Daniel Kolenda from Christ for All Nations, hosts an Evangelism Bootcamp to train evangelists to preach the Gospel. I had the privilege of being one of the teachers at the school. Today we talk about how the students from the Evangelism Bootcamp led 165,000 people to Jesus over a three week period in Tanzania.
Website: https://cfan.org/news/2021-evangelism-bootcamp
Show Notes:
Today we talk to Academic Dean Levi Stewart about the impact of the Evangelism Bootcamp.
Daniel King had the privilege of being one of the teachers at the Evangelism Bootcamp.
Fifty-two students graduated.
When twenty of the students put what they learned into action in Tanzania, they led over 165,000 people to Jesus over a three week period.
Listen to Daniel King, the Evangelism Coach, on The Evangelism Podcast
Transcription
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Daniel Kolenda from Christ for all nations hosts and evangelism bootcamp to train evangelists, to preach the gospel. I had the privilege of being one of the teachers at the school. Today. We talk about how the students from the evangelism bootcamp led 165,000 people to Jesus over a three week period in Tanzania,
Evangelism Podcast Announcer (00:24):
Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord. Welcome to the evangelism podcast with dr. Daniel King we’re Danial interviews, full-time evangelists, pastors, missionaries, and normal everyday Christians to discover how they share their faith, their powerful testimonies and amazing stories that will inspire you to reach people with the good news. And now here’s your host missionary and evangelist Daniel King.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:00):
I am excited about telling people about Jesus and today I’m with a very special guest Levi Stewart. He is the academic Dean for the evangelism bootcamp at Christ for all nations in Orlando, Florida. Levi, thanks so much for being on the pod
Levi Stewart (01:18):
Cast a thank you Daniel. It’s a, it’s an honor for me to be here. Thank you for having me.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:24):
The evangelism bootcamp was started by evangelist Daniel Kolenda here at Christ for all nations, and he has a heart for training evangelists to go out into the harvest fields of the world. And so this last year you graduated your first set of boot camp students. Tell me a little bit about what God is doing in the bootcamp.
Levi Stewart (01:49):
Well you know, it’s funny because whenever Evangelist Kolenda shared with me about a year and a half ago, his vision for this evangelism bootcamp, the first thing that he said was, I don’t want to start another Bible school. And, and I know that there’s of course, no shortage of places where people can go and learn theology and Bible, and even learn about evangelism, but really what evangelists Colendo wanted to create with this bootcamp. And what we’ve just seen as, as you know, I’ve just recently returned from Africa for our on-field initiation trip with our first set of graduates is what he has called a fast track to the mission field. And so really what the bootcamp is, is it’s a a six month or at least our first class was a six month program in which we taught not only the theology of evangelism.
Levi Stewart (02:39):
And really that was just sort of a foundational a couple of weeks at the beginning of the, of the course, but really what it was, was a hands-on, how can I get ready for the field in a short amount of time, and then actually go to the field and put into practice the things that you’ve learned over the course of six months and and then see how it works in the real world. So over the we started in January of this year and over that six month period, we were teaching students about organizing crusades about building and constructing sermons about how to work with an interpreter, how to preach in the specific context of Africa. On top of that, you know, they were doing outreaches on a weekly basis with their teams here within the city. They were meeting with coaches on a weekly basis.
Levi Stewart (03:30):
And also we gave you an opportunity to get their hands dirty a little bit here in the office at C fan. And so they, they kind of served as interns for us. So they got an idea of kind of what happens behind the scenes. Ubut really what, what is most exciting to me is the work that they got to do in the field. And as I said, I just returned from Africa. And so we did three weeks with our evangelism graduates in Tanzania, and it was just amazing, some of the things that God did.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:56):
And so how many students graduated from the bootcamp?
