Welcome to Truth Talk Live. All right, let's talk the truth news! I can't hide it. I can hold it. A daily program powered by the Truth Network.
This is kind of a great thing, and I'll tell you what. Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together. Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. Do kids in the public school, do kids in the public school need to hear The Gospel.
Do they need to hear it? And what about taking the Bible to The schools. There's a man in our studio with me who is passionate. He's made his passion the last nearly three decades. to take the Bible to the public schools.
And you have an opportunity to call and ask him questions. You have an opportunity to poke holes in this. Maybe you're thinking: this is not a good idea. Separation of church and school. I mean, it's a government school.
What business does God have in there? We want to hear from you. We want to hear from those agnostic, skeptical about his plan. You may have noticed his big logo at truthnetwork.com. You may have been to his site, gospelinschools.com.
But you may not have met him s h the man himself, Matt Armstrong. And he's in the studio. Man, Matt, it's good to have you here, brother. Stu, it is fantastic to be here. Thanks for having me.
Well, thanks for being on. And if you want to call and ask a question, If you want to call and support, we are trying to.
So after throwing out that kind of. Devil's advocate angle, we're trying to help support this ministry. We're trying to get our listeners to say, here's $100. I gave him money this morning to support getting the Bible to schools. Is there any downside?
And then let's just talk about What happened yesterday? This is awful. You love these kids. You love these parents, Matt. You've invested your life.
This is all you do. You got an airplane and flew to North Carolina to sit here with me and all of our hosts. You've been on with all of our talk show hosts all day long. We've had lunch, we've had coffee, we've met with some of your board members. You have poured your life into reaching these kids, and in effect, Indirectly their parents What hit your heart when you heard about this awful shooting yesterday that happened when they're in prayer?
About to go into this school. Yeah. You know Sadly, I mean, of course, sadness and grief and anger, and yet not a lack of surprise. You know, it's just this is far too common. Kids, young people, they're hurting, they're in pain, they're acting out, there's violence.
It's just it is a very, very challenging time to be growing up. Yeah, just a uh just a uh reckless Angry, confused? Person walks in and just start shooting. Yes. And in a church, going into these kids going to this religious school.
And so Okay. That alone might be the argument for why we need more of Jesus. Yes. Yes. I mean, just not in the national news by any stretch, but we had two children who were part of Crossroads Kids Clubs this year who were killed: a 10-year-old boy who was shot as he was in his driveway in his house, and a little girl who was stabbed to death in her home 10 years old.
You know, it's just the things that kids are facing, whether they're in school or in the community or even in their own homes, we can scarcely imagine it. And so we at Crossroads just believe very passionately that every child needs to hear about Jesus. They need to know that God loves them, that He has a plan for them, and that they can have a relationship with Him, and He will never leave them and never forsake them no matter what happens. Yeah. Okay, if you have a question, a thought, if you have.
If you have a better way of doing it, I would love to hear that. I love this guy. We sat at lunch and he literally, I mean, a lot of ministries come in, hey, we've got our mind made up and donate or get out of the way, right? But he's like, hey, how can we do better? What can we, you know, who can we collaborate with?
I mentioned two or three ministries that had a heart to do pizza parties and evangelism in the public schools, to do the busing in. You know those guys. And he's like, I'm already on the phone with them. But it's about how do we reach how many millions of kids estimated 86% of all kids are in public school in America. How many million is that in America?
63 million is 63, some million, and that number's growing. Yeah. Are in the public school? Who is reaching them with the gospel? Say that, suppose they're not coming to church.
How does the church go to them? You're very church-based. I want to get into that. I want to get into your story this hour. how you came to know the Lord and how God Burn this mission on your heart, branded it on your heart.
You know, decades ago to be a part of this and how God brought you together with some other folks in Chicago and why you're sitting in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, as a Chicago, a deep dish pizza eater is down here. Megan Me Hungry, vegan pizza, vegetable pizza, right? Is down here in North Carolina. And of course, this is being heard all over Utah and Virginia. Our friends at 93.7 FM, hello to Jesse, one of our big listeners and friends up there listening right now.
Our friends right next door to us listening. With a with a real estate investment company. They're listening right now, and I've asked them all to get out their credit card and to go to truthnetwork.com and to donate to this amazing Crossroads Ministry Kids Club. It's a kids' club.
Now tell us what that is. Give us the quick one sentence mission of who you guys are, what you do, and then we have a caller on the line. Yeah, absolutely. The one sentence mission is that we mobilize God's people to share the good news of Jesus with children in public schools through church-led clubs. Fantastic.
And we're going to spend some time on the how you do this. You know, it just doesn't just happen. People have to be involved, like the young lady who's one of your key team members here in North Carolina. Yes. Former police officer who was on the show with Robbie last week.
