The Alex McFarland Show-45-The Great Commission with guest Don Shenk

The spiritual condition of America, politics, culture, and current events, analyzed through the lens of scripture.

Welcome to the Alex McFarland Show. In Matthew 28, 18-20, Christ has risen from the dead. He's about to ascend back to heaven, and He'll come again one day. We know that. But He gives some instruction to the disciples, and those instructions come to every Christian, even to this very day. And very commonly, this passage and another I'll share is known as the Great Commission.

Hi, Alex McFarland here. We've got a very special show today, and I want to read these verses. Then I want you to meet a very special friend and valued colleague in the Great Commission. But Matthew 28, 18-20, here's what the Lord says. Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, quote, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Amen. Well, in verse 18, you see the word authority. And in the Greek language, where Jesus says, as He's sending the church throughout the world to spread the gospel, He says, All authority has been given to Me. And the word there really means jurisdiction.

You think about that. When you think of jurisdiction, you think of maybe law enforcement that has the authority over a region. And wherever we go in this world, this is the jurisdiction of the Lord Jesus Christ. The word there, authority, it's also in the book of Acts, and it really means ability, power, to go forth in the name of Jesus. But do you know in Mark 16, 15, where Jesus said, Preach the gospel to every creature. Here in Matthew 28, where He says, Go into all the nations, the church in every generation is given that mandate, that sanctioning, that assignment by the risen Jesus to take His name, the good news of the gospel, to the entire human race. And we're going to talk about that, because that is a commission. It is the Great Commission. Well, a friend of mine that really has been, he's given his life to this Great Commission, and he has enabled people to go throughout the whole world with the message of the gospel, and what an exciting endeavor this is. This friend of mine is Don Shank, and he's our guest today, and we're going to talk about the Great Commission. We're going to talk about his organization, which is The Tide.

Their website is thetide.org, just like it sounds t-h-e-t-i-d-e, thetide.org. And I want to welcome him, a longtime friend and colleague, Don Shank. Thanks for being with us, Don. It's great to be with you, Alex, and I appreciate the opportunity to join you and talk about what I believe is the most important aspect of our Christian life, and that is sharing what Christ has done for us, what God has provided through Christ for the world, and making that known. Well, you know, Don, psychologists say everybody needs a purpose in life.

The most unhappy people are the people who feel like they have no usefulness or no purpose. And when I think about the Great Commission, and to live our lives, to know Christ, to make him known, my goodness, that is the greatest purpose in the world, and it's something that would wake you up and drive you. And, you know, I guess I would see every Christian being excited about this, because this is life's greatest purpose, isn't it?

It is. And I remember when my wife and I were serving as missionaries in Zimbabwe, Africa, when it became very clear, God clearly said, I'm done with you here, but he didn't tell what he had for me to do. And there was that sense of a loss, although my underlying calling still, I knew God wanted me in ministry. And then the door opened up for me to serve here with the Tide ministry, and I've been here now for over 20 years.

You're right. That sense of purpose, that driving purpose, I feel so fulfilled, even though I'm not on the mission field, I'm enabling others to share the gospel. Now I want you to give some backstory on the Tide, which, am I correct, you're based out of Pennsylvania, is that right?

Yes, we are based out of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. It started in 1946 with a local minister when Chambersburg got their first radio station. And some people in his congregation said, Hey, you ought to use the radio to get the message out. So he started using it first as an outreach to the local community and trying to share the gospel here in this area. But God opened doors for it to go overseas.

And then initially in areas where English was widely understood, but eventually we made the transition to where we now work with ministries in other parts of the world to help them produce a gospel program in their own language to reach their own people. So it's in a culturally relevant context. And one thing I have to clarify is we do not adapt it to the culture. Now, what do you mean by that? What I mean by that is there is a problem that happens in so many places around the world, I think maybe even here in the US, and that is trying to integrate culture and religion so that the truth of the gospel can be compromised. Yeah.

