This is the Truth Network. Satan's Nightmare, Nakia Koloff. This is one war that That needs to be settled. What a braw, what a fight! And it's out of control here!
That's a bad man. No, that's a bad man. No, that's a bad man. Anytime, any place, night, day, I don't care. I'm only a phone call away, my friend.
Welcome to another episode of Q ⁇ A with Koloff, the Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back, QA with Koloff Questions and Answers, where you get the opportunity to ask me a question or two and get a personal phone call from yours truly, The Russian Nightmare. And sometimes it's not a personal phone call.
Sometimes they're in studio. And today is in studio. Ken Klein, welcome to QA with Koloff. Right on. Thank you for having me.
Man, great to be with you. Great to have you here, Ken. Of course, we've talked, and I was reminded we go back a number of years. We first met, I guess, five, six, seven years ago that we had met. And through ministry, we had shared the platform at a number of different conferences and retreats and camps and different things.
And, of course, you are. And I don't know. You've said you're in retirement mode, but based on what you've described, I don't know that I would Describe it as retirement mode. Maybe a shift. Ministry shift.
A shift. Because I know you spent 34 years in ministry. Yeah, full-time pastoral ministry. Yeah, wearing all kinds of different hats, right? Yeah.
Everything from what? From youth ministry? Youth and lead pastoring, executive pastoring, and probably. Actually, planted three churches. Planted three churches.
Just real quick, what was that experience like on planting three churches? Tough? It was tough. You know, I was the guy that, when I turned 50, I thought, man, I got under that radar of having to be a church planter.
Okay. And I must have used the never word somewhere along. Because God said, watch this. God's sense of humor. I was 50.
I was 50 when I got called and I said, well, at least let me be the kind of church plant where it's not in a school, you know, where you set up at like 5 a.m. or in all that with trailers, loading in, loading out. And sure enough, it was at a. Middle school where we had to load three trailers in every single day. It's a lot of work.
The setup and the breakdown. Oh, my goodness. How many years did you do that? That was three years altogether.
Okay. Yep. Yeah. People don't realize the work behind it. They just walk in through the doors and sit down and enjoy the worship, let's say, and the message and walk out, right?
They don't get the labor before and after and all that. That's a part of that. It's intense. I feel for a lot of the guys, but at the same time, it's very rewarding. Yeah, sure.
I'm sure it is.
Now, you mentioned, and I want to encourage you, be sure and check out. The full interview with Ken over on It's Time to Man Up because you talked about your last church, how you took it from a really essentially a, I'll just phrase it this way, a lily white church to become very diversified. Yeah, just take a minute and just talk about that development. Yeah, that was, um, I think I mentioned to you in that interview that. Uh I never really I started to believe that it really wasn't possible.
to have that much diversity where you have younger and older. Black, white, Asian, Latino, and really even Japanese. Yeah, Japanese fellowship, but also from the different denominational styles and the different beliefs, you know, backgrounds, yeah, Lutheran to Pentecostal. Yeah, and people that are so diverse could actually worship over the course of an hour in the same building at the same time, yeah, and enjoy it, right? Not endure it, but actually enjoy it.
Yeah, and or although I'm sure you Over the years, you know, every church is, every pastor is not without complaints about something, but that's just a part of part of what. Working with the crowd, right? That's right.
Well, that's pretty amazing as well. And I know your wife, Deborah, was alongside you for the reason. How long have you been married now?
Well, I say we've been going steady for 50 years this year. We've actually been married in June. We will have been married 44 years. 44 years. And dated six years before that.
Well, congratulations.
So you hit the Jubilee. Yeah. Oh, yeah. The 50-year Jubilee. Come on.
That's it. You may have to celebrate the 44 and the Jubilee all at one time. That's it. Come on, honey. We're going to do a Jubilee.
Well, that's pretty amazing. I know you got two children, son and daughter. Yep. And you live down in Thomaston, Georgia. Thomaston, Georgia.
Thomasville. Yep. North Carolina. Yeah, just below High Point.
Okay. I don't know why Thomaston, Georgia popped in my head. Must be somebody down there I need to reach out to. That's right.
And so let's shift gears here. Yeah. You are involved in that, as far as I'm concerned, crazy wacky world of Spartan races. Yeah, been doing that for how many years? That started.
I got challenged by my son back in 2017. He said, You should do one of these races. I said, I think that's for younger guys. Yeah. He said, No, they got older guys too.
And so they got a senior category. I almost bailed out. I thought, I'm going to die, you know, on this crazy course. And, but the interesting thing is, once I did the first race, I thought, man, I could do better. If I just trained a little bit, got the bug.
I got the bug. Bit with the bug. Then I had to do the bigger one. Then I had to do so anyway. It's just been going on and on.
