Interview with Don Shank

TNG Radio, where today's culture and timeless truths come together.

It's reasoned, relevant content apologetics, worldview, and answers to the questions that you need to know. From Alex McFarland Ministries, this is Truth for a New Generation Radio. And now the man who preached in 50 states in 50 days, speaker, writer, and advocate for Christian apologetics, Dr. Alex McFarland.

The Great Commission. You know, the church in every age is called to present the gospel to the world and to make disciples of all nations. That's Matthew 28, 18 through 20.

Christ, as he was leaving this world, and he would ascend back to heaven. But he gave his followers the charge to go into all the world and make disciples of every nation. And I think about Mark 16, 15, where Jesus said, preach the gospel to every creature. Today on TNG Radio, we're going to be talking about the Great Commission. And I think about the great founder of Methodism, John Wesley, who said, we have nothing to do but the saving of souls.

And that's true. That is life's highest calling. And that is certainly the priority for the church and for each and every Christian.

Alex McFarland here with TNG Radio. And we're so excited because today we bring back a great friend of the ministry, a valued colleague and brother, Don Shank of the Tide, T-I-D-E, as in a tide of the ocean and a wave of God's presence and God's power and God's message. And we want this tide of the gospel to sweep the world. And a man the Lord is using to help accomplish that is Don Shank. And he's a longtime friend of the ministry and you've heard his voice before.

But it's good to have him back from from all of our travels and all of his travels. And Don, great to have you on the show again. I've got to ask, where are you calling in from today? I'm calling in from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Alex, I do thank you for this opportunity.

Oh, yeah. Well, it's great to have you back. You know, I think about you and I pray for you and I go on your website and you and I have known each other through our mutual colleagues and friends, the Hamiltons, Mike and Debbie Hamilton, and many listening that get our emails and press releases know who Hamilton's strategies are up in Pennsylvania. But tell us a little bit about the tide. I know many listeners are familiar because we we've talked about it before, but just the background of the tide and how you became involved in the ministry. The tide ministry was started by a vision God gave a pastor here in Chambersburg in nineteen forty six to start a radio ministry. And that was like a seed God planted that he has nurtured and grown over the past 70 some years to an international radio broadcast in the 70s. That English program was first taken overseas. And then we began realizing that people respond best to gospel when they hear it in their own language. So it doesn't come as something foreign, but it's something that they can really embrace as part of their own culture, a God who speaks their language. And so over the last 40 years, the ministry has really put the focus on starting Christian radio programs in countries where people don't have access to the gospel through radio.

So we're up to 25 different languages now and doing that in eight different countries. I joined the ministry in 2001. My wife and I just returned from 12 years serving as missionaries in Africa, speaking where God might be leading us.

He pointed everything this way, opened the doors and placed me here. And it's just wonderful to be in a place where I can still be at the heart of missions. Even though God has me with my feet on the US, I still get to go to take leader to leader training teams in the various countries.

I still have helped to coordinate and direct ministry activity going around that is helping to build God's kingdom in the hearts of people around the world. You know, Don, as you and I are getting ready to do the show, I'm signing a lot of books for high school grads and college grads, and I'm getting ready to go and speak to a group of graduates. And, you know, a lot of times young people will ask me, you know, how do I discover God's will for my life? And you know, what's the future going to be like? When you're walking with Jesus, me and your daily continually trying to cleave to Christ and follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit, doesn't the roadmap kind of right itself?

It does, Alex. And it's, you know, the verse in Proverbs, I think it's chapter 16, verse nine always comes to mind, you know, a man plans his way, but God directs his steps. I've seen it both in the ministry and I think too of Jonathan when he went out and he said, perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf. He didn't have a clear plan when he went to attack the Philistines and end up with a great victory there. He knew God had made a promise and he took steps in that direction.

And let me clarify that a little bit. What I mean, like when I taught at the Bible school, often the graduates, when they would graduate, they would be looking, wanting, you know, where does God want me to serve? What does he have in mind? What, you know, seeking God's call. And we want to do that, but I always told them, don't just look for open doors because the doors won't always be open. Sometimes you turn and see if it opens and God will open it.