I'll just give an example of this. I'm familiar with a case in Africa where someone was drowned while they were being baptized. And it was a group that kind of believes in worshiping ancestral spirits. And they believe that as they were pushing this woman under the water and she kind of came up gasping for breath, that that was evidence of the ancestral spirits fighting against her baptism. So they just kept repeatedly putting her under until these spirits were vanquished. And in all of that, she lost her breath, she couldn't breathe, and she ended up drowning. We understand baptism, and we believe that it's something we should practice.

But what's happening during that and the significance of it? But you know, Don, that reminds me, and it's very sad, that trying to adapt the gospel and by the way, the good news of the gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ for the sins of the world. And we know Christ by putting our faith in Him.

That is good news. You put your trust, your belief in Jesus and what He did on the cross. And that's good news that our sins are forgiven through a relationship with Christ.

But here in America, maybe we don't have something as extreme as a person dying in a baptismal service. But listen, I've been around a lot of youth ministry where they bend over backwards to try to make the message appealing and not offend anybody. And I mean, I've sat in conferences listening and I think they're not really sharing the gospel, that we are to repent and turn from sin to Christ. So trying to improve on the good news, we risk jeopardizing what that good news is, don't we, Don? Absolutely. And we need to guard against that.

We need to present the gospel truth and not adapt it to what your preference is or how you'd like to practice your faith. Well, we've got to take a brief break. Folks, stay tuned. When we come back, we'll continue our conversation with Don Shank of The Tide. And we're going to ask the question, now listen to this, is the United States of America now a foreign mission field?

You think about that. We're going to continue the conversation on The Alex McFarland Show when we return. Don't go away.

Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. What are you doing next summer?

Hey, how about this? I want to invite you to join me in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, August 6th through 11th, 2023, for the Faith and Family Retreat. It's going to be awesome. We'll talk about foundational things. What does it mean to be a disciple?

How can you defend your faith? Family time, concerts, renewal of wedding vows. It's going to be great. Then fun, a trip to Dollywood.

Who wouldn't like that? And then faith in action. There'll be a mission outreach talking to people about Christ. So again, August 6th through 11th, 2023, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

Go to faithandfamilyretreat.com. I hope to see you there. He's been called trusted, truthful and timely. Welcome back to the Alex McFarland Show. Welcome back to the program.

Alex McFarland here. So honored that you're listening and so honored to be talking with my friend and brother and colleague, Don Shank of The Tide. Don, how many languages are you all in? Currently we're down to 20 languages, and it fluctuates from time to time. Over the years we've done, if we take in total languages where we've initiated something and then handed it off to an indigenous work or pass it on to somebody else, we've done over 30 languages that we've been sharing the gospel in. Wow. That's amazing. Just curious, do you know how many people potentially could be hearing your broadcast around the world?

How many? I don't know. Millions of people, I would suppose. If you would look at the broadcast coverage and the population, the demographics, potentially there could be over, what do I have here? I have a figure of 829 million could potentially be hearing the gospel through our broadcasts. That is awesome. When we look at the statistics and the responses that we're actually getting, we can fairly confidently say that every dollar that someone would give to the Tide ministry does help 20 people hear the gospel. My goodness, that is a great ROI, great return on investment. We're a missions agency too, you might say, but I want to say, folks, if you're hearing this, I've known Don for well over a decade and our publicist, Hamilton Strategies, that helps us do so much.

In fact, our recording engineer, Mike Segovia, and I were just on the road in New York City making the rounds, doing interviews, and Hamilton Strategies put that together. But Don, I met you through Hamilton Strategies, and I have just been so impressed with the work you're doing and you're worthy of support. My goodness, so a dollar really puts the gospel message in the ears of 20 listeners somewhere in the world.

That's phenomenal, my friend. It is. I have many people say, I support the Tide ministry because I don't see anywhere else where I can get that much bang for my buck.

And I know that's kind of coarse terminology, but because it's not getting bang for your buck, it's changing lives around the world. Amen. Amen. Well, you know, America, I love the United States of America. I'm a Christian first and a patriot second, Don. But our nation, I think, especially Detroit, Dearborn, Michigan, I have read that outside the Middle East, it's one of the most densely populated Islamic communities.