You've done 27 of them. Yeah. Yeah. 27 coming up in April. Mike, 27th coming up in April.
That's amazing. Your 27th coming up. And you wrestled in high school, junior high and high school, and a little bit in college? Yeah, a little bit.
Okay. And. Still, still at it today. I'll be in June down at Garner Webb University in North Carolina helping with the FCA, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Wrestling of the Carolinas.
Okay. And they'll have probably 3 to 350 students down there. I coach during the day, and then I get to preach the gospel at night. Very cool. Yeah, that's very cool.
And. So there was never any professional wrestling in your world, other than were you a fan at all of it? I came off the couch a couple of times with a good elbow, dropped an elbow, dusty's bionic elbow onto somebody. The sleeper worked a few times. People don't realize that.
The sleeper, if applied correctly, could actually put somebody to sleep. It's a dangerous move, actually. Kind of like the figure four that the nature boy Ric Flair used to do can hurt somebody if applied the properly. I have a funny story. I got a really good friend in ministry.
His name's Scott, and he was at an event at the Greensboro Coliseum here in North Carolina. And it was professional wrestling. And it was after some of the guys had finished their match, and then one of the guys was Wahoo McDaniel. And he was coming towards the tunnel. And somebody Near Scott reached across the railing and whacked Wahoo right across the back of his head.
Pretty good. Oh boy. And Wahoo turns around with his belt. Uh-huh. Comes back over.
Yeah, that Indian strap he always carried with him. He had Indian. And he assumed it was my friend Scott. No. And started wailing on him with his belt.
No. Come on. Scott said, I never forgot that night. I'm sure he did. He got wailed on by Wahoo McDaniel.
And that was back for the record, back before we became a litigious society where everybody sued everybody for everything. And, you know, it was interesting in the old school days of a guy came across a barrier, which I had six different matches, fans come across the barrier and come after me. The only one that actually got his hands on me was the very first one at the first Great American Bash against Ric Flair. But I didn't realize, I wasn't expecting it.
So I didn't realize it until he had me pinned. He must have been an amateur wrestler because he had me pinned up against the rope, leveraging me against the rope. And then the cops, like the Keystone cops, figured out, I don't think this. Guy's a part of it. This is a part of it.
This is a part of it. They roll in and arrest him and escort him out and whatnot. But yeah, six different times. And the cops back in those days, like if somebody did that, you know, way back in the 60s and 70s, they had like a special little room at some of these buildings that they'd stick that person in. And then they'd say to like Oahu McDaniel, five minutes, he's in that room right there.
You got five minutes if you want to go ahead and beat the sod out of him for a while, you know, whatever. But it was dangerous back in the day. Ole Anderson had a scar all the way, you know, about a 10, 12 inch scar on his chest from somebody who had pulled out a knife when he was leaving the rig.
So your buddy hit with the Indian straight. Yep. I'll never forget one other quick question or thought and then we'll get to your questions. Is I was arrested by a guy named Stan the Lariat Hansen. Stan.
Stan Hansen and a cowboy carried around a rope and a cowbell.
So Wahoo carries the Indian strap. Hansen carries a rope and a cowbell, okay? And a legit cowbell. And in this particular event, we were in Charleston, South Carolina. I had a buddy travel with me.
This is like an independent show, and he and I are the main event.
Well, when Stan takes his glasses off, he's as blind as a bat. Like he can't, like, everything's a blur. Oh, my.
So, like, he can't see nothing, right? And, but yet, he's going to go in and have a match with somebody, right?
Well, my buddy ends up being the bell ringer at ringside because they were short some people. They go, Hey, can I go? Yeah, my buddy, he'll be a bell ringer.
Well, Stan, when he hits the ring at the beginning of the match, or before the match starts, he's like swinging that thing around. And because he can't see, he's swinging. I jump out of the ring, he swings it over the ropes, and he hits my buddy. With the cowbell. Oh, no.
Who's ringside ringing the bell? Man, my buddy was so mad. He was like, I'm gonna sue him. I go, Richard, you can't sue him, dude. Like, you agreed to be a part of the show, so you have no case.
He should have known, why did he hit me? I go, he hit you because he's blind as a bat. He didn't even see us sitting there, is why you got hit.
So, anyway, so yeah, just some of the parts of wrestling that the average fan or person might not like your story. Your buddy getting hit with a wall who's strap, right? Yep, starved for life. That is amazing.
Well, let's do this. Let's shift gears here.
Okay. Give you the opportunity, Ken, to ask me a couple of questions and we'll We'll roll with the first one. What do you do with your spare change? Go to your app store, download the app YourChange to help support Kolof for Christ Ministries. Every penny, nickel, dime, and quarter helps us fund Man Camp and so much more.
