David Schaal is the USA National Mobilizing Director for Every Home for Christ. He works to help pastors and ministries equip their people to carry Christ everywhere they go. Today he shares his testimony about how he was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness but became a believer. We also talk about the statistics behind how Christians in America share their faith.
Learn More About Every Home for Christ: https://everyhomeusa.com/
Also check out: everyhome.org
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, David Shaw, from Every Home for Christ. Thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
David Schaal (00:12):
Hey, thank you, Dan. Appreciate for the invite. This is exciting. I, I too have that same heart excited about telling people about Jesus. So this is right up my alley.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:21):
That’s awesome. Well, tell me what your position is with every home for Christ and, and, and what you do.
David Schaal (00:27):
Sure. Well, right now, currently I am the USA National Mobilizing director. Meaning simply this is that I, I go out there and help pastors, help churches, help local ministries mobilize their people simply to, to live on mission, to carry Christ wherever they live, wherever they work, wherever they play.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:48):
And tell me a little bit about every home for Christ. I know it’s been around for a long time. You guys have a great history and have done a lot of evangelism. Kind of tell me some of the history and, and what every home for Christ is doing now.
David Schaal (01:03):
Oh, wow. How much time do we have here today? Because you’re right. I mean, I, I have the privilege of working for a ministry, I would say serving in a ministry that, that has really been carrying Christ to the nation, to, to everyone, everywhere and every generation. For now, I think 76 years. So we started out in 1946. And from that point, we, we just continually going and helping churches, helping believers with either resources or training on really caring Christ to the world. And, and that’s really, I would say, kind of in a nutshell of what we’ve done for a, as a ministry who we are, well, we’re simply, we’re a global network of local catalysts. So, so let me explain kind of what that means. We’re in a, we have 180 offices in 155 different nations around the globe. So it’s not like we’re a ministry that sends missionaries to go do the work. We, we come alongside local Catalyst indigenous church, and, and we, we simply help them mobilize their people. So whether, whether it’s in nations of Africa, whether it’s in the Middle East, whether it’s in Russia or where I get to serve right here in the United States, and we do the same thing. All, all the leaders around the globe do the same thing.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:26):
Yeah. I I think it’s really neat. You, you really have a vision to reach every single home for Christ. And, and I’ve encountered your ministry in different countries that we’ve gone to. And so a few years ago, we were in the nation of Belize, and we did a 10 crusades simultaneously in the 10 greatest population centers in Belize. And I got to meet your national director there, Derek Pitts.
David Schaal (02:51):
Oh, my good buddy. That’s my buddy Derek
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:53):
Pitts. Yes. And, you know, he just came alongside the vision that, that we had to people for Jesus and, and served and helped provide literature. And we were able to take that literature into homes, into schools. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> distribute it all across the nation. And you helped to recruit Derek.
David Schaal (03:13):
Oh, <laugh>. And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:14):
Like, tell, tell me a little bit about that and like, like how you first started that relationship, and then how you’ve been developing leaders in the Caribbean.
David Schaal (03:23):
Well, you know, when I I, I started off with every home for Christ being a, I was a local pastor here in the US before we really had a US focus. So I was a local pastor, but served the ministry of every home for Christ as the Caribbean coordinator at the time. So trying to, to go in and help churches within the, the Caribbean to, to establish the every home for Christ ministry. I mean, what we do is we, we inspire and empower the church to carry Christ to the world. So we wanted to be in every Caribbean nation. One of my trips brought me to the nation of Belize, and just through a series of events I was able to meet Derek. And Derek was a young man at the time. I, I look at him, I don’t know if he would look at me as a spiritual father, but I look at him as a spiritual son, just a, a great leader, a a man full of passion. A a man has such a great gift in this and, and a heart to really reach the law. So when we went into the nation, we found somebody that, that really had a, like mind, had had a, like vision like purpose in life. It was able, just really easy to get behind him and, and really kind of train him and, and teach him and equip him. And he, he took to the leadership and he’s doing such a great job in the nation of Belize.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:35):
Yeah. He, he has become such a wonderful man of God. All right. So you’ve now transitioned from the Caribbean to more of a focus here in the United States. Correct. And so tell me some of, of what you’re trying to accomplish here in the us.
