Telling the Story: Evangelism for Today’s Culture

Telling the Story: Evangelism for Today’s Culture

Nov. 1, 2024

Host: Dr. Isaac Crockett

Co-host: Hon. Sam Rohrer

Guest(s): Jerry McCorkle

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 11/1/24. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.

Isaac Crockett:   Well, thank you for joining us today. I’m Isaac Crockett and I’m joined by the Honorable Sam Rohr, the president of the American Pastors Network and the regular host of this program. And we have a special guest that I’m really excited to introduce to you today, somebody who’s going to talk to us about sharing the gospel with a biblical worldview, but sharing it through what we could call narratives, meta narratives, testimony, or just stories. That’s the easy way of calling it, just sharing the gospel through stories. Brother Jerry McCorkle, he’s the founder of Spread Truth Ministries. Jerry, thank you so much for joining us on this program today.

Jerry McCorkle: Well, it’s great to be here. It’s just an honor for me able to be able to be on this program with you guys.

Isaac Crockett:   Well, I’m so glad, Jerry, that we were able to, well, we bumped into each other I think almost literally. There was so much going on at the sing conference with the Getty Music, and of course we have a number of different folks from Getty Music that have come on our program and they talk about theology of music and different things, but we saw each other there. But I have been using resources from your ministry since the early days, I think, of your ministry starting and don’t know the last 15, maybe even longer than that, I think maybe almost 20 years ago that I’ve been using some of your resources. I don’t want to give all of that away right now, but it has been so neat to meet you in person and to find out even more about the opportunities and things that you’re doing and your YouTube channel and trips out to places and missions trips. So I introduced that you’re the founder of Spread Truth Ministries and you are still very involved there, but maybe you could just tell us a little bit about your ministry and what Spread Truth Ministries is seeking to accomplish.

Jerry McCorkle: Yeah, it was born out of a college and career ministry that I was pastor of in normal Illinois, and I was at the beginning of my ministry there with the college students. I was taking students to New York City each summer training them to share their faith and defend their faith. And people really got interested in the trip, so much so as that people in the congregation didn’t wanted to go with the college students and other churches wanted to go on this mission trip. And so we were now having a hundred, 200 people go on this mission trip. And then in 2001 when the towers went down, that put New York City then kind of on everybody’s mind and it really took off. So I was still the college and career pastor, but I developed a 5 0 1 C3 at that time and it was then called New York City Ministries and it was just primarily for us to have a nonprofit ministry that could take students and adults to New York City each year.

Jerry McCorkle: Well, it continued to grow and so long story short, in 2006 I stepped aside as the pastor of the College and Career Ministry to direct this ministry full time. And it was that year that we changed the name from New York City Ministries to Spread Truth Ministries. And we basically have a threefold mission. It’s kind of our gospel fluency model whereby it really exists to provide three things to believers. One would be gospel sharing resources, and maybe we’ll get into that in just a few moments. And then that leads into gospel ready training that we really want to be able to equip people in the MET narrative and how to engage the culture. And then the final part of the gospel fluency model is the gospel spreading opportunities to provide an outlet for people. And the reason we do go to New York City is to provide an outlet for people to take the resources and all their training and have kind of a week long, for lack of a better word, bootcamp, to be able to allow them to engage maybe one of the greatest international cities in the world with the purpose that they come back to their local environment and hopefully better equipped to be able to share the gospel.

Jerry McCorkle: So kind of in a nutshell that’s why we exist is to provide resources, training, and opportunities for people.

Sam Rohrer:       And Jerry, that’s excellent. Let me ask you a question in this regard because we talk about a lot on this program that is this, it sounds like what you are describing could be in the category of perhaps making disciples. On the other hand, it sounds an awful lot like evangelism in that aspect of it. Where do you actually fall and is it perhaps both?

Jerry McCorkle: I would say it’s both. Obviously we exist to equip people to be able to share the gospel, but we believe that facet of the Christian life is really an integral part of the discipleship. There’s so many things that would make up discipleship and the person following Christ, and we happen to think one of the key elements of training someone is in this area of evangelism. So we look at evangelism equipping as a part of the discipleship model of being able to help that believer hopefully come more mature in their Christian faith by not only obviously knowing the scripture, following the scripture in their daily walk, but a part of that daily walk is being equipped to be able to share Christ with their friends and family.

