(Duluth, GA) God is on the move in rural America, where as many as 70 percent of the population is unchurced.
K-LOVE's Monika Kelly sat down with evangelist and pastor Rick Gage, founder of Go Tell Ministries.
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Monika: I'm so pleased to have the founder of Go Tell Ministries, Rick Gage, with me today. So good to have you.
Rick: Hey Monika, good to be with you.
Monika: Tell me a little bit about what led you to found Go Tell Ministries and exactly what is it that you do?
Rick: Well, in 1984, I was a young ambitious assistant football coach at Texas Tech University. I happened to be a preacher's kid and my dad, Freddie Gage, was a long time evangelist for 50-plus years and saw more than a million souls come to know Christ under his evangelistic ministry. But I was a prodigal. I was far from God. I was climbing the coaching professional ladder thinking that someday I'm going to become a big time football coach like a Nick Saban.
An evangelist by the name of James Robinson came to the city of Lubbock, Texas and to make a long story short, I went to go hear him preach on a Sunday night, January 15, 1984, in a local church there in Lubbock. And that's when God got a hold of my life. And during the altar call, I just made a beeline to that altar, got on my hands and my knees, weeping like a baby and just broken over the sin that was in my life. And I was like a thief who just got caught robbing a bank. I just surrendered. I said, 'God, here's my life. I want you to take it and I want you to use me however you want to use me.' Really, the attitude of my heart was, 'God, if you want me to go to Africa or some foreign land to be a missionary for you, I'll pack my bags tonight and I'll go.'
Well, two years later, after my conversion experience, I'm coaching football now at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. During those two years coaching the running backs at Liberty, Monika, I just lost the ambition and the desire for coaching. At one time, football and coaching was my God. And God had made it clear to me, being right in the Jerry Falwell Sr.'s worldwide evangelistic ministry there in Lynchburg, Virginia, had an incredible local church called Thomas Rowe Baptist Church and was building an incredible Bible college called Liberty University today.
While I was there coaching the running backs, God made it clear to me that it was calling me to the gospel ministry. So in January of 86, I surrendered to God's call to preach and to be an evangelist. Ephesians 4:11, God called some to be evangelists and really kind of followed in the steps of my father.
And then we launched Go Tell shortly after that. We started a camp ministry in '89 that has reached, I don't know, about 150,000 students and their leaders from churches across the nation. We do the Billy Graham-type of crusades across the nation in the smaller markets and using Billy's model for all of our evangelistic campaigns. We have a summer internship program for college students and we do a lot of work overseas. So we just counted a great honor to be on the front lines for the cause of Christ and to do all that we can to help advance the kingdom of God.
Monika: And so recently you had an event in Denham Springs, Louisiana. Tell us about that.
Rick: Yeah, Livingston Parish, Louisiana, Denham Springs, Louisiana, about 175,000 population. First Baptist Denham Springs has been sending their students to our Go Tell camp for the last two or three summers. And our camp ministry has had a real impact on their student ministry.
I reached out to their lead pastor more than a year ago and asked Leo Miller, I said, 'Leo, would you pray about getting some of the spiritual leaders there at Livingston Parish together? Let us come in and have a luncheon and cast the vision of having a future evangelistic outreach event there in Livingston Parish.'
And he said to me on that phone call, he said, 'Rick, I've already been praying about something like this.' So more than a year ago, we went in and met with the leadership, the spiritual leaders of that area.
Just last week, we had a campaign that reached over 13,000 over four nights. And we had over 1,300 decisions for Christ to God be the glory. We spoke to over 8,000 students in the public schools there in that parish.
We had a pre-Crusade student rally about a month before the campaign. And I think we had over 600 students at the pre-Crusade student rally. And I think some 70-plus of those students that night made decisions for Christ. But it was just a great event for the glory of God. And the key to the success of that recent campaign there in Denham Springs, Louisiana, was the leadership and the preparation. We learned back in the early 90s from the Graham Organization, if you're going to be involved in these large scale evangelistic campaigns, there's two things you got to have, leadership and preparation.
Prayer is part of preparation.
And that was one of the reasons why we had such a great spiritual impacting event was because of the leadership and the preparation there in that Livingston Parish region. Now, what was shocking to me is to find out that that whole area is largely unchurched. Yes, we were told by the area missionary Richard Blue that 90 percent of Livingston Parish, 175,000 population. He said 90 percent, Rick, is unchurched. And then the North American Mission Board here in Alpharetta, Georgia, did a study not long ago there in the metro region of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and said that more than 500,000 people in the metro region of Baton Rouge are lost.