David Schaal (04:51):
Well, simply, I would put it this way, we’re, we’re, again, we’re, we’re doing the same thing. We want to in inspire and empower the church really to carry Christ to the world. That means right here in the US as well. So the way that we do this is we bring pastors together. We believe in serving the local church. We believe in coming alongside pastors and helping pastors and, and outreach leaders to really equip and immobilize their church. So we bring pastors together. We, we, we love on pastors. We, we, we share with, give him a good meal, but at the same time, we share with them the history of things that we have learned and, and, and really how to equip their local church. So, for one of the things that we’ve did a, a nationwide study, we partnered with the Barna group here in the us did a nationwide study simply looking for the, the common practices and the perceptions that the local or the everyday, I would say Christ follower has not, not the evangelists like you and I. Okay, sure. We were talking about the everyday Christ follower. Like what would it take for them to, to share? Are they sharing their faith? Are they if so, what’s working? If not, why not? So we did a huge study. So when I bring pastors together, we kind of relay the kind of the results that study. We, we, we share with them some of the findings we’ve had. And and then,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:10):
And what, what are some of the, the findings? I mean, the Barna Group is the, the gold standard. They are in doing Christian research. Yes. They do such a great job with their research questions and, and, and very valuable insights. Every single time I get a chance to see one of Marna’s research projects, I always purchase it and get ahold of it. Great. Because it, it really gives insights into today’s generation. So, so what are some of those insights that you found in your research?
David Schaal (06:37):
Well, this will, so we, we want to know what the, what the common practice and perceptions were. Yeah. So the perceptions, like, you know, and I think, I think if that there’s a maybe a belief out there in the church that, you know, Christians are anti evangelism, right? They don’t, they don’t want evangelism or they, they’re not doing evangelism for whatever reason. So we wanna know, is that true? You know, not just an assumption, but is it true? So, yeah. So Barna did this complete study, and one of the questions they ask is really, really telling. They ask, do you, and if you do, how often do you pray for an opportunity to share your faith? So they ask the everyday, Christian, are you praying for opportunities? If you do, how often? 72% of those surveyed responded that they pray at least once a month to share their faith.
(07:24):
Wow. Oh, that’s exciting news. Yeah. 40% of those said that they prayed daily for that opportunity. You know what that tells me, Daniel, it tells me the church is not anti evangelism. They’re praying for opportunities to go out there and to share their faith. Another question we asked was like, what are you willing to do? Are you willing to pray for somebody? Are you willing to show hospitality? Are you willing to share your own faith story? We had about four or five different things they asked. And in every one of those things we asked, what is the Christian willing to do? They were either very willing, willing, somewhat willing, or not willing. Very willing and willing was in the high 90 percentiles on all of that. Which, which for me, I was excited. Cause I’m thinking that’s the bride of Christ. They, they want to brag about the bride groom, right. That they, they want to share their
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:13):
Faith. Yeah. That’s actually good news.
David Schaal (08:15):
Oh, it’s great news. And,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:16):
And, and for the church, you know, sometimes people think of, of Prosci slys in negative terms. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> like, oh, I don’t wanna shove my beliefs down someone’s throat. Okay. Yeah. But I think if you were to like, are you willing to share your faith story mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, then people are much more willing.
David Schaal (08:34):
Exactly. Exactly. So to do that, now, check this out. There’s another question. We said, okay, well, how often are you doing it? Or if the opportunity came up, would you share your faith? So remember, 72% are praying for opportunities in the high nineties are willing or somewhat willing or willing to do different activities. But 85% of those said that they allow a barrier to keep them from sharing their faith. When the opportunity comes. Now, to me as a researcher, that there’s a gap there. Wait a minute. You have these people praying for opportunities, they’re willing to do this, but when the opportunity comes, 85% said they don’t do that. So we went a little bit deeper into that and said, okay, well what, what are some of those barriers? So in this survey, simply 15% said they would not allow a barrier to stop them.
(09:27):
They would share their faith. The 85 picked a certain barrier. So the top three barriers, I think are very telling. Number one, the number one barrier with simply this, is that the, the believer did not want to be come off as confrontational, pushy, argumentative. And I get that. I mean, I don’t want, I’m not, I don’t wanna start an argument with somebody. Yeah. So, so whether taught or caught, they, it would, they’re understanding they didn’t wanna argue evangelism, right? So, so they, somewhere they thought that the participating in evangelism, you gotta call people out on their sin. You gotta tell. And, and you mentioned that that’s not good news. Now, please understand, the whole reason that Jesus came was cuz of the sin issue. So, I mean, we gotta deal with that at some point. But, but we’re saying, well, does it have to be at the genesis of the conversation? Does it have to be the very first thing you share with somebody? Do you, do you have to have a script that tells you this is the way you have to do it? Or is it a bride bragging about the bride groom? Yeah. The number two barrier.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:27):
And I like in Romans too, it says that it’s the goodness of God that draws men to repentance.
