3/27/24 - 2035: Taking Church Outside the Walls

Jim: You've tuned into, iWork4Him, the Voice of Collaboration for the Faith and Work Movement.

Martha: And we are your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg . And our mission is to transform the workplace of every Christian into a mission field. What does that look like in your workplace? Let's find out right now.

Jim: Does anyone do those old fashioned tent revivals anymore? Aren't they just a little passé? Can't God just do his thing conveniently on Sunday morning when we're already at church? But what if the people needing a revival would never darken the doorsteps of your church or any other church?

How would they get introduced to Jesus? At work, right? This is the iWork4Him radio program, but maybe it's in our neighborhood. Isn't the need even bigger than that? Surrendering to Jesus happens differently for everyone, and a good old fashioned tent revival may just attract the lost and hopeless in your town and introduce them to the truth for the very first time.

This September 26th through the 28th, right here in our own backyard of Springfield, Missouri, John Wilson is hosting a three day tent revival, and he wants your prayers, your volunteer hours, and your support to make that happen. Why is he doing it? Let's let John Wilson tell the story. John, welcome to iWork4Him.

John Wilson: Thank you guys. It's such an honor to be here and yes, we are pumped and excited about what God is going to do for our revival in September. And honestly, it's got me so shaken in my boots because I have no clue what I'm doing. I've never done a tent revival before and that's how I know it's going to be God and God's going to move through it and we're expecting lives to be forever changed for his kingdom and for his glory.

Jim: Amen.

Martha: Amen. And before we talk about that, because we do really want to do a deep dive into that and talk about Light the Way and all that's coming up with the revival, tell us your Jesus story.

John Wilson: Wow. So I have a Jesus story almost every day, but the one that really impacts me is the one when I met Jesus for the very first time, almost eight years ago.

I knew about Jesus. I knew about church. I knew about Christianity. But I didn't want anything to do with it whatsoever. As a matter of fact, when I see a Christian walking down the street, I would intentionally cross the street to be on the other side because I didn't want it to rub up against me you know. I would call Christians Bible thumpers and really just didn't want anything to do with them.

And I'd always been in the music industry. I was a country music promoter. I started way down in the bottom of the trenches as a bar guy just bringing bar bands into bars, and drugs and alcohol was my footprint, if you will, at that time. And my wife included. And so we had, you see those Netflix documentaries of backstage with partying with the artist and things like - that was us, we worked our way from the bar scene to coliseums.

And it just grew and I just was always searching for something. I was always searching for the big thing and trying to find it in these concerts or the bottom of a bottle or a bag of drugs or whatever it could be. Never could find it. Never could find it. And it wasn't until this one time living in a very small town, of my hometown. The town doesn't even have a stoplight.

I think a dollar general was the highlight of this town. And when you live in those small towns, everybody knows what you do and everyone knew that I was this big time Nashville music promoter guy. And never did anything there in regards to the industry but there was this guy that walks up to me - who I knew was a Christian, and he was actually the only guy that I would actually have a normal conversation with and not feel like I was getting the Bible thrown down my throat - asked me one time. Would you like to bring a concert to Stockton, in our hometown?

And I said no It wouldn't happen. The town couldn't support it and nowhere to do it and just through a series of different conversations he goes well, how do you do it in the secular world? And I said well in short I find a venue, find an artist, put tickets on sale, and hopefully make money And he said what if I have a venue? And I'm thinking I've lived here my whole life and I know there's nothing here. He goes, hypothetically walk with me on this journey. What if I had a venue?

I said I don't know, I don't know how we can make it work because this town couldn't support it. And he said you're probably right. They probably wouldn't support a country music concert or festival, if you will. He said, what about a Christian concert? And I'll keep it PG here, but in a few choice words, I said no. It wasn't my thing. It wasn't what I wanted to do. I didn't know anything about Christian concerts. I didn't know any Christian artist. And everything that I would throw back at him, he would have a reason for it. And ultimately, I just said I didn't think it would work.

I don't know if it would work. I don't want to do it. Plus, there's still nowhere to do it. He said I have a venue. And I said what is this? He goes, my church. And I'm saying that's the old bait and hook that you Christians use. And I'm like I don't know that I want to do that. And I said, plus I don't have, I don't know artists. I don't know a Christian artist. I only know country. He goes I know some artists. So everything that I rebuttaled against, he had an answer too. So ultimately I came down to this. I said, all right, fine. I'll do it, but I'm going to do it as a joke. 100%. I'll put very little effort in it.