Isaac Crockett:   And it’s just fascinating to me that this came out of local church ministry all the way in the Midwest going to New York City, like you say, meeting people from all over the world there. And that’s what really influenced and helped you develop the style, I guess you could say, of this evangelism and evangelistic training. I’m just curious, we hear a lot more nowadays about narratives and people’s meta narratives and their life narrative. Can you maybe explain some of that terms and how the telling of stories, what that means maybe for people on an individual level?

Jerry McCorkle: Yeah, it was back in 2006 that I heard a sermon and the speaker said, listen, the way we share the gospel is going to have to change. He said, because people have changed. He said, there used to be a time in America where there was the term he used a Christ haunted. Not that these people had actually trusted Christ, but they had somewhat of a working knowledge of basic things about the Bible. It was already in their DNA. So when you came along then with your normal evangelism programs and they’re all good, whatever one you want to talk about, but let’s say evangelism, explosion or four spiritual laws, whenever you shared that back then the people could connect the dots because they already had somewhat of a background. He went on to say that that group of people is shrinking in America. So we need to come up with something that covers the whole story, the Bible of creation, fall redemption and restoration. And that’s another way of saying the meta narrative or a biblical theology. It’s just looking at the Bible is not just six or 700 and maybe more individual stories, but all of those stories are a part of one story

Jerry McCorkle: That’s going somewhere. Okay. And we’re a part of that story. And so when I heard that, I thought, well, maybe we at Spread Truth could come back since we’re constantly in New York City, that we could write something that would give that 50,000 foot view of the Bible for that believer who doesn’t have that background.

Isaac Crockett:   Oh, that’s excellent,

Jerry McCorkle: Two,

Isaac Crockett:   That’s so great. That’s what we need in this day and age, our researcher that we connect with a lot, George Barna, who’s on this program regularly has explained how far away our nation has come from that biblical worldview that used to be kind of inherent even over in Europe. Same thing going on. So we want to talk more with Jerry McCorkle from Spread Truth Ministries. We’re going to be right back. We’re going to take a little time out to hear from our partners. We’ll be right back on Stand in the Gap today.

Isaac Crockett:   Welcome back. I’m Isaac Crockett. And Sam Rohr and I are talking with our friend Jerry McCorkle from Spread Truth Ministries. That’s www dot spread truth altogether, no spaces, spread truth.com for their website. And we’re talking about stories, and I know in my family, my dad and my grandfather, they loved telling stories, family stories, bible stories, all kinds of different stories that they would tell. And so it was natural for me, Sam, I know you and I were talking even before we were both about to go overseas that what do we preach on? And one of the things I’d been told by an older was to preach a lot of narratives, preach on passages that are narratives, but tell stories from your life as well. And that was very good advice overseas. But I think it’s also a good advice that I try to do on a regular basis in my own church when I’m preaching.

Isaac Crockett:   I often relate to the application and the instruction through stories that people can understand. And so we’re talking about meta narratives, narratives or just telling stories. What is the story of the Bible? This is something we’ve often talked about because on our program we talk about biblical worldview, seeing the entirety of scripture, not just little pieces all kind of fragmented out, but seeing how all of scripture works together. And so Jerry, you were talking about that and how the Lord worked in your life to bring about being from a pastor that was taking young people to New York City to witness to actually starting this group that’s now spread Truth ministries. And as we look at scripture, we see neat tools that help us tell the story of Jesus Christ. We talk about the gospel, and that’s really what that story is for you. How did having a biblical worldview inform your approach to putting the gospel into a story format?

Jerry McCorkle: Well, I think one of the things has helped solidify the very things that we’re talking about is when looking at two different passages of scripture, one Acts chapter two and Acts then 17. You see in Acts chapter two that the apostle Peter is preaching the gospel to the Jews there in Jerusalem, the people who already had a background, they knew the Old Testament law, they knew many of them had memorized the Old Testament scriptures. And so when Peter stood up to preach, he could begin with Jesus. And they even believed in a promised Messiah they had rejected Jesus, but they did believe in a promised Messiah. So he could start there in the middle of the sermon and a middle of the story and they could get it. When you go to Acts 17 and Paul’s now in Athens with these people who have no understanding of Christendom, and so you’re going to see that when he walks into the Agora or the marketplace, they’re in Athens with the people who do not have any background, then he’s going to have to start with God the creator, the beginning of the story.

