Joe Oden is the Evangelism Coordinator for the North Texas District of the Assemblies of God. His training materials are being used to coordinate local church outreaches all over the United States. On today’s podcast we will ask him how he is empowering Assembly of God churches to reach out to their communities.
Book: The Lightnings of God: https://amzn.to/3iHoY3q
Website: https://joeodenministries.com
Show Notes:
Joe Oden is
- The GO2020 National Coordinator for the Assemblies of God.
- The Evangelism Coordinator for the North Texas District of the Assemblies of God,
- And on the executive committee of Global Evangelism Alliance, a division of Empowerment 21.
- He is the executive director of a SUM Bible College and Theological Seminary extension site in the Dallas Metroplex and has served as an adjunct professor at several different Bible Colleges, including CFNI, Heartland School of Ministry, and SUM.
His goal is to to equip, ignite, and mobilize the local church for the great commission.
On this podcast, he answers the following questions:
Describe a “Love Your Neighbor Outreach Weekend”
How are you empowering Assembly of God churches to reach out to their communities?
Tell us about your “Empowered to Share” Online Course? https://joeodenministries.com/courses/empowered-to-share/
What does the name of your new book “The Lightnings of God” mean? What is a lightening of God?
In his powerful book, Joe imparts…
- Confidence for laying hands on the sick, and expecting healing.
- Strategy on positioning yourself for encounters with the fire of God.
- Boldness to prophesy and move in prophetic evangelism.
- Hunger for a prayer life filled with Holy-Spirit power.
- Practical tools for releasing God-encounters to the people around you.
What is the most powerful testimony you have of someone who was touched by God when you witnessed to them?
Listen to The Evangelism Podcast with Evangelist Daniel King, AKA The Evangelism Coach.
Transcription
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Joe Odin is the evangelism coordinator for the North Texas district of the assemblies of God. His training materials are being used to coordinate local church outreaches all over the United States on today’s podcast. We’ll ask him how he is empowering assembly of God, churches to reach out to their communities.
Evangelism Podcast Announcer (00:23):
Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Welcome to the evangelism podcast with dr. Daniel King we’re 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.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:59):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I am super excited about leading people to Jesus. And today I have a very special guest, my good friend, Joe Odin, and he is the go 20, 20 national coordinator for the assemblies of God. He’s also the evangelism coordinator for the North Texas district of the assemblies of God. And he’s on the executive committee of the global evangelists Alliance, which I’m on that committee too. So brother Joe, thank you for being on the podcast. Hey man, it’s great
Joe Oden (01:31):
To be here with you today, Daniel. Awesome.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:34):
So tell me a little bit about your ministry and what you do.
Joe Oden (01:38):
Yeah, well you know, in Ephesians four 11, where Paul set the parameters for the five fold ministry offices he used the word equip and that, that God has given some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. And you know, I’ve got friends that will say, well, I am a revivalist evangelist. And to me, Daniel, that’s like someone saying like a tiger identifying themselves with teeth. I mean, they should everyone knows they’ve got teeth and every evangelists should carry a revival. But the, I believe the mandate of the evangelist is to equip the believer to effectively share the gospel. And so being saved through the Brownsville revival, I have a burning passion for revival, but just as much as that to equip the believer to effectively share the gospel and move in signs and wonders.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:47):
So tell me, how do you equip believers to share the gospel? I was looking at your website and it described a love your neighbor outreach weekend. Tell me what does that look like and what do you do? Yeah,
Joe Oden (03:00):
Well, you know, one, one of the things that in the United States of America, there’s different stats, but one is that 93% of Christians in America will never share their faith. And so when you look at that, u,ere’s a, there’s a couple of reasons. And the one I want to focus on right now is one, they don’t know how to start a conversation. They don’t know what to say, and they don’t know how to communicate the gospel. So, so really those are the core places that I like to start. And if you say, how do you do that? If I had, if I had 20 minutes with a group of people and, uh,yknow, and that was it, I would make sure before I got up that they understood that how to share the Apostolic kerygmatic gospel, that man is deprived. Jesus came as a ruling King. That’s what Messiah is to the Jew, that he died on a cross that he Rose from the dead. And you’ve got to repent of your sins. I would, I would teach people how to communicate that if you boil it down.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:21):
So you go into a church and you teach that, and then how do you get people beyond the apathy of just sitting in the Pew and going out to where the lost are and actually sharing that message with?