Levi Stewart (04:01):
So we had a 52 students that came through that actually finished. We started with a few more than that. But just the, kind of the intensity of the bootcamp was designed so that the cream would sort of rise to the top. But we graduated 52 and and then of course with some of the things that have been going on in the world with this pandemic, not all of them were able to go with us to Africa. But we did take a large number. And like I said,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:31):
It was just how many went to Africa. So the,
Levi Stewart (04:34):
The first round, which just ended last week, there were, there were 20 that went with us and then
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:40):
The 20 that were in Africa, they were there for three weeks and they got to go out on the streets and preach in the marketplaces and, and, and, and visit schools in those three weeks. What results did they see in Tanzania? Yeah,
Levi Stewart (04:57):
It was remarkable. Daniel, I’d tell you what it was the first time that I have actually been on the field in this kind of a hands-on ministry context and what we saw over the course of three weeks, like you said, there was only 20 that actually went with us. We have about 20 more grads that are coming later, and they’re doing a little bit of a different initiation, but of the 20 that were with us in the three weeks, we did over 450 outreaches in the schools, villages and the marketplaces. And as a result of those outreaches, over 165,000 people came to know the Lord as their, as their savior. And and, and many people were, were healed, were delivered. I mean, it was it was such a, a thing where it was as if you could just tell there was like a shift in the atmosphere of that country. And it was just a remarkable thing to witness and be a part of
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:52):
That is such a tremendous testimony. You know, I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and we have a lot of different Bible schools in Tulsa. So we’ve got oral Roberts university, we’ve got Rayma, we got victory Bible college, we’ve got several other training places in Tulsa. And sometimes people come, they get trained and they don’t go anywhere. They don’t do anything. And so for the bootcamp to take students to Africa and produce such tremendous results, 165,000 people that they’re able to lead to the Lord in three weeks, that may be one of the most successful trainings that’s ever been done in the history of Christianity.
Levi Stewart (06:38):
You know, it’s, it’s remarkable to think that that really the way that we look at this is that three weeks is just the beginning. I mean, it’s, it’s really just the, we call it the initiation process for our students. And I mean, we believe that over the, over the coming months and years, that, I mean, that’s just going to exponentially multiply. And, and one of the things I think that makes it unique is that w the, the trainers that we had that were in our teaching in our school, a number of them actually went with us. The teachers, the coaches went with us to Africa. And so they were able to guide our students along the way and give them on the job training as they went out and did evangelism, I don’t know of any other program. Uyou know, you mentioned there’s a number of great Bible schools,uand you just, didn’t also alone of course, here in the United States.
Levi Stewart (07:29):
And I think that one of the things that makes this evangelism bootcamp unique is not just that it’s a fast track to the field and not just,uthe fact that it’s outcomes-based because like you said, at the end of this program, the goal was not just to get a certificate or to get a degree or to,uyou know, be able to have some sort of card or certification. But the idea is that you’re actually able to go out into the field, you have a platform to do ministry. And so evangelists Kolenda is continuing to work with these students who have graduated beyond just a three-week trip. And as I mentioned, we only took about 20 with us on this first round, later in the year, we’ve got about 20 more that are coming, and they’re actually helping us to organize a flagship C fan crusade.
Levi Stewart (08:15):
It’s actually five crusades, as you know, that we’re planning to do back to back to back to back to back in Tanzania at the end of this year. And those 20 students are serving as crusade organizers. They’re serving as promotional leaders, as well as doing outreach as leading up to the, the large crusades. And so it’s one of those things where the training is not just academic, but the training is to go to the field. The teachers are going with you, helping you along the way. And what you’re preparing for is not some kind of test or trial, but it’s real evangelism
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:54):
Evangelists, Kalinda asked to come and participate in one of those events in the city of Oklahoma. And so I’m excited and just a few weeks I’m going to be going, and I’m expecting God to move. And for many people to be saved and healed and for it to change the nation of Tanzania. And so it’s just so tremendous to see the students go and get their hands dirty on the field, because so much of, of doing the work of an evangelist is doing work, and it’s not just preaching on the platform, but it’s doing all the organization and all the preparation. And so tell me some of the things that the evangelists learned in their time at the bootcamp.