David Schaal (10:31):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:32):
Yeah. So if you start with the goodness of God, yes.
David Schaal (10:34):
It’s so good. So
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:36):
Good. It draws people to, they want to have a relationship with Jesus.
David Schaal (10:39):
Yeah. Yeah. I, I love it. And, and, and it’s, it works. I mean, it, it really, it really, really works. The, the number two barrier was simply this and get this, the, the believer didn’t share their faith. The barrier was this, that they didn’t feel qualified. Now we went a little bit deeper. This is the word that came out in the interviews, the word shame. That they were ashamed. They weren’t ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They knew it was the power of salvation. They were ashamed of their representation of the gospel. Meaning, how can I go and share my faith with my coworker Dan when, when Dan knows that I have an anger issue, or I struggle with lust, or I fill in the blank. And so simply what they’re saying is they didn’t want to be a hypocrite. How, how?
(11:21):
I don’t want to be a hypocrite, so I’m not good enough to do that. The third barrier was this, was that they didn’t know what to say. They didn’t know how to communicate without being pushy, confrontational argumentative and or hypocritical. So as a ministry, that’s what we’ve done in the US is we, we we’ve developed, understood what these problems are, these gaps. And we developed training that a local pastor could use to train his or her church on mobilizing them, overcoming these barriers. And, and that’s what one of our biggest in helping the local church in America. And we have found time, after time, after time, this is the result after an individual goes through, through a training. I didn’t know this was evangelism. If that was ave I would be doing that every day. And it’s like, yes, go out now. Please hear my heart.
(12:10):
Yes, we gotta take care and we gotta deal with the sin issue. Matter of fact, the Bible tells us the Holy Spirit does that. The Bible tells us in John I believe it’s chapter 16, that the Holy Spirit will convict the world according to sin, righteous, and judgment. Right. We just need to introduce them and bring the presence of holy spirits in their life by what you’re saying, sharing about the goodness of God, sharing them how good evangelism. I would say this is not telling people how bad they are, but it’s telling people how great Jesus is. And if the church would do that, and they’re willing to do that, think about how we would just kind of move that needle of the church. It wouldn’t be 85%, if we get to 85% just out there bragging about Jesus, just think of, of what that would affect the church, but not only the church, but the lives of the individuals who are living right now to a christless eternity. If they understood that there was a Jesus that loved him, that Jesus cared about them, that, that, that they’re not the objects of God’s wrath, but there’s a subject of his love. Oh, let me tell you the church, we have a great message to share.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:12):
Yeah. Amen. Well, I I go do large evangelistic crusades in different countries around the world, and so many different religions are represented. I never say anything to attack the local religion. I just lift up Jesus. Yes. Yes. And I think that when people see how good Jesus is Yeah. They will be attracted to him. Exactly. Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men on me. That’s right. That’s right. And, and, and so, you know, I start by telling them, this is what Jesus did in Bible times. And then I share some testimonies. This is what Jesus has done in the lives of some of these people. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> and I share my testimony. This is what Jesus has done in my life. You’re sure. And then I tell ’em, this is what Jesus can do in your life. And by the end of the message, my goal is to make Jesus irresistible so that people cannot say no to Jesus. Exactly. Because I think when people see Jesus for who he is, it, it just opens up their hearts. Right. And, and then they’re, they’re quick and, and ready to say, yes, Jesus, please forgive my sins. Yes. Because they see, wow, Jesus died for me. He really gave his life so that I could have life.
David Schaal (14:15):
Yeah. You just shared my testimony. I mean, that’s, that’s my testimony. I was raised at Jehovah’s Witness. Wow. So, so I, I was in a realistic, this is
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:22):
Very legalistic.