You fast forward. It was on July 10th, 2016. Probably one of the smallest concerts I did. 203 people showed up. Most of the people I knew of this church, the capacity of this church was about 250. And the show's happening. I'm a nervous wreck, right? Like I'm not sure what's going to happen all building up to this. It was just a weird feeling, like a feeling I've never felt before and I'd done hundreds of concerts leading up to this, but this one was just... oh, it was at a church. I always felt like if I was ever going to step into church, the thing is going to blow up, or getting hit by lightning.

Yeah so I just throughout the whole day I had this feeling and music starts and my wife and I, what did we do? We went out to the parking lot. We stayed out there. We didn't want to be involved. And as we're outside and we're, just doing our thing that we do at shows, smoking and doing our thing. You could hear the music from the bass inside the, in this little church.

And then the music stops. And my back's toward the building I'm facing my wife. And then the music stopped. At any event, you're like, oh no. And I'm like, I'm not going to go inside. I'm just going to wait. And I hear a voice say, John, come inside. I looked at my wife and I said, who just hollered at me?

And she looked over my shoulder and was like, no one hollered at you. And I'm like, no, someone just told me to come inside. I quit what I was doing. I went inside. And the reason why I wasn't hearing music was this guy, the singer of this band was talking and he was telling everyone about drugs and alcohol and at first I thought this guy was talking about me and airing out all my dirty laundry to my hometown people.

And I was getting livid. And as he continues to talk more and more about his, about the story, I realized it wasn't me he was telling everyone about, he was telling them about him and his story. And I've never experienced this. I've always just experienced music going all day long, you know, just having fun. I never really knew literally what was going on. So one side of me was a little angry that there wasn't music. On the other side of me it was like this guy and I have some common interest here. And he said I tried to commit suicide And when I was in the back of an ambulance, there was a man that saved my life And I'm like now I'm interested.

Who is this guy? And I'm thinking it's a paramedic. I'm thinking it's a firefighter, someone in that field. And he looked around the audience and I'm in the very back and, got my promoter head on and I'm just evaluating, but I'm engaged, but not showing people that I'm engaged.

And he said who in this room wants to meet this man that saved my life? And I'm thinking, this show just got interesting. He's got the guy with him. He's going to come out on stage. And he said several people's yeah, we want to meet him. And he said, the man's name is Jesus Christ.

And he goes, if you want to meet Jesus, I want to see a show hands. And I remember just a powerful moment where 23 people raised their hands. They were fighting the same thing I was fighting inside. And they publicly said, I want to be changed. And at that moment, I'm thinking, what in the world is happening?

And I wanted to shoot my hand up. And I'll have to be honest with y'all, I didn't do it. I had pride. I had my promoter hat on. I don't want to show people that I was wanting that, what he was describing from the stage. But I'm like, I'm a hot mess. I'm like feeling wetness on my cheeks. I'm like, what? Am I crying?

What is this? It was just - I wanted it, but I didn't and I didn't know what I wanted. And about that time here comes that pastor and he puts his arm around my neck and he says Look what you did. And I'm like, I have no idea. He goes these people just met Jesus and their lives will have forever be changed. And from that moment I said Can you explain it? Because I want that and I surrendered to Christ. And from that moment almost eight years ago, the Lord gave me a vision, a dream to start this ministry called Light the Way ministry with the focus of taking church outside the walls and reaching people that were just like me, that hated church that hated Christians that didn't want nothing to do with anything religiously. But music could reach people and they would go to a concert and they would go to a concert any day of the week. So I knew there was more people like that, and so that's what birthed this ministry.

Jim: What a great story. And we're so grateful that you shared that story, John. And we invite people to go out and check out your website. Light the Way ministry.com. Light the Way ministry.com. John, your events are such a great tool for people to attend and meet Jesus and bring friends into the same. And I just want to make sure to remind people and our listeners that they can go to our events page to find out more about the events that we're going to be attending this year, which we're doing one with you, John Wilson. And maybe our listeners want to know about this.

Go to, iWork4Him. com forward slash events. And you'll find out about, we've got several events on the calendar for this year.

Martha: Including the revival we're going to be talking about, September 26th through 28th, right here in Springfield. We're pretty excited because we didn't know each other and then we find out about the revival and you're speaking at an event we're going to be at in Orlando. And here we are neighbors practically. So we have every expectation to be at the revival. So this is just a exciting conversation to have.