And listen, I've spoken on 200 college campuses. Those are generally secular atheistic communities. And then in my home state of North Carolina, in western North Carolina, it's just thick with Wicca and Satanism and occultism. So on and on we could go.

Here's my question, Don Shank of the Tide. Has the United States of America, Christian America, has it really become a foreign mission field? I believe so. And I believe, first, I'm going to kick back on something you said, Christian America. The world looks at us as being Christian. And that's an unfortunate fact, because what we are exporting to the world is not Christian. And so I think in some ways we have to recognize that we are a post-Christian nation, and there is a huge mission field here.

Really, yeah. And you know, I thank God for the 300,000 churches in America, and I've spoken all over, and there are many born-again people. And unequivocally, we were biblical in our founding principles. But you're right. I mean, being a Christian and being a citizen of America are two different things, aren't they?

Absolutely. And there is, I praise God for the core solid foundation of faith that does still exist in this nation. And that's why it's so important that we take that mandate and the commission and exercise our right of jurisdiction with the gospel and not allow the secular voice of America to overshadow or out-talk the true spiritual voice of America. And so the church, we do need to recognize, and as you ask, is America a foreign mission field, the fact that there are huge areas where the population in that particular area is another demographic, another religious demographic in both language and religion and culture, yes, there's that mission field. And I believe that in society, in what would say just born patriotic Americans, the gospel is foreign to many of them. And so there's two sides to the mission field in America. You know, America is a mission field, but I would say many a church sanctuary is a mission field because there are a lot of people that are, they may be a church member, maybe even have worked in some sort of church leadership, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they've had that born-again experience and come to personally know Jesus, does it?

No, it doesn't. And I'm sure you've run into that in churches and the places where you've presented. One of the things that we have adopted as our mandate at the Tide ministry, we feel God has called us to take the gospel where there is limited access. We used to say where there's great need, but then we recognize, okay, there's a huge need here in the US, but there's also huge resources, a lot of good ministries. Take your own, for example, you're active all, you know, all over the US, you are helping to build God's kingdom here in the US.

There's access here in the US, so many places, otherwise they don't have the access. And so when I speak in churches and I encourage them, you know, why are we not broadcasting the gospel here in the US? It's because we're expecting the local church here to reach the local community, but in other parts of the world, that access is not available. And as you've pointed out now, for example, out in Dearborn, we need to make the gospel accessible there to those people, even though they're from a foreign background to us, many people would say, well, they're in America, they've got to be American now, they've got to speak English, they got to be Christian.

It doesn't work like that. We need to reach them in their culture and language with the gospel and let the gospel do the transformation. Folks, we're talking with Don Shank of the Tide Ministry.

Their website is thetide.org. We've got to take a brief break. When we come back, we're going to talk about the difference between a convert and a disciple, because the Lord's commission in Matthew 28, 19 says, go and make disciples. What is a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ? That and more when we come back after this brief break.

Stay with us. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. Over the last several decades, it's been my joy to travel the world talking with children, teens, adults, people of all ages about the questions they have related to God, the Bible, Christianity, and how to know Jesus personally.

Hi, Alex McFarland. I want to make you aware of my book, The 21 Toughest Questions Your Kids Will Ask About Christianity. You know, we interviewed hundreds of children and parents and families to find out the questions that children and people of all ages are longing to find answers for. In the book, we've got practical, biblical, real life answers that they have about how to be a Christian in this modern world.

My book, The 21 Toughest Questions Your Kids Will Ask, you can find it wherever you buy books or at resources.afa.net. He's been called trusted, truthful, and timely. Welcome back to The Alex McFarland Show. Welcome back to the program. Alex McFarland here, along with my friend Don Shank. Hey, before we resume our conversation with Don Shank, I do want to make people aware of some exciting things we're doing. I want to give you a couple of websites, folks.

My own website is just my name, alexmcfarland.com. But our summer camps are coming up quickly. We're going to be doing seven youth camps all around America.

