Welcome to Passion for Christ, a ministry of Utah Partnerships for Christ. In Acts 26, 18, Jesus said, Paul's purpose was to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them, which are sanctified by faith that is in me. We hope you'll join us for today's testimony of lives changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now let's begin today's episode. Welcome to Passion for Christ. We're going to jump right into today's episode. I've got Alan Dixon with me today. Alan, you were saved out of the Mormon church, right?
We want to talk about that a little bit and talk about what the Lord's doing in your life right now. Awesome. Yep, yep, that's correct. I was born again while in the Mormon church, and shortly thereafter, God led me out of there. Great, great.
Awesome. Tell our listeners, as we're going to share today about where God has led you and your wife as far as ministry goes here in Utah with a ministry called Ratio Christi. And this is a campus ministry, a college campus ministry that deals with, well, I'll let you kind of explain it. What is Ratio Christi all about? Yeah, Ratio Christi is all about apologetics and evangelism on campus.
The goal to have answers to the skeptics, to help people realize that it is a reasonable faith, and that there are answers to the questions that they will face and the challenges from their professors and textbooks. Excellent. Yeah, this is going to involve a lot of real intense studies and question and answer time, and maybe having debates or having movies shown and discussions. And it's going to be sometimes really countering what a college student is having to deal with in a classroom or within the culture of Utah itself with the religious powerhouse of, of course, what Utah is known for. And so a lot of people are leaving that church, that predominant church, but then they're going into agnosticism or maybe Eastern religions and things like that.
And so Alan is seeking your support today, your prayer support, and wants to get to know you. And I want to have him share his testimony with you just briefly, and then you can get more in contact with him. We'll tell you more about what we're trusting the Lord for. But just share with our listeners, what was it like for you being Mormon, and then how did the Lord lead you out of it and come to Christ? Yeah, as anyone knows that has been born again, a story would take all day if you get into all the details.
So I'll try to just give a thousand foot view of how God reached me in the middle of a very Mormon family. Both sides went way back to when the pioneers came across the country to Utah. and so all I knew was the Mormon church grew up in a town that 95% of the people were Mormon at the time and so the only kid I knew that was not Mormon was a girl that was Catholic but it was you know Easter Christmas Catholic and so didn't really know any other religion or faith besides Mormonism and I hated it as a kid church was three hours and somebody that has ADHD that's not a good fit. And so I tend to get in trouble a lot in church. I feel like I spent more time getting in trouble than learning things.
But yeah, just grew up in that atmosphere and felt kind of distant from God in church. I would feel close to God out in nature. And so I believed in God, just seeing creation and seeing the stars. And thankfully I had a dad that was big on you know, taking us camping and talking about how we have a creator. And yeah.
And so long story short, I fell into some, you know, addiction in high school. I got involved in looking at pornography and got into a very dark place where the religion I was a part of taught that you have to, you know, you're saved by grace after all you can do. And so I realized, oh my gosh, I need to get my life together and then I can go to God and get forgiveness. And I just tried and tried and tried to get my life together and I could not. Kept on just getting more and more broken to the point where I felt like I needed to just end my life.
I had been so broken. I had failed my family, failed everybody. I had this secret that I didn't dare talk to anybody about. And right before I was about to make a terrible choice is when I felt like I prayed to God sincerely for the first time in my life. And we're just going to tell him, you know, like, why did you allow this to happen to me?
And somehow through that prayer, God just came into my life. I felt the love of God stronger than I'd ever experienced it in my life. In the midst of my brokenness, in the midst of my hurt, when from what I had been taught, I was the most unworthy and far from God. He came into my life and showed me his love and mercy and grace. And it was interesting because I knew it was Jesus.
