More than 1,100 make decisions

More than 1,100 make spiritual decisions for Christ at Southeast Georgia GO TELL Crusade with Rick Gage

By Tina Kicklighter

WAYCROSS, Ga. (April 29, 2009) –There’s a reason people refer to evangelist Rick Gage as “the Small Town Billy Graham.” His Southeast Georgia Go Tell crusade on April 19-22 at Waycross Memorial Stadium drew more than 16,000 and resulted in 1,140 spiritual decisions for Christ with 673 salvations, 374 rededications and 93 other decisions. The event also featured Rick Stanley, stepbrother of the late Elvis Presley, and Dr. James Merritt, host of Touching Lives international broadcast ministries and founder and senior pastor of Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, Georgia.

"The Bible says that when one sinner comes to Christ, all of heaven rejoices. I know that this crusade made our Savior proud,” said Jerry Weathersby, chairman of Gage’s Waycross crusade. “We spent more than a year organizing and praying that God would bring a revival to our area. Clearly, He heard us and responded in a big way.”

Crusade plans began in October 2007 when event co-chair Bill Bryson recruited several local businessmen who prayed that God would remove denominational and racial barriers and bring a major revival. “God honored our prayers. It was a complete team effort for Jesus Christ. People forgot religion and banded together to see souls won,” he said.

The final night of the crusade – Youth Night – drew more than 7,500 and resulted in 564 spiritual decisions. The evening also featured a mini-concert with the Oswald Brothers, third place winners of CBS’s “Singing Family Face-Off” on The Early Show. Each night, the Go Tell crusade also featured worship leader Chuck Sullivan and musical guest artist Joy Fowler of Atlanta.

“I watched masses of people going forward on that final night. I have never witnessed anything like it – it was one of the most amazing moments of my life,” said Len Knowlton, who served as a counselor at the event. “As long as I live, I will never forget it.”

Gage and his crusade team also addressed approximately 6,000 students through assembly programs at area high schools and middle schools in five counties. The crusade team also visited inmates at the Youth Detention Center at Ware State Prison, where several inmates received Christ as their Savior. The event kicked off on Friday evening with a youth service at the Brunel Street Church of God and Gage preached on Sunday morning at Sweat Memorial Baptist Church.

“The crusade team’s mission was to get out into the community and touch as many lives as possible and share the Gospel with them,” said Gage. “No one rested until the stadium lights went down at about 1 a.m. on that final evening.”

According to co-chair Bryson, young people accounted for about half of the salvations and the oldest person saved at the crusade was 90 years old. He also cited a wheelchair-bound 76-year-old man who kept asking for someone to help him to get down to the grassy area on the field during the altar call. “Finally, someone heard him and helped wheel him down. He said that if no one had heard him, he was going to dump himself out of his chair and crawl forward,” said Bryson.

Other testimonies included a 32-year-old woman who was depressed because her husband had left her. A friend invited her to attend the final night of the crusade. “She was saved at the crusade and later admitted that she had planned to kill herself that night. God transformed her life and within days her husband came back,” said Bryson. “A teenage boy had also planned to kill himself on that same night. A friend invited him to the crusade and he was saved as well.”

Bryson says that several marriages were also reconciled during the event and that three people who had signed up as counselors were saved during the crusade, along with two church elders.

“Now the real work begins,” said Gage. “All participating churches will spend the next several weeks following up on those who made decisions during the crusade, helping new Christians find church homes and providing spiritual leadership to everyone who made a decision for Christ.”

For more than a decade, Gage – a former college football coach turned evangelist – has filled high school football stadiums with crusades in small communities throughout America. Using Billy Graham’s strategy, local churches team to help organize the events and provide follow-up ministry. Fifty-two area churches were involved with the Southeast Georgia crusade.

In addition to his crusades, Gage has a summer camp ministry for high school and middle school students. Over the past 20 years, his camps in Colorado, Georgia, Florida, New Mexico, Kentucky, Texas and Virginia have trained more than 85,000 teens and leaders in evangelism.

For more details on Rick Gage’s Go Tell Ministries, visit http://www.gotellministries.com/. For information on the Waycross crusade, call (912) 490-0144.

Read the Florida-Times Union's coverage of the crusade here.

Read the Baptist Press article here.

Charleston senses God saving souls in recent crusade

By Allen Palmeri
Associate Editor
The Pathway

CHARLESTON—This Mississippi County town of around 5,000 residents just experienced what may have been its greatest event in a history that dates back to the formation of a community in 1837 on the segment of southeast Missouri land that nestles beside Illinois and Kentucky.