We're going to be in Iowa, New Jersey, Colorado, Georgia, convenient to just about everywhere in the continental US. But the website for our youth camps, biblical worldview for young people, it's equipretreat.org, spelled just like it sounds, equipretreat.org. I'll be there. Some of my great friends like Carl Kirby of Reasons for Hope, one of the best speakers in the nation for youth about creation versus evolution, Dave Glander.

It's just amazing. Folks, we're going to be in front of roughly 1250 teenagers this summer. Now your teen, your entire youth group can be a part of this. It's very, very affordable. In fact, for a fully-orbed Christian camp, everything from the t-shirt to the curriculum to insurance, meals, activities, it's all covered $375 per youth.

That's hands down the most affordable week at summer camp anywhere in America. And we're going to be talking about woke-proofing your kids, okay? We want your teens to be woke-proof. We're going to talk about how do we know God exists? How do we know the Bible is true? What about America?

Should America be socialist or should we stay true to our foundings of a Judeo-Christian worldview? Listen, every year, and last summer we did four camps. This summer we're doing seven.

But every year, all the teens, at the end of the week, they say, oh my goodness, Mr. McFarland, when is next year? I want to be there. It's going to be great.

Check out the website if you would, equipretreat.org. We've got so much going on. Our national conference is going to be in Paris, Tennessee, April 21 through 23. I'll be there with a lot of speakers. You can go to the website for our speaking tour, truthforanewgeneration.com.

Look, folks, we're in it to win it. We hope you'll catch the fire of evangelism and revival. And please ask yourself, what would God have me to do for the Great Commission?

And Don, I want to tell you a question that I love to ask people. It was asked of me when I was a brand new believer. I'd only been saved maybe three or four weeks, like a month. And I was going to church on a Sunday night, because churches used to have Sunday night services, and I think they still should. An elderly retired minister looked at me. I was a new believer.

I was 21. He said, Son, will there be anybody in heaven because of you? And I kind of stammered. I said, well, anybody in heaven is because of Jesus. He said, that's right.

But he looked at me. I'll never forget. He's in heaven now. This elderly minister, he said, Son, do something with your life so that somebody will be in heaven because of you. And do you know, Don, that challenge, and it would be like four years beyond that before I would hear the call to the ministry, but that drives me. I want to live my life so that somebody will be in heaven because of what Jesus did through me. Don't you feel like that should be every believer's driving catalyst, that we are to live our Christian life, to do our utmost, that people would be in heaven because of what Jesus did through us? Shouldn't that be our mandate, Don?

Absolutely. I resonate with that. And I believe that too many times we try to live our faith internally or privately. We don't suffer the persecution here in America that some of the believers do in other parts of the world. And yet we face, I should say, many believers seem to be intimidated.

In fact, I just had a discussion about this with a group I was in just last Sunday evening. And I said, you know, one of the first things I ask a person when I meet them is, do you know Jesus? Because I want to know, I want to set the foundation for the conversation.

And I want to know, do they know or don't they? And others were like, well, I'm just afraid to ask that question. It's, you know, we shouldn't be intimidated if Jesus, if you genuinely believe and you were following Jesus and you have the confidence and hope and assurance, salvation, don't you want others to have that?

I just can't imagine having something good that you're not excited to share. Exactly. You know, before the break, I was reading from Matthew 28, 19, where Jesus said, make disciples. What is a disciple, Don? How would you define the word disciple? I think a disciple is someone who is actively seeking to pursue their discipler.

Well, the one who they are a disciple of. So the, you know, we use the term believer very frequently, but then keep in the back of your mind, perhaps that scripture tells us, even the demons believe. And so a disciple is more than just believing. It's pursuing how to live that out, pursuing a life that honors Christ, that reflects the image of Christ in us and helps to develop that. And we get responses from people to our radio programs all around the world that are saying, okay, I heard the gospel. I prayed with the radio preacher at the end of the program. Now help me, send me a Bible.

We have literature in their language. In some of them, we can get them involved in correspondence courses so they can learn, so they can be a disciple and they can grow in their faith and learn how to share that faith and to live a lifestyle that their lifestyle itself is noticeably different, but then also to equip them to share. You know, scripture says always be prepared to give an answer for the faith that you have.

