Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #241 Harvest Time: College Campuses Poised for Revival (with Special Guest Paul Worcester)
Transcript
- 0:00And the harvest is plentiful.
- 0:06There's more students on our campuses that are ready to hear and respond to the Gospel
- 0:13than there are Christians trying to share the Gospel with them.
- 0:17Welcome to the One Cry Podcast, a nationwide call for spiritual awakening.
- 0:25The goal, accelerating the movement of God who's sharing revival truth, stories, and
- 0:32reports.
- 0:33Well, welcome to the One Cry Podcast.
- 0:37I'm Bill Eliff, and I am so pumped today because I have my dear friend, Paul Wooster, with
- 0:47me.
- 0:48And Paul, it's just great to have you, man.
- 0:50It's an honor.
- 0:51I'm excited.
- 0:52Yeah.
- 0:53I've learned so much from you, and it's been great.
- 0:55So I'm excited.
- 0:56Well, I wish I had gone up and got off the cabinet, which I have it right there, my revival
- 1:05hat.
- 1:06Oh, yes.
- 1:07If people who are watching my video today, you got the coolest revival hat I've ever
- 1:14seen.
- 1:15You gave me one.
- 1:17I got one, man.
- 1:18So I'm good.
- 1:20I've got a present-centered hat.
- 1:22I need to send you sometime.
- 1:24Oh, I'd love that.
- 1:25That'd be awesome.
- 1:26It's pretty neat.
- 1:27Yeah.
- 1:28It's an anointed hat, you know.
- 1:29Well, and you're a hat guy.
- 1:30I mean, I don't hardly receive that hat.
- 1:34That's true.
- 1:36Paul is the National Collegiate Director for the North American Mission Board for the Southern
- 1:43Baptist Convention, and that's kind of a big deal.
- 1:49And Paul, God has given you a great opportunity, and He is living it to the max.
- 1:59I mean, the Lord is really using him all across the nation with college students, college
- 2:07leaders, particularly training college leaders.
- 2:14And Paul, what I love about you is, you know, there are guys that are just kind of, I don't
- 2:22know how to say this, but kind of one-trick ponies.
- 2:25You know, they kind of have one little thing that they think about, but you have a broad
- 2:32understanding of the gospel, a broad understanding of our calling to lead people to Christ.
- 2:39You have a great passion for the next generation.
- 2:43And you have a really good understanding of revival and spiritual awakening and where
- 2:49that all fits in that.
- 2:53And so I'm just, we're honored to have you today, and we're really grateful for the role
- 3:00you're playing across the nation.
- 3:03What's the most fun thing about your job?
- 3:06Working with collegiate leaders and getting to celebrate alongside of them without being,
- 3:12My role is more of an equipping and resource role than it is an oversight role.
- 3:19So it's such a blessing to be able to come alongside a college pastor or a campus-based
- 3:25leader and just champion, celebrate, problem-solve, and just, I'm already crying because I just
- 3:34love those guys so much, and girls, and just the work that they're doing.
- 3:39And I think it's such a joy, just an honor to coach and encourage leaders, really.
- 3:47It's crazy that we get to do this, you know.
- 3:50Well, and we wanted to, of course, this podcast will sit on our OneCry podcast from now on,
- 3:59but we're releasing this just a few weeks before the Collegiate Day of Prayer, and I
- 4:08think most of our listeners may know if they've listened for very long that the Collegiate
- 4:13Day of Prayer really started during the Second Great Awakening, 1800s, and then it kind of
- 4:21went away a little bit, and then it came back, and now is really gaining in intensity.
- 4:28Can you tell us just a little bit about that?
- 4:30Yes, it's been kind of building the last few years, and Asbury, when that Asbury Awakening
- 4:36or revival, whatever people are calling it these days, that really blew it up in a just
- 4:43supernatural way, and went viral in all the good, right ways, and it was incredible.
- 4:48We had, I don't even remember how many people we had on the simulcast, but it was exponential,
- 4:54just the amount.
- 4:55Millions.
- 4:56Yeah, millions on the simulcast, and then we went to A&M, Waco, and just each stop recently
- 5:05the last few years since then has been really exciting to see just what God has done to
- 5:11bless those events, simulcast events, but also more importantly, it's just people across
- 5:16the nation are adopting campuses to pray over, and we're seeing a lot of unity events, so
- 5:24campus ministries, churches are uniting to have a night of prayer, and God is really
- 5:29showing up in some exciting ways.