David Schaal (14:23):
Very
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:23):
Legalistic. Works driven. Very
David Schaal (14:25):
Works driven. Yeah. You had, you had to go knock on doors. You had to sell, watch channel wake magazines. We went to five church services a week.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:33):
In fact, when I flew into Phoenix here mm-hmm. <Affirmative> to yesterday at the airport, I saw some watch tower people there with a,
David Schaal (14:40):
You know, why they’re doing that? Because that’s them earning their way to heaven. They don’t understand the grace of Jesus Christ. They don’t, they don’t understand. It’s already been paid. It’s already been paid. But people ask all the time, David, how did you, what, what scripture? What track? What, what did they say to you that caused you to lead the Jehovah Witness religion and become a Christian? And you know what? I can’t think of a track. I can’t think of a scripture. I’ll tell you another thing they didn’t do. I do not remember my friend Tracy, my friend Mike. I had many friends in high school, but Tracy and Mike shared Jesus with me. I can’t remember one time they told me I was a bad person, and it was, I had sin in my life. No, I did. Don’t get me wrong. Right. But they never called me out on it. You know what they did? They made Jesus irresistible till I got to the point that said, how could I not say yes to this Jesus.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:32):
Wow.
David Schaal (15:33):
That’s evangelism.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:35):
Praise God. Yes. And, and so walk me through that process. How did you go from being a Jehovah’s witness to finally saying yes to Jesus?
David Schaal (15:43):
Well I, it was, it was it, it didn’t happen in one conversation. Yeah. my entire senior year of high school, I, I think my friends who were Christians that, that I’ve been going to school with all since elementary school, I think they realized, Hey, we have one year left with David, so let’s, let’s kind of, whenever we get an opportunity, let’s share Jesus with them in some way. Somehow. some of it was very positive. Obviously I’m a Christian today, others of I had one of my classmates, she wrote this in my, in my senior yearbook. David read a real Bible <laugh>, you know, now was she speaking truth? Yeah. I need to re read a real bible cuz Joe Woodes had their own Bible. But that probably wasn’t love. I can’t say that that convinced me to, to look more into Jesus Christ.
(16:27):
But my friend Mike and Tracy, any opportunity they had, they continually, over time, over time, a process of multiple conversations. I, I would, I would be, be guessing, I would say hundreds of conversations they had with me about my faith and been them sharing me about their faith and what Jesus is doing in their life till the end of my school year. So probably nine months of senior year in high school where I just got to the point that said, I, I need, I, I need this. Jesus. You see, I saw peace. I saw contentment. I saw joy. I saw the fruits of the spirit in, in the life of my friend Tracy and, and her family. No, I didn’t know. I couldn’t call it out. What I did know was they, they had something I didn’t have. And I wanted it, and I wanted Jesus. Then Tracy said, was Jesus. I’m like, well, then I want that. And as soon as I said yes to Jesus, I started feeling that same joy and that commitment and that peace in my life. So that, that’s what we’re called to do. We’re called to share Jesus to, to those that God’s put in our world. And I praise God, Tracy and Mike did that. And, and, and I want to make sure I do that to as many people that God puts in my life as well.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:33):
Yeah. Let’s talk about how you help churches and pastors. So you were a pastor mm-hmm. <Affirmative> for many years before you, you started doing what you’re doing now. And if, if you, if a pastor came to you and say, how can I get my to be more evangelistic? Like, I want the people in my church to, to be bolder at sharing their faith. What are one or two things that you would share with the pastor
David Schaal (17:58):
Today? Only, only one or two <laugh>. I have a list of here, you know with the ministry of Very Home for Christ, we, we have, we have training and resources that, that we would, we, we give at, at they, they cost a lot of money, but, but we, we give at no cost. We really wanna serve the local church. Somebody, we have generous donors that say, Hey, let’s, let’s mobilize the American church. So we, we, we pass that on to the lo. So that’s one area. But, but I would say this, what what really works would be a, a couple things. One would be the pastor needs to share his or her experience in, in evangelizing outside the church. So when I pastor, there’d be many times I would share during an announcement time, Hey, let me share you with you.
(18:43):
What, what, what happened this week? Hey, I met a, I at the grocery store this week. I encountered this person or whatever. Yeah. I would share my experiences because the, the congregation is gonna mimic what the pastor’s doing. Yeah. So if the pastor is not, I would say the first thing for pastor is Pastor, you need to be out there living on, living on mission, sharing your faith outside of your pulpit ministry pastor. You need to be out there doing it, and you need to share that. The second thing is that I would have people every week on Sunday give a testimony of what their activities were. So somebody would come to me, Hey, pastor, I prayed with my class week today. Hey, today at church, I just want you to take 30 seconds. I want you to tell the church you did that.