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I will only recommend the best. Go to Traynaut.com slash Koloff. Traynaut.com. That's T-R-A-N-O-M-T.com slash Koloff to learn more. Biggest question that I had, and this is kind of coming because we got an event coming up soon, this summit event, that I'm preparing for.
But the question... That um I've had to ask myself, but I'm thinking I'd really like to ask Nikita. there's these paradigm moments, these huge shifts in our life. Where we have to make a yes or no, and we don't have a lot of time to think or pray about it, but it's life-changing. Hmm.
It's kind of like, depending on how I answer this, whether it's an answer to another human or to God, because he you're it's a confrontational Gideon in the wine press or, you know, kind of thing. I thought, was there a moment that you could share with me? Uh for it was an encounter with God. And it was kind of a yes or no. It was a it was a piv very pivotal Moment where you had to say, okay.
Because what I'm talking about this weekend is the four guys that were fishermen that said instantaneously. Yeah. Come follow me. They left their nets, dropped their nets, and followed him. I thought they did it right.
That's a pretty big moment. Right. And I wondered, was there a moment like that that you could share with me? I mean, immediately what comes to mind, Ken, is the moment of salvation is the very first thing that pops in my mind. And, you know, as I've shared some of that story over the years, that, you know, didn't grow up in Russia, wink, wink.
Didn't grow up in church, but I knew the story. But the story had just never made the 18-inch trip from my head down to my heart. And on this particular day, 17 October 1993, I was in a season where I had left the ring. I left professional wrestling about 11 months prior and just kind of searching for what life held next for Nikita Koloff. Mm-hmm.
successful in many people's eyes. but yet inside um not satisfied.
so successful but unfulfilled. Not not fully satisfied. And so, kind of on that mission of what's going to bring that satisfaction. Looking back now, as some know, filling that void or that hole in my heart, which we know now that only Jesus can do is fill that void or that hole. You know, when we try to fill it with many other things, whether it be sex or drugs or alcohol or success in business or money or whatever else it is, all the things you know the world pursues, right?
Only to find out it's only temporary and none of that is truly satisfying. Yeah, so that said. Um you know, that morning sitting in that church in Concord, North Carolina. Was an aha moment for me. An invitation is given.
And I just realized, I'm like, I know what's missing. And it's a yes or no. You know, I felt the tug in my heart to go to the altar. And get on my knees, confess, and repent, and surrender my life to Christ. That's a yes or no, right?
I mean, I could have easily just stay glued to my seat and go, I ain't doing that. I mean, all these people know me, or, you know, whatever. Pride gets in the way, and you know, and just don't do it, you know. And as we know, many people have denied God and denied Christ. And even if there's been a tugging, or for some, you know how many stories?
I'm sure you've heard them. Yeah, God called me to ministry when I was young, but man, I've run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run from it all these years or whatever, right? Yeah. A friend of mine said one time, God gave him a vision for something. He's like, God, have you ever asked anybody else to do this?
And God said, yeah, about a hundred people, you're just the first one to say yes. Think about that for a moment. Yeah. He heard from God, yes, I've asked about a hundred people to do this, but you're just the first one to say yes. Wow.
Right? And so that's how I would answer your question: is that that moment going to that altar? opening my heart, repenting, receiving Christ, and saying yes. And then, because Ken, I'm an all-in kind of guy, from that moment, from that yes, now I'm all in. Like like I'm not I'm not I'm not the parable of of the seed sown on rocky ground or you know the sun comes out and scorches it.
I'm not that guy. I I'm I'm the one where it took root Yep. And for the last thirty three-ish years You know, I like to think I've been growing. And bearing fruit from that yes. That's correct decision.
A lot of people. Uh on the fence. They make the decision, it's yes, but I don't want to get too far from this other stuff. And we'll we'll be talking about that this weekend about bold faith. Yeah, so no, great question, man.
That's cool. It's the first time I've ever been asked anything like that, so that's awesome.
Well, what else you got? You got one more question? Here's a part two to that. And I can I can say that one of my h darkest seasons in my pastoral career, I lost one of those church plants that I was talking about. It was a hostel takeover, and I actually wound up working in a factory.
After I lost my church for almost three years, before the last ministry I was in. But in that journey, that dark journey, I call that like a desert. Wilderness. Yeah, wilderness. I got some corrective lenses.
And the corrective lenses were I became a project fanatic. you know, building empires and stuff and I lost sight of Love God Love People. And so in the process of the that wilderness and that desert, uh I got those corrective lenses. What seemed like it w should have been the darkest time in my story actually became Probably one of the most positive life changes. I just didn't see it at the time, but I could see it afterwards.
Sure. Was there a wilderness that you went through at any point in time? Um that when you came out of it on the other side you could kinda see where God was in that? It's a good question. And what's interesting and and what what any of us should be grateful for is is your wilderness didn't last 40 years like some.