So we'll talk about that and kind of how executable is it and how effective is it and some of these brilliant testimonies. But let's go to our caller real quick. If you have a question or an answer or a thought on how do we reach public school kids with the gospel? Of Jesus Christ. And why is it so important?
Maybe you want to call and say something that hit your heart from the tragedy yesterday. We need to be in prayer for these families who yesterday they dropped their kid off to school and there was a little prayer vigil before school. Today they're planning a funeral for their kid. Here in America.
So how you know, how do we Solve that? Reach them. And what does this have to do with these cool kids' Bible clubs in schools? Let's go to Jamal, real quick, on the phone here with us. Jamal, jump on here.
Thank you for calling. Truth Talk Live. Hey, Stu. Always a pleasure. Thank you for taking my call.
actually had the pleasure of meeting Matt b before the show.
So I just Wanted to come back and call and get his answer for the people on the airwaves to hear. what he has to say. In response to my question, that is, Um Thank you for also bringing up that shooting. That, you know, we do need to pray about what happened in. You're right, this is another reason to get the gospel back in the schools.
But my question is To the people that say we don't need religion in schools, get your Jesus out of here. We're strictly about academics and science here. uh we don't need uh any religion here. What would your response be to that, sir? Yeah.
Well, I think uh most people realize that uh human beings are um not just a mind and a body, but that we have a soul and a spirit. And in fact, what the laws allow and permit in this country, you know, it is a separation of church and state.
So the schools have only created a forum in which we can come in. And so we are not forcing our faith, our Christian faith, on anybody. We're using a public forum to offer something that's free and voluntary to the kids and to the parents.
So in point of fact, it would be completely legal, and I would be totally fine if other groups came in. If the Muslims want to have a club or whatever, fine, because you know what I know is, so Stu is wearing a shirt that says Jesus wins. And so, you know, open it up, right, in a public forum. You know, this is like Paul preaching on Mars Hill in a public forum, a very pagan, secular forum. That's all we want, is just equal access.
So nobody's being forced to believe anything. We're not shoving anything down anybody's throat. We're using a public forum to proclaim Jesus, just like the Apostle Paul did. And others can proclaim other things, but. Jesus wins.
Yeah, and hello to David, who just texted me. He's listening. He's a friend, and I don't know how he got my cell number, but he just texted me and says, How do I donate?
So all I did is go to truthnetwork.com and I send him the link. We set up a special link right from our site for people. It's right across there: Gospel in Schools, Crossroads Kids Clubs for people to donate. It's not that hard, right? No, no.
So gospelinschools.com is a site. Actually, we're giving away a free e-book about the legality, three legal ways of reaching into the school. And I read the whole thing last night and one said. Perfect. If you click through that, there will be a page that comes up to give.
But you can also go to crossroadskidsclub.com/slash give if that's your interest. But Jamal, that's a great question because people are like, well, how legal is this? Am I going to be breaking? Am I going to get hauled off to jail and this and that? By the way, in other countries where it's illegal, Christians go to jail for this, and they're willing to.
So, I mean, at some point, I think Matt would be willing to, but the law, the Constitution says, come on in. Parents sign a waiver and they're cooking, good to go. Jamal, God bless you, man. I appreciate your call. Thanks, Jamal.
What a blessing. Man, I tell you, what a man of God. He came in. Meet you and it's special, guys.
So many listeners that have love this ministry. We'll come back. Bible in schools, what about that? These Bible clubs. After this, hang on.
You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. I just followed them on Instu Graham. By the way, shout out. I just did a pop-up. Outside of the Robin Hood Road family, YMCA, with a bunch of like 20, 30 young kids sitting out there.
I told them about Jesus. I told them to listen today. I said, I got a big-time guy on the air with me. Matt is in the house, Matt Armstrong, who's the founder and the leader of Crossroads Kids Club. He has got great ministry and the website, Gospel in Schools.
Thank you, David. Thank you, Jamal. Thank you for all those who have donated and supported. Please continue to do so. Because God is at work, and there's a movement of the Lord happening, but you wrote a whole book, and it's been made an online booklet.
I downloaded and read it last night. Matt, and I'm thinking, oh my soul, I try to read everyone's books that I interview on the show. The challenge is, Matt. You know, it's a lot because there's a lot.
Some of these are real thick, but I read that quick. Yeah, well, it's more of a booklet, like you said. Yeah, but you're offering that for free to anyone. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Tell us about why that booklet's important for folks listening because once we take the the legal issue out.
Suddenly, it's a wide open door to take the gospel to schools like the kids that I just talked to. They wanted it at Jefferson Middle School. Other kids, you know, and you're already going in some other schools in Winston-Salem and in Greensboro and Raleigh and Charlotte, and it's booming. Yeah, as we've already been talking about, the needs are frankly overwhelming. They're facing kids.