John Wilson: That's awesome! I'm excited to have you guys.

Martha: Thank you. You know, I love the fact that God took what you had been doing, your passion for music, and turned it into something that you could see personally that there was a different way to do it, to reach people for Jesus.

So I want to know, how did you know then that God was asking you to host a tent revival in 2024? That's a little bit different yet.

John Wilson: Yeah, and really, I knew that concerts and festivals have always been my thing. It's always been my gifting. Even before I stepped over and accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior. I always say that we're all born with gifts but it's not until you're anointed with that gift, that you could use for the kingdom of God. And I wasn't using it for the kingdom until I surrendered and then that gift became anointed and we've done huge festivals. We've had as large as 43 000 people at a festival. And I didn't know that I was wanting to do or going to do a tent revival. So this is new for us in September and it wasn't until last year when the Lord really spoke to my heart at our festival last summer and I saw this long line of people waiting to get into a prayer tent.

We have a prayer tent that we do on the spot baptisms at our festival and prayer and people set free and delivered, and I saw this long line of people waiting to get in this tent. And I'm like what? I've never seen that before. I'm always just so busy with this festival running around and God says we need to take it back to the first love. And I'm like, what does that mean? I don't know.

And I just felt that I needed to create an event where people can be reminded of that first love, and not necessarily about who's coming to the event, artist wise, or who's coming as a speaker, but an atmosphere where we can just meet Jesus. And that's what we're going to be focusing on.

Jim: And that's why I want to ask this question. So you're planning an event, but you're inviting Jesus to be the center of this event, which means the Holy Spirit's going to be there. How do you plan for the unexpected move of the Holy Spirit in an event where you're planning things?

John Wilson: So that is a very good question. And that's where I pull my hair out and bite all my fingernails off because I'm a planner. A Promoter has to have a start time and end time and everything in between and things have got to be scheduled the way it's got to go. And what I'm hearing the Lord say is, John, get out of my way. I've got this.

So what I've done, and it's still in the works, but what we've got is we've got the start time and we have a projected end time. Everything in between is going to be up to God and him moving, and I'm not going to get in the way. And my team and our prayer, revival committee team they're keeping me grounded in that because I want to be involved. I want to be like - nope. We're not gonna do this, unless the Lord speaks it to me. We're gonna do it the way he wants to do it and not the way John Wilson wants to do it.

Martha: Okay, so as somebody who didn't really have many details or anything and for people that are outside of this area and they might not know this, I know that I've heard on the radio you're asking for prayer partners right now. And so I want to talk about that for a minute because that is how ultimately you're preparing for the unexpected, right? Is through the power of prayer. I don't hear a lot of promoting. I hear we need the community to gather together and to pray for what God has in store.

So talk about your heart of that a little bit, just because I think it's so powerful in all that we do every day that we have that kind of attitude.

John Wilson: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for asking that question because where I'm at and what is on my heart is man cannot bring revival. But prayer can. And we know the value of what prayer can do.

So we've asked for 5, 000 intercessors from across the country to join us every single day, from the day that they sign up, to say I'm going to commit to praying with you and Light the Way for a revival. Whether it's going to happen in September or whether it's going to happen today. We are asking for people to pray daily for revival, and we know that we want to bathe this specific event in September around prayer, but that's the only reason why we're doing it. That's what we're promoting right now. We're asking for a unity amongst churches and pastors in the community, unity to join us together. And what better way to start that than starting it through prayer?

Jim: So if somebody wants to find out more about the revival, can they just go to your website lightthewayministry.com ?

John Wilson: Oh, yeah, lightthewayministry.com. It's all on there, the dates you can even register right now. We are asking people to register because it is a tent and we're already going to overflow the tent, but we already know that we're preparing for that. But we want a good idea of the attendance that will be there. And as God downloads stuff to us and me and our team, we want to involve you guys as part of that so we're asking you to register.

It's free of charge. So register. Be a part of it. Commit to being a prayer warrior for us. Join us daily. We send out prayer, seven prayers every Monday for the whole, every day of the week, starting on every single Monday so that we'll help you with prayer. And so all that stuff is all on our website at LightTheWayMinistry. com.

Jim: All right. I want to shift gears on you a little bit. I appreciate that you shared all of that. It's so exciting. All that you've got going on here. Martha?