Levi Stewart (09:42):
Yeah. Well, it’s such a good point. I mean, I think what people think of whenever they think of an evangelist, or I think of evangelism as they think of a, you know, a man on a stage with a huge crowd and he’s preaching a passionate gospel message. And of course that is a huge component of this. And we did do a lot of training in the bootcamp on how to preach a gospel message. I mean, we talked a lot about how to prepare a message, how to how to tell stories, how to use illustrations. Like I said, working with an interpreter and all this kind of stuff is so important, but it’s maybe 10% of what really goes on in a large evangelistic campaign. And so a good amount of time that we spent in the bootcamp was crusade organizing. And what I mean by that is it’s not just getting a bunch of people on a crusade field, but a lot of it really is working with local churches, working with pastors in the cities that you’re going to developing crusade committees.
Levi Stewart (10:35):
You know, I don’t want to give too much of it away as far as the nitty gritty, but so much of it is working with people it’s organizing, it’s promoting, you know, it’s knowing how to promote where you’re going. It’s getting people on board to buy into the vision and then also to help support what you’re doing, because you may be on a platform or on a stage for, for a couple of hours total, even when you’re doing a, you know, a week long crusade or something like that, but the hundreds of hours, I mean, the months of work that go in ahead of time is, is some of the stuff that we worked with the students on while they were here. I mean, there’s, there are components of this where you’re doing so much more than preaching even on the ministry side. I mean, you know, there’s, there’s prayer for the sick, which is a huge part of your promotion, right? I mean, you have a couple of miracles, some signs and wonders that people experience, and then they’re drawn to that crusade field the next night. So there’s prep work on the front end, and then there’s so much that happens even afterwards on the back end with follow-up and, and with prayer after you preach that gospel message,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:45):
It was really a privilege for me to be able to come and to teach several weeks during school. And I was just so impressed with the students. They’re on fire for God, excited about evangelism, passionate for reaching the lost. They really seem to be the best of the best, and it’s not easy to get into the school because more people apply than are able to be accepted. So what criteria are you looking for in the students who come to the evangelism bootcamp?
Levi Stewart (12:19):
Well, I think there’s, there’s really two main things. And thank you for mentioning that, you know, we’re really proud of our first group of graduates and I, and I really do think that they’re world-class. And one of the things that we really emphasize, and this may sound obvious, but I just really can’t stress this enough, is that in order to be a part of the evangelism boot camp, you need to know that you’re called to be an evangelist. And I’m not just, I’m not just an evangelist, you know, somebody that wants to share their faith. Umut someone who is called to get in front of a crowd with a microphone to preach the gospel, to pray for the sick, give an altar call, mhe believing God for signs and wonders for the Holy spirit to fall. And the reason that I say that is there are of course, different kinds of evangelists and we celebrate and partner with and understand the body of Christ needs of Angeles in all forms of the definitions and forms of the term.
Levi Stewart (13:13):
But what we do at Christ for all nations is crusade evangelism. You know, it’s it’s is evangelism for the masses, Reinhardt Bunky, you know, from the very beginning it was getting so many people, as many people as possible, even exposed to the gospel and to accept Jesus as Lord and savior at one time. And so what that means is that,uyou’ve gotta be ready to preach. You’ve got to have that passion, that evangelistic spark, that fire inside of you to preach the gospel. You’ve got to be able to communicate it with passion, with animation. You gotta be able to stand in front of a crowd and hold their attention. And,ujust, just communicate the power of the gospel. So that’s one thing you gotta be called to be an evangelist,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:55):
But really there are good people
Levi Stewart (13:58):
Features out there that wouldn’t make it on the field, especially in places like Africa with sea fan. Because you’ve also got to have the intangibles. I actually just had a meeting with the Vangelis Kalinda yesterday, where we were kind of talking about how each one of our students did in the field. And he said, Levi, I want you to tell me how they did with ministry. And we talked about that for a few minutes. He said, but I also need to know how did they do with the intangibles and what he means by that is look, do they have a good attitude? Were they on time? Were they dependable? Were they humble? Were they reliable? Were they teachable flexible? So much of this crusade work that happens in places like Africa just requires you to come in with a spirit of humility, be willing to be used by God to understand that it’s not about you or your ministry, but it’s about a bigger vision and it’s about the harvest. And so really, I would say we need evangelists and we need humble evangelists. People that are willing to go low people that are willing to work hard, get their hands dirty and to do the work of the ministry.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:02):
Amen. Those are the types of evangelists that God can use. That’s awesome. And, and on the mission field, you never know what’s going to happen. So you have to be flexible. You have to be ready. Sometimes you have one plan and then the plan completely changes, but the best are ready for whatever is coming. So you’re going to do another school, another,uubootcamp for evangelists coming up. Uand you’re, you’re doubling the size of the class. Tell me some of what is going to happen in this next coming year.