(19:26):
And what that did is that showed that we made it, well, what we made that as an important aspect that this is what church is about, where about equipping the church, do the work of the kingdom. And so we’d have people come up and give testimony. Children, elementary school, high schoolers, college age, I mean, adults, whoever came to me and said, Hey, I wanna tell you what I did. Hey, you’re gonna tell the church today. But the other thing is this, is that we didn’t just chair the victories. Hey, this person said yes to Jesus. Hey, I got to pray with this person. Person would come to me at church, say, oh, pastor, I tried evangelism. As a matter of fact, I I was talking to my class today, and they all laughed at me. I said, you know what? I want you to share that with the church today.
(20:08):
You see, I think we got to a point in the church where all we did is share the victories and the wins. And not every time we share faith is there gonna be a victory or win. So what we celebrated wasn’t victory wins. We celebrated obedience in the church. So we would have people sharing stories like, oh, I tried this, but it fell flat on my face. But at least I tried. And we would clap for them. We would cheer them on because we wanted to celebrate obedience in the church. And the more you create a, that’s how you create a culture of an evangelistic culture in your church, is by giving testimony, sharing stories. People want to hear stories, not they need to hear their pastor stories, but they need to hear other people’s stories, both the highs and the lows. Because what that does, that makes a person say, oh, I could do that.
(20:53):
Yeah. And or if I, or if they fail, oh, it’s all right, so-and-so failed too, but, you know, I’m gonna give another try. So those are just a, a couple of the things that, that I would really encourage the, the church. But you need to, you pastor you, you need to make it a priority. If you’re not making it a priority, your church is gonna make it a priority. We make a lot of things priority in the church. And, and whatever you’re best at in the church, you, you may have the best worship team. That’s your priority. You, you may have the greatest offering because you make a priority of offerings. You want an evangelistic church, you want a church that’s winning the loss. Make winning the loss a priority in your church.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:30):
Yeah. Amen. And I think every church should have that as a priority.
David Schaal (21:34):
Sure. I agree.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:35):
Well, if someone wants to get connected to every home for Christ, or they want to take advantage of some of the, the resources that you offer, or even to help support you guys, how can they find out more information? What’s, what’s your website? Sure.
David Schaal (21:49):
The, the website is very easy. It’s everyhome.org that, that’s our global international ministry website. And, and that will take you, give you opportunities to see what’s happening around the globe. So we spent the most of the time talking about kind of where I work, and that is in the US and how, but,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:07):
But overview kind of, of what’s happening in other countries too. Well,
David Schaal (22:10):
You know, globally, I mean, like I mentioned earlier, we’re, we’re in 155 nations probably have 180 offices. And, and like I mentioned before, we’re, we’re, we’re a global network of local catalysts, meaning that the, the work is going and, and pastors all around the globe are, are being equipped to be catalyst to carry Christ to their world. So, so many, I say we have 155 offices, offices, we may have 155 different ways that we’re carrying Christ around, around the globe. But, but it’s continuing to grow all the time. What we’re, we’re seeing people let me just say this. Numbers are big and, and things like that, but, you know, we’ve been around for now 76 years, but prop, approximately 334,000 believers every month are carrying Christ to the world through the ministry of every home for Christ.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:06):
Wow. That’s amazing.
David Schaal (23:07):
It is amazing. I mean, I, I’m just, it gives me goosebumps. Sometimes you see a big number like that, you’re like, wow. But you know what? We need more. We, we, the, the, the church, we, we need everybody to come on board and participate in the mission that God has called us to the, the Great Commission, which I call, it’s our common mission. And that’s what God’s called us to. So everyhome.org is our, is our global national headquarters website for the ministry right here in the usa. It’s everyhomeusa.com. So you can go to everyhomeusa.com and you could see kind of the things that we, that we have as far as pro what we produce for, for churches, specifically for pastors. Because we believe this, we, we wanna stand behind a pastor. I could go to your church just like you can, Dan, we could go to church.
(23:55):
We could, we could encourage, we could train a church on how to evangelize that church gets excited that day until the next Sunday when they have another guest speaker. Yeah. Encouraging you something. But if the pastor trains his or her church, it now becomes the pastor’s vision and now becomes the culture of the church because the pastor led it. We’re big believers and come alongside that, that local pastor inspiring and empowering that pastor and the church to carry Christ to wherever they’re at. And that’s really what we do around the globe. So without going into detail, every little nuance, that’s kind of the bottom line. We, we inspire and empower the church to carry Christ.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:43):
That’s awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism podcast.
David Schaal (24:47):
I Appreciate it. Oh, I appreciate the invite. Thank you so much, Dan. God bless you.