- 5:31So, I encourage you, as a collegiate day of prayer is coming up, adopt a campus or
- 5:37two yourself, and then also prayerfully consider gathering leaders, gathering churches, gathering
- 5:44your ministry to intercede for the campus, and even if some ministries can come together,
- 5:50that can be a powerful moment of unity, the call out to the Lord together.
- 5:54So that's just the idea.
- 5:56OneCry plays a part in helping to do the, produce the simulcast every year, and this
- 6:06year it will be from Liberty University, one of our, well the founder of OneCry went over
- 6:14to Liberty to do some pre-work on that, and he went to the student night, they have a
- 6:24night once a week, just a Bible study and preaching and worship, and 9,000 students
- 6:32at night.
- 6:33I mean, it's incredible what the Lord is doing.
- 6:37On their own volition, too, that's not a required thing that they're…
- 6:41No, no, it's just a student deal, and 9,000 students, so we're really praying for that
- 6:49simulcast, and you're right, for years, the attempt was to have Christians across
- 7:00the United States adopt the campus for that day of prayer, and do some kind of extraordinary
- 7:07prayer, and for the campuses to have extraordinary times of prayer.
- 7:12There are 4,900 campuses, 4,600, something like that in the United States, and about
- 7:2130,000 worldwide, and last year, the CDOP organization, Collegiate Day of Prayer, broadened
- 7:31that to start praying for campuses all over the world, so we encourage you, before we
- 7:37get into some other stuff, I just want to tell our listeners, go on the Collegiate Day
- 7:41of Prayer site, Collegiate Day of Prayer, just search for it on the internet, and you'll
- 7:50find what you need.
- 7:51It's very simple, and you can actually register there.
- 7:54It has a list of all these colleges, and you can register, and we want to adopt every campus.
- 8:04That's one of the…
- 8:05Yes, and a word I would say about that is, you know, when this releases, there'll only
- 8:10be a little bit of time before the actual event comes, but don't be afraid just to host
- 8:14a small, simple gathering, even if it's a handful of people, and pray over Scripture,
- 8:21pray for the campus, just be intentional in kind of praying over that, and I think God
- 8:26is often just as pleased with those small gatherings of faithful believers as the big,
- 8:33giant, you know, things that get all the press, so don't despise the small beginnings, you
- 8:38know, and just get after it, and gather some people and pray.
- 8:43It could be your small group, you know, that's already existing that says, hey, we're just
- 8:48going to take this Thursday, and we're going to pray for campus, and picking one out, or
- 8:54go prayer walk a campus that's close to you, or, you know, there's a lot of things that
- 8:59you could do.
- 9:00My first experience with the Collegiate Day of Prayer was when I was a minister in Chico.
- 9:04I didn't know about it, but this YWAM staff guy texted me, texted a bunch of guys, he
- 9:11said, hey, we're doing a gathering of prayer for Chico State, and I was the only person
- 9:16that showed up to his invite, so it was him and I praying for campus, and God blessed
- 9:22that little time of prayer, and, you know, since then, things have grown, but it's just
- 9:28cool to see God blesses those faithful, those unseen moments.
- 9:33That's awesome.
- 9:34Well, Paul, I know you've studied this, because God has historically moved among college students
- 9:47in terms of just the kingdom and the gospel, of course, but also particularly in times
- 9:55of revival and spiritual awakening.
- 9:57You know, we often say that there, you can categorize it different ways, but I would
- 10:03say that God has sent five seasons of nationwide revival and awakening in America, and I think
- 10:13we're on the cusp, maybe in the foothills of number six, it's true, and so how has,
- 10:24in your experience and observation, how has the Lord moved in the past?
- 10:29I want to ask you really three or four questions.
- 10:31Number one, how has He moved in the past, and then how is He moving now, you know, and
- 10:39what are we seeing?
- 10:41We want to hear some reports of what, and you have a bead on that, and then how can
- 10:46we cooperate with Him, how can we join Him in that?
- 10:50So in your opinion, how has God used camp, why does He, why does God seem to settle down
- 10:57with college students, and they're the early adopters, it seems, in revival?