I think that it's just, it's wonderful the way God does just shape and mold and direct us. You know, coming back to the tithe ministry, there was a time when we put a really a strong focus on adding new languages and my board of directors said, I want you to go out there and identify where are the opportunities? And I came back with a whole list of countries and languages where there was a great need. And we added over that period, we added 12 new languages of those 12 new languages.

Eight of them were not on my list that I've given to the board of directors. So God took us, I think our vision that God had given us that we needed to be out there in more languages was a clear vision, but God kind of opened the doors along the way and shaped the path. Hey, stay tuned folks. Truth for New Generation Radio is going to come back right after this with more of our conversation with Don Shank.

World missions, bringing the world to Christ and how you can be involved. Don't go away. From I am a Watchman Ministries, here's today's I am a Watchman Minute. Reading warning labels can be entertaining. A TV remote control warning label read, not dishwasher safe. The warning label on an iron read, never press close when on the body.

You know, those warning labels came about because at some point, some person, probably a male thought it would be a good idea to save time and iron his clothes when they were on, or clean a TV remote by putting it in the dishwasher. Humans seem to need warnings, the wise heed warnings. Hundreds of practical and prophetic warnings can be found in scripture.

They are provided to ensure our protection and prepare us for the future. I encourage you to take advantage of free I am a Watchman resources to grow in the word and become more aware of the prophecies that warn of what is to come. Be bold, be faithful, be a Watchman.

I am a Watchman.com. First Peter 3.15 tells us to be ready always to give an answer for the hope we have. We're instructed to be prepared to defend our faith. This is Alex McFarland for the Life Answers Teams, students we train at North Greenville University, a leading Christian college in South Carolina. The Life Answers Teams are made up of students who will inspire and equip your congregation. These apologetics teams we train speak in churches to youth groups and train Christians of all ages to address key issues of our times from a biblical perspective. Like is there a God?

Is the Bible true? What about gender and moral issues? Call me at 864-977-2008 and we will arrange for the Life Answers Team to come to your church and give a presentation that will benefit your people for years to come.

864-977-2008 and always be ready. You know Romans 1 16, it says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes. That's what your kids need before they go to college. And that's the theme for the 2019 TNG Christian Apologetics Youth Camp, July 29th through August 2nd at Camp Cale, North Carolina. Speakers include, of course, Alex McFarland, along with Daniel Ritchie, Andy Laurenson, and Miki Addison. Exciting worship every night and rock solid teaching every day.

And yes, it's a summer camp with all the summer camp activities your kids would expect. The TNG Christian Apologetics Youth Camp, July 29th through August 2nd at Camp Cale. To learn more and to register, call 800-YES-GOD-1, 800-YES-GOD and the number one, or email info at truthforanewgeneration.com. Timeless Trues in a Soundbite Culture. Truth for a New Generation Radio. Welcome back to Truth for a New Generation Radio. You know, regarding the Great Commission, I think about the quote by John Piper, where he says, go, send, or disobey. That's pretty blunt, but that's really true.

We're to go ourselves, or we're to help send, or we're not really being obedient to our Lord's Great Commission. Welcome back to TNG Radio. Alex McFarland here, conversing with our dear friend Don Shank. I do want to remind people that we have got a lot going on with Truth for a New Generation. This fall will be in Richmond, Virginia. This fall will be in Ohio. This summer, our unashamed annual apologetics youth camp is coming up July 29th through August 2nd. And you know, there is still time to join with young people from a number of states. We're going to do all the fun camp things like ropes course and kayaking and all that. But 15 sessions on worldview, apologetics, just what does it mean to be a disciple and to walk with the Lord and how to study your Bible and great practical, basic ground floor Christianity.

And so you can go to the website truthforanewgeneration.com, truth, F-O-R, truthforanewgeneration.com. And you can learn about the camp. It's going to be phenomenal.

It's in the northeast corner of North Carolina, Camp Kale, right outside of Elizabeth City, just a little bit south of the, you know, Tidewater Virginia area. It's amazing. We would love to see your young people there every year.

Kids just love it. They commit their lives to Christ. And we would challenge you to invest a week that will count for a lifetime. Go to truthforanewgeneration.com. Well, a man who's invested his life in bringing people to Christ and just, I'm really in awe of everything that this ministry does.