Yes. Oh man. Right. I didn't plan on ever being back. You know, 40 years in the wilderness, right, for the Israelites.
But um Um Man, that's another really, really great question. I guess there's times and I I kind of the way I guess I'll answer, there's times when I've looked back and even said to different audiences, there's an amusement park down by the the North Carolina, South Carolina State line called Kerowins. Yeah. Yeah. Carowins.
And you can not help but See it from the interstate. Like, you don't even have to go into the park. You can see the crazy-looking rides from the highway. And I've been to the park. And each time, like even, and I drive by that park a lot, and sometimes it's just a reminder of, I tell people of my life journey.
In that there's been highs and lows and ups and downs and twists and turns and times I felt like I was upside down, right? And so, you know, I haven't had a. A life of dr of a drama-free life, let's just say. Gotcha. And I'd say for me, the biggest challenge, you know, transparently is in the past had been relationships.
Relationships. And I guess, I don't know, 20-ish years ago. Never really talked much about this, but since you asked the question, I'll be transparent for our listeners out there. Is I went through a very, very hard divorce.
Okay. And not of my choosing, but you can't force somebody else. To do anything, right? You can't force them to stay married. You can't force them to stay in a relationship.
Nor should you even try, because it's probably just not going to work out if you try to force. Right. And that was that was difficult for me. That was. Tough.
That was challenging for me. And then the biggest. uh painful moment was when a judge Gave her permission to take my children 3,000 miles away from me. Oh my goodness. When I was a dad who went to all the.
all the school plays and and did the daddy-daughter dates every week and prayed and read Bible stories every night. I mean, I was that guy. Yeah. And for them to be that far away was in the moment incredibly painful when when my attorney informed me that the judge allowed her to do that. But out of that, so here's the redemption side of that.
You know, the Lord, in fact, it was about five o'clock one morning. I was at one of our camps, facilitating one of our camps. And the Lord reminded me. You know, he said, you're a good dad. I know how much you love your children.
I love them even more because I created them. You're a good dad, but on your best day, I'm still a better father. Wow, I mean, this is a conversation God had with me, right? And I'm breaking at 5 a.m. I'm choked up, tearing up, laying in bed at 5 o'clock in the morning.
And he said, Here's what I want you to do. Anytime you're with them, you just be Jesus with skin on and just love on them from the time you pick them up till the time you drop them off. And you release them. You've got, and here came the biggest challenge: do you trust me? And I'm like, Do you trust that I can allow them to be taken 3,000 miles away from you and still take care of them?
Oh, wow. And if you do, then you release them into my hands. And then when they're with you, you just be Jesus with skin on them. And that was incredibly helpful. And then the last part he said was.
There'll come a day that they'll come back to you. But you just have to be patient. And wait, they'll climb a hill, but you're not to run down and help them up. They've got to go through their own challenges and difficulties. Right?
But once they reached the top, then you can fully embrace them and welcome them home. My hand. Thanks for sharing. Yeah. That's fantastic.
Yeah, I don't think I've ever... I don't think I've ever shared that.
Well, very few times ever, anyway. I heard about. in his frustration. in that and and God said in your living day Habakkuk. You will see.
But you got to trust me. And he he wound up trusting him. But it wasn't instantaneous. It was many years later that He got to see the things that he was told he was going to get to see.
Well, and like you, you know, and for you out there listening, you're going through something right now and you're like, this is a struggle. This is tough. I don't understand why I have to go through this. You know, you heard Ken say it, and I'm reminded of it. You know, a lot of times in the moment, we can't see why we're going through what we're going through.
But, you know, years later, Maybe months later, but certainly maybe years later. God brings revelation and allows us to see it. Like I said, I got corrective lenses. And when He allowed me to come back to ministry, I came back. Just to love people.
And that's what he called me to do. But I'd lost that. Yeah, better equipped. I didn't fail morally, but he allowed me. to go through the wilderness, to the desert, for me to be able to see.
So it was good. And if you're in a wilderness out there right now, just hang in there. Don't give up. Don't let go. Keep pressing through.
Yay, though, we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. We don't land in the valley. We walk through it.
So you just keep walking. Come on. Keep moving towards the cross. Keep pressing on.
So, Ken Klein, thank you for being on QA with Koloff today, man. You're welcome. Thanks for having me. And great to have you here. And for all of you out there listening, Land, be sure to go over again, over to It's Time to Man Up and catch the full story.
If you don't have the truth. App, the truth radio app, download that and you'll get a plethora of podcasts and shows and everything else. Until next time, go out and just have a God-filled, love a God-blessed day. If you are a business owner and would like to advertise your company or product on the Man Up Show and/or QA with Koloff. Contact me directly, Nafita Koloff at Koloff.net.