The number of kids in this country that need to know Jesus is just huge, right? And so we're one ministry. There are other types of ministries all around the country trying to do and are doing amazing things with our kids. And so part of what we're trying to do is not just plug Crossroads Kids Club's ministries, but just raise the awareness among God's people that it is not only possible and permissible, but it is advantageous. to go to public school kids where they are, right?
Instead of just waiting for them to come to us at our church buildings, we can go where they are. And so Crossroads operates in one of the legal ways, which is by doing a community use of the school facilities. There are actually two other legal pathways to impact public school kids. Student clubs and then release time education.
So the little booklet outlines and talks briefly about each of those methods with some example ministries that are doing that well because it's not one size fits all. Crossroads may be a great fit for some people, and maybe release time is a great fit for other communities or other people. But the important thing is that we get Jesus out to kids where they are.
So, gospelinschools.com, you can get that free resource, and I just hope it helps and inspires people. Yeah, and I've got some folks, you know, they want to kind of know where's this money going? You know, kind of how is it? And I want you to tell us now how.
So, people are hearing Bible Club, yes, I want to support it. Give us some kind of arms and legs of this thing, put some flesh on the skeleton here for us as to what exactly. Does it look like? Yeah. So the Crossroads Kids Club program happens once per week, right after school, 90 minutes.
Our highest value, we have five values. Number one is relationships. Number two is evangelism.
So what we want to do is not shotgun evangelism, but we want to build discipling relationships with the kids. And so the club starts in small groups and it ends in small groups. And so children, five to seven kids, they'll come in. They have the same small group leader through the entire year. In that first small group, we build relationships.
We ask them, you know, how was your day today? What did you learn in school? Play some games together, have a snack, and then segue into the topic for that day. Then all the groups come together and we have our large group Bible teaching time. We have some time in games, and then the last 30 minutes, we go back to those small groups and we apply the lesson into their lives.
You have a whole program. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Everything's laid out for people. You ask where the funds go. Really, a lot of it is in our mission mobilizers.
Like Jasmine, who's here locally in the triad. We have people around the country. And what they're doing is talking to churches, casting this vision, training leaders, ensuring that every club is healthy and the program's effective. And that's where it's going. That's so cool.
So you get the kids to like a neutral site. It's not at the school. Oh, it is at the school.
Okay, it's at the school. Absolutely. Yeah. So it could be in the library, we have in classrooms. Cafeteria, if it's open, whatever space is available.
What time a day typically works? Yeah, right after school.
So if the school ends at 3, we'll be there from 3 until 4:30. That's fascinating.
So this is someone says, I'm calling my lawyer. How dare you shove. Your religion down my throat. What do you say to them? Purge Amal's question earlier, too.
And for those that just joined us. Yeah, well, there was a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2001, Good News Club versus Milford Central School District. And I would maybe send them that brief from the Supreme Court. It's about a 22-page decision, slam dunk in favor of everything we're doing. But the court ruled that, among other things, that it is voluntary and it is up to the parents to register the child.
And that parents are savvy enough to understand that this is a religious club and to decide whether or not they want that for their children. And so Crossroads operates within that framework. It's voluntary. It's up to the parents. That is so cool.
So the parents, they say, go, you're good. I mean, I don't know how many parents wouldn't want that. You know, and you've had kids get saved in this. Oh, many, many kids. Yep.
In fact, just past Sunday, I was watching two students who are currently in club and one who graduated out of club get baptized. She's the mom and dad of one student there.
So, is the focus on the high school, middle school, upper school? Talk to me about the high school.
Okay, elementary school. That was our focus. That can be the third, fourth, fifth, sixth grade. Kindergarten through fifth grade, sixth grade.
Sometimes schools are organized differently around the country, so sometimes they're K through eight.
So, if it's a middle school, it could be sixth, seventh, eighth, possibly. It could be. The reason we go on that age twofold: one is a 414 window, which your listeners may be familiar with. Kids 4 to 14 are the most open to the gospel message and the most unreached group.
So, that is elementary and middle school. Secondly, there's a lot of ministries that do focus on middle school, high school. Very few that are really focused on elementary schools. None that are national and working through local churches like we are, that I'm aware of.
So, if you're discouraged and you're frustrated and you're heartbroken, Like All of us are, honestly, about the headline yesterday: that's horrible school shooting. And there are more of those, sadly, that have happened, and there may, you know, heaven forbid, but may happen again. Uh here is a tangible and let me just Let me l let me rather make a statement, let me let me put this forward to you as a question. How is this a tangible way? to do something That's going to address the heart.
of that issue, giving hope to kids to to find True. Joy has been Happiness, satisfaction, and answers to their toughest questions. Yeah. Well, I believe that. When Jesus comes into our lives, he fills us with the Holy Spirit and transforms us.
And that this produces in us the fruit of the Spirit, which is peace and joy and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and self-control and all those things that are completely the opposite of a school shooting scenario, right? And so I've actually found even going to a secular school administrator, they say, well, what's this all about?