- 11:03Yes, and I mean, you're the expert on revival history, so you can probably have some episodes
- 11:09in the past, so I won't go into too much detail, but even as we're talking about small prayer
- 11:16meetings can lead to great impact, you think about the student volunteer movement, those
- 11:21guys under the haystack, you know, just a couple young college students under a haystack
- 11:30praying and asking God for big things, and one of them said, if we can do this, we will,
- 11:36and then, you know, D.L. Moody was greatly used during that time.
- 11:41They had this conference, this summer project, discipleship camp type thing, where they spent
- 11:47a few weeks of D.L. Moody teaching, and they signed this petition, and they called themselves
- 11:55the Mount Hermon 100, and there was 100 young men that signed a pledge to ministry, to missions,
- 12:04international missions, and then some of those actually didn't, ended up, God redirected
- 12:10their call to be mobilizers, and they went to campus to campus to actually spark interest
- 12:18and talk about consecration to Christ.
- 12:21It was a genuine revival movement, the student volunteer movement.
- 12:24If you haven't read up on that, any leaders out there, man, read about the student volunteer
- 12:29movement.
- 12:30It wasn't just a missions movement, I would say it was genuinely a revival movement on
- 12:35the campuses, and obviously, anytime God moves in revival, He also sparks God, He shares
- 12:43His heart for the lost world with His people, and so, that's one of the marks, I'd say,
- 12:50of genuine revival is God giving a vision and a passion for evangelism, disciple making,
- 12:57and mission mobilization, and so, that's just one.
- 13:00The Second Great Awakening, the D.O. Moody, the student volunteer movement, that really
- 13:05excites me, and just, I really, I'm praying for another student volunteer movement, and
- 13:11that's something that even in my, as I'm speaking at conferences and stuff, I have a missions
- 13:16talk I give, and the call to international missions, and we're seeing, I'm seeing a lot
- 13:22of young people called to give their lives to the nations, to international missions.
- 13:29Did you see, I don't, I just saw one report on this, but I saw Paul Chitwood, who's the
- 13:39head of the International Mission Board for the Southern Bears Convention, that he said,
- 13:46he reported recently, that the pipeline for the IMB missionaries was up 400%.
- 13:56I believe that.
- 13:57Four hundred percent, and you know, I think you're exactly right, Paul.
- 14:05Every time there's been a Great Awakening and a movement of revival, the next thing
- 14:11that happens is that it spurs a missions movement, because our hearts get right with God and
- 14:20start beating in unison with His, and He's interested in every tongue, tribe, nation,
- 14:27and people, you know, and so most mission movements can be traced to outbreaks of revival
- 14:34and spiritual awakening.
- 14:36And what's interesting about that, even that, just taking the IMB, International Mission
- 14:40Board as an example, probably, I don't remember exactly how many years ago it was, but they
- 14:45were kind of saying, hey, we have more Journeymen, their two-year program, SWATs, than we have
- 14:51applicants.
- 14:52Yeah.
- 14:53That was just a few years ago, but recently, with all the movement since COVID and everything
- 14:58and Asbury and just all these great things happening, they're starting to see this increase
- 15:04of missions mobilization, you know, and then the one that you were a part of, the Jesus
- 15:10Movement is one that is deep, really, on my heart and deep, like, very personal in
- 15:16my heart, because my dad came to Christ as a part of the Jesus Movement.
- 15:21He's a church planter.
- 15:23He's planted at least eight churches, probably 10, depending on how you count, and then he's
- 15:28trained thousands of church planters.
- 15:30Right now, he's more international, going training international leaders and planting
- 15:34churches and things, but he came to Christ at University of New Mexico, and he came to
- 15:41a crew meeting.
- 15:43He was a complete hippie, druggie guy.
- 15:47He was also a college Povolta, so he kind of was a party guy and a college athlete with
- 15:52the long hair, came into a Campus Crusade for Christ meeting, and he was really impressed
- 15:57with the testimonies, and one of the leaders, the director, gave him a little yellow booklet.
- 16:04You guys have probably seen it, The Four Spiritual Laws, and he took that home to his dorm, and
- 16:10he read that seven times.
- 16:12This is the first time he ever heard the gospel.
- 16:14Wow.
- 16:15Wow.