The Rick Gage Go Tell Crusade from Sept. 28-Oct. 1 drew 3,400 to the local high school football stadium and reached about 3,000 in the public school system. There were 282 decisions for Christ, including 165 professions of faith.


“God still does the impossible and the miraculous,” said Michael Brewer, pastor, First Baptist Church, Charleston, and point person for the crusade.


Gage, the evangelist from metropolitan Atlanta, described it as a move of God through a faithful, holy remnant on the ground that refused to get discouraged in the face of financial, emotional and spiritual oppression.


“They could have thrown in the towel, but they didn’t,” Gage said. “They were adamant about seeing God touch their town and touch their community.”


The idea for bringing a crusade to Charleston began within the Charleston Ministerial Alliance, which held a prayer meeting in January at First Charleston, a church that generally runs 130-140 in Sunday worship.


“We were lying prone on the altar of First Baptist in Charleston, and after an hour and a half of crying out to God, we stood up,” Brewer said. “It was the unanimous consensus that God meant for us to go forward with this, and that the body of Christ needed unity to see souls saved and to see Charleston changed.”


By February an organizational plan was in place that would eventually train 75 counselors and pull in more than a dozen churches from Charleston, East Prairie, Scott County, and surrounding communities in the Charleston Baptist Association. It even spread to the point where churches from Illinois and Kentucky, who began to hear about the plans, said they wanted to help.

The original budget was $83,000, but because of the economic downturn both Go Tell and local organizers had to work together to trim it to $52,500, Brewer said.

“We knew that we were going to have to streamline this as much as we could without hurting the overall goal and impact of the crusade vision,” Gage said. “My hat goes off to the local community.”

What the local community did was give.

“One church went into a business meeting and the board recommended to the church family that they give $5,000 to the crusade,” Brewer said. “The people stood up and said, ‘That’s not enough.’ They voted to up it by another $2,500.”

Businesses wrote checks for $1,000, and Charleston Baptist Association Director of Missions Richard Smith delivered a check for the same amount plus another $1,000. The Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) came through with $4,000, local people donated items, participants stayed in homes instead of hotels, and meals were provided by the Charleston church community instead of by local restaurants.

It all came together on the morning of Oct. 1 when the last dollar amount that was needed was received.

“God just did a miracle,” Brewer said. “He didn’t come in early, and He didn’t come in late. He came right on time with the resources to do this.”

Brewer said he and other ministers working on the crusade overcame Satan in spiritual warfare by “prayer, fasting, weeping, prayer, weeping, prayer, prayer. My wife and I felt it in our home. Other ministers shared (that) they felt the struggle in and out of Charleston.”

Gage, who has been in full-time evangelism since 1986, has seen the devil try to disrupt a lot of crusades around the country, but the spiritual reality of Satan sowing discouragement in Charleston by planting seeds of cancelling the crusade amid the financial difficulties, human frailties and skepticism of “small vision” church members around town really hit home.

“There was a lot of resistance,” Gage said. “You could sense and feel the resistance from the evil world. Satan is fighting and bidding for every lost soul. Evangelistically, nothing like this has ever occurred in Mississippi County Missouri. Many have stated that there’s been a stronghold on this area for quite some time, and so when a vision like this comes to enemy territory, you’d better expect opposition.”

One of the more dynamic successes connected to the week of the crusade was in the area of football. A total of 27 players at East Prairie High School made professions of faith, and another seven players plus one coach at Charleston High did the same. The head coach at East Prairie, Jason Acock, is a member of Elm Street Baptist Church in Charleston; the Charleston head coach re-dedicated his life to Christ.

All in all, God showed up.

“The budget was met, souls were saved, and they accomplished something that they had never been able to do, ever,” Gage said. “We’re all in agreement that God gets the credit and the glory.”

Note from Coach Aycock

Rick,

This is Coach Jason Aycock. I just wanted you to know what a blessing it was to have you come to the East Prairie Football locker room and speak to the players. I needed to tell you this because it has been on my mind ever since you came. When you first asked to speak, I thought you were going to give a speech on choices and that was it. Then when you began to explain the gospel to those players, I got very nervous. You know how strict schools are today about promoting religion. My mind was whirling, and I came very close to stopping you. I didn't want to, but my thinking was confused as I thought about my job versus my faith. Well, you know what won. Something came over me that day. It was as if I felt God grab me and say, "This is my man speaking. You sit down and let him go." The Lord touched me that day.

When these events occurred, I knew something very special was going to happen that day. And it most certainly did! Twenty-seven of my thirty-nine players surrendered their lives to Christ! I want you to know that this has been the talk of Mississippi County. It was a tremendous blessing for me because God showed me that He wants to bring revival to football teams as well as churches.

