a missionary-evangelist and a youth pastor. He is married to Madeleine and together they have a burning desire to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost across the earth through the power of the Holy Spirit. They fell in love on the mission field in Africa. On today episode of The Evangelism Podcast, you will hear the story of their romance and about the ministry God is calling them to. We also talk about doing neighborhood outreaches in the United States and about reaching Buddhists in Thailand.
Donate to Evan Threlkeld: https://www.modernday.org/field-workers/evanthrelkeld/
Connect with Evan Threlkeld on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/evan.charles.94064
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:03):
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. Evan & his wife, Madeleine Threlkeld. Welcome to The Evangelism Podcast. Did I say that right?
Evan Threlkeld (00:23):
Pretty close. Yeah, thro. K it’s it’s a tough one because it’s, it’s old Norwegian last name. So <laugh> you did good.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:30):
Well, wonderful. We met at the Christ for All Nations (CFAN) Evangelism Bootcamp. You were one of the evangelism students there, and now you’re a graduate and you are excited about evangelism all over the world. Tell me a little bit about how you ended up at the Evangelism Bootcamp.
Evan Threlkeld (00:54):
Yes, it’s, it’s an interesting story. So I, I interned with evangelist Chris Overstreet at Bethel in 20, 20, 19, and shortly after I went to the school of evangelism, the SOE where you were training, and actually that was evangelist Reinhardt Bonnke’s last school that he taught at. So had the privilege to see him speak. And there was a there’s an opportunity to go to Africa and preach on gospel trucks and do kids crusades. And so I at the time was with Chris, but I said I would be, I would love to go. And I was one of 12 evangelists at the school that was selected. So for five weeks I went to Nigeria, saw thousands, tens of thousands of, of Nigerians give their lives to Jesus. They’re just so hungry over Nigeria. And then at the end of the five weeks Evangel Kada did a crusade and I Ave ACUTA Nigeria and that changed my life. It was a four day crusade. I got to just see so many people get touched by God. And the last the second to last day, Ben was going to ask me to pray for the sick and we just saw incredible miracles. So from there I applied for the bootcamp and that was also life changing experience. So yeah, that’s, that’s how I ended up at bootcamp.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:28):
So first you were interning with, with Chris over street. Chris is a great friend. I was just with him last month, got to spend a whole afternoon with him and, and see the, the powerful impact of his ministry. I really love the, the huge truck that Chris over Street’s ministry has. It turns into a platform it’s got screens on either side and he’s using it to, to preach the gospel. And, and now he’s going into neighborhoods using a, a smaller like sidewalk Sunday school size truck, and preaching in the, in the neighborhoods. And you’ve been involved in, in helping with that to kind of tell me what you’ve been seeing.
Evan Threlkeld (03:14):
Yes, that’s been amazing. So I’ve been a part of nearly every gospel truck event that Chris had, the small gospel truck event that he’s done. Earlier this year, he got the small gospel truck and which has been amazing, cuz he is been able to go into neighborhoods, apartment complexes tight spaces that a bigger truck couldn’t get into and reach entire apartment complexes for Jesus. And it’s been amazing seeing families come out and give their lives to Jesus. And then Chris and their compassion action team started a youth basically kids school for kids where their discipling and pouring into the kids. And you know, if you reach the heart of a kid, you reach the heart of the family. And so it’s been really, really beautiful to see. And I’ve been DJing at I’m a DJ as well. So I’ve been like coming in, just DJing at these events, which is a creative way to, to draw people out. So that’s been really fun.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:16):
Okay. Kinda walk me through one of these apartment outreaches. What does it look like? How do you, how do you, and, and Chris’s team attract people to come to the, the event and, and then what does the ministry look like? And, and then what have, are some of the results that, that you’ve seen?
Evan Threlkeld (04:39):
Yeah. So what we, what, what they do is they, they start by going to different apartment complexes and talking to the apartment managers which I actually did in Orlando as well when I was serving at, at CFA for, for a season go in, talk to apartment managers, get permission from them, which which is pretty, it’s pretty easy. If you find someone that, you know, you, you really basically pitch it to them is this is gonna be really good for your community. Really good for retention of of your, of your residents. And you tell them the benefits of what you’re gonna be doing. Like they give away free raffle prizes. They give away cotton candy, snow cones, popcorn, you know, all of that. And so it’s something that apartment managers love to hear. So once you get some apartments, then they come with the gospel truck.