Yeah. Don, I want you to give a challenge with the time we've got left for the person who, maybe they're a believer, they've put their faith in Christ, but they're, let's be honest, they're not bearing fruit. They're not living with intentionality for the Great Commission, and they're just kind of coasting, and they need to put the car in gear and be a disciple. Give us a challenge to take it to the next level in our walk and witness, Don.

Well, Alex, you're probably better at that than I am, because I spend a lot of time on administration and not as much time out there in the ministry as I'd like to. But I think something that immediately comes to mind is I just saw this meme recently and it said, some people say life is short, so live it up, but the reality is eternity is long. Make sure you're prepared for it. And I think for us, for many people, as we live our Christian faith, as we try to internalize that, don't be tempted to internalize it. Yes, we want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We want Christ in us. And that's part of the discipleship process, but let it flow out.

Don't try to just cap it in. And don't be afraid. Yes, Jesus did say that his disciples would be persecuted, and we see it happening all around the world. And there's a sense of dread in some people that it'll happen here, but we have the assurance that God is with us. He will stand in all things. He will give us the words we need to say. So don't be afraid to open your mouth. Don't be afraid to not just live different and let people see that there's something in you they want to have.

Tell them what you have. That would be my challenge, Alex. What's next for the tide? 2023 and the years ahead, what do you guys have on the horizon? We are dedicated. We're working on what we're calling our diamond vision right now. And it's basically, it's a series of more, more, more, more programming, more people engaged with the ministry. Right now, with probably within the next month or two, we'll be opening a new outreach into the Republic of North Macedonia.

We'll be adding two additional Arabic dialects in the Middle East, expanding there. So yeah, we're looking to do more for Jesus and we're looking for more people to join with us in doing that. And if anybody wants to know more about our diamond vision, they can just go to thetide.org and it's outlined there. You know, I love talking with Don Shank of the Tide Ministry organization. They're a world missions organization because, you know, we're talking about the souls of people.

We're talking about eternity. And, you know, Don, I had the privilege some years ago when I was working for James Dobbs and at Focus on the Family, we did a big project called The Truth Project. And my friend, Dr. Del Tackett, he said that part of the reason we wanted to do this was to take the name of Jesus everywhere, that every bit of planet Earth, every person alive would be under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

And you're doing that with the Tide. You're taking the name of Jesus all around the world. I want to talk a little bit about that because the unreached people groups outside of the United States of America, what in your opinion or in your research are some of the least reached parts of our world, Don? The least reached and where there are, they use the term unreached and then also unengaged.

It's different, you know, as to whether there are a few believers or whether anybody's even trying to reach those people. Across much of the Middle East and Central Asia are some of the largest populations of least reached and unengaged. But because of the way the world is changing today and population shifts, there are becoming pockets of unreached people in places like Europe where there's been a lot of refugees fleeing certain things or people emigrating for economic reasons.

And even here in the U.S., we have pockets of unreached populations. What about, you know, our heart breaks as we see the war in the Ukraine? And just even as you and I are recording this, there's headlines about more that Russia, Putin is wanting to do to attack the Ukraine. What is the status of the gospel in the Ukraine, Don? We don't have any direct reach into the Ukraine right now. All the work we're doing is further south in Kosovo, Albania, and the Balkan region. But they're feeling that impact.

I would only know what I've seen. You know, I have seen some other ministries and what they're doing. The church in the Ukraine is standing strong. And I think that's an area where whatever we can do to help believers stand strong. Very often times, and we saw this when we pulled out of Afghanistan and just, you know, thousands of people were starting to flee Afghanistan because there are believers there. And we can do what we can to help people get out of situations. But we also have to recognize that there are people in those situations who don't want to get out. They want to live in their country and their culture and worship God freely and witness for him. And so we need to think of how can we resource the people that God has changed their lives in a radical way, that they want to stay where they are and reach the people who are even persecuting them. Well, yeah. And at great personal cost and at great personal risk, they want to stay.