- 16:16He said, if this is true, this is the greatest thing I've ever heard, gave his life to Christ,
- 16:25and actually, he ended up getting a little Jesus pin for his hippie jacket, and he went
- 16:32down to the cafeteria, had this Jesus pin, and his buddy said, hey, what is that?
- 16:38And he said, I can't tell you here.
- 16:41So he went up to the room and read The Four Spiritual Laws booklet with his buddy and
- 16:46led his friend to Christ, and when their friend left his room, he said that was the greatest
- 16:51joy he's ever felt in his life.
- 16:53Just the Holy Spirit filled him, and he had the joy.
- 16:57And so, and since then, it's been kind of this process of him just planting churches.
- 17:03He actually went back to the summer, he went back home, and he led a bunch of his friends
- 17:12to Christ, started this little Bible study of about 30 people going through the Gospel
- 17:17of John.
- 17:18He basically planted a church before he even attended the church.
- 17:22No one was following up with him.
- 17:23Wow.
- 17:24Before he knew what it was.
- 17:25Yeah.
- 17:26Yeah.
- 17:27It was a lot of moving.
- 17:28And so, you know,
- 17:29Dad was in Brazil, and both of us were training missionaries.
- 17:35And I was, during the day for a week, you know, I was teaching on how to walk with Christ
- 17:44and all of that, and your dad was training them in the methods of church planting.
- 17:48And I got to know your father, John, who, he's a wild man.
- 17:54Yeah.
- 17:55Yeah.
- 17:56He's just a wild man.
- 17:57And he's so, only heaven will record what God has done to his life.
- 18:03And just think, he was just, he was a college student.
- 18:05Yeah.
- 18:06He was just a college student, got saved, and didn't even know what church was, didn't
- 18:10know what the Gospel was, and got doing that all over the nation.
- 18:16And really, the reports we're hearing all over the world in some pretty extraordinary
- 18:22ways.
- 18:24And so, when God begins to move among these college students, I think one of the reasons
- 18:30God begins with students is they're early adopters, you know, they don't have all the
- 18:38baggage of, well, you know, what do we think about this?
- 18:44We've never done it that way before, you know, they don't have that, and they're ready to
- 18:48pick up and go, so they're early, they're easy to mobilize for Gospel purposes.
- 18:56And God gets them young, so they can, like your dad, so they can be used for the next
- 19:0450 years.
- 19:05Yes.
- 19:06They fuel the next, they are the next generation leaders, you know, which is so, is so beautiful.
- 19:14And Paul, you're seeing this in real time right now.
- 19:18You've got a front row seat to it, and in your job, you go around the college campuses,
- 19:23I'm forever seeing you on Facebook, training another group of students at some campus.
- 19:33When you go into these campuses, and you work with these leaders, what do you want to pour
- 19:42into them more than anything else, to equip them to seize the day with what's going on
- 19:47around them?
- 19:48Yeah, that's a great question, but I kind of want to mention one thing as I was talking
- 19:52about my dad's story.
- 19:54I do believe there's many John Worcesters sitting in fraternity houses, drunk, you know,
- 20:05and there's many young people that God has a plan for, that God has chosen, that God
- 20:10wants to work in their lives.
- 20:13The problem is not with the harvest, right?
- 20:15The harvest is plentiful.
- 20:17The problem is a lack of labors, and we're just seeing an unprecedented openness.
- 20:22And I do live in Hawaii now, it's a long story, but it helps my wife's back.
- 20:26But I was praying and thinking about what a way to describe to your listeners, kind
- 20:32of what God is doing across the nation.
- 20:34And the best way I kind of thought I came to mind was, across the street, there's a
- 20:39good swell happening right now.
- 20:41It's probably 10 to 20 feet, it'll be in the next, tomorrow, it'll be 10 to 20 feet.
- 20:46So, the average person should not get in the water, okay?
- 20:51That's what surfers call firing.
- 20:54It's firing, it's going off, it's exciting, it is really big, really big.
- 21:00But a couple times a year, there's a 50 foot swell that they hold a, only hold this contest,
- 21:08they call it the Eddie, the Eddie Akao, and it's in honor of this lifeguard that gave
- 21:14his life for others and stuff.
- 21:16But it's incredible, it's in Waimea Bay, just right down the street from me.