And this man who I believe is a great leader, Don Shank, is with us right now. And Don, before the break, we were talking about all the languages. Tell me something, when the tide is putting a broadcast in a new language, I mean, how do you even begin to do that? Do you have to get translators, or do you find native voices there in the lands where you're ministering?

How does that work? We do not do any translation service. What we do is we work with people on the ground so that we get someone we find a convert, somebody who can be discipled, and gotten to the point where they are deep enough in their faith and strong enough in theological understanding that they can share the Gospel effectively over the radio in their own language. So they're speaking to people in the language that those people best identify with, and they're able to put it in a very culturally relevant context. People then come to realize that this is not a foreign cultural element trying to attack their culture, but rather it's a God who loves them, cares for them deeply, and speaks their language so that they can have a personal relationship with God.

And it's very effective. It is a challenge for us because we also have to set up accountability structures because we want to know, obviously 25 different languages, I don't speak any of those languages fluently. And so we try to work together that we will have additional contacts in those countries where we can get feedback from the programs. But we also want to make sure, because the enemy can come in, we find in so many countries, syncretism. Syncretism is when perhaps a cultural belief or practice gets kind of incorporated into Christianity.

There's a mixing and a diluting. I'll give you an example of this where one, I had a student in Zimbabwe, came to me with a problem. He said, I have a problem. My family wants me to bless their ceremony to welcome the spirit of the dead back into the village. Christians need to understand that that's not how faith works. Just because he's a pastor, they can't ask him to come bless that. You can't have your ancestral spirit worship along with worshipping Jesus. You can worship God, you can worship in spirit, but there you have to explain the difference to say that Jesus Christ brings freedom from all that and you can't mix that in. And it doesn't take a lot of time and a lot of prayer to retrain tribes and villages and people to look at life biblically rather than through past superstitions and practices.

We train volunteers on the ground to be able to help people walk through that and see the truth. And another place where in India, where multiple gods are just a fact, probably one of the biggest issues that we have there is getting people not only to embrace Jesus Christ as Savior, but then to say now all those other gods have to go away. Because it's easy in India for people to say, oh yeah, I believe Jesus, I'll add Jesus to my plethora of gods that I have before me. But Jesus is the only one. I think we have to promote this message here in America and the West. To become a Christian, we're not adding Jesus to our already crowded cabinet of gods and priorities.

No, we're emptying out the shelf and now there is one name on our list. There's one priority in our life and it's the Lord Jesus. Absolutely everything else in our lives gets submitted to that. And what we find is that in these countries where people face persecution, where life is difficult economically and just the whole environment they live in, that truth of the gospel is a foundation they stand on. And when they find that foundation, they stand so firm. I take people from here, I take pastors from here in the U.S. to train and teach in other countries and they come back inspired and challenged by the depth of commitment that they see in believers in these countries who, you know, everything is submitted to Christ and Christ is their rock.

Yeah, you know, we've got to take a quick break. When we come back, I want to talk about how people can be involved. Because listen, folks, I want to challenge you to go on an international missions trip, maybe do it with Dawn in the Tide, because it will change your life forever. It will forever shape moving forward how you look at the Lord Jesus and your walk and witness for Him. Stay tuned.

TNG radio will be back after this. As we take a break, let me tell you about three tens, three books that will answer questions that come your way from others or even yourself about the Christian faith. Book number one, 10 answers for skeptics. Today's skeptics are looking for authenticity, integrity and straightforward faith. And in this book, you'll learn how to answer intimidating questions, identify the root issue behind those questions and dismantle the spiritual bombshells dropped by non-believers.

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That's liberty.edu backslash explore to learn more. For apologetics resources, books by Alex McFarland, and to find out where Alex is speaking, visit alexmcfarland.com. Coming back to our conversation with Don Shank of the Tide, you know, I love that great quote that John Piper said. I quoted Piper earlier, but Piper said that evangelism exists because worship doesn't currently exist among all people. You know, one of our great incentives for doing missions in evangelism is to increase the worship of the one true God. And a person who's given his life to doing that is Don Shank, our guest right now. You know, Don, before the break, we were talking about going on mission trips, and you are right to see indigenous pastors selflessly serving and to see what the Holy Spirit of God does on the mission field. It does change people forever.

