Jonathan Shibley is the son of David Shibley and the President of Global Advance. Under his leadership the organization has multiplied their efforts to train front-line leaders around the globe.
Notes:
What was it like to take up the mantle of leadership from your father?
What does it mean to “ignite change makers worldwide?
Why are kingdom entrepreneurs the sleeping giants of the Christian world?
Website: https://www.globaladvance.org/
If you are excited about evangelism listen to the Evangelism Podcast, with Daniel King, the Evangelism Coach.
Transcription:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Jonathan Shipley is the son of David Shibley in the president of global advance. Under his leadership. The organization has multiplied their efforts to train frontline leaders around the globe.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:15):
Well, Jesus said go into all the world and preach the gospel. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be welcome to the evangelism podcast with Dr. Daniel King, where Daniel interviews, full-time evangelists, pastors, missionaries, and normal everyday Christians to discover how they share their faith, their powerful testimonies, and amazing stories that will inspire you to reach people with the good news. And now here’s your host, missionary and evangelist Daniel King. Welcome to the evangelism
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:53):
Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about evangelism and telling people about Jesus. I have a very special guest with me today. Jonathan Shibley who leads global advance. Thank you for being with
Jonathan Shibley (01:05):
Me. Hey, it’s awesome to be here. Thank you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:08):
So recently on the podcast, we featured your father, David Shibley and heard some of the story about how global advance got started. And he was telling me about how his father was a pastor and because of his influence, he went into ministry. And now I assume, because of your father’s influence, now you are involved in ministry,
Jonathan Shibley (01:30):
Kinda crazy. Maybe some people can relate to this, but growing up, I never thought I would be doing what I’m doing today. Now I loved and honored my dad and all the work that he was doing, but I never actually had a chance to travel with him overseas to see what he was doing with global Vance until after college. And so growing up, I had a huge heart for the Lord. I did feel a call to ministry, but I also thought, you know, I may go into business as well. I had an interest in it. I actually majored in business at Baylor university. And so I kind of had a little bit of an internal tug of war going on and it wasn’t till 1998. So I was out of college in my early twenties that I went to the nation of Congo, democratic Republic of Congo, which, you know, very war torn nation, went with dad, solid global dancers, doing actually firsthand and saw all these pastors that had come from all over the nation and how God was just digging deep into their hearts. And I could, you could just tell it on their face, the impact that it was having. And I knew that on that trip, God was speaking to Mesa and Jonathan, this is what I want you to do. And I want you to help take this organization to another level. And before that time, we had never even discussed the idea of me working alongside my dad. If something he founded, I wanted to blaze my own trail. And so, but I yielded to the Lord and there’s been no looking back since then. So how ago was
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:00):
That trip that you went to college?
Jonathan Shibley (03:01):
So that was 1998. We actually took two years before I actually officially came on staff just to make sure that this was God. I was always really a little bit hesitant about people’s perceptions of nepotism. You know, like I said, I wanted to blaze my own trail, but it was clear that God was calling me here. So I came on in 2000 year, 2000. So now I’m in my 21st year serving here and it’s been, it’s been amazing.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:28):
And it was about 10 years ago that your, your father took a step back and you took a step forward and your father really hasn’t slowed down. He continues to minister and is still passionate, but it seems like now you get to do all the work and he does all the funds.
Jonathan Shibley (03:45):
Oh yeah. You know, it’s been in may, we’ve had an incredible relationship, both father, son, and a working relationship, but it was in the early two thousands. When I, about two years in, when I was here, God began to give my, give me a vision that was unique to me, that fit within the overall vision of Global Advance. And that was to raise up an army of kingdom minded marketplace leaders all over the world, especially in the developing world. And very few people were doing that in missions back then. And so that began to kinda get, give my own distinctive a little bit. It complemented our work with equipping pastoral leaders in developing nations. And God has just done unbelievable things. It’s opened incredible doors since then.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:30):
So tell me some of what Global Advance is doing. I know you work in many different countries. What are you doing in those countries?
Jonathan Shibley (04:39):
Yeah, so we believe our, our tagline. We say we ignite change makers worldwide. We believe that God has strategically positioned, amazing, capable leaders on the ground and very hard areas of the world. Some of the darkest spiritual areas of the world, some of the hardest economic areas of the world. So we believe that our calling is a junior partner to come alongside leaders. And God’s came to them that have a vision to move the needle forward, to advance the gospel and their nations to do kingdom work and those nations. And so we come alongside them. We help them fulfill the great commission as a junior partner. And we’re learning a lot. We’ve been doing this for 30 years. So a lot of that looks like training events resources in their language. But now we’re going beyond that. We’re starting kingdom business networks around the world that are focused on not only alleviating poverty, but also it’s a way is which something very close to your heart, evangelizing a bank, salt and light they’re in the community.