Evan Threlkeld (05:38):
But we flyer the apartments for, for a few days beforehand and let the people know we’re coming and what it’s about. And then we show up and, and families come, we start to share the music, maybe go around and let people know one more time that we’re there. And it’s so fun. See all the kids that come, I mean, really the kids are the ones that are so excited about the event they come and they get their popcorn and they’re dancing, they’re doing, we’re doing raffles. So it’s a really fun event it’s. And then in that, you know, in that timeframe, we preach the gospel. We take 15 minute moments to preach the gospel and people, you know, after you’ve blessed them after you’ve loved on them, their hearts are so wide open. And I remember we went down to one of the worst neighborhoods, easily, the worst neighborhood in Portland. Just like two days before we got there, someone was shot and killed in the apartment complex next to where we were. And we had a very diverse crowd. And if you know anything about Portland you know, it’s not really known for being receptive to the gospel per se.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:51):
Portland is always in the news for the wrong reasons.
Evan Threlkeld (06:54):
<Laugh> exactly. Yeah. It’s one of the most unreached areas of America and the most unchurched I should say. And so we did this gospel event and I actually had the privilege to preach just a 15 minute gospel message. I really used a lot of evangelist, Columbus stories and kind of how he trained us at bootcamp and like 17 people got born again, like 15 people raised their hands to get born again. And this was in a church parking lot. So we were able to have the pastor come up, introduce himself, connect with the people and they get plugged into their church there. So,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:32):
Wow. What a great report. All right. Let’s talk about romance. Normally I ask people, what’s the number one thing that you got from the evangelism bootcamp? Well, I think the number one thing you probably got was a wife. So tell me kind of how that happened and how the, this romance between you and your wife sparked and, and then what that’s like for two evangelists to marry each other.
Evan Threlkeld (07:58):
Absolutely, absolutely. Well, you know, <laugh>, we I love to, I love to tell this whenever I preach and I introduced my wife, but I remember evangelist bonky would always say, he’d call himself a hot evangelist. And I said, Lord, I need me one of those. And so God answered my prayers <laugh> but yeah, I, I actually went to the first bootcamp in 2020 and then served in the next bootcamp for a season. And I just felt to my heart that my wife is a part of this bootcamp. I just had that strong feeling and sure enough, you know, I, I I met Madeline and we she was actually one of my interns. So we would go to the streets and, you know, evangelize and we’d even go to some of the nightclubs and love on the people in the parking lots with the team and the way that she loved people.
Evan Threlkeld (08:58):
And the way that she evangelized just really touched my heart. She was weeping over these girls. Seeing them get saved and her compassion and love for people really blew me away. So after, after we finished boot camp, I asked her out and then we went on the mission field to Tanzania. And on the way there, I got to talk with her on the plane and in the, in the airport. And I just fell in love. I knew she is the one for me. I just instantly knew in my heart. And so we actually came back to Orlando. We dated for it for a month and confirmation after confirmation came. And in fact, I even wrote in a journal, the Lord really spoke to me and people ask me dating advice all the time, because it was just so successful. I have single guys that ask me all the time that are evangelists. Like, how did you, you know, and I said, well, one thing I encourage you to do is to write a list. And the holy spirit spoke to me to write a list of things that I wanted in a wife. And even one of the things I wrote was maybe somebody that’s Australian and sure enough, she’s Australian. So God really answered that list. And so we, we, I proposed her a month after boot camp after our dating. And then we got married another month after that. So,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:23):
And how long have you been married now?
Evan Threlkeld (10:25):
We’ve been married just over a year. August 1st was our actually yes, it was our anniversary.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:33):
Wow. You know, I, I think some people really have a tough time as an evangelist to maybe find someone that their, their calling would be compatible with the calling of an evangelist because it, it’s not easily being an evangelist. There’s, there’s a lot of travel you’re away from home a lot. I found my wife on the border of Rwanda in Congo, and she was a missionary for, for 10 years before we met. And at the time when we met, she was actually a crusade director. So I was a crusade evangelist. She was a crusade director. It felt like a, a match made in heaven, but it it’s so neat to see that the, the two of you got together. I know that God’s calling is not just on an individual. His calling is upon the couple. And, and so both of you are, are called together and will be a mighty team.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:29):
One will put a thousand to flight. Two will put 10,000 to flight. Yes. And so I think like as maybe some of our listeners, they’re looking for the right wife or the right husband, and I think if you’re just pursue God as fast as you possibly can just go in the direction that God has given you to go, you know, and you’re running after God. And if you turn your head and look, and there’s someone who’s running along with you yes. And running in the same direction, that might be the person that, that God’s called you to be with.
Evan Threlkeld (12:05):
Yes,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:06):
Absolutely. So, so this last year you’ve been serving as a youth pastor. What’s that like having a, a calling as an evangelist, but being in this position where you are, are serving as a youth pastor?