- 21:21But thousands of people flock to see these guys ride these 50 foot waves.
- 21:25And so kind of my comparison here is, right now we're experiencing the 10 to 20 foot waves.
- 21:32We're seeing a movement of God, but I think God could be, and we need to pray for that
- 21:39that God would send the tsunami, send the 50 foot waves.
- 21:45And so I just think there is more that God could do.
- 21:49But I think that's just an exciting place that He could be doing.
- 21:55So just a thought I had there, but to answer your question, yeah, I really, I do emphasize
- 22:01a lot with students in our trainings is the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
- 22:08You know, I train mainly in Baptist circles.
- 22:10So sometimes I have to start from square one there and remind them, don't forget the Holy
- 22:15Spirit and cooperate with Him and just great truths from Ephesians 1 and all these great
- 22:23verses that just help us understand that He is available, ready, and able to help us as
- 22:32we love Him, as we serve others, as we share Christ.
- 22:35And then prayer, prayer is the next thing, developing a intentional, disciplined, unhurried
- 22:43prayer life is something that is really important that we teach.
- 22:48And then personal, bold, bold and broad evangelism is the way I put it.
- 22:53Just sowing broadly with the gospel, making it hard to go to hell on your campus and really
- 23:00helping students give tools and ideas and helping them realize that, man, the harvest
- 23:07is plentiful.
- 23:08There's more students on our campuses that are ready to hear and respond to the gospel
- 23:15than there are Christians trying to share the gospel with them.
- 23:20And when you realize that, that God is working, God is moving in people's lives, it's not
- 23:25our job to convince people.
- 23:28It's not our job to convert people.
- 23:30Our job is to love, to pray, and to share.
- 23:33God's job is to draw, to convict, and convert.
- 23:36And so help them realize, hey, they can just be seed-sowing fools and just sow the seed.
- 23:42And you know, the students are the best ones to reach other students.
- 23:47A college student is the best person to reach another college student.
- 23:50There was a girl that my wife discipled.
- 23:52We have a small discipleship school that we do just kind of on the side here in Hawaii.
- 23:57We have about a dozen students live with us at a time, and we help disciple them in partnership
- 24:02with the church here.
- 24:03And there's this one girl named Larissa that Christy discipled, my wife, and Larissa went
- 24:08back to Kennesaw State and just had this deep burden for her campus, started prayer walking
- 24:15with a couple others once a week, and then they started sharing their faith.
- 24:19They started just starting gospel conversations, and eventually they got the idea, what if
- 24:23we did a united worship night and prayer night and give a gospel invitation?
- 24:30And so they invited the other churches and ministries, and they got a student that boldly
- 24:35stood up and shared a, I saw the video of it, it was a pretty radical call to repentance
- 24:42and faith.
- 24:43And they had people flooding the altars, they had hundreds at this student planned, at the
- 24:51center of campus, student planned event on the center of campus, and this 21-year-old
- 24:58or 20-year-old giving this gospel presentation and just students flooding to the front to
- 25:04receive prayer from other students.
- 25:07And there's things like that that are happening on, I could show you multiple campuses, BCM,
- 25:14traditional Baptist collegiate ministries that have saw over a hundred professions of
- 25:20faith just last school year.
- 25:23And so we have a list of ministries that are just starting to see revival, traditional
- 25:28Baptist campus ministries, and then there's a growing movement of church-based college
- 25:33ministries that God is using greatly.
- 25:36There's so many church-based ministries that are on campus sharing the gospel, seeing fruit.
- 25:43So yeah, there's so many exciting things happening.
- 25:46That's really incredible.
- 25:48And I, you know, we see the reports, the Unitas movement, the churches, just among churches
- 25:58that I know of, you know, the reports of just increased evangelism, just, you know, just
- 26:04people getting saved.
- 26:06And I shared on the podcast one time of my brother, Jim, who took a 30-day trip with
- 26:15his wife out to California.
- 26:18And they said, they asked the Lord if God would give him the chance to just share Christ
- 26:24every day with one person.
- 26:27And he said, Bill, we're in revival.
- 26:29I said, why do you know that?
- 26:30He said, because not only was it one person, it was three to four people every day.
- 26:35And for 30 days, and every single conversation we had, the other people were leaning in.