So you and I call that a mission field.
Most of the areas that we go into across the nation, the unchurched population is going to be anywhere from 70 to 90 percent.
We all agree that the need and the urgency have never been greater. And when we go into areas like Eden Springs, Louisiana, we say to the spiritual leaders, let's come together in unity for one purpose to reach the large percentage of the unchurched people in this part of the world. And we have often said it's a lot easier to get a lost person to come to a football stadium to hear the gospel than it is to come to our sanctuaries at 11 o'clock on Sunday mornings. And we make it very clear up front that the purpose of this campaign is not a for all the saints, but it's an opportunity for the people of God, the saints of God, to work together, to pray together and to labor together, fast together for the purpose of reaching a high percentage, a large percentage of that unchurched population in that particular region.
Monika: And you also spoke of just bathing this whole event in prayer for a year prior to the actual crusade. How important is prayer?
Rick: Very important. Someone said it this way. All that God does, He does through prayer. So we just know from experience if you're going to have if your goal is to have a great major spiritual impact, it must be bathed in prayer. And in all of our campaigns, we have a prayer team. We have a prayer breakfast normally about a month or two before the campaign kicks off. But for months and months and months, the campaign is bathed in prayer.
Dr. Jerry Falwell once said that nothing of eternal significance ever takes place apart from prayer. So we are passionate about praying for these campaigns and for God, you know, using these campaigns for his glory and for the purpose of advancing the kingdom of God. Really, it's fulfilling the Great Commission. That's what it's all about.
And we let the prayer team know right up front. One of your key requests is make sure if it's an outdoor venue, make sure we have good weather during those days. And the weather during those days there, March the 16th through the 19th in Denham Springs, Louisiana, at their high school football stadium, the weather was beautiful.
Monika: Such a great example of answered prayer. So you're on the front lines. What do you see that God is doing across the nation?
Rick: You know, there are great pockets of moves of God. In fact, if you study, if you go in and do some research on movements of God, revivals, you'll learn that a lot of revivals and movements of God began with young people. We have 72 million Gen Zers today in America. Sad to say, we're told that 57 million of that number do not have a personal relationship with Christ. But we are hearing stories about moves of God that's taking place across the nation.
For example, you probably have heard some of the testimonies from some of these college campuses over these last couple years, what God's doing in that Gen Z demographic. You remember the revival that broke out in Asbury College there in Wilmore, Kentucky about two and a half years ago. I remind people that revival did not start because of a bunch of senior adults. It started because of a bunch of teenagers. So we are seeing God do a great work in the younger generation across the country.
You go back to the late 60s, early 70s, the Jesus movement, that was young people that God used to spark revival back out there in California that swept across the nation back in the '60s and '70s. So we praise God for the movements that we're hearing about, the revival that's taking place, especially among the younger generation. And God knows we need it here in this nation.
Monika: Now, looking back over your lifetime, did you ever think when you were so into football and coaching and all of that, that God would take you from that to this?
Rick: Never in my wildest dreams. Again, I was going to be a big time football coach for the older generation, I was going to be the next Tom Landry. I was born in Dallas, Texas. So I grew up being a Dallas Cowboy fan and had the honor to meet with Coach Landry more than once.
But after God got hold of my heart, Monika, in 1984, that Sunday night, there was such a desire and a passion in my heart for the whole world to experience what God had just done in my life. In fact, the next day after I got saved on Sunday night, the next day, Monday, I'm in the football building there at Texas Tech University, and I'm sharing with all the coaches on that staff what God just done in my life.
I went out to the weight room because we had a strength coach who was a very dedicated on fire Christian man of God, played professional football for the New York Jets and was very involved in Fellowship of Christian athletes. I always kind of kept my distance from Mike. But after I got saved on that Sunday night, he was one of the first guys that I went out to that I wanted to go share what God had just done in my life. And then he rejoiced and prayed with me there in his office and then introduced me to a Bible study that he was involved in. He said, 'Rick, I'm involved in a Bible study with a group of men. They have a passion for the word of God. They have a passion for lost souls. And I want you to get plugged in.'
I said, 'Mike, you tell me when and you tell me where. And I'm there. I'm all in.'