Joe Oden (04:35):
Yeah, well you know when you talk about a love your neighbor weekend, I go in on a Sunday first, and really I share my story. I connect with the people, I ignite them. I get them to understand that anybody can lead someone to Christ. It’s not just for the pastor, the evangelist or the apostle that anyone can do it. So I share stories of how I’ve seen God move out in day to day activities. When I come back, I share how to share the gospel, how to move in the gifts of the spirit. And then we have a time of practice where we take them out into the community and they began to interact with people and begin to talk to them about Jesus. And more often than not, we find people that will say, Joe, I’ve never shared the gospel. I was scared to death to come today. I stepped out and did it, and now I’m going to be a lifelong soul winner. So it’s getting them to overcome that step of fear. And once they do, and you give them some tools, we really see great impact on not only the communities that they’re reaching, but their life personally, for the rest of their life.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:49):
Now you’re serving the assembly of God churches there in the state of Texas. What are you doing to help empower us
Joe Oden (05:59):
And of God churches to do more evangelism? Yeah, well it’s, it’s kind of what we’re talking about right now. You know, one of the things to even draw that back, another step is we, we, we talked about the five fold ministry a moment ago, you know, in Ephesians, I believe it’s four nine that Paul said that Jesus gave these gifts to the church. Usome translations say treasures. Imagine if there was a treasure in your backyard, you dig it up, you would you’d get it. You’d go after it. Rubies diamonds, pearls, you wouldn’t leave it buried. And oftentimes,uI say this in just a brokenness and a contrite anise pastors leave the treasure of the evangelists, locked in a chest with a deadbolt on it, and they never opened up that gift. So I would say how, you know, in how you mobilize churches, you’ve got to communicate to the pastor, the need for the evangelist and the mobilization. If you’re looking at ground level, that’s the first obstacle, the first,uthing that you, that you really have to do as an evangelist to communicate the urgency and the need for the pastor and come alongside the pastor and help them.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:36):
Your website is Joe Odin, ministries.com. And on your website, you’ve just put up a brand new course, a training course on empowering people to share the gospel called empowered, to, to share is that available for anyone to look at?
Joe Oden (07:56):
Yeah, right now it’s a, it’s a eight part video series book workbook. We’re giving it free right now. And if you do not feel comfortable in sharing your faith, maybe you, you’ve never shared your faith or you’re an evangelist, or you’re a soul winner and you’re engaged if you meet any of those fall in any of those categories, this is for you. It’s, it’s, it’s got real theology, but real practical application to help mobilize someone and make them a better soul winner.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:34):
And you just published a brand new book called the lightnings of God. What does that mean? What, what is the lightnings of God? Yeah.
Joe Oden (08:42):
You know, it, the, the statement originated from the great apostolic evangelists, John G Lake, whenever he would see a mighty miracle, a resurrection of the dead blind eyes opening the Mubarak, plague dying, he would say that was a lightening of God. And throughout our ministry we have seen in the marketplace, I’m not talking about in the local church, but you know people in witchcraft sections get hit by the power of God. People that are aren’t alternative lifestyles fall out under the power of God and the street getting prophetic words for people to where they come on done. And they’ve never had a word they’ve never, they’ve never tasted of the gifts of the spirit and get instantly saved. And, and so I like to think of those instances as a moment in time
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:36):
Where God’s lightening comes
Joe Oden (09:38):
From heaven and touches an individual and changes them forever. So I just basically wrote a book that shares those stories. It has power pack theology around it. So that really Cindy mother of three has been married 15 years attends church, but as afraid doesn’t want to mess up any situation and stepping out that she could read this book. And when she’s done, she would have an ignition and a fire and a faith that God could use her right now. That’s why I wrote the book.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:17):
Can you tell me the greatest story from your book of a time that the lightening of God came and changed? Someone’s life? Give me a testimony.