Well, we want to teach kids from the Bible to be good and kind and patient and loving. You know, well, now that starts with evangelism because we know that only starts from the Spirit. Only the gospel can bring change of heart life. Correct. But I believe in my core that the gospel of Jesus Christ is good news.
It changes hearts and can change societies and cultures. Yeah, and there's something about you going to them. There's something about us going. You know, we can sit and wait for them to come into our church. Please invite people to church.
I don't think we invite people to church anymore. It was kind of boo-hooed back in the 90s, early 2000s. And I'm like, invite someone to church. It's like, I've done that, and people are like, yeah, when is it? I'll come.
But so we need to do that. But there's something powerful about God. Going to that school. Yes, Jesus came. He came to us, right?
And he didn't wait for us to come to him because, frankly, left to our own devices, we won't. All you like sheep have gone astray, right?
So he came and he sought us. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. And so this generation is being lost. And so, as God's people, it is our task, our duty, the great commission duty, that we would go and seek and to save that which is lost. And so, this is all you're trying to do with this, but you're trying to fund it and you're trying to grow it, and you want to reach every dollar someone gives is going to help reach another kid, I guess.
Is that what you're saying? Yeah, oh, a thousand percent. Yeah, we have a model where we put regional people in a city, we train them up, we equip them, give them the tools, and then they can start building it out where they are. And that's we're seeing great success with this.
Now, another listener has reached out to us and asked: how can a person volunteer? Supposing they want to get involved in this. What's the tip of the spear for them? Yeah, that's great.
So it kind of depends where they are because I would connect them to the regional coordinator that we have for that region. People could send me an email and I'll connect them to the right person. It's matt m-at-t-t.armstrong at crossroadskidsclub.com.
Okay, some affiliates are leaving to other programming.
Some are staying right here with us. You can listen for the next half hour on the Truth app in Markets That Do still Carry the next half hour, and you can listen to the whole podcast. It'll go hot. A little bit after the show, thanks to St. Nick, our producer, we're going to ask this man who he is, how he found Christ, and more about how to reach the public school kids with the Bible and kids' clubs and the gospel after this.
Hang on. You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Well, many, many people behind mics just like me. I've gotten upset over the last few decades. Why are they taking God out of schools?
Why are they outlawing prayer in schools? We need the Bible back in schools. If we just put the Ten Commandments back in schools, maybe they'd stop killing and stealing and all these horrible things and cheating.
Well, there's a man sitting in front of me who's doing something about it. And he's not doing it in a negative way. Vitriolic, angry way. He's doing it in a very positive way, a way that you, my listening friend, can get involved. You can actually do this as a volunteer.
You could, at the very least, send them 30 bucks to this wonderful ministry, gospelinschools.com. His name is Matt Armstrong. The ministry is Crossroads Kids Clubs. Everyone wants to be a part of a club. And this is a club.
You don't have to be a jock. You don't have to be the super brainiac, right? Running the other smart clubs or a foreign language. Anyone could be in this club, right? Where they're from.
Yes, that's absolutely. One time, years ago, a principal said to me, you know what we love about Crossroads is that it is open to all students. Exactly that. You don't have to be artistic. You don't have to be athletic.
But whoever you are, you are welcome there.
So, Matt, in this segment, I want to get to the heart of what drives this mission. And I really want to get into your heart because you were there. I don't know if you were the actual founder. You and another fellow you connected with. A few decades ago, nearly, right?
Yeah, I was employee number one.
Okay, you were the founder, yes. You were one of the founding team members, right? Lord, here's a bonus tip: the secret to longevity in any role is the failure to take a hint.
Okay, to take a hint. No extra charge for that. No, I'm thinking, what hint is he giving me right now?
Well, but I gotta ask you, first of all, how did you come to know the Lord? And then, how did he lead you into this specific trajectory? Because you are like. Focused on this. I mean, you've been with you today and my son-in-law.
We've been at coffee, we've been in meetings. You've done a whole round of interviews across the Truth Network with all of our hosts. And this is something you're fired up about.
So, how did you come to Christ, and then how did he then send you into this amazing mission? Yeah, well, Stu, I was so blessed to grow up in a godly home. My dad was a pastor, a church planter. My mom stayed home with us kids. You know, we were just loved and knew about the Lord from a really early age.
But when I was 10 years old, I understood that it was personal, that I had to decide to follow Christ or not. And so I made that decision by God's grace and trusted him at 10 and was baptized by my dad at 11. There's a picture of that from all those years ago that I hang on the wall to remind me of that age. We talked before about the 4 to 14 window. And so many kids do come to Christ at that 10, 11, 12-year-old age span.
That was my story as well.
So, you were in a demographic. Yeah, I mean, so many believers come to Christ at that age.