- 26:45There wasn't one person in the back.
- 26:48They were all leaning in.
- 26:49And he said it felt, Jesus, Jim was in the Jesus movement, as was I.
- 26:54He said it felt just like the Jesus movement.
- 26:58There's something about when God intends to bring revival that he brings a gospel receptivity.
- 27:08And boy, Paul, if we don't seize that day, you know, I think of Paul praying, telling
- 27:17people, hey, pray for me, that God will give me utterance in the opening of my mouth.
- 27:26We just don't open our mouth.
- 27:29And that's one of the things I love about what God is using you to do, is you're training
- 27:34the students in just simple, practical ways to just open your mouth.
- 27:40And it doesn't have to be profound, doesn't have to be, you don't have to be C.S. Lewis
- 27:45apologetics, you know, it can just be telling your story.
- 27:49I mean, if you walk off and you say, man, I've trained these leaders in evangelism,
- 28:01what do you feel like you have to put into them in just a simple way?
- 28:08And if I can get that in, they can be off and running.
- 28:11Yeah, it's good.
- 28:13In evangelism training, it's really helpful to have the motivation on one side, the encouragement,
- 28:20the motivation and all that, but also the kind of practical tools, almost like training
- 28:25wheels, you know, help them get started, give them a gospel sharing tool, give them a system.
- 28:30And one tool that we're seeing used that actually churches, not just for college ministries,
- 28:36churches across the nation are using, I call it gospel appointments.
- 28:41And it's just what it sounds like.
- 28:43It's an appointment to share the gospel.
- 28:45And I'll just give you an illustration of how that works.
- 28:48A little while ago, there was a guy named Ewar that was at our church here in Hawaii.
- 28:53He's from the Netherlands.
- 28:54And I started a conversation with him at church.
- 28:57And I just straight up asked him, I was a little bold, but I asked him, hey, when did
- 29:01you commit your life to Christ?
- 29:02And he was, I don't know if that's the best question or not, but he was kind of like a
- 29:07deer in the headlights and was like, I don't know.
- 29:09And so I was like, hey, that's, I guess that's something we'll have to remedy then.
- 29:13So let's talk, let's meet up this week and let's grab lunch or coffee and let's talk
- 29:19more about that.
- 29:20And so there's better ways to address that even than I just said, often I'll train students
- 29:24to say, if they're at a church service or a campus meeting, hey, it'd be great to get
- 29:29to know you better, tell you more about what we believe, the behind the scenes of our group
- 29:35and how you can get plugged in.
- 29:37Because on college campus is a recruitment culture.
- 29:40Every fraternity is recruiting, they're doing meetings.
- 29:43And so it's very natural.
- 29:45Actually the college campus, I believe is one of the best places in the world to do
- 29:49bold evangelism because it kind of still fits into that campus culture.
- 29:55You can do it everywhere, but the college campus is such a great place to do it.
- 30:00You're testing and thinking through new ideas every day, right?
- 30:05You know what I'm saying?
- 30:06On the college campus, you're bringing the gospel, which is the ultimate truth.
- 30:11Keep going.
- 30:12So this.
- 30:13Totally.
- 30:14So I have this guy, you are, and I set up that meeting with him later that week.
- 30:21And I brought a student, a new believer with me to kind of play wingman, to watch me how
- 30:27I do it.
- 30:29And I would let him, I got in Mason, new believer.
- 30:32I said, Hey, Mason, why don't you share your testimony with you are.
- 30:36And so Mason shared his testimony.
- 30:38And then Mason got to see, we have a gospel lesson that basically explains, it's almost
- 30:44like a Bible study slash gospel track.
- 30:47And we just print it out and have it on the table.
- 30:50And I did the lesson with him.
- 30:53And you are just repented of sin in tears.
- 30:57So I was really excited to come to Christ.
- 31:00And Mason was like, wow, like, this is so simple.
- 31:04This is so basic and reproducible.
- 31:06Like even I could do that, you know, and then I got Mason to do the follow up.
- 31:12We ended up baptizing him later.
- 31:14And so, but that's a simple way that we just train people to think about if you have some
- 31:19visitors at your church or your college ministry, or even your youth group, try to set up appointments,
- 31:27with the newest people.