Martha: All right. One of the things that we were talking about is the fact that, an event like what you are doing takes a lot of sponsors and a lot of volunteers in order to make it actually happen.

And one of the things that is near and dear to my heart is that at iWork4Him, we are grateful for the affiliate sponsors that we have that help bring great services to the table so that our listeners are able to hear great stories like the one you're sharing today, and the events stirring in your heart to make happen. So I just want to encourage our listeners to go to, iWork4Him. com forward slash sponsors and view and visit their websites. And a couple of particular ones I want to shout out to are Patriot mobile, SaferNet, and ePaymints. Those are just a few of the ones that I want to name today and they help make these kinds of stories possible and sharing them with our listeners. So I just, I'm excited about that.

Jim: John, in April we share the stage together at the U. S. Christian Chamber of Commerce Business Expo in Orlando, Florida, April the 8th, oh my gosh, all of a sudden, 18th, no, how about 17th through the 19th, 18th to 19th, April 18th to 19th.

Martha: It's on our events page on our website, and we'll get there, it's on our calendar.

Jim: Yeah, we'll be there. We're going back home to Florida. All right, but you're doing a ted style talk there at the Christian Chamber Expo where Martha and I are going to be the emcees. We love doing that so if anybody's listening you got an event that comes up and you want some great emcees to keep things lively, you should check us out online!

So the Expo, people can find out more about the Expo at USChristianChamber.com, but they can't know what you're gonna talk about, John Wilson. Just give us a little sneak peek. What are you gonna be talking about?

John Wilson: So I feel like the Lord is gonna, He's been downloading some stuff to me. And I think the biggest thing is unity in the corporate world, you know, because you don't need a church for God to move. So I think what he's going to allow me to speak about is the importance of unity, intertwining with my story and how God has taken me from the bottom of the pit to where we're at today and how I personally had to put myself aside for business and put God first.

So I'm excited to see what all it's still downloading. It's still developing. But I know we're going to talk about my story and we're going to talk about unity and we're going to talk about revival all in the short amount of time that they're giving me on that stage. So pray with me and pray for me on that.

Martha: That's so awesome. One of the things that we love so much about the U. S. Christian Chamber and this expo that's coming up is the fact that God has equipped each one of us in different ways. And what you talked about earlier, that we have these giftings that then become anointed when we, when we surrender them to him.

And what we know in the business world is that we reach people that a pastor in a church is never going to get the opportunity to reach. And so helping to equip business people to live out their faith in a very purposeful way in the arena God already has them in, right? Using the giftings He's already given them.

And that's what this expo is all about, and learning that from a biblical perspective. It's a couple solid days of great teaching, great interaction, great networking, great all kinds of opportunities. And we just are so excited for that atmosphere of people to come. So I just want to encourage our listeners, you may have never heard of the U. S. Christian Chamber before. You may never have heard of this expo opportunity, but it is a great place with God's people just like you that want to gather together. You can go to uschristianchamber. com. We'll have that all in the show notes. All of these links will be there for everybody so they can check it out and it's on our events page as well. But, we get excited when things like this are on our calendar.

Jim: John Wilson, before we go, we got a minute left before we go, talk to me about, this is people listening, going, wait a minute, John Wilson can do a old fashioned tent revival and just outside of Springfield, Missouri? Maybe I could do one in my town.

Once you get this one done, are you willing to help other cities across the country figure out how to do it in their city?

John Wilson: Thanks again for asking that question, because that is actually what is happening right now to this day. We're getting calls from people that want a revival in their communities.

And they can also, we help you, we can bring this to your community, we can help you, we can train you. And we're learning ourselves. So as we're learning, we're wanting to expand that education to you in your community. So if you're asking and you're been praying, God, I want a revival. I want it. I want it. I want it.

And you don't know how to do it. That's okay. Go to Light the Way ministry. com, hit that contact us form, and we can reach out to you. We could pray with you. We could see what God wants to do and help you bring a revival in your community. It just starts with one person. And that's you.

Jim: John Wilson with Light the Way Ministry online at lightthewayministry. com. Thanks for being on iWork4Him today.

John Wilson: Thank you guys for having me. It's been an honor.

Jim: And make sure you check him out at the U. S. Christian Chamber Expo in April. We'll be there, too. Check that out online, uschristianchamber. com. You've been listening to iWork4Him with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers, our workplace, it's our mission field, but ultimately, iWork4Him.