Uniting for Gospel Impact : Kevin Palau

Full-Text Transcript

Ministry can be difficult, but what would it look like if you joined with other pastors, ministry leaders, and churches in your area to bless your community?

Jason Daye
In this episode, I’m joined by Kevin Palau. Kevin is the president and CEO of the Luis Palau Association. Under his leadership, tens of thousands of churches in hundreds of cities have united to serve and love their communities and share the Good News of Jesus. Together, Kevin and I look at some of the joys and challenges that come with uniting with fellow churches and making a difference in your community. Kevin shares from his own experiences and from those of other leaders of city gospel movements, providing both encouragement and actionable steps for you as you join with other ministry leaders to serve your city. Are you ready? Let’s go.

Jason Daye
Hello, friends, it’s good to have you with us today. Welcome to another insightful episode of Frontstage Backstage. I’m your host, Jason Daye. Each and every week, I have the honor to sit down with a trusted ministry leader, and we dive into a conversation all in an effort to help you and pastors and ministry leaders just like you embrace healthy and sustainable rhythms in your life so that you can flourish both in your life and leadership. I’m proud to be a part of the Pastor Serve Network. Not only do we enter into a conversation each week, but our team creates an entire toolkit that complements the topic that we’re discussing. This gives you an opportunity to dig more deeply into the conversation. In there are several resources, including a Ministry Leaders Growth Guide. We really encourage you to work through that growth guide. It has insights and questions that are pulled directly out of the conversation in this episode. You can work through that personally and also take your ministry leadership team at your local church through that as well. Use this as a resource to encourage and equip your team. We just want to bless local churches all across the world. So we encourage you to check out all of that at PastorServe.org/network. That’s where you will find the toolkit for this episode. Now at Pastor Serve, we love walking alongside of ministry leaders, and if you’d like to learn more about how you can receive a complimentary coaching session, head over to PastorServe.org/freesession. You’ll find details there. Now if you’re joining us on YouTube, please give us a thumbs up and drop your name and the name of your church in the comments below. We love getting to know our audience better and we will be praying for you and your ministry. Whether you’re joining us on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform, please be sure to subscribe or to follow so you do not miss out on any of these great conversations. I’m excited about today’s conversation and I’d like to welcome Kevin Palau to the show. Kevin, welcome, brother.

Kevin Palau
Hey, Jason, it’s so good to see you again.

Jason Daye
Yes, good to see you again, brother. I appreciate you and all that you and the team do at Palau. Real quickly, Kevin, for those who may not be familiar with your work, can you just share a little bit about what you guys do?

Kevin Palau
Yeah. So I mean, if you think of Palau, and you know anything about us at all, you’re probably thinking evangelism because Luis Palau, there aren’t that many people with the last name, at least not in known evangelical ministry. So, Dad has been with the Lord for three and a half years now. His work is done. His work as an evangelist has finished. But before then, man, you could not stop him, and I mean this in the most winsome way. From trying to find ways to share the good news of Jesus Christ. He believed it was good news for everybody. He loved to stand on the stage and preach to thousands or tens of thousands or sometimes even hundreds of thousands of people. But he also cared about any individual, neighbor, or server at a restaurant. He just loved Jesus, and he loved people, and I think that was infectious to a bunch of the rest of us who continue the work at the Palau Association. So, we do big-scale evangelism festivals around the world. We partner with thousands of other evangelists. We do some digital evangelism and discipleship, and we really love the unity of the body in cities. That’s one other thing that I think we’ll probably talk a little bit more about, is what it looks like when the Church of a city unites not just around like a particular event, like, hey, there’s gonna be a Franklin Graham event, or Palau has come to do something, which is great. But what does it look like for a sustainable movement of the church in a city that’s trying to seek the welfare of the city? So I love that kind of stuff, too.

Jason Daye
Yeah, as do we. What’s interesting, Kevin and I’d love for you to speak to us a little bit. You have the opportunity to work with pastors all across the country, pastors who are coming together in all different cities. We know here in the US there’s a lot of diversity across a nation as big as ours. So you get to see how these pastors are ministering together, how they’re locking arms with one another, and the impact of all of that. So, to begin, Kevin, I would love to just if you could, I know this is a bit anecdotal, but since you have the opportunity to to engage with pastors in so many different settings and in areas across the country, what is the sense, Kevin, that you’re getting kind of right now? You know, on the polls on how are pastors doing? How are they feeling? What are they kind of expressing right now?