- 31:28And even if you think they might already be a Christian, it's, it's very helpful to have
- 31:33help bring clarity to the gospel.
- 31:36And over the years, we've been able to lead a lot of Christians to Christ, actually, a
- 31:41lot of people have never, never trust, yeah, Christians, quote unquote, right.
- 31:46So that's one tool, gospel appointments.
- 31:49And we have resources at the NAM, ginsend.org is one place I have resources on that very
- 31:56like scripts and everything like that.
- 31:58So.
- 31:59That's awesome.
- 32:00You know, that that little trip that I was telling my brother took for 30 days.
- 32:06His prayer was God give me a sincere, he said, I would start out with just a sincere statement.
- 32:15Just a sincere statement, I'd be in a grocery store.
- 32:19And I'd see this guy and he said, I just, I would just say to him, you know, Christ
- 32:25could be like, Christ has just changed everything about my life.
- 32:29Has that ever happened to you?
- 32:30I mean, it's just a sincere, it doesn't have to be polished, it doesn't have to be incredible.
- 32:34And what we're saying is, and I think this is what you're giving testimony to, is that
- 32:40during seasons of revival, there's a receptivity like there's, there never is at other times.
- 32:51And boy, we ought to, I was just writing in a little blog the other day, that verse
- 32:57in Proverbs, he who sleeps in a time of harvest is a son who acts shamefully.
- 33:05And there's something about harvest time, we ought to be after it, we really ought to
- 33:11be after it.
- 33:12Yeah.
- 33:13The verse that God, I had one thought on that, actually.
- 33:17I just turned 42 and the passage of scripture that God kind of put on my heart that day
- 33:23was Ephesians 5, 15 through 18.
- 33:26And in there it says, make the most of every opportunity, make the, or redeem the time,
- 33:31depending on the translation.
- 33:32And the word for time is kairos, meaning a once in a lifetime opportunity.
- 33:38And thinking about that idea is like, I think we're in a kairos moment where, man, our season
- 33:44could be a season of genuine revival that's happening.
- 33:49And then every opportunity, every day, I tell people to pray for Bob, okay, pray for a burden
- 33:55for the lost, pray for an opportunity to witness and boldness to share Christ.
- 34:01And you pray for those three things, that's a dangerous prayer.
- 34:05Don't do it unless you're serious.
- 34:07But that's very similar to Bob's prayer.
- 34:09Yeah.
- 34:10The Bob prayer.
- 34:11Yeah.
- 34:12So just for our listeners now, you may want to write this down if you can't remember Bob,
- 34:20but Bob, pray for a burden for the lost, for opportunities to share, and then boldness
- 34:27to witness.
- 34:28What a great prayer to just every morning, get up and say, Lord, I just, I'm going to
- 34:33give you the Bob prayer today and pray for those things.
- 34:38Paul, it's thrilling to talk to you.
- 34:40We could talk all day and we have at times, and I just love you so much and we're so grateful
- 34:48for how God is using you.
- 34:53If you were to say one final thing to our listeners today, how can we, what would you
- 35:00tell the average believer that might be listening to this podcast, young or old, how they can
- 35:09cooperate with God in this significant moment?
- 35:13What would you say?
- 35:14That's a great question.
- 35:15And, you know, I think about my mentor, Max Barnett, and just how he was at University
- 35:22of Oklahoma for many years, and he modeled that lifestyle.
- 35:26He helped disciple my twin brother and I when we were in college, and he just has a simple
- 35:32faith, disciplined faith, but he modeled that lifestyle.
- 35:37And he took time with my brother and I to meet with us weekly and give us how to memorize
- 35:42scripture, how to pray, get us traction on those basic things.
- 35:47And that forever marked my life, that forever changed my life.
- 35:52And that's something anyone can do.
- 35:56Anyone can model the lifestyle and they can take one or two young people and they can
- 36:02start to disciple them, and you never know the exponential impact that personal disciple
- 36:09making can be.
- 36:10So broadly with the gospel, but disciple deeply the ones that are the most hungry, most excited,
- 36:19and then that's going to reproduce, that's going to create a ripple effect that you'll
- 36:25never know this side of eternity.
- 36:29There was one student that I met with, and it was a very hard start to the relationship,
- 36:36but I just held on for dear life.