Evan Threlkeld (12:21):
Yes. Well, that’s great. I, I got saved in middle school and I’ve always had a heart for youth. And even when I was at the boot camp, it was, it was a desire in my heart to really reach the young generation. And I have had countless prophetic words about it and so forth. So my, my wife and I, when we got married, we, we really felt the desire to reach youth. And so actually right when we got married, we were traveling to different youth groups in Florida and, and the west coast. And yeah, there’s a compelling story of, I, I always made it a gold preach in youth groups. And just a powerful story that I still used to preach today was that I went to a youth group in Michigan and I had just come off the mission field in, in Tanzania.
Evan Threlkeld (13:11):
And the pastor said we only have 12 youth in our group, but would you come? And I said, I’ll come for one. And so I came, preached the gospel one girl came forward, gave her life rededicated her life to Jesus. And three weeks later, she was in an accident where she passed away. She was only 16 years old. And so the, the, the pastor and the the grandmother came up to me and said, thank you at the funeral. I went to said, thank you so much for preaching the gospel to my granddaughter, because now I know she’s in heaven. And so this young generation, there’s an urgency. So my wife and I, we came out to Vancouver, Washington at Bethesda church and been youth pastoring for about the last year pouring into the youth learning like their culture, their language.
Evan Threlkeld (14:06):
And there’s so much that could be said. But when we first came in, we noticed that a lot of their a lot of them were hungry, but they came from broken backgrounds or families. And so we really began to encourage them disciple them build them up in their identity, just the foundation of who they were were. And then we began to really teach them about how to pour out. Once we saw that maturity growing in their hearts and their lives, how to pour out in their community, in their family. And so now we, we have students that have been sharing the gospel with their own families and seeing family members get, get touched by God. We’ve seen we had one student he’s been faithfully doing a club in his school for the last three years in his high school. And his high school is very hostile in gospel. He’s just been made, he’s been like the, like the laughing stock of the school, but he’s continued to faithfully preach. He’s in downtown Portland. And so we did an evangelism training with him and Scott McNamara that we went to, and that week he went back to school and preached the gospel and 50 kids gave, raise their hands, give their life to Jesus. And so yeah, it’s just been phenomenal. Being able to pour, pour into them.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:32):
You’re about to enter a new season of ministry. God has put it on your heart to, to launch your own ministry. What, what are you gonna call your ministry?
Evan Threlkeld (15:44):
Yeah. So we’ve been really praying into this and the holy spirit has spoken to us gospel awakening because we want to bring clarity and the power of, of the gospel to the nations.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:58):
And talk to me a little bit about your vision and, and what you see God doing through your ministry over the next few years.
Evan Threlkeld (16:07):
Yes. Well, we really want to keep things simple. We want to preach the simple gospel disciple people, plug them into local communities where they’re gonna be discipled. And we have a really strong heart for Asia for Africa. We really want to partner with some other ministries that are in Asia. We have so my wife, you know, she’s from Australia and she, her parents are pastors just north of Sydney. And so what we’re, what we’re really planning to do is have our base in Australia and America as well. <Laugh> but we want to go to Asia from Australia, and we have plans to partner with friends that are doing crusades throughout Thailand. Indonesia is on our hearts as well as some of the Oceania like islands, Vanuatu Fiji, some of these different regions PNG, Papa, Papa, new Guinea. And so right now we, we really feel that soon we’re gonna be doing partnering with a, a friend that’s doing crusades in Thailand and reaching some of the literally most unreached people groups in Thailand who’ve people that have never even heard the name of Jesus. And so, so far they’ve had thousands of people coming to their gospel truck events, preaching the simple gospel and plugging them into local churches. So that’s where we we’re plan to start.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:46):
Well, I think that’s so brilliant to, to base your ministry there in Australia, because you’ll be so much closer to, to many of these places. It it’s a, a good 18 hour plane ride from the United States, but from Australia, you can get there much easier and much cheaper. And all of those countries that you mentioned have such a tremendous need for a, a gospel awakening, especially Thailand. It’s a nation that is mostly Buddhist. My wife went to Thailand one time and she told me she was on the, the Metro in, in the capital. And she was talking to someone about Jesus. And this person said, oh, Jesus is that an American music star and had no idea that Jesus was a historical figure that lived 2000 years ago. And, and so there’s so many villages in Thailand that you can go to and they, they literally have not heard any of the gospel story.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:54):
I mean, here in the United States, generally, people kind of have an idea of the story of the Bible that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and, and then Adam and Eve sin, and then Jesus came and died on the cross to save us from our sins. I mean, that basic gospel outline, even for people that maybe don’t go to church or aren’t living for God, they kind of know that general basic outline. But when you go to a, a Buddhist station like Thailand, you really have to start with just the very basic that there is a God who created the universe. And let’s talk about who that God is. And so I, I think God will give you tremendous fruit as you go there.