Levi Stewart (15:41):
So when we started this thing evangelist Glenda said, we need to find out and make sure that we know what we’re doing first. And so we started with a small class of about 50 evangelists. And so we worked with them for six months. We kind of figured out what we needed to teach. We figured out what was necessary, the theology and the academic stuff, as well as the practical hands-on and how much time and work did we actually need. And then how much how many students could we actually train in this amount of time? So we figured out some things in this first class. And so, as you mentioned in January of next year, 2021, we will be having our second class of evangelism boot camp. And we are, you know, intrusive fan fashion, doubling, and actually even going a little bit beyond that with our second class.
Levi Stewart (16:26):
And so evangelists Kolenda, it wants 120 students for this January, but what we’ve been able to do. And I think this is really remarkable and just speaks to evangelists. Glenda’s innovation is that we’ve been able to actually make this fast track to the field even faster. And so, as you know, as a part of our of our teaching faculty for the first class we did a lot of teaching in the classroom on on components of the crusade, organizing the crusade, preaching the followup, the working with local churches. We also brought in a number of speakers. They kind of just came in and did more of like an inspirational motivational, shared their heart and share their testimony type of thing. And I’m talking about world-class evangelists, you know yourself, Todd white, Michael kuleana. We had a number of people, Ben Fitzgerald that came in and really shared from their experience.
Levi Stewart (17:21):
And what we found was that there was so much value in that. But what we’ve looked at for this year is kind of putting all of those motivational speakers, those inspirational speakers, we’ve put them all kind of in the first week of the bootcamp. And so in order, and because we’ve done that, we’ve actually been able to shorten the overall program to three months. So what this is going to look like is beginning in January, beginning 26th, running through April 16th, we’re going to have 120 students here in Orlando. The primary instructor is going to be evangelist Daniel Kolenda. We will bring in some other world-class high quality evangelists, and those will kind of all be condensed into the first week of training. They’re going to share from their experience. They’re going to lay hands on you. There’s going to be fire. It’s going to be amazing. But then for the rest of that three month period, Daniel Kolenda is really going to give you a streamlined version of the evangelism bootcamp content. And then in three months, that class will also be ready to take another three week trip to the field. And we’re going to be we’re going to be more than doubling the number of evangelists that are out there hitting the ground and getting people saved.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:36):
I think this is such a tremendous idea because this program could significantly accelerate the ministry of someone who’s called to be an evangelist. There there’s many different things that you need to perfect in order to, to be in evangelist, to be an effective evangelist. And it could take you five years, 10 years, 20 years to learn some of those things. But yet in three months you could cut an entire decade off of someone’s ministry, learning curve and release them out into the field, ready to preach, ready to launch out into ministry. And that’s what it’s going to take in order to bring in a harvest of souls that is going to be on precedented in history. I think there’s going to be more people that will get saved in the next few years than we’ve seen in the past 2000 years of Christianity. It’s harvest time. Jesus is coming soon and we need to make every single second count for God. And so that the evangelism bootcamp is going to be such a significant part of releasing evangelists out into the field. And when I look into the future and see the vision, I think that the students that you’re training here are going to lead, not just hundreds or thousands, but literally millions of people into the kingdom of God. Yeah.
Levi Stewart (20:06):
Amen. I mean, you know, one of the things that is unique about this is you said in three months, you’re probably able to knock off decades of just learning from what you would in a, another,ugoing about it another way. And part of that is Daniel, as you know, is evangelist. Kolenda has been leading Christ all nations for about 12 years. But before that, he was a part of this team of evangelists, Ryan, her bunkie. I mean, Steve fan has been doing this for almost 50 years. And,uwe’ve learned a few things along the way. I mean, you know, when, when evangelists bonky started, he didn’t have the huge crowds of hundreds of thousands in Africa. He started, he learned from a lot of mistakes. He built the, he built the team up in a lot of different ways. We tried things. He was, he was innovative and evangelist Glenn has been the same way he’s he came under and learned from evangelists bunkie for a number of years has been leading the ministry now from 12 years.