So, coming up, I wasn't sure what the Lord wanted for my life. In fact, I thought I was going to go into law. My mom said, Hey, why don't you become a bilingual teacher? I'd been studying Spanish. She said, Hey, the state will pay for your education if you study bilingual education.
So, I thought, well, why not? And so, I went into that. I found I loved working with kids. I loved working cross-culturally. And I got out into the classroom and just discovered the immense needs that these kids were bringing to school.
And I always felt like I had one hand tied behind my back. My right hand, I'm right-handed, maybe one foot too. And that was that I wasn't supposed to talk about Jesus as their teacher. And this is another thing I think I want to just touch on. We talked before about how many of us get angry about, like, oh, they took God out of the school and this and that.
And we have this idea maybe sometimes that schools are Just totally secular or evil, or the and there are so many godly people on the inside, just doing a heroic job as teachers, as principals, as superintendents. And if any of you are listening, I just want to say thank you. uh for serving the Lord in that way on the inside. And so Crossroads, as you mentioned, our approach is not to come in with any kind of hostility or as an adversary, but like to build partnerships with school leadership, with teachers, with anybody who wants to be a person of peace. We want to build those partnerships.
Amen.
So that's you saw this as a way to do that. Absolutely. Well, I mean, it didn't start that way.
So I was in the classroom. Sure. As I said, I was disillusioned, frustrated by not being able to share everything with the kids. And one night my phone rang. I was at home minding my own business, which is a little bit rare, to be honest.
And it was a guy who was an elder at my church, and he was an engineer at a manufacturing company. And the owner of the company, Bern Burchie, had started a mentoring program out of his company, which had morphed into an after-school Bible club. Bern hired me for a summer job back in 1998, and that summer job has continued and become my life's work for 27 years.
So you're there full-time. That's all you've been up to, and you're trying to expand. I mean, you're in Minnesota, California, all these places we talked about at lunch today. Yeah, well, it's interesting because we were quite local and regional until COVID, and things got shut down. And then as it's opened up, the Lord has just opened up really exciting doors and rapid.
Growth around the country. And what's wild about this is everyone listening can be a part of this. Pastors can be a part of it. In fact, a wonderful church here in Winston-Salem is sponsoring this, these kids' clubs, these Bible clubs, at a local elementary school. Absolutely.
Absolutely. Wherever you are, you know, I had a church that heard about us on media that was in Boise, Idaho. We don't have anybody there. Oh, my. Started connecting with them on Zoom, email, giving some tips, and they got a green light to go into a school.
Wow.
So even if we're not physically present where you are, we would love to just help you strategize and think about how you can do this in your community.
So I'm a pastor. My church is right near a public school. I got a really hard for that school. How do I make this happen? Yeah, well, I'd love to talk to you first if you're that pastor, because a lot of times what pastors will do is go to the school and say, how can we serve?
And the schools, even if they're believers on the other end, are often very reluctant or uninformed about what's possible.
So they're going to say, oh, you can hand out backpacks or school supplies. And that's all well and good, but we don't ever then get to the Jesus part. And so.
So, we would like to talk to you about some ways that we've seen that work in a relational, legal, helpful way so that you can have that conversation with the principal and have a holistic approach where you're given those backpacks and coats, but also given the word of God. Yeah, and that's the thing. It's like you can. You you can do this? You cannot, I mean, they need kids.
The kids need food. I mean, there are kids that are starving, believe it or not. And I know of churches that are doing amazing work in that area. We've had them on the show. Kids need school supplies.
Yes. Wintertime, kids need coats. They need jackets, sweaters. They need protection from these terrible conditions. But.
Their ultimate need In the heart of hearts, is for Jesus Christ to change them. Yes. And that's where you guys come in. Yes. But it's not to the negation or neglect of the other things, right?
Talk about that important now. It's a both-and equation, not the either-or. Exactly. I think that the Lord calls us to love people. And if we're going to love people, we're going to serve them.
We're going to seek to meet their needs, right? If that's a physical need, an economic need, a social need. But again, they need the Lord. And so for us to not tell them about Jesus is really not to love them completely. I love it.
Okay.
So that's a very important piece of that.
So for. Fundamentally, practically In terms of implementation execution.
Someone, I want to do this in my town. I've got a huge offer this. You all are. How do you give me the tools? Take me from.
beginning to end so our listeners can see how simple this is. but how strategic it is too. Yeah, well, there would be four stages that we would walk through. I've boiled them down to four S's so I can remember them. The first is structure.
So, what that really involves is that there needs to be a church, because all the ministry of Crossroads is through local churches, a church that says, yes, we want to do this.
Now, sometimes we don't know if we're going to have an opening in the school or what's going to happen, right? But the church has to start and say yes. And that's the structure part. Once the church says yes, we will come alongside them and work on the second S, which is school.