Growing up in the Mormon Church, they always talk about Heavenly Father, and we rarely would talk about Christ at that time. it's different now with their their rebranding that they've done but yeah i i just knew that jesus had was there with me and amazingly he healed me he took that addiction away from me that i was unable to conquer on my own and from you know books i i read on on how to do that none of that helped only jesus did and and he completely just changed me from being a depressed person struggling with addiction to somebody that was full of life and wanted to share the love that I had encountered at that moment. Long story short, I ended up going on a mission for the Mormon Church because that was the only thing that I knew. I wanted to share my story, and it was on that mission, in fact, on a university campus that I encountered born-again Christians who shared the gospel with me and helped me to recognize whoa that actually what I encountered and that the Jesus that I know not this one that was very awkward for me to talk about because it was so different from what I had encountered as an 18-year-old in my room. And so, yeah, after talking to those guys, got back from the mission, met with some pastors, they explained to me the differences between biblical Christianity and Mormonism, and from there I left that church and have just been being discipled since.
That was well over 10 years ago, and recently just felt that call to get back in there in the trenches and be a true missionary for Jesus with Ratio Christi because of all the experience that God's given me from leaving the Mormon church. Another part of the testimony I'm just going to tag on here at the end really quick. My wife, I met her when she had just returned from her Mormon mission down to Phoenix, Arizona, and God used me to lead her out of that church. And so now we're just chasing after God together for five years now. And we're feeling that call to get into ministry full-time instead of having to turn down opportunities because we both have work obligations.
Right. And so that leads us up to where we are right now. Thank you for sharing that. And so we're going to ask you listening right now, wherever you are, whether you're in Utah or you're in Ohio or you're in North Carolina or wherever you are listening to the podcast or the radio program, would you take a minute and just pray and ask God if, even though I realize you haven't gotten to know Alan super well, but this might be the beginning of doing that. Maybe there's an opportunity that you might be willing to give Alan and his wife to come to your church and to share the vision at your church.
Because here's what we're trying to do right now. We're trusting the Lord for a small amount, I think. But what this small amount is going to do, it's going to be the means in which he can go to a program that Ratio Christi puts together. It's called Via Generosity. And it's a type of thing in Colorado or different places they have it offered where you get more education and how to be a missionary and all the support raising, be it prayer support, moral support, communication, accountability, financial support.
But what Alan needs right now, he has a wife, he has a house payment, he needs $1,500 to get this thing going where he can pay for the training, get out there for an airfare, and then for a hotel stay. this is something that he needs to get going with RC, with Ratio Christi. And so we're by faith just trusting God that maybe there's someone out there that might say, you know what, I can make a donation towards that. Maybe I can't do the whole $1,500, or I can't do $1,000, can't even do $500, but maybe I could do $100, you know, or $50, whatever it is that God has put on your heart to help this young man who has been saved out of Mormonism, and he has a heart to reach people. And we've got this 20,000-student Weber State University right here across the street from where we're making this recording right now.
And I really believe that God has given Alan the perfect kind of skill sets and heart. We'll be right back for the rest of today's testimony. Please know we at Utah Partnerships for Christ have been planting seeds of the gospel in Utah for over 24 years. We welcome any questions you may have and invite you to visit our website to obtain a list of words and definitions that would help you understand how Mormons think and how to be able to better witness to your friends who belong to the Mormon Church. That website is www.upfc.org.
That's upfc.org. We'll be right back. Welcome to Passion for Christ, a ministry of Utah Partnerships for Christ. In Acts 26.18, Jesus said, Paul's purpose was to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them, which are sanctified by faith that is in me. We hope you'll join us for today's testimony of lives changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now let's begin today's episode. What we just need is that kind of that direction. We kind of need that push, that push kind of out of the nest in a sense to say, okay, the Lord is moving through his people to allow him to follow the protocol of Ratio Christi. You can look them up. They're all over the country and they have chapters all around the country.
and big universities all around, right? And Utah has a few chapters already. They're kind of south of here in Salt Lake City and the Provo area, but Weber State needs that as well. And so would you go to our website? The website is U as in Utah, P as in Partnerships, F as in 4.
The word for. And then C, as in Christ, dot O-R-G.