Evan Threlkeld (19:42):
Amen. And I, I know you’ve done a lot of ministry and crusades in Asia as well, Indonesia and Burma. And it’s just amazing to hear about the testimonies that have come out of that as well.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:56):
Yeah, God is moving. I love ministering to, to Buddhist people. Let, let’s talk a little bit about ministering to, to Buddhist, you know, in Christianity, the, the main issue that Christianity deals with is, is guilt. We, we talk about sin and being guilty of sin but in Buddhism, the main issue that that Buddha was trying to deal with was suffering. And so the story is that that Buddha was a prince who lived a very rich isolated life. And then one day he was in a, a, a little thing that he was being carried by his servants, and he was going down the street and the, the curtain open. And he saw sitting beside the road, a leper who was in horrible suffering. And seeing this leper shook him to his very core because he saw suffering for the first time.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:08):
And Buddha started to look for ways to deal with suffering. And he came up with four great noble truths of Buddism that helped people to get free from suffering. And so the first truth is that life is, is suffering. Now all of life is suffering. And then he decided that the, the second truth is that this suffering is caused by our desire. And then his third great truth is that the way to get rid of suffering is to get rid of desire in our life. And so he said that when desire is eliminated, then suffering can be eliminated. And then his fourth truth revealed an eightfold path for getting rid of desire in our ministry. And this was all a response to him seeing this Lepar. And so he came up with this, this very complicated plan for getting rid of suffering in our life.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:11):
And I always like to compare Buddha’s response to Jesus’s response because in the gospels, we find a similar story where Jesus encounters a leper. And again, this leper is in horrible suffering. No one is touching him. And what is Jesus? Does. He reaches out his hand, he touches the man that the man says, Jesus, are you willing to heal me? And Jesus says, yes, I am willing be healed. And immediately the leper was cured of his suffering. And so the very problem that Buddha was looking to solve Jesus solved. Wow. And I think it’s so beautiful that here Buddha is looking for enlightenment and Jesus actually said, I am the light of the world. And, and so Jesus offers hope to Buddhist, to hinders to Muslims, to people of every single religion. Jesus actually offers the very thing that they’re looking for. So, so I think that will be wonderful.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:25):
As you go to Thailand and in other nations in Asia God is going to open up great doors for you to minister and, and for you to, to have a, a tremendous impact. If you’re listening today and you want to support Evan and his ministry, I’m going to put a link on our website that would link to where you can go and to support him. And, and to, to find out more information a, about his ministry. But Evan, there’s a lot of young people who maybe feel called to be evangelist. What would you say to those who, who maybe have a heart for evangelism, but don’t know where to get started? What would you say to them?
Evan Threlkeld (24:15):
I would say that you have what it takes. You have Jesus in you. He is the desire of the nations, and there’s no junior holy spirit. And in fact, I’ve seen some of the young people have the most faith for miracle signs and wonders. And even in our church, when the young people come forward to pray for people, the miracles are astounding and in our youth group. And so I want to encourage every young person that might be listening to this, that you have, what it takes and that Jesus lives on the inside of you. And he’s the one that qualifies you, not your experience. You know, Paul told Timothy don’t let anyone despise your youth. And so you have what it takes. And secondly, I would encourage any young person to really plug themselves into an non-fire church to surround themselves with Onfi, believers mentors and fathers in their life, as well as peers that can encourage them run with them. This generation because of social media is a very isolated generation. And so I would encourage every young person to really run with a tribe of on fire P men and women of God that can encourage you. And so I, I, I would, I would just really love to pray for any young person as well for your school, for your neighborhood, for your family. There is hope.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:40):
Absolutely. Please let’s pray.
Evan Threlkeld (25:42):
Yes, father, we thank you for every young person. God, we thank you for every youth worker, Lord that may be listening to this today, father, we pray that your power Lord, that your love that your fire would fall in their lives. Jesus father, we thank you that the holy spirit is the best evangelist. He is the one that leads us, that guides us, that convicts people of their sin and reveals Jesus to their hearts. And so father, I ask for a fresh baptism of your fire. Lord, I thank you for boldness Lord to preach the simple gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of our king Jesus Christ that others may hear and be saved. I pray for their schools. I pray for their families. Lord my family, my parents got divorced when I was seven and they through a miracle, got remarried when I after 18 years of being divorced. And so father, any families that are broken, I pray that I pray that you would restore families. God restore marriages in Jesus mighty name. Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:51):
Amen. Well, Evan, thank you so much for being a guest on the evangelism podcast. I’m excited about what God is doing through you and through your ministry. And I know that God is going to give you a tremendous harvest and I agree with you for a gospel awakening all over the world in Jesus name.
Evan Threlkeld (27:09):
It’s been an incredible honor. Thank you so much, Daniel.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (27:12):
Bless you.
Evangelism Podcast Host (27:15):
Daniel King is on a mission to save 1 million souls a year, but he can’t do it alone. Would you consider sewing a financial seed today to give, please visit www.kingministries.com.