So we will, if we have a team member in that town, we will go with you, meet with the principal, fill out the paperwork, everything you need to get access to that school. The third us is staff. That is recruiting volunteers and leaders for the club, right? And so sometimes people, church leaders, go really first to this idea of like, I don't have enough workers for my kids' ministry on Sunday morning. How are we possibly going to do this?
And they go right to that barrier of staff. And I know that's a challenge, right? But I want to tell you: once we have a church that's committed and we have a school that's open, there are people sitting in your pews that have a heart for the gospel to go into the community. Frankly, some people feel like this is a little subversive. We shouldn't be, and they get excited about that, right?
So those people are there. We've seen God provide the workers.
So staff, and then finally, students, right? Because if we don't recruit kids, and so there again, how we do that varies a lot locally and what the local schools and districts and policies allow. But we have a lot of just, you know, so really what we do is walk alongside you as a coach and a consultant from start to finish. That is so cool.
Those are the four stages. And then as it gets up and going, talk about what a mature crossroads kids' club looks like. Oh, yeah.
So. I mean, the longer it goes, the better it gets because it's based on relationships. You start to get siblings, younger siblings will come in.
So, the original club, some of them we have kids and not grandkids yet, but we have the kids of alumni coming in, right? And so, you start to get to know the parents and the siblings, and now you're starting to impact whole families.
So, we also produce plans that we call family fun nights that often happen in the summer or holidays. And so, the local church partners can take those. And it's essentially a kids' club for the whole family. And what I love about that is we get the parents to sit in a small group with their kids, and they don't have to know anything about the Bible, right? But we go through the Bible story and we give them some basic questions like, What did you like best about that story?
You know, what character did you identify with? Things that any parent could ask their kid, but they're talking with their kid about the Bible. And so, like, it extends out to the parents and the families. And, yeah, it's just awesome.
So, it's at the school, it's on site. Parents can be involved as much or as little as they want. They have to give permission, obviously.
So, instead of the parent picking the kid up at three, they pick the kid up at four. 430, yeah, 430. Gives you a chance.
Now, do you provide a little snack, food or anything like that? Absolutely, yeah. Snack is a big part.
Okay.
Yeah, absolutely. So like a little a little something to eat is a lot of people. And also like some schools dismi dismiss at 2, 2.30. The kids may not be that hungry.
Some are dismissing at 4 o'clock. That kid's pretty hungry.
So some serve more like a mini meal.
Some schools, like hunger really is a challenge and they serve a meal. Other places, you know, Grand Ola Bar is fine. In your years of ministry, we're coming up on a station break, I believe, here in just a second. We got one minute. I want to ask you: what has been the toughest.
obstacle, the toughest hurdle to overcome with Crossroads Kids' Clubs. In one minute or less. Yes, sir. We'll carry on. We got a local church.
Really? Yeah. Well, that should be your greatest leverage. That should be your absolute greatest springboard. Tell me more about that when we come back.
Because I'm sitting here, I have to process your answer. I'm usually pretty good. I just turn it right back on you. But I want you to elaborate on that. And I want to talk to...
The local church, which is basically the body of Christ on this earth, you know, we're God's plan A, about how we can get behind this and how we can. Take this over. We do spend a lot of time talking about get out of the public schools, they're ruining our kids. There's all kinds of anti-God rhetoric and Darwinian evolution, et cetera, et cetera. But what about playing a little offense?
Yeah. What about saying, let's go? Let's go win every... Public school student to Jesus Christ. What about that approach?
What about getting radical to the point where let's mobilize these kids to win more kids? And, but what if revival breaks out? Maybe we shouldn't do that. Maybe we shouldn't do this last segment. Should we just end it here?
Just call today, Matt. It's getting dangerous in here, buddy. Ah who? I'm buckled in. I'm ready.
Fasten your seat belt. It will do a final segment on Truth Talk Live. After this quick break. Don't touch that dial. You'll want to hear what he says to all this, and we'll give a good challenge, a word of encouragement to the churches to own this faith.
You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Matt Armstrong's our special guest. He is the head of this wonderful ministry, taking the gospel to the schools. And that's kind of a cool little website, too: gospelinschools.com. He has been He's been a busy guy today, man.
You might have that laryngitis before we're done here, man. You've been on a lot of shows starting to crack it on this morning. Yeah, I've enjoyed it. A lot of great people, and yeah, it's been a good day.
Well, it's great. You spoke. We've had some businessmen come by, other fans, other ministries have come by to see, to learn about what you're doing. It's quite remarkable taking the Bible. taking the word of God and the good news of Jesus to the public schools, playing offense.
And so I want to kind of pick up where we left off. Yes. And I wanted to bless you with something because you are a man that concerns you you care about your health. Mm-hmm.
So I'm going to put in your hands this drink. There you go, right there. One of our sponsors. Vintastic.com, promo code TRUTH. They've been a longtime partner.