Jerry McCorkle: So I think what that kind of teaches us as we look especially in our western culture as a post-Christian culture, that more and more people are going to be like the people in Athens than they are in Jerusalem. And a friend of mine says, we no longer live in Jerusalem, we live in Athens. And I think it’s just a healthy approach anyway, to be able to see the scripture as one story and then how it flows and how all of these stories do fit together. And I think people are looking for some type of story that explains life, that explains them. And so the story has to have the power to explain, and we’re trying to share with them that we know that story. It’s the one story that governs the world and it has explanatory power. It explains how things began, it explains how things have gone wrong and explains the deep desire for hope and that’s in Christ. And then it explains too what happens when once we pass away. So all the key questions of life are answered in this one story. And so we believe that’s the story. We have to equip people to be able to share in a very natural way. And we believe story resonates maybe sometimes better than just though propositional truths are important. I think that to weave the propositional truths within a narrative will be better as far as people being able to understand and receive it.

Sam Rohrer:       Jerry, I’m thinking as you are talking and we’re talking about this, talking about stories often say this and people understand this, that when we talk about history, it’s really about his story, Christ’s story. That is the story we’re talking about. It’s that larger narrative, the meta narrative as you’ve described it, in which we find our piece here today, but we can connect it to those who went before us and it will connect to those who come after us. That’s a profound thought. It may be obvious here, but I want to expand upon it a little bit. Jesus was a storyteller, was he not? So many things were done in the form of parables in the application, bringing meaning to a certain circumstance. But why is it? And do people respond differently when there’s truth told in the form of story, say for instance a child versus an adult, or are we just all hardwired to understand truth in the form of a story?

Jerry McCorkle: I think one of the foremost experts in the world on the brain is a professor out of Oxford, Ian McGilchrist and all of his research on the brain, he kind of shares the fact that the brain has kind of had two different hemispheres and many people are familiar with that. On the one side of the brain is where your logic and analysis and where you break things down, and that’s extremely important. The other side of the brain is where they say it’s narrative, it’s story, it’s emotions, it’s feelings, and they work back and forth together. But he made an interesting observation, and I think John Lennox followed up on this, is that in engaging people nowadays, we’ve sometimes been very scared to engage people with the gospel because we think, oh man, they’re going to ask us so many questions about the science and the existence of God or the proof for the resurrection and all those things are important.

Jerry McCorkle: But he says, really, it’s the other side of the brain where people are really asking the questions nowadays, and that’s why am I here? What’s my purpose in life? And so that’s kind of encouraging for all of us who say, listen, I don’t have a degree in apologetics and I can’t answer all the difficult questions, but I can tell you the story of Jesus and I can tell you the story of how he changed my life. And that’s really questions are coming from in this day and age. And so I think Jesus wired our brains. I mean, you think about going and listening to a sermon sometimes and the guy says, I’ve got five points here, and he gives you five points on a Sunday, and then he tells a story that’s involved with it. And let’s say a week later, what do you remember?

Jerry McCorkle: Well, if we’re honest, we probably struggle remembering all five points, but we remember the story that he told because our brains are wired to process information like that. And as Sally Lloyd Jones talks about, the story can do more, it can really transform us. It’s the ability to engage someone in story. And so I think the reason Jesus used stories so much is because he knows in his creation of us that he has wired our brains that we receive things and understand things in a better way. And so I think that that’s why it’s so important for us to know the men air, but it’s also important for us to know our own story and be able to weave the two together because there’s certain things on the inside of the human heart, the deep desires and longings and hopes, and that’s what’s driving people and I think a mere conversation and being a good listener, you’re going to hear their story, listen to their framework, and then show how their story can fit into God’s stories.

Isaac Crockett:   That is really helpful Jerry. And in our next segment, I want to talk more about the story film.com, but I do want to just mention it now for some who are just listening right now, if you go to the story film.com, just the story film no spaces.com, you’ll see the story, the S meta narrative that Jerry keeps talking about. Beautifully done artwork and music and everything, just you have to see it if you’ve never seen it before, been using this resource. But I love what you’re saying about listening. Jerry, we don’t have much time left in this segment, but could you explain the importance of listening to others in order to share God’s truth with them?