He said, 'Rick, we get together every Wednesday morning at 3 a.m.'
And I said, '3 a.m.? Man, you guys take this stuff serious.' Well, the following Wednesday morning, guess where I'm at? I'm inside of a home with a group of men who had a passion for the word of God. They had a passion for lost souls.
And it wasn't long after those Wednesday morning Bible studies, I'm at a Bible conference in Dallas, Texas. I hear a man by the name of Arthur Blessitt preach on that conference. And God used that message to stir my heart to be a soul winner. He gave an altar call to see if you want to commit your life to become a witness for Christ, a soul winner, a fisher of men, however you want to phrase it.
His message got my attention. And that morning of that Bible conference in Dallas, Texas, I got on my knees and I basically said, 'God, make me a soul winner. I want to be a fisher of men. I want to point people to Jesus. And that afternoon, we all went out witnessing with him as he carried his cross up and down the streets of Dallas, Texas. And it was that afternoon that I had the honor and the privilege to lead my very first soul to Christ.
I've been raised around Christianity. I've been raised around the church. My dad was an evangelist, but I had never led anybody to Jesus until that day. And I just told God that morning at that conference, make me a soul winner. I want to be a fisher of men. And then, like I said a while ago, it was two years later while coaching at Liberty that I just knew God was calling me to preach.
And oftentimes people say, well, how can you know? Well, I sat down with a man of God in Euless, Texas, who said these words. His name was Manly Beasley. He's in heaven today. But Brother Manly said, Rick, if God's calling you to preach, you will be miserable doing anything else. And was he ever right? My dad had always said, son, if you can do anything else, do it. If you can do anything else, do it. He wanted to make sure it was God calling me and not just something that I wanted to do. And obviously God's call was so heavy on my life, I had to surrender.
Dr. Falwell gave me a scholarship to go through their seminary, which I began and completed. And it's just been a great journey. Like I told you earlier, since 1986, it's been a great journey.
I don't know how much time we have left on earth, but I know what the mission of Christ was when he was on earth. It's found in Luke 1910. He said, the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. And that's the heartbeat of Go Tell. And it should be the heartbeat of every Christian and the heartbeat of every Bible believing church is to reach as many people for Christ as we can while we still have time here on this earth.
I've often said, 'God has no hands, but our hands, no feet, but our feet, no tongue, but our tongue to share the most precious gift one could ever know in his name is Jesus.'
Monika: Arthur Blessitt. What a great man of God. What a faithful man of God.
Rick: No doubt. He carried the cross on. He had a wooden cross with a wheel on the end, but he carried a cross on every continent in the world. If there was ever a cheerleader, ever a cheerleader for Jesus, it was Arthur Blessitt. And God used him to inspire me to be a fisherman for people that are wanting hope, wanting to know that there is still hope through Jesus Christ.
Jesus said it this way, Monika. Jesus said, 'I am the way I am the truth and I am the life. No one gets to the father but through Me. If you want to go to heaven, you've got to go through Jesus. The Bible says that we were born into the world, separated from God because of sin. And the scripture also says that the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord, the one who died on the cross for all of our sins. The Bible says that God proved his love toward us. And even though we were yet sinners, the Bible says, Christ Jesus died for us in Romans 10, the scripture says that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, he shows around the corner, you can be saved.
And then I believe that the greatest promise in all the Bible is found right there in Romans 10, 13, where the scripture says, and whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
And if a person is looking for hope and they want to know for certain that when this brief life comes to an end, that they will go to heaven. All they have to do is be willing to come to God on his terms, not mama's terms, not grandpa's terms, not even the church's terms, God's terms. God requires that we repent of our sin. That's turning your back on the world. That's turning away from sin and turning to God. And you place your faith and your trust in what Jesus did for us on the cross of Calvary. He died on a Roman cross, paid the penalty for all of our sin, our past sin, our current sin, our future sin. He was buried and rose again so that we could have eternal life in heaven. And so that would be my answer to anybody who is searching for hope, that they would place their faith and their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation.
Monika: Well, thank you so much, Rick Gage, again, founder of Go Tell Ministries. What is your website?
Rick: GoTellMinistries.com, GoTellAmerica.com, and they can get all the information right there on that website that talks about all the different outreaches of our ministry. To God be the glory.
Monika: Perfect. Thank you so much for your time.
Rick: Thank you, Monika. God bless you.