The folks at La Blue Ultra Pure Bottle Water. Wanted to come up with a drink, something that's really an epidemic in the public schools. besides all the bad stuff, is the bad health and the diabetes. Millions of Americans, 130 some million, are either diabetic or pre-diabetic. And so Jerry, the guy that made the water that you just drank right there.
He said, let's have a drink that's loaded with phenolic compounds, polyphenols, antioxidants from the muscadine grape. but has no sugar, no calories, no carbs. It's all right there.
So that's for you for your trip to the airport. Amazing. And it's blueberry, cherry, pomegranate. Yes, sir. I love all of those.
Well, you enjoy that as a little gift from our friends: Jerry, Candy, Judy at LaBlue, Ultra Pure Bottle Water. Great friends and longtime partners. Vintastic.com, PromoCode Truth. All the information is there. But we're grateful for them and we're grateful for, you know, they're on a little different track.
They're trying to help the schools be healthier, you know, so kids are healthier, teachers are healthier, have more energy and whatnot.
So that's kind of their track. Your track is the spiritual health, and you're really trying to help these kids get the Bible. You're trying to help. Teachers, you know, like suddenly, wait. What happened to Johnny?
He's different. Yes. Like he's not bullying people anymore.
Well, see he's been going to this Bible club.
Now, is it once a week? Is it every day? How often? What's the frequency? Yeah, once a week.
Once a week. Uh-huh.
Okay, and so talk about, you know, I asked you a question that I kind of wanted to forget, you know, during the break. We can't escape the elephant in the room. I made some assumptions. Yeah. For one, that your biggest advocate and your biggest friend would be the church, but you told me one of the biggest obstacles, challenges, hurdles is the church.
Talk about that and talk about why. And then we'll figure out let's get to the solution part of that saying that thing. Yeah, yeah.
Well, talk about it first. What we find is we have to contact around one hundred churches to get to maybe three clubs.
So, it's a very low rate of churches that actually jump in.
So, believe it or not, about 50% of churches. like talking about across this country, you can't even reach them. And so I'm talking about mailing things. I'm talking about dropping in, calling, emailing, Facebook messaging.
So, church pastors, if you're listening, please be accessible. There are people in your community that are hurting, and if nobody ever picks up the phone, that's not great.
So, that's one thing: they're not accessible. Those that hear, you know, many are interested. And I think there's a few things that happen and reasons why. And it varies somewhat from place to place. I think in the in the Bible Belt we see a lot of apathy.
People that just feel like, well, we're okay. You know, our church is still growing, it's thriving, and you know, everybody has a church, and we don't, you know. And so there's maybe just a lack of awareness of what's really going on in the world around them. In places that maybe are more secular, like where I live in the Chicago area or California or other places where we're working, you know, I think the churches have gotten this idea that we are, you know, people have told us, oh, we're a hate group and we're this, and so we're just ashamed or afraid to speak up. And so I think there's just this, you know, in those places, let's just do the safe thing.
You know, handing out the backpacks and the school supplies, or, you know, those are safe things. And so now this is not everybody. I don't wanna just, you know. uh generalize too much, but but that's the things. And then I think there's just a lot of um Commitment to this paradigm of an attractional model.
You know, come to our church and see. You know, and it's great, as you said, we should invite people to church. I totally agree. Uh, but we need to do both. We need to invite them in, and we need to go where they am.
They are. And that paradigm is different.
Well, we got some ears tingling out there, ears itching, because a pastor just texted me. He says, We got to encourage pastors that they're the goal, they're the key to getting hope in the public schools. And you're serving this up to them on a golden platter. They're not having to bend any rules or be sneaky or crafty or clever or hire a lawyer. They literally can be a part of launching these Bible school clubs.
For those that just joined us, we got Matt Armstrong. He is with this Crossroads Kids Club. You'll learn all about him. They're putting these Bible clubs, these kids' clubs, all over America in the public schools. Tell everyone quickly how it works.
You've said this a little bit, but I just really think the repetition of this, and for those that just maybe dialed into the podcast or the broadcast, Matt, kind of take it away, take it from the top. How did we get this going in my school? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, I'm going to tell you a story, and it's going to lead to a pastor serving in a club.
Okay, great.
So years ago, we sent out a mailing in a particular city, and a church reached out and said, we are interested in getting into this school in our community. And we said, fantastic, we'll help.
So we had that first part, that structure, the church that wanted to do it. This particular church had a school in mind that they thought they wanted to get into, and that school just wouldn't answer us for anything. We went to a second school. That school said, well, you can come in, but we really don't want it here. We went to the third school.
That school just threw open the gates, and they've been in that school for over a decade.
So, what happens when they're in that school? 90 minutes after school, one day per week, small group, large group teaching, games, small group. For the pastors, there's a pastor, the senior pastor, his name is Raul de la Mata. He is one of my heroes. This man sits with a group of boys every week.