Jonathan Shibley (05:43):
They’re already integrated into the fabric of culture and society. We’ve got, we want to see kingdom business, raise that around the world, that create jobs that are able to fund the work of the kingdom around the world. Wouldn’t it be great that one and Africa, it’s the African businessmen and women who are funding your crusades. I say amen to that. They’re African businessman and woman who are putting the roof on the church that are helping to bring in the orphans. And that’s beginning to happen. We’re beginning to see that on a global scene. And if you think about a missions force in the world or an evangelistic force in the world, there may be around half a million full-time missionaries right now globally, but there’s probably hundreds of millions of believers that are in the marketplace every day around the world. And as we see globalization happen, it’s an incredible open door for the kingdom through the marketplace.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:41):
Yeah. Years ago, God spoke to me and says, Daniel, that the mission field will become a mission force. So those places that America used to view as a mission field, now we’ll raise up a mighty missions force. That will
Jonathan Shibley (06:56):
No doubt. And we’re saying that, I mean, we’re working with guys for instance, in Pakistan who take the gospel into Afghanistan or guys in Tajikistan that could go into other nations like Iran or from Russia to Zika San it. So it’s all this stuff. It’s creative. It’s kind of a fun season that we’re in. There’s all types of strategy that God is using. I don’t think there’s one size fits all strategy for missions in the great commission. It’s interesting. Jesus never really gave us the total blueprint. He just, he gave us the big picture. Right. But here it is, I’d go. Yeah. He didn’t tell us exactly how to do it. And I think that’s part of, you know, he gifts the body of Christ, right? With creativity, with talent, all of us have different abilities. And that’s part of the spirit of God at work around the world.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:46):
So tell me some of the different strategies you’re using to reach people.
Jonathan Shibley (07:50):
So we, we equip leaders that are on the ground. So we work with church planters, pastors and church planners that are taking the gospel to unreached or least reached regions of the world. One of the strategies that came about was, and it really wasn’t our idea, but one of the guys in Pakistan that we work with, he identified a lot of unreached villages, a lot of tribal villages there and Pakistan and sin province. And so he said, look, they don’t have clean water. Now we didn’t typically do water projects, but we said, you know what? We believe in the vision that God’s given you. So we’re going to get behind you. We’re going to start to drill water Wells. Well, that opened the door for the gospel. Now, all of a sudden three fast forward, three years later, there’s new Christ followers. Now there there’s been 11 churches planted as a result of this. And it’s all by just meeting needs on the ground. And now we’ve got a business network in the large city of Karachi of guys who are committed to help fund kingdom work and the villages. Wow, that’s
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:56):
Tremendous. And you, you often do marketplace ministry. Talk to me about that. What does that look like?
Jonathan Shibley (09:02):
I say that they’re the sleeping giant in missions that kingdom entrepreneurs around the world. A lot of times they’re underdogs. I mean, you think about it in developing countries, especially the corruption is such a massive, massive issue. So we have mobilized hundreds of Christian CEOs and business leaders from the West that have gone all over the world to pour into business skills, training and kingdom, biblically based worldview for business and entrepreneurship and to thousands of entrepreneurs and business leaders throughout the developing nations. So we’ve been doing this for a long time now for about 18 years. Well, what has happened now is God has just blown that thing up. And so we’re, we, we have a vision over this next decade to start 100 kingdom business networks around the world. And those K we call it a KBN he’s KBN’s will do all types of things, community outreach programs, helping support local churches go into the end, reached meeting needs there and their local cities and regions. So it’s an awesome, awesome thing.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:05):
That’s awesome. Now I noticed that right now you have a matching gift challenge of up to half a million dollars. And so if someone wanted to donate to global advanced and they wanted to go to your website to do that, how would they find your website
Jonathan Shibley (10:19):
Global advanced.org? And there’s a way simple ways that you can give, but we’re, we’re grateful that the Lord has provided that opportunity and you know, to him be all the glory.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:30):
What are some of the future projects and visions that you have for global events?
Jonathan Shibley (10:35):
Well, we see Global Advance we’re we’re working right now and 35 nations. And some of these are the hardest, most persecuted nations on earth for believers in Jesus. We see that work continue to expand where it now we are creating nation teams where there’s a lot of collaboration going on. So we don’t work with just only one person or one ministry. We’re actually work with teams that represent different regions of a nation, and they come up with a strategy to effectively advance the gospel together. And those are the types of projects that we get behind as an organization.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:11):
That’s tremendous. Well, Jonathan, thank you so much for being on the evangelism podcast. I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me.
Jonathan Shibley (11:18):
Hey man, thank you for the work you’re doing. God bless you
Evangelism Podcast Host (11:22):
For more information about how to share your faith or to financially support our worldwide evangelistic outreaches. Visit King ministries.com. Again, that’s King ministries.com.