Jerry McCorkle: Well, first of all, I think it shows respect. Oftentimes we look at people as projects rather than people. And here’s the important thing I think about listening is what my dad used to say to me, he’s passed away now before going to New York City. He says, Jerry, just remember and you going out there that God’s already been there in their life. Now they may not necessarily be cognizant of all the events that have happened in their life that it’s really kind of God’s divine work, but if you listen close enough and you ask the right questions, you’ll see that God’s already been at work in certain things in their life, and you can then take those things as kind of a starting point. And so I think listening to a person’s story gives respect. It shows already where God is working in their life, and I think if you listen with gospel ears, you’ll see where they’re putting their hope and trust in and then you’re able to just engage them to say, Hey, how’s that really working out for you, you think? And get them to open up and share.

Isaac Crockett:   I love that getting them to open up. I love that gospel ears listening with gospel ears not listening so that we can correct them not listening so that we can say, I spiel and mark off a list of numbers of people we’ve witnessed to but listening so we can understand where they’re at. That’s exactly what Jesus did and Paul and the Apostles and I love that. That’s what really the evangelism is. It’s listening and then sharing with them this story. And we’re going to talk about the story film that you all do at Spread Truth Ministries and how that’s been such a powerful tool. I’ve used it. I hope those listening today will end up using that as well. We have a lot more to talk about with Jerry McCorkle from Spread Truth Ministries will be right back. I’m standing the gap today. Well, welcome back to the program.

Isaac Crockett:   I’m Isaac Crockett. And Sam Rohr is here also as a co-host. And we’re talking with Jerry McCorkle of Spread Truth Ministries about using stories, narratives to share the gospel. And that includes using the stories that are in the Bible using the overall meta narrative, the entire Bible as a story, what God is doing and what he’s communicated to us, as well as using our own personal life stories, our own testimonies and sharing with others. And then as we heard even in the last segment, listening to the life stories of other people, listening to what people have to say and the stories of their lives and helping connect them to Jesus Christ. That’s what it’s all about. So if you’re just joining us, I would encourage you to go back and listen to the entire program. The best way that I like to listen to the program is on our app Stand In the Gap app.

Isaac Crockett:   If you have an iPhone in the iTunes store or on Android and free to download, free to use with all of our archives, TV and radio and other things, you can also listen to us on your favorite podcast player. I have a number of pastor who listen to us on their favorite podcast player, but I would encourage you to listen to this and maybe share it with others and then go, in this case today where we’re talking with Jerry from Spread Truth Ministries, I’d encourage you to go to their website, spread truth.com, spread truth.com, or if you haven’t seen it yet, one of the things that I’ve been using for many, many years, especially in the different church plants and outreaches, it’s interesting that you started it in New York City because working in a church in the Ponos Church plant, we would go into New York City and help other church plants and things and using this resource called The Story Film.

Isaac Crockett:   You can find it@thestoryfilm.com with no spaces, the story film.com, a powerful video track. We’ll have you talk more about it, Jay, because I don’t know how to describe it to somebody who’s not watched it, but I would just say go watch it. Five minutes of really helpful media, it will help you know how to share the gospel better, but it becomes its own gospel resource tool in and of itself. So well Jerry, with that, let’s come back to you and if you could maybe tell us a little bit about this short video called The Story. Any insights on how it came about? I know you’ve told us about the New York City Ministry that kind of got a lot of your ministry going, but I just find it fascinating and it’s been one of the most effective gospel resources that I’ve been able to use over the last probably 15 years or more.

Jerry McCorkle: Well, we started off obviously with the story booklet, which we now have printed almost 3 million of those. And then we went into story training. And then what is ironic, as a boy that I taught at Calvary Baptist Academy, he ended up his family. They were our neighbors. His name is Phil Boris is one of the best animators that there is out there. He’s phenomenal. And he was on our staff for a few years and we had the opportunity to develop the story film, which was a long process and expensive process, but we wanted to make sure we did it right and we wanted to make sure that it was done in such a way. I tell people, I don’t mind people tripping up over the gospel. I don’t want them tripping up over the fact that we did something poorly. And so I would rate this animation up with any animation.