They love him. They adore him. In fact, at one of our events, a boy from his group that I'd never met before came to share his testimony that was so impactful about how his parents' love never filled him, and then he found Jesus through this Crossroads Club. And I went up to him afterwards, thanked him. I said, you know, I asked, I thought he was sixth grade or something.
He was so articulate. He's like, no, I'm third grade. He said, What do you want to do when you grow up? He said, I want to be a pastor. I want to tell people about Jesus, like Pastor Robin.
Wow.
So, you know, pastors, you can be out there and doing this personally. And you're also, pastors, you're, you know, Ephesians 4:12, you're trying to teach your flock. Yes. You can, this is a great mobilization tool. Because suddenly, some of these folks that are kind of rotting in the pews, sitting there doing nothing, sitting on their blessed assurance, they need a little paddle of spiritual discipline applied to them.
Get out there. This could really side benefits.
So it builds community in the church because you have a missional team serving together. You know, I mean, as pastors, right, don't you want your people to be engaged in relational evangelism? This is a way to do it with training wheels. You know, they're little kids, there's a curriculum. You know, so like, you know, going and talking to an adult could be scary, but you can practice it right here in a school.
Every school has a church near it. That church. Brother? That's your school. Yeah.
Take it, own it, love it, start Bible clubs, get your people there, get your Sunday school teachers there, get your people that want to be Sunday school teachers. Hey, we're gonna, you're now a teacher. Really? I've never done that before. But there's a vetting process.
We're not just throwing anyone, any kind of one in there. Talk about that, how important that is. Yeah, yeah, of course. Every leader that comes in needs to go through a thorough background check, application, and references and so forth, right? And a lot of school districts actually do their own checks on top of whatever's happening there.
But yeah, absolutely. And then safe practices within the club. You know, what I want to say about that point too is, pastors, years ago when I was a public school teacher, my pastor came and visited me at my school during the school day, and then we went to lunch together. And I still remember that almost 30 years later. It was so meaningful.
I met a superintendent once, godly Christian man. He said he never felt in his whole career that his church supported him.
So pastors, you have principals and you have teachers and you have superintendents in your congregation and they would probably love to see this and feel so supported. If you came along in this way, well, and the gospel needs to go. I mean, we are called, this is not an option. The Great Commission is not a great suggestion. This is a command, but it's a powerful thing.
It's a privilege we have. We don't have to share the gospel. We get to share the gospel. I know you're passionate about it. Give the website again.
I want folks, truthnetwork.com has a big banner that you can go to, truthnetwork.com. and you can donate directly to this ministry. And if they donate 30 bucks, 100 bucks, 1,000 bucks, 5,000 bucks, whatever God tells them to do, because it's not their money anyway, it's all the Lord's. Where's that money going? Tell us real quick.
Well, 30 bucks is exactly what it takes for a kid to participate for a whole month, okay? Which is fantastic. Gotcha.
Okay.
Right. And so it goes right to helping us reach these kids. It goes right to that. This is you're a leaning green ministry. You're established.
You've been going for nearly three decades, right? Yes. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, you go on to the CrossroadsKidsclub.com site. There's financial information. You can see all of our compiled reports, an annual report. And yeah, check it out. We love transparency.
And you shared your vision with me today at Lunch. It's just that you want to reach every kid. Yes. In this public schools in America with the good news of Christ and In Honduras. In El Salvador.
I mean, you're going international. Central America. Mexico. You never thought you'd be there. No, that's a whole other story.
Yeah, God opened some doors. And, you know, it's funny because I didn't know this was a thing. And then I studied some strategy, and I learned there's a thing called emergent strategy. And I'm like, oh, that is what I am an emergent strategist. We have the next step and the next step.
But then God shows us from there. It emerges. Matt, we got to go crossroadskidsclub.com. I heard a revivalist say once, this is pretty widely quoted: he said, Pray that your heart would break for what. Breaks the heart of God.
Amen.
What breaks your heart? Oh, kids that don't feel loved. Hmm. kids that don't feel seen. And there's a little boy that was at the club that I served at this last year.
I won't say his name, but every week he came in, and you could just see in his eyes he was so empty. And um Just that breaks my heart seeing kids that, you know, we don't know what's going on behind there, but the pain they're carrying is just so evident. And um that breaks my heart. Man, you must love being a part of something that's answering that question, that's going right to them. That's it.
Being the hands and feet of Jesus. Thank you, Matt. Thank you. It's been a joy. You bless us, man.
You're getting me teared up here, man. We better wrap this up before this revival breaks out in the studio. Matt Armstrong, support this ministry. The link is at truthnetwork.com. This is a nonprofit ministry.
Help get the word of God to the public schools. And you go be a part of this thing. Yes. The time is now. God bless you, brother.
Yeah.