So that's U-P-F-C dot org. And if you will go to that website you can call me you can send me an email russ at upfc It hard to remember that when you just hearing this on the radio or on the podcast but you can jot it down, and you can get in contact with me, and I'll tell you more, and I'll get you in contact with Alan and his wife, and so they can share with you the fact that this is going to be, in a sense it's going to be an uphill battle because the enemy is strong in utah we're small in numbers here and we can't really fully and alan i'll have you talk about this a lot of great ministries going on here in utah but we don't have a whole lot of christians here in utah do we i mean we have some but why are we reaching out to our friends in ohio and north carolina and just broadening it out what just just give our listeners a sense of the the spiritual climate here in utah Yeah, here in Utah, we're the most religious state, but the least Christian state in the nation. And so the Christians that are supporting ministries, there's so many options for them, and a lot of great ministries that they have to choose from. But obviously, you can't donate to everything that's out there.
So the ones that they feel most called to, they donate to. But we are here in the mission field. And so, you know, a lot of our connections and people that we know are part of the people group that we are trying to reach. And so they're not going to donate to us to, you know, to help people leave the faith that they're a part of. And so we'd appreciate any support from those who look at us as a mission field.
You know, it's similar to donating to somebody going overseas and doing mission work. We have a huge area here in the middle of our country that is an unreached people group. Absolutely. Let's talk for a minute or two about your Instagram. We were talking about how in the past you have done some ministry with the Luis Palau ministry.
He's with the Lord now, but a really wonderful ministry of evangelism, going to places. I mean, Alan could talk for hours about the places that he's been, like Egypt, you know, right? Egypt, and just crazy, amazing stuff. And yet God, you know, now he has shifted. I mean, you've had a few broken bones, huh, in doing what you're doing.
Tell our listeners about what you've done in the past with the ministry with Luis Palau. Yeah, yeah, with Luis Palau and Team Faith. And we actually have our own little ministry called Moto with a Message, me and my wife. But yeah, I jump dirt bikes, and we do stunts with the purpose of drawing attention of people who would never normally darken the doorstep of a church and then sharing the gospel with them. And so that's something that I have done in the past.
I did it full-time for a while, mostly at secular events. But yeah, now that I'm getting older and we're starting a family, looking to do more local ministry and be able to... Yes. And so the Instagram, I mean, you mentioned to me that you have quite a few followers on Instagram, and that's partly due to the ministry with Luis Palau, right? Partly, or just the writing kind of ministry.
So how could somebody find you on Instagram? Yeah, yeah. Please check out the Instagram. It's rider4christ. And so it's, again, rider4christ.
And would love to connect with you on there, answer any questions you have. you can see another aspect of what we do. And this will be, just so you understand, this is going to be probably more of a transition into the RC world, the Rasio Christi, the Apologetic Ministry, the college campus ministry here in Utah, in Ogden, Utah. But this will be a great way for you to get to know Alan and his wife a little bit through this ministry and even on Facebook. If you're on Facebook, how would they find you there, Alan?
Yeah, we have the same page, that Writer for Christ, or just look me up, Alan Dixon, it's A-L-A-N-D-I-X-O-N. That may be a little trickier to find, so if you find the Writer for Christ, then you should be able to find me that way, just because there's so many people with that name, it can be hard to find. Great, right, right.
So this will be a great way for you to connect with Alan, is just by going to those social media formats and platforms, And so pray for Alan. Pray for his wife. Pray for this open door that God's given him with Ratio Christi. We're asking you right now, would you consider helping him with the expenses to go to this training? It's not just like one afternoon.
It's a couple days, right?
So it's got a little price tag to it. But it's very important. And it's going to be the first or you could say the next step for him to be officially being able to raise funds on a long-term basis with Ratio Christi.
So we need to stand behind Alan. We need to, like, give him some encouragement.
So if you're listening, and maybe you can't give, but you just want to, you know, just maybe pray with him. You want to give him some encouragement because sometimes, you know, you're trying to follow the Lord's leading here. And then all of a sudden you just feel like, well, maybe this isn't it, you know, and things aren't coming together. We have some roadblocks and we have this opportunity and that opportunity. And it's foggy and we don't really know for sure what God wants us to do.
But as of right now, it seems like this is definitely a path here that God has opened up, but he's got to go to this via generosity, fundraising, people raising, prayer raising, kind of a symposium. It a little conference for people that are new to Ratio Christi and they have to do this so that they follow the protocol for how they would want you to in a God way raise funds and how to make this.
Now, he might have to do some tent making like Paul did too. You know, the Apostle Paul, he wasn't immune to having to build some, make some, sew up some tents and stuff. Remember that in the New Testament and Acts? And so he did that a bit. And so that might be what Alan does a little bit.
We have this via generosity happening in August. It might be that he has to go to the next one if the funds haven't come in yet. But we are trusting that the Lord will, in his good timing, we're just putting it out there. We're just trying to, by faith, put it out to you. because this could be a super, I think, whenever you as a believer follow the Lord, then that's a blessing, obviously, for you, for me.
And so I'm going to pledge $50 right now. I'm going to tell you, Alan, I'm going to just Venmo you $50, okay? Thank you. Yeah, so you keep that, put that in your bank account, and set it aside for this via generosity program. And so that's about it.
I mean, those are all the things that I wanted to say. And kind of in closing, would you want to share anything like maybe a favorite verse? Just kind of share a little bit about you. Like what keeps you going and what's a passage in Scripture that God has, you know, made really more special and meaningful to you, Alan? Yeah, yeah.
There's two that weigh on my mind every single day. First is 1 Corinthians 1557. And it says, Thanks be to God who gives us the victory in our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, coming out of a cult where you're focused on your works, it's just awesome to contemplate that the victory is because of Jesus and his finished work on the cross. And then the other one, also in Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 5.21, it says that Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us so that we could be made right before God.
and just reflecting on that blows my mind every single day that God incarnate would love us so much that he would die for us. It just makes me blown away and I wanted to share that good news with anyone who will listen. And that's what keeps me motivated is God saved me and I know that that he'll save any who, you know, who turn to his name and believe and confess.
So want to get that news out, get people out of these religions that are restricting their relationship with the Lord and give them the freedom that's found only in Christ Jesus. Amen. I'm in.
Well, hey, would you mind just closing this out in prayer? Just say a prayer as it comes from your heart. And right before, let me just give you everybody the website one more time to go to to make a donation. You can give it through our nonprofit tax-deductible gift. It's all set up real easy on our website.
It's just upfc.org, Utah Partnerships for Christ. It's the acronym for that ministry. We've been doing ministry in Utah for 25 years by God's grace, and I can look Alan in the eye and say, if God's called you to this, like, where God guides, he provides. You know, you've heard that little cliche maybe? And I've known Alan now for a bit, and I've been trying to kind of like be kind of a good uncle sort of and just kind of like sit back a little bit and let the Lord work and just kind of be there but like I believe in this guy I really do and I believe that God's leading him so close us out in prayer if you would yeah Father God we thank you for this day we thank you for this time we can just be put on the radio we thank you for technology God and for every single person listening to this Lord we just pray that that they can take time today to reflect on your goodness, on your love, on how amazing the gospel is, God.
We pray that if there's anyone listening who does not know you, Lord, that they can, that they can begin that relationship right here, right now, God, that they can turn to you and recognize that our, our, our good standing with you is found only in Jesus, that, that he is enough, even though we are not. God, we pray for everyone listening. all of them face different unique challenges and circumstances God there may be even something really heavy weighing on on their mind right now and so we pray for you we pray that you can feel God's love you can feel his guidance and grace we pray that as you open up his word that you'll recognize his voice and be able to receive that guidance that you need at this time Lord we just thank you for the generosity of our family of believers God and that we have a family all over the world that is chasing after you God I want to thank you for Russ and UPFC and the ministry that you have done and that you are continuing to do through them Lord and for how you are reaching people like who I used to be through these ministries Lord so we thank you for your love and Jesus we are just in awe of the love that you have for us and it's in your name we pray Amen That's upfc.org. Thanks so much for joining us on another edition of Passion for Christ.