Levi Stewart (21:05):
And so there’s just a lot of things that that C fan has done and has learned over the years. And the thing is, as an evangelist, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You don’t have to start from nothing, a blank slate to go out there and do the work. What I personally think I’ve experienced a little bit in this is getting to know some of these evangelism students is that sometimes evangelists, of course, they’re, they’re men and women of action. And so they want to, they want to go and they want to go yesterday and, and get, and get on the field and do the work. And as important as that is. And as you said, it’s harvest time. We need to be busy about doing the work. I just feel that a few strategic months of, of, to me, invaluable training can save you years of learning hard lessons in the field. And I believe that is really what the evangelism bootcamp is designed for.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:00):
So you’ve just returned from Tanzania leading this team of students from last year who, who went and were initiated into evangelism. Can we finish with one of the best stories or testimonies of what the team experienced there in Tanzania?
Levi Stewart (22:16):
Yeah. You know, so, so I think that one of the things that was just remarkable for me, that I’ve never experienced before, as you mentioned, is that we, we were doing a lot of ministry in the schools. And to think, you know, as an American, the idea of going into a school and preaching the gospel with a bunch of children, giving them a chance to respond to Jesus and to be saved, you would just, it’s just such a foreign concept. I think to us, even as Westerners, you know, Americans, it’s like, you would just think, well, that’s a closed area. What the thing is in many places in the world is not just Africa. It’s not closed. One of the things that I have learned. And, hnd I think this is just being around ambitious, bold evangelists is the power of the ask is requesting.
Levi Stewart (23:05):
And so we’ve got some members on our team that sort of, that came to find out about the fact that these schools were open to the gospel and they found that out by asking. And so sometimes it’s just a simple request that can yield so much fruit. And so by just finding out the the availability of doing ministry in schools, as well as places like marketplaces. And there’s an ask there as well, talking to County commissioners and talking to city officials and that sort of thing, but what I’ve just seen is, is remarkable. And one of the things that really sticks out to me in terms of a testimony going into a lot of these schools and seeing,uso many Muslim students and you would go in, and some of these schools are predominantly Muslim. Some of them are almost, I would say a hundred percent Islamic and just their heart and openness for the gospel.
Levi Stewart (23:54):
And you would just think, and some people may even would even say, Oh, you’re just wasting your time going to the, Oh, that’s a Muslim city. That’s a Muslim school, that’s a Muslim area. Why would you even go in there with the gospel? And I tell you what though, what we’ve found is really that sometimes the light shines brightest in the darkness, literally thousands of Muslims. We’re a part of that, 165,000, probably tens of thousands of Muslims that were saved as a result, really of just the boldness to go and ask if they’re willing and open to hear the gospel, seeing kids raise their hands and sing a praise and worship song at the end of our gospel presentation saying that that Jesus is the way that Jesus is the truth. And then to get, to hear them give the opportunity. We saw Muslim, we saw Muslim women take off their burkas in response to the gospel.
Levi Stewart (24:45):
We saw Muslim people healed. We saw Muslims delivered demons cast out because of the, the boldness that our, that our students, our graduates had to approach them with the gospel. Even when I think others would have been, would have been shy or even too afraid to do so. Jesus loves Muslims. And so do I, Levi, thank you so much for being on the podcast. It’s great to have you on. Thank you so much, Daniel. It’s amazing. And let me tell you what, if you want to find out more about the evangelism bootcamp for January, 2021, let me encourage you. You can visit see fan bootcamp.org. That’s C F a N bootcamp.org. You can learn more. Uyou can,uyou can apply and,uwe’d love to hear from you. Thank you so much, Daniel. It’s been an honor to be your guest. Bless you
Evangelism Podcast Announcer (25:32):
For more information about how to share your faith or to financially support our worldwide evangelistic outreaches. Visit Kingministries.com. Again, that’s Kingministries.com.