Joe Oden (10:27):
Yeah. I’ll give you a story. I was in a subway restaurant and I just preached and the the pastor and the youth pastor and I were at get something to eat. And there was a Buddhist behind the counter. And, you know, Daniel, I, I have a simple technique. Have you ever felt the power of God? I didn’t go into a long dissertation of the book of Romans. I just connected said, have you ever felt the power of God? She was a Buddhist. She said, no. I said, would you like to? She said, yes. So I said, can I pray for you? So I stuck my hand over the counter. I touched her on the shoulder and I just prayed a real simple prayer of faith filled, but simple Lord, touch her with the fire of God right now in Jesus name. Amen. The next thing she does is she gives me my sandwich turn around and walking out. I’m about to touch the door and she starts shouting. It makes sir, there’s something on me in the restaurant, you know, everybody’s there. The, you know, it’s open for business and she shouted again, sir, there’s something on me. When I turned around, I said the name above Islam, Buddhism, and the devil. I said, it’s Jesus. When I said that name, she doubled over under the power of God and began to manifest demons. Right, right. In the restaurant. Right in subway. Right?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:45):
You mean there’s demons here in America too. I know we see them overseas, but here in America and subway, there’s demons, there’s
Joe Oden (11:52):
Daemons, there’s Damons. And she’s manifesting you couldn’t depict it. A Hollywood actor, Daniel and seriously would have a hard time depicting and demonstrating. She was full out, looked like she was having an asthma attack. C O P D. She couldn’t breathe. She was gasping for air, like throwing up gagging. So I jumped the counter man. The sandwich making dude was tripping out, man. He’s like, dude, you know, but he didn’t Jack with us. And so I laid hands on her. She got delivered. A demons will let her to cry. She took her idols off. Totally got set free. And the cool part of the story is six weeks later, she calls me, I didn’t know she was a Buddhist on issues of Buddhist, but I didn’t know she was from China. And she’d only lived in America a couple of months. So out of,ufor the first time in her life, she hears the gospel.
Joe Oden (12:45):
She’s has an encounter with God, Buddhist, her entire life. One touch from God, changed her life. And then she says, she said, when you, when you shared with me that night, I knew it was real. Get this. She says this because about six weeks before I met you, she said, I had a dream and you were in it preaching me the gospel. I hung up the phone with her. And the Lord spoke to me and said,uJoe, I’m giving people dreams all over the United States of America. He said, this crystal clear, I am doing my job, tell the church to do theirs. And so I share it. That’s a powerful story, but I, but I, but I share that God’s doing his job. Jesus came, he died on the cross. He Rose from the dead. He sent the Holy spirit. He’s empowered us. What do we want Jesus to do parachute out of heaven and do all the work. He’s empowered us to do it. He’s done the work. Now we just need to do our part.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:59):
It’s amazing when God takes time out of his busy schedule to go and appear to someone in a dream to announce your arrival, you must be really special. Well, but the amazing thing is, is that you, that God working through you change that woman’s life just really tremendous.
Joe Oden (14:16):
This is another aspect. What would have happened if I’d have felt that leading and thought, no somebody’s behind me
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:25):
Or been embarrassed because it’s a Subway.
Joe Oden (14:28):
He could have done his job. And if I wouldn’t have done mine, God only knows what would have happened to her. Maybe he’d have had to give her another dream of somebody else. And so, you know, when you feel that leading follow it, because you have no idea what God has done on the other side to prepare the person or to orchestrate that step of faith. Oh brother, Joe, I love your ministry. You’re such a unique person. You are a scholar, but you are also an anointed minister of God. And so I just love the call of God. That’s on your life. Thank you so much for being on the evangelism podcast. Amen. And Lord, we just pray for everybody that’s listening right now. Lord, they tuned in today by the very nature of the podcast being evangelism. Lord, I pray that you light a fire in some individuals right now that they wouldn’t just say, man, that’s a cool story. Joe shared that there would be a provocation on the inside of them that says, God, I want to move in the power of God. And I want a story. God use them today in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
Evangelism Podcast Announcer (15:50):
Thank you 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.