Kevin Palau
Well, I think you’re right. It’s all across the map. It probably depends on the context. I mean, I think we’re in a tense time. We’re in a politicized and partisan kind of time. I think some pastors, of course, feel caught between cross-currents that are beyond their control. I’m on the elder team at the church that I’ve been a part of my entire life, a non-denominational Bible Church of about 600 adults on a Sunday, and you feel it. You feel that if I say this or if I do this, who’s going to be with me, and who’s not going to be with me? So, at times, we can feel a little bit fearful. But I think beyond that, I think there is a sense of hopefulness. I hope that pastors feel that. One, because of their own relationship with Christ and a sense of however I feel, God is still on the throne. The Kingdom is advancing, and the gates of hell can’t prevail against the work of God, which is the church, and to feel that what they’re doing matters. I do fear, at times, that many pastors don’t realize how beautiful the work is that they do. They don’t get enough affirmation. That’s why I love Pastor Serve. I mean, pastors need peers, other fellow pastors, and other people to recognize that what they’re doing is not just a good thing among many good things. It’s essential work that’s needed for the kingdom of God to move forward. It’s shepherding people. It’s walking them through their own journeys. It’s declaring the good news of Jesus Christ, and in some cases, it’s banding together with other churches to say, together, we can really make a difference in people’s lives and even in the life of our city. So, I think that when people are able to take a deep breath, they’re not on the ragged edge, which is a fear at times. I think many pastures are right on the edge in the red line. I mean, their engine has been just like pegged to the floor for too long, and I fear that many aren’t getting the quiet time with the Lord, developing the spiritual practice, and just getting the support and encouragement. But generally speaking, I’m always bullish on the church, and I’m always grateful for pastors. Every single pastor that’s watching this, I hope that they feel encouraged and just reminded again, what you do matters. You are essential. Your church thriving or has seen better days, is still a unique reflection. It’s a kingdom outpost that’s doing something that no one else can do in your neighborhood. So I guess I’m always saying, don’t get discouraged. How can we help you find others to band together with? Because the city needs you.

Jason Daye
Absolutely. I love that, Kevin. That’s why I just love your heart. I love how you love pastors, how you love the work that they’re doing, and always try to encourage them in that. One of the things that you kind of mentioned there is this idea of how do we come together? Because for so long, Kevin, and we’ve talked about this in the past, oftentimes pastors approach kind of a lone-wolf concept when it comes to ministry. It just seems like they get focused on their own church, their own thing, and what it means to develop that and build that. Not that that’s a bad thing, but we can get caught up in just that, right? But, Kevin, you’ve had the opportunity to experience and see in some beautiful kingdom ways what it looks like to to not just get caught up in being called to shepherd a local church, which is part of the call. But what does that mean, kind of, in the greater context of the city or the area that you live in? Can you share a little bit about just kind of that mental or maybe even that heart shift, the importance of that, and what might encourage that sort of a shift?

Kevin Palau
Well, I do think that biblically, most pastors who are watching could preach a good sermon on the unity of the Body of Christ. We recognize theologically that we are one in Christ and that the church was most often, yes, there were references to individual, the church that meets in so-and-so’s home, but there were the letters in Revelation, or to the church in Philadelphia, the church in… So, there was a sense of like, well, yes, we meet in different locations, but we are one community of Christ. We together are the body of Christ. I think oftentimes, as pastors, we think of, yes, different parts make up a body within my congregation. Yes, but it’s the entire body of Jesus followers, whatever church they happen to go to, that is the reflection of Jesus in that community. So I think it’s a reminder to practice what we literally preach about unity of the body. But again, easier said than done. How does that work itself out? That’s why I’m excited about the growing number of cities that are developing some level of a city gospel movement. All that means is that some group of pastors and leaders have rallied together around a vision of saying, if we do work together, recognizing most of the work we do is parish-by-parish. I mean, a pastor needs to spend 90% of his time worrying about his flock and his patch. But also, I kind of say, will we all be willing to tithe our time and energy toward the greater Kingdom work? I think that maybe puts in perspective like, Okay, I’m not adding a half-time job. I’m not dropping my main job. I’m recognizing that doing my main thing well is the best contribution I can make to the bigger Kingdom work. But 10% or even 5% of time into a bigger Kingdom movement can make a difference. So I’ll just give an example here in Portland, Oregon, which is a pretty unchurched place. It’s a pretty hard place for ministry. I would say, in a weird way, it partly makes the uniting of the church work a little easier because there’s a general sense of, Well, duh, of course, we need each other. Of course, I can’t think that my congregation of 300 people, or 50 people, or at the biggest, 2000, is going to make a dent in a place like Portland. So it’s a little more logical and tangible for the majority of churches in Portland to say, of course, we need to be together. We call it Together PDX. PDX is our airport code. All that means is, 18 years ago, we were getting ready for a Palau festival, a big physical gathering to proclaim the good news in Waterfront Park in Portland. We’d preceded it by six months of very tangibly serving the community with 1000s of people serving. I won’t go into the whole story, but the mayor of Portland, who is not a believer at all, stood on the stage at this big festival in front of 20,000 people, and he assumed that all this great community service effort was going to continue. So he kind of, I jokingly say, prophetically, said, this is the best community service effort I’ve ever seen. Let’s keep this going. So that kind of forced us to say, wow, it’s not part of our model from Palau. We would do big evangelistic events. What would it look like to sustain it? So we’ve just kept now for 18 years, 200 churches and nonprofits working together in praying for the city. Relational networks of pastors that are building trust with each other, serving the city together, and sharing the good news together. We have volunteer teams that focus on each of those areas and an advisory team of pastors. There’s just a sense that Portland could be a better place if the body of Christ is visible and active. We’re not trying to raise millions of dollars. We’re not trying to claim that we’re going to transform Portland on our own, but we are saying the individual work that every individual nonprofit and church is doing counts. It’s not like we’re trying to make everyone drop what they’re doing and do big things together. It’s more of an attitude of celebrate and accelerate. One, what does it look like if we’re constantly celebrating the small, good things that each of us is doing? So the mentality is not we have to drop what we’re doing and create some big thing. It’s more the church is the institution Jesus formed. The movement began on the day of Pentecost. It’s not like we’re trying to create a movement. More the mentality, oh, the movement exists. It’s made up of thousands, tens of thousands, even in Portland, tens of thousands of people follow Jesus every day, imperfectly, quietly. But in a way, the mentality for this, for a city movement is like, let’s celebrate the beautiful things that God, by His Spirit, is already doing, and if we just told a better story by knowing what is happening, that encourages everyone. Did you hear about this person who came to the Lord through Alpha at Bridgetown? Have you seen the way that churches are banding together to make a difference in foster care? So that celebrating then can lead to a sense of like, let’s accelerate in this season around partnering with our public schools because it feels like, hey, 30 churches were already doing that and we didn’t really know that. Wow. What would it be like if 100 churches had found a school partner? What would happen if we accelerated around the foster care system? So it’s not as over-organized as people might fear. Yes, you need the right kind of neutral convening leaders of trust that can call people to fellowship together. We do a quarterly gathering. We’ll bring in, last week, we had 300 pastors at Bridgetown church with Mark Sayers, a great pastor from Melbourne, Australia. So we’ll gather once a quarter to be inspired, equipped, and remind people that we’re in this together. So people can always go to the CityGospelMovements.org website to find out if something like that already happening in my city. Maybe there’s a group of leaders that are already banded together. There are over 100 examples in various suburbs or individual cities and growing. I just think it’s a biblical way to operate. Honestly, I would say it’s not so much some great strategy as it is recognizing that we are already part of the greatest movement in history. So if we put a little bit of energy into shining a light on it, finding ways to accelerate it, and finding people who are doing it. So we at Palau and that website, we just try to celebrate every example we can see, and occasionally gather the leaders of these different city networks to say, what can we learn from each other?

Jason Daye
Yeah. Absolutely love it. One of the things I would love for you, Kevin, is if you can just share, I mean, I know the story of Together PDX, but not everyone does. Just share a couple of highlights of, I know some of the amazing things around foster care that you guys have done, and some really cool things. Just share a couple of highlights as an example, of course, you guys have been doing this a long time, but what are some of the cool things that God does through banding together with other churches?

Kevin Palau
No question. I would say, for example, we recognize when we were first having this idea, as with my Palau evangelist hat on, we were going to prepare for a big evangelistic festival, but we knew that in a place like Portland if the church wasn’t seen as loving and serving the community unconditionally, the fear is always that you’re just preaching to the choir. That the 20,000 people that you’ve gathered are 19,998 committed evangelical believers and a couple of people who wandered by to see what was going on. So the challenge is always to get our people, especially in a place like Portland, a little less afraid to be known as a follower of Jesus Christ, and a little more engaged relationally with their peers and neighbors and coworkers. So we thought, if we could go to see the mayor and just say, hey, we would like to mobilize thousands of our folks to love and serve the community, would you help us figure out good ways to do that? We started with a very simple idea like that and we went to see the mayor. At the time, Sam was the first openly gay mayor of a top 25 city in the country. So we kind of thought, What’s his perception of the church, particularly the evangelical church? But we thought, let’s just try this. He was super open. I think, one, we were genuinely humble. We went with a sense of humility, not faux humility, but realizing, how have we not done this? How have we as a group of believers, not said to our mayor, we love you? We love the city. Hey, the reality of it is we understand that to many Portlanders, we’re known primarily as the anti-people. They’re anti-this. They’re anti-that. They could repeat back what the church is against. You might have a harder time articulating, what are you guys actually good for. Like, what are you actually for? So we started off and the conversation was pretty simple. We didn’t use Jeremiah 29:7 and read it off or quote it. But in the back of our minds was, seek the shalom, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I’ve carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for if it prospers, you too will prosper. So we just went with that idea of like, Hey, we are part of the community. We love the community. We’re frankly embarrassed that we’ve not had this conversation before, we know that we’re viewed pretty negatively, and we didn’t try to argue that. We just said that’s a reality. We think that it would be good for us as a community, and we hope it would be good for the city if we could mobilize thousands of our people to just, no strings attached, love and serve. Then we’re going to have this festival. You’re welcome to come. We’re going to kind of gather our community, and my dad’s going to get up and share this message of Jesus, but we’re going to also celebrate great community service. So he said, sounds like a great idea, because we weren’t asking for money and we weren’t complaining. We were just saying, Help us know how to serve. So he saw a remarkable mobilization of a community that he hardly knew existed. So it gave him visibility to like, wow, there are more of these evangelicals that I thought were the worst people around. Hate mongers. Horrible people. I’m actually hanging out with them. Wow. I saw a thousand people. Here is one example. He came in as an education-focused mayor because, at the time, Portland was only graduating a little more than 50% of its high school students on time within Portland Public Schools. It was not a great situation. So he said, What can you do for the schools? He particularly mentioned Roosevelt High School, which had been built in the 1920s for like 2000 students. At this point, it was like 400 left because if you could get your kid out of Roosevelt, you’d done it. So it was just that we found out later on that he partly mentioned Roosevelt because it was on a short list of schools to be closed. He kind of figured, what’s the worst that can happen? If this thing goes south, we’re probably going to close the school. He had no expectation that anything would really happen, right? So he and the school superintendent, Carol, who also happened to be a prominent member of Portland’s LGBTQ+ community, kind of were watching. Well, it was incredible to see a thousand people. There was one church in particular that really focused on this. They spent months preparing. They did a great job on what was originally just going to be a makeover of the school. If that’s all that happened, it was a pretty remarkable makeover. A thousand people were there, mostly believers, but some community members. The whole city council was there. Sam Adams was there painting, pulling weeds, and stuff. But what was more remarkable was that this one church in particular, called South Lake, fell in love with Roosevelt, even though it wasn’t their neighborhood, and they kept showing up with volunteers. Six months after the big service day, they were still there week by week by week with volunteers. That led the principal to say to Charlene, who is the outreach pastor of the church, you’re here every week with volunteers. Why don’t you just office here and be the volunteer coordinator? Over a period of about five years, it was a remarkable transformation of Roosevelt High School. Nike execs who were believers, that went to this particular church, got Nike involved. They rebuilt the football field, the track, and the grandstands. They began mentoring every kid in the freshman class. I mean, the school went from 450 students and it more than doubled. They graduated like 15 percentage points higher of their students on time. Again, I’m telling this story quickly as if it would happen quickly. It happened over a period of years, but that led our superintendent to say, let’s work together to find a church partner for every single school in Portland Public Schools. Again, it’s a quick story. It’s not as neat and tidy as it sounds. Many mistakes were made. A bigger suburban church from the outside that’s mostly white coming into a fairly diverse community wasn’t the right way to do it. We’re not community development experts, we learned a lot by making mistakes, and a lot of grace was shown. But as a result of that effort Together PDX was formed, and we just began looking for where are the points of need, where churches are probably already doing things. But when you can say, hey, let’s just try to be aware of which churches are serving which schools. Might be nice to know. Let’s be aware of what seems to be working in that space. So when that began happening in the school space, a similar thing happened in the foster care system. An area almost whatever city you’re listening to this from, I can almost guarantee you that the foster care system has dire needs, and needs good-hearted people willing to come in and not claim to fix everything, but just humbly serve. We’ve seen in a hard state like Oregon, a lot of relational progress. I wish