That's inspiring. I've got one more question. I know you and I have not really prepped beforehand, but this has been on my heart recently. North Korea. Don, what do you know about the status of the gospel witness in North Korea? Again, there's an area I don't know a lot. It's been a while since I visited South Korea.

I know that South Korea has a very strong church there and a desire to see reconciliation with North Korea and is trying to reach out. But it continues to be at the top or near the top of the list. I'm not sure. I didn't see this year's the list of persecuted churches.

I think they're still number one. I'm not sure. Definitely a closed country, isn't it? Right.

It's very difficult to know exactly what is happening in there. So let's close out and let's talk about that great tool that we always have, which is prayer, intercession. If you could give every Christian that will hear this some things to pray about in light of our Lord's commission to tell the world, make disciples of all nations, how do we here in the 21st century pray for world missions, Don? I think one of the priorities is to pray for governments around the world where we have to work through red tape, pray for open-mindedness, pray for a willingness. Where the facility is there. And what I have specifically right now is, for example, for us to send funding into India, there's a registration needs to take place. Government documents need to be issued there.

It's not illegal, but there's a lot of red tape. Pray that that opens up because there are people who are putting their lives on the line. They are facing persecution, but they are willing to do that, but they need resources.

And one of the resources they need is the financial support to help fund their travel, the literature that they need to do meetings. So praying for, I guess, open doors through the government channels that need to allow religious freedom. Yes.

Yes. Well, I'll tell you what let's do. I want you and I to pray. And listeners, if you're hearing this, obviously the number one call if you've never trusted Christ is that today you would open your heart and be saved. And we always say this, Jesus is as close by as a prayer, and He is. If you need help in understanding the gospel, there's a tab on my website, alexmcfarland.com.

There's a tab under resources, and it says, what does God say about my relationship with Him? So if you've never trusted Christ, by all means do that today. But as a believer, if you're a Christian believer, I want you to join with us and agree with us in prayer as we pray for the gospel to go forth. Don, I want to start and I want you to close as we pray together.

Okay. Heavenly Father, we pray in the name of Jesus, like Habakkuk, that the knowledge of the Lord would cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. So Lord, we pray for the persecuted church all around the world. We pray for governments to open the door for the expression of the gospel.

And Lord, you would change hearts. And Father God, I pray also for revival, especially here in America, that Lord, the body of believers would be on fire for you. And Lord, we would be committed to what you told us to do to invest our whole life to take the word of Jesus to the entire globe. Father, I finally I pray for my brother Don Shank and the tide in twenty languages and more all around the world. Lord, bless them, keep your hand of favor and anointing, provision, protection on them. And Lord, I pray for every one of us that when we see you face to face, as we will one day, as 1 John 2.28 says, we would meet you unashamed because we had given our life for your glory. So Father God, we pray for the fulfillment of your commission and we pray for your glory in Jesus' name. Heavenly Father, I affirm those words and we know that you are great, mighty, and awesome, and that your love and your grace and mercy extend beyond what we can comprehend. And Father, I thank you for the lives that you have touched through the radio ministry, through the witness of the many who are sharing the gospel out of their own hearts. And Father, I pray that as we look at people around the world, that a greater sense of urgency would be felt and embraced and that you would continue to provide your Holy Spirit to speak through the mouths and the minds and the lives of people in many countries. Father, I pray for protection for them. And I also pray that as they stand firm and share, that we would also stand firm, that we would stand up for our faith, that we would not be intimidated. Father, as we see people who are being martyred, that we would support them with not just our prayers and our finances, but that we would be willing and be inspired by that to know that when persecution comes, will we stand strong and let us not be intimidated to do what you've called us to do. Father, we ask your blessing on this, and we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Thank you, Don Shank. Thetide.org is his website. AlexMcFarland.com is ours.

Thanks for listening. May God bless you and tell somebody about Jesus. Alex McFarland Ministries are made possible through the prayers and financial support of partners like you. For over 20 years, this ministry has been bringing individuals into a personal relationship with Christ and has been equipping people to stand strong for truth. Learn more and donate securely online at AlexMcFarland.com. You may also reach us at Alex McFarland, P.O.

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