What happened here at our school is monumental. It made me think that if one lady in the past could remove prayer from our schools, one football coach could make a difference and see it put back in. I would love to hear back from you on this. I need your support and guidance regarding how I can go about this. I know that the devil will attack me, but I feel we must stand and do something.

What do you think?

Coach Jason Aycock
East Prairie

Rick Gage Crusades Rock Georgia's Historic Heartland and Russell County, Kentucky

The Spirit of God moved as lives were eternally changed in two recent crusades in Madison, Georgia, and Russell County, Kentucky.

More than 700 spiritual decisions were recorded during the crusades with almost 400 first-time professions of faith. The GO TELL Crusade Team ministered in jails and in county middle and high schools, presenting their nationally-acclaimed On Track School Assembly Program. This drew hundreds of students to each of the crusade’s Wednesday Youth Nights where scores made decisions for Christ.

Crusade Chairman Keith Kelly was excited to serve again as chairman at Madison’s second GO TELL Crusade. “We had a GO TELL Crusade in 2004 that was the most phenomenal thing Morgan County has ever witnessed. It started fires of revival that swept through our county uniting churches, individuals, and races, and it has had lasting results” said Keith.

“We had a completely new group of young people in our high school and wanted them to experience a real move of God. If it could be possible, this crusade was even better than the last one!

“It’s difficult to put into words what it means to see a young man, a middle-school football leader, get saved, then turn around the next night and bring eight of his team members to the crusade. Every one of them was also saved!

“At the invitation of the head high school football coach, Rick Gage spoke to the high school varsity team. One coach and 25 players prayed to receive Christ as Savior at that meeting! It is phenomenal how the Lord works. A distinguished UGA football player is joining the FCA staff that will work in our county and several nearby counties to help follow up and disciple all the athletes who got saved at the crusade.”

Many from both crusades testified to the life-changing impact of Christians from many different churches coming together to work for a common cause. Churches reported that God had worked in incredible ways through the crusade to unify their congregations as well as congregations from church to church.

“The pastors here in Russell County, Kentucky, are excited about how God used the crusade to unite us, breaking down strongholds and barriers that existed between our churches,” said Pastor Rick Mann. “We’re working together to support an Addiction Ministry that will minister the love of Christ to many who desperately need this kind of ministry.

“I deeply appreciate Rick Gage and his staff’s commitment to seeing people come to Christ and then seeing churches come together to disciple those people. The daily luncheons with the crusade staff and those who had made decisions at the crusade were special times. Not only was it a tremendous testimony time for those who had made decisions, but we were all encouraged with how important it is to follow-up with each decision.

“The day after the crusade, we had our final luncheon. I thought Rick Gage would be in a hurry to get away and begin his five-hour drive home. Instead, he went with some men to witness to a man who they felt burdened to see. That man accepted Christ while sitting on his lawnmower!

“This man who got saved is an avid fisherman. Last evening (September 18th), at the conclusion of a fishing tournament, he testified in front of all his fishing buddies and then was baptized right there at the boat ramp at Lake Cumberland. Between 60 and 70 people were there to see him baptized. Nothing can compare to that kind of excitement!”

Both counties have reported baptisms every Sunday in various churches. Stories abound about businessmen and women being saved; counselors taking off their badges and getting saved, long-standing church members getting saved, and many bringing their friends and loved ones to the crusades and witnessing their salvation.

As counseling chairman, Pastor Tom Duff was thrilled to be a part of seeing so many people come to Christ. “It was great,” he says. “I loved the high energy of the crusade, and now the follow-up that is so critical. We have five ready to baptize and will baptize others also. I asked one young man who was one of our crusade counselors when he had been saved. He answered, ‘At the Rick Gage Crusade four years ago.’ This is a lasting work that will have an impact for years to come.”

Hank Parker, a professional bass fisherman who is seen on his popular television show, gave a powerful testimony at the crusades. He was so moved by the work of GO TELL Ministries and what he witnessed at the crusades that he donated his personal bass boat to GO TELL Ministries.

Hospitality Chairwoman Mary Jean Smith spoke of the crusade in glowing terms: “It was such a privilege to serve as part of this crusade that was indeed orchestrated by God. My impressions are from the inside of things, and I was thrilled to see Rick Gage’s true heart. He is a man consumed with seeing people come to a personal relationship with Christ. I was truly inspired to reach out to people everywhere and be aware of everyone around me.

“The highlight of the crusade for me was helping to lead three young girls to Christ. I am in awe of that moment. I’ve already seen ten students baptized as a result of the crusade. Another direct outgrowth of the crusade is my starting a discipleship class for children grades 1-6. We will not only be following up on those who were saved, but we will continue to lead people to Christ in our county as churches work together.”