- 36:37He had some theological issues, you know, and stuff, but I would always bring him back
- 36:42to the Bible, how to pray, how to read the word.
- 36:45But he, after about six months, he came to me and said, Hey, you know this issue that
- 36:49I disagree with you on?
- 36:51I don't think that anymore.
- 36:52And I said, Hey, why is that?
- 36:53I praise God, but why is that?
- 36:54He said, Oh, just reading the Bible for myself.
- 36:57The word of God did the work.
- 36:59Fast forward about 10 years later, he's married and he's alumni at our local church that we
- 37:06partner with and just what a great servant of God.
- 37:09But he sent me a text of a baby.
- 37:12And I said, Hey, what's that?
- 37:13And I said, he's like, it's my son.
- 37:16And his name is Paul, you know, after the apostle Paul.
- 37:23But I was thinking about this, like personal disciple making changes, family trees.
- 37:30And so we invest in individual lives that creates a trickle down effect that can impact
- 37:36generations for Christ.
- 37:37So that's, that's a thought that's so beautiful.
- 37:42That's so beautiful.
- 37:44One time, Paul, I was, I was studying because we have a lot of kids, as you know, and have
- 37:54eight kids.
- 37:55My mother was the oldest of the youngest of 14 and 10 lived to adulthood and, and they
- 38:02average four kids a piece.
- 38:06And all of them became believers in for several generations that I knew, you know, I was just
- 38:13doing the math on this one day.
- 38:15And I thought, what if you had a family that had two kids who had two kids who had two
- 38:18kids for 10 generations?
- 38:22And it would, it would produce, I think in the last, in the 10th generation, like 1028,
- 38:27something like that.
- 38:29And then what if you had like my grandmother Carter, 10 kids that lived to adulthood who
- 38:34had four, who had four, had four, you know what it would produce in the 10th generation?
- 38:422.6 million, 2.6 million.
- 38:46So when you think about that in terms of the gospel, I was, I was thinking about having
- 38:52my logical children that grew up in Christian environments and have a greater, but just
- 38:59we think of it that way, but just think of the kingdom way, and then just think of this
- 39:04thing of discipleship.
- 39:05I mean, multiplication, which Max Barnett taught you and me is, is great key.
- 39:13And you don't have to be a rocket science to do that.
- 39:17You just go out there and do what you said is beautiful.
- 39:21So broadly, and then build deeply with some, we always love to pray with our guys on podcast.
- 39:32And as we close, Paul, would you just pray for all of this, that God would do this in
- 39:37us, through us, and also in this national day of prayer, that God would just move on
- 39:45college campuses in mighty ways.
- 39:47So would you lead us in that?
- 39:49I'd love to.
- 39:50I'd love to.
- 39:51Father, thank you for this conversation with Bill and the many that are listening here.
- 39:56And we just want to praise you for the work that you're doing.
- 40:00And we pray that we would all be a part of it and participate in exactly the ways that
- 40:06you've called us to, that we would make the most of every opportunity, that we would take
- 40:13advantage of opportunities to share the gospel, to disciple young people, and Lord, that you
- 40:20would continue to bring the tsunami, that you would bring the tsunami of revival on
- 40:27college campuses, high school campuses, young adults, just all over this nation, that you
- 40:35would continue to move.
- 40:37And we just ask for more, Lord, help us to be faithful personally, and that we would
- 40:44just participate with what you're doing.
- 40:46So we thank you, Lord.
- 40:47And we want to give you all the glory.
- 40:49We do give you all the glory for everything that you're doing.
- 40:52We pray this in Jesus name, amen.
- 40:56Amen.
- 40:56Thanks, Paul.
- 40:57And man, we'll have to have you again.
- 41:00And folks, thanks for joining us today on the One Drop Podcast.
- 41:04I hope that you'll, again, just kind of a takeaway from today, besides all the little
- 41:10things that you've heard, take a step and go to the CDOP, collegiatedayofprayer.com.
- 41:18You can also access through the OneCry site, I think, and join us the last Thursday of
- 41:26February every year.
- 41:28Go on and adopt some campuses or a campus and then just pray.
- 41:34I mean, just pray like your life depended upon it, because somebody's life does.
- 41:39And let's see what God can do.
- 41:43All right.
- 41:44Thank you so much.
- 41:45We'll see you next time.