Talk about that. For American Christians, that they love the Lord, and I'm not disputing that, but you know, the most out of their comfort zone that some have gotten is, you know, when they're in a long line on Sunday because the preacher went over 10 minutes, and they got to the restaurant late. Talk about the transforming effect ministering on foreign soil can have on Western Christians.

I think probably the biggest effect it has is to make it even more real. And I don't want to, as you said, I don't want to come across as saying the faith isn't real for many people. But I think, as you mentioned, so much of us here in North America, we do have life relatively easy. We do experience so much of God's blessing in our lives. We've never had to bump up against anything that has challenged us to make a firm, hard choice between the world and God's kingdom. And I think when we see that in other people, we see in countries where someone is willing to give up their life, rather than to give up their faith, and to realize, if it came to that for me, would I do it? And I think for many believers who've never had that experience to see, yes, Jesus' words that, you know, you will be persecuted, and that that persecution will come, that there will be martyrs. In the face of that, God still can give you the power and the strength to stand firm in your belief, because your hope is in the future, not just in our present situation.

And so I think here in North America, we put so much emphasis on our financial security. And when you take all that away, what do you have left? If you don't have faith to stand on, you have nothing. I'm sure you remember the book Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand, when he was talking about being in a prison, and whoever was caught sharing the gospel received a severe beating. And Wurmbrand talks about how they were happy to preach the gospel and happy to be beaten daily. And he said the guards were happy beating us and we were happy preaching the gospel.

Everyone was happy. Now, that's just a price that most people never even ponder, beating or martyrdom to the gospel. But speak to this, Don, when Christ gave the Great Commission to the church, made disciples of every nation, preached the gospel to every creature, and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached to the ends of the earth and then the end will come. Comfort and safety wasn't even part of the discussion, was it? No, it wasn't. There was no statement like, well, you know, if it gets a little bit dangerous, then you can maybe choose another place or move in another area. It was just a very clear, concise directive, go and preach. And that's what our partners are doing. Now, we do adapt to certain situations. For example, in India, where we have discipleship activities going on in various areas, people recognize there is a lot of persecution by the local non-believers against new believers, and they recognize a strange face in the community. So we've taken to training what we call, there are a lot of volunteers who serve as, we call them village teachers. So it's a convert from that community who gets trained to do the discipleship activities. And they can then lead and disciple their own neighbors rather than having someone else come in.

Even though that might be an Indian face coming in, they recognize that, hey, he's not from this village. And another adaptation that they were, you know, it says, go make disciples and baptize them. That baptism, you know, believers want to be baptized. One of the things that we've done in Asia is to delay that baptism a little bit. When he's baptized is immediately the community views that as kind of a conversion. And in some of these States, they actually have anti-conversion laws in India. They sort of, they assimilate and begin to see this person has faith and they soon accept them as a Christian. So when they see them being baptized, they say, oh, that's what Christians do. The conversion and the baptism are separated a little bit, but it still becomes very hard. For example, in Nepal, I'll just share one thing there.

Nepal will say that they have freedom of religion. You can practice whatever religion you want, but you cannot make a convert. You cannot proselytize or try to get someone to change their faith. You know, sadly for this particular visit, we're just really that out of time, but Don, I appreciate you so much. Let me encourage folks, be involved in missions and be involved in the Tide.

There's a lot you can do, and it begins by becoming informed. So Don, give your website and if you would, thetide.org and anybody that goes to thetide.org can read all about our ministry activities, learn much more about how God is impacting the world through our radio broadcasting and discipleship ministries. God bless you.

Folks, be a part of knowing Christ and helping make Him known. Thanks for listening to TNG Radio. TNG Radio is made possible by the friends of Alex McFarland Ministries, P.O. Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404. That's P.O. Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404. Call us at 877-Yes-God-1.

That's 877-Yes-God and the number 1. Or give online at AlexMcFarland.com. While you're there, listen to Program Archives, read Alex's blog, invite Alex to speak at your event, or contact Alex with a question or comment, AlexMcFarland.com. Thanks for listening today and join us again next time as we bring you more truth for a new generation on TNG Radio.