GO TELL Goes to Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic

Results:

Two trips to Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic
68 youth and adult team members
More than 200 recorded commitments to Christ
The Gospel shared in schools, churches, orphanages, a youth prison, on the streets, in homes, and in town squares and villages
More than 10,000 Gospel tracts distributed
Over 1,000 pounds of food, clothing, and medical supplies distributed
5,000 Gospel bracelets given away
"Serving as an intern this past summer and going to the Dominican Republic have been among the greatest experiences of my life. People told me I would experience a cultural shock, and I thought I knew what to expect; but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. It's hard to believe that you could walk into such a different world just a three-hour plane ride away from your home. I fell in love with the Dominican people, especially the precious children, who are all so eager to hear and receive what you have to say about Christ and His love. They grabbed my heartstrings and will never let them go." - Brittany Padgett, GO TELL Intern

"What an awesome experience it was to preach in Costa Rica. I met Costa Rican Christians whose incredible love for the Lord impelled them to walk miles to get to our services. I saw scores of people crowd around us in San Jose eager for tracts and receptive to the Gospel message. GO TELL was wonderful in providing us with the opportunity to connect with churches in Costa Rica so that we can have an ongoing ministry to them. This was an incredible trip for people from our church. We are already collecting clothes and toys for the Costa Ricans for Christmas; and Lord willing, we will be returning in the spring." - Andy Schulze, Youth Pastor, Sinclair Baptist Church

"God is at work around the world, and how wonderful it was to be a part of His work in Costa Rica where everywhere we went people were saved. Only the Lord could have brought together precisely the right men on our team whose testimonies greatly ministered to and deeply touched a group of teenagers in a youth prison. The Lord bonded all of us who went, and as we came together to serve and pour out our hearts to the Costa RIcan people, the Lord did a work in our hearts." - Emily Baldwin, GO TELL Intern

For more information about GO TELL Ministries, please call 1-866-I-GO-TELL; email at info@gotellministries.com or visit the website at www.gotellministries.com.

South Central KY Go Tell Crusade

Western Recorder: "Nearly 400 accept Christ during 4-day crusade in Campbellsville"

Baptist Press: "Cooperation bolsters Taylor Co. response"

Baptist Press: "University 'First Class' a lesson on eternity"

A Word from Pastor James Jones

Falwell, Gage endorse youth praise movement

By Jessica Waters
Thursday, June 26, 2008

The Toccoa Record

More than 1,000 people from 35 churches in 10 states flooded into Toccoa last week for the first session of the 20th annual Go Tell Ministries camp at the Georgia Baptist Conference Center.

The students and leaders have now departed, but they took with them a message of biblical relevance and personal potential, said Go Tell Ministries founder and director Rick Gage.

"We are still making our major emphasis on evangelism and equipping these students to go back and be missionaries, witnesses and difference-makers for Christ," Gage said Wednesday (June 18) as he waited at the Toccoa Airport for the arrival of guest speaker Jonathan Falwell.

"We have always brought in strong teaching and preaching and speakers that can really connect with these kids," Gage said.

"The music, the testimonies, the video and dramas and outreach we do in the community - it is a five-day power-packed week, and it's amazing how much you get in those five days, and the spiritual impact that is made in the hearts and lives of these kids is enormous," he said.

Gage stressed that reaching out to today's youths remains an important task, saying that children are the future of the country and the leaders of not only the nation, but also the future leaders of the church.

"If you study the history of revivals, you'll find there has never been a real move of God, a spiritual awakening, where it did not begin with young people," he said.

"These kids still respond to the truth - to the preaching of the word of God - and that never changes; methods will change, but the message never does, and we have never compromised on the message," Gage said.

Falwell, also, believes in the importance of youths for the future, and in the relevance of God in today's society.

"My message tonight, my goal, is to share with these kids there is no limit to what they can accomplish, that they all have been called by God and gifted by God to a specific area and purpose and that they will be able to go out and impact this world in some way," said Falwell, who is the senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., a church he has pastored since his father, Jerry Falwell, died in May 2007.

"From the beginning last May when dad passed away, I made it clear to our church...that I'm not going to try and fill my father's shoes," he said.

"That is not something I am capable of doing or that anyone was capable of doing. He was such a remarkable person. God called me to a certain area of ministry to do a certain thing, and my responsibility is to simply follow in those footsteps into what God has called me to do because God didn't call me to be my dad or anyone else. He called me to be me. That's what I focus on, to reach this world with the gospel," Falwell said.

The second session of the Go Tell Ministries 2008 camp started on June 23 and will continue through June 27.

For more information on the camp and Go Tell Ministries, visit www.gotellministries.com.