Jerry McCorkle: We wanted to make sure of all the right orchestrated background music, which was scored specifically for us, the right voice is being used and make sure it’s all vetted. So strong doctrinally and all within five to six minutes. And we’ve been blessed over these years to partner with Transworld Radio, whereby now we have it in 28 different languages and it’s contextualized. So if you happen to watch it in Arabic, you’ll see that the film originally has skyscrapers, but in the Arabic version we’ve changed it to dome buildings. We’ve added layers of Arabic music. And so what we’ve tried to do in working with Transworld Radio, they’ll do the translation and the voiceover in country. Then it’s sent back and vetted in Raleigh, North Carolina at the Transworld radio offices. And then we get it and it’s put into the actual animation. We’re in the midst right now, probably within the next four or five weeks, and probably by mid-December, the app is now being rebuilt.

Jerry McCorkle: It’s still up now, but just bringing up the par, so it’s going to be even better come the middle of December. And the nice thing about the app is it’s the gospel in your pocket. So if I meet somebody and they don’t, as I did in New York City with a guy from Haiti, didn’t speak good English, I just turned it to the Haiti version and we watched it right there. Or you might, let’s say, meet someone from mainland China and you don’t have time to talk with them, say, listen, can I share a story that just changed my life? And he gets that story film contextualized for him. And so you may not always have your Bible with you, but most of the time we do have our phones with us and I can’t think of a better tool to leave them with. And with the new version that’s coming out just to follow up tools and things like that, it’s just real exciting. We hope to the 28 languages cover about 4 billion people on the planet here, but as the Lord allows us to get financing, we would love to have many, many more languages, but we have a lot of the major languages already translated. So yeah, that’s one of our films. And then we had the same thing for children called The Story Maker

Sam Rohrer:       And Jerry, that’s where I wanted to go with it. Right now delineate just a little bit more so that our listeners can get an understanding of what you have. You have the story itself. I was just looking at it here on my computer. It is extraordinarily done. You have the one for children. Tell us again, what resources do you have? Where can people find them?

Jerry McCorkle: Okay, well, if you go to spread fruit.com, of course you’ll get a broad version of all the different things we have, but we do have the story booklet, the story training and the story film. It’s kind of like the Apple ecosystem. You’ve got all these different things, whether it be the iMac or the Apple phone or whatever, and they all connect together. So we’ve got the story films and those things. Then we have the story maker and we also have a booklet and we also have a film. And so we have that that’s available for children to show them how they fit into in a visual way, God’s grand plan and their place in that story there. And so the same thing that we have for the story we do have for children in the Story maker, because we have the booklet, we have training and we do have the film.

Jerry McCorkle: Then we also have some other films that we’ve done. One that’s had a lot of clicks on it that we did two years ago, it’s called The Man on the Middle Cross. And I won’t get into all of it, but if a person wants to go there, they’re able to see that. And I think it’s just a great encouragement. We’ve had over 400 and some thousand clicks on it, and we’ve also got a booklet that goes with that on the Man of the Middle Cross. And so yeah, we’ve got a lot of different resources there. And so it’s just kind of like tools in the tool belt. You may not like all of them or need all of them, but maybe there’s something that’s there. And with the children’s story maker, we also sell a lot of the story bracelets. And the bracelets have four colors and the colors represent each part of the story.

Jerry McCorkle: So the green represents creation. And then we have a blue bead and we kind of take off on the word blue, meaning sad, I’ll have a blue Christmas. Everything that’s out in the world is because of sin. And then we have the red bead, which represent, of course, Christ coming into the world, shedding his blood. And then the yellow bead stands for the brightness of heaven. And especially at Halloween time, many people order these bracelets. Church ordered, I think, I don’t know, was it two or three or 4,000 of the other day? And so they’re really, really popular and many people have come to know Christ through the gospel bracelet. So we have a lot of children, a lot for adults, and kind of following that same pathway, we kind of want to stay in our lane. If we get outside of our lane, we probably don’t do very well. And there are other ministries that can do other things better than we can, but we’re going to focus on trying to do the very best we can to have innovative resources and then innovative training, and then opportunities for you to engage people with the gospel in New York, and I’ll throw this out there, we do have five full-time staff in Kenya. And so God’s doing an amazing work in Kenya, and we’ve been there about six years. They’re all Kenyans that are on staff with us there in Nairobi.

Isaac Crockett:   Well, that is truly incredible. And of course Sam and I were just talking today about Nairobi and the importance that Kenya plays in Africa and throughout the world. Sam just came back from some time ministering to pastors in Nairobi here just recently, and with the story, the tracked version of it, and I’ve used the online, that movie, the film, which has now been shared almost 10 million times. And that’s one of the neat things about it too. If you use the app or even go to their website, the story film.com, or if you go to Spread Truth Ministries in your app store, look for that and find their story app. You can see how many people have viewed that track, that video as a result of you sharing it. Really, really neat. Well, we are almost to the end of this segment, and we’re going to come back and we have more questions for you, Jerry, but I have just found this fascinating how important it is to know the word of God and to see it completely.

Isaac Crockett:   That’s what we’re talking about with a biblical worldview and that we see everything. I love the wording. You described it as gospel lenses and gospel ears. We listen with gospel ears and we look for opportunities to share the story of what God has done in our lives, the story of what God has done through sending Jesus Christ. So we’re going to take another quick time out to hear from some of our partners, and then we’re going to come back and wrap things up with Jerry McCorkle from Spread Truth Ministries as we look at the importance of stories, especially the story of the gospel. We’ll, welcome back to the program. I’m Isaac Crockett and Sam Rohrer, my co-host for talking with Jerry McCorkle of Spread Truth Ministries. They’re the ones that have the resources including the story film, which you can find@thestoryfilm.com or the app. And they do other evangelistic training.

Isaac Crockett:   And so Jerry, you’ve been talking about that your ministry really started by these trips that you were taking people to New York City, kind of a missions trip, which I love the idea of going to some of our big cities here in America for missions trips because it is usually a very effective way of meeting people from all over the world and getting the opportunity to share the gospel. So I really appreciate that. And just as we’re wrapping things up, we’ve been talking about narrative and telling the narrative the story of the Bible, as well as listening to people’s personal stories and showing how God has intervened in our life with his grace through the gospel and our stories. Just wonder, Jerry, your final words to a Christian who’s listening today that maybe they’ve been scared, like you were saying, so many times we get scared of sharing the gospel because we’re afraid about the questions we might get and how am I going to answer the apologetics or the this or that, but what you could also do to help him or her who might be listening and wanting to share the gospel to help motivate them to share the gospel with someone.

Jerry McCorkle: Yeah, I think one of the things too is first of all, none of us have it down. The only reason I can kind of speak to this topic is because I failed a lot at it. And I think if people can understand a couple of things that first of all, anybody can be a good listener. Second of all, they do all have a story that they can share, which is powerful. And then third, I think sometimes people think, well, it’s only extroverts that are really good at this type of thing. But I’m here to tell you that being an introvert sometimes can be to your advantage. I’m an extrovert. I’m not necessarily super intimidated to have conversations with people, but the danger in that is that people may think I’m a pretty good salesman. I’m trying to sell, but a person who may be a little more laid back, contemplative, good listener, engaged when it’s appropriate, even an introvert can sometimes have a better position to share that even an extrovert.

Jerry McCorkle: So that’s another thing. And then under understanding some of the basic things about God’s story, and I think if again, we go back to Colossians chapter four where Paul said, Hey, listen, he just prayed for an open door. He prayed that when that open door came that he prayed that he would be able to speak it clearly. And that’s what we constantly want to pray. And then he says, Hey, make the most of the opportunity and God’s going to provide those opportunities in various ways, but understand you don’t have to do the gospel dump truck. We think, Hey, listen, I’ve got this person here and I’ve got to dump it all on them Again, realize God’s working in their life before you ever got there. You may be able to do a little bit, plant the seeds, pushing them forward a little bit, but you don’t feel like you have to dump everything on them.

Jerry McCorkle: And then Paul goes on to say that he said, let my words be gracious, always gracious, seasoned salt so that I know how to answer every man and every man’s going to be different. And so the way you engage one person may be a little different than the way you engage another person because of where they’re coming from. But Paul, I think gives us some great principles about our spirit, about our prayer life, about making the most of the opportunity. And I think if you’re a good listener, when you go to one Peter three 15 and you said, we need to be able to answer every man for the reason of hope that lies within us, that’s assuming they’re the ones asking the questions, not necessarily always us going forth with all the information. So there is this aspect, I think if you’re a good conversationalist, and that’s something we’ve all got to work on, they will ask questions and then, hey, just, and if you don’t know the answers, just be honest with them. They’ll respect you, and you can just say, Hey, listen, I’m not sure I know that answer, but hey, listen, if we can get back together again, I’ll do my very best to try to find out and research it out and just be a light just wherever you’re at in practical ways. When I think about Christmas time doing, getting gifts for your neighbors and planting little seeds here, maybe with a booklet here, Halloween handing out story maker things or bracelets, all little things that you can do.

Jerry McCorkle: And I think just going back to the story film, if you’re struggling with conversation, anybody can send something to someone, say, listen, can I send you a story that just changed my life? Maybe that’s the first step that you do. And we’re all in the process of learning how to do it and do it better. And so I would just encourage people that way and that we’re all in the same together. We all struggle with it.

Isaac Crockett:   Yeah, I love that that takes so much of the pressure off because like you said, God is working in people’s lives already. And for us to be that light walking as children of light and assuming they’re the ones asking us a question, we’re answering. And I cannot even begin to recall the number of times working in secular workplaces or secular grad school that I was surprised at how much interest people had in my worldview and they came to me asking me the questions. It wasn’t that I had to go hunting them or something. It’s that fishing that being fishers of men where our life should hopefully be that lure that brings them to the light of Jesus Christ. So well, Jerry McCorkle, I’m so thankful for what you’re doing at Spread Truth Ministries and what the Lord has done, how he has used that. It’s been such a help to so many of us, and I thank you so much for being on our program, and I find it very interesting again that we didn’t talk about this ahead of time, but just even you’re mentioning that you have such a ministry in Kenya, and Sam, you of course just came back fresh off this trip a couple of weeks ago in Nairobi speaking to pastors and then also government leaders.

Isaac Crockett:   So same as we get ready to close the program, I’d love to just go to you to get your last words, but maybe you could tie some of this in and also maybe you could reveal some kind of big news that I think you’ve already talked about on the radio for our listeners that does revolve around this idea of the connection there in Nairobi.

Sam Rohrer:       Well, absolutely Isaac, and it’s a part of what we’ve been talking today with Jerry, basically relating a story on this program. We tell stories, well, what about the truth of the gospel and different perspectives? And it made me think of what I’ve tried to teach my grandchildren. My children are grown now and a lot of grandchildren. But even when it comes to sharing the gospel, you don’t have to know a lot to share the gospel. Just kind of think of yourself as one hungry person who knows where there’s food, and you can tell somebody else who’s hungry, where to find food. Just share your story. You don’t have to make definitive statements. This is what happened to me. And it’s amazing how that little story, everybody’s got one, just share it. The Lord will use it in tremendous ways. But taking us to Kenya, when Jerry was just talking a little bit ago about having a team there in Nairobi, I thought, wow, isn’t that something?

Sam Rohrer:       Because maybe God’s doing something here in this program that we didn’t think about. But as a result of the trip to Kenya, the Lord has opened the door where they have a large radio station, a Christian radio station that is there in Nairobi with five translators that take it across Kenya into Uganda and Ethiopia and some other places around. It’s a large footprint, but this program that we’re talking about here right now, this one Stand in the Gap Today and Stand in the Gap Minute, which was in this program, heard twice. And our weekend program Stand in the Gap weekend is now going to be heard across Kenya and those countries beginning on Monday of this next week, November 4th. And believe it or not, and this was not a plan, it’s just the way the Lord works things out, is that this program here, because every program there will be a day later, so our Monday programs will be heard there on Tuesday because of the time change and Tuesday and Wednesday. But this program here will be heard, the first program Monday in Kenya. That’s an amazing thing, Jerry. God bless you, brother. We got to talk further.

Isaac Crockett:   Amen. Well, thank you again, Jerry McCorkle from Spread Truth Ministries. Thank you Sam Rohr for co-hosting and for your words of wisdom there. And welcome, Nairobi to Stand in the Gap Media and thank you all of you for listening, and I hope that until next time, you’ll stand in the gap for truth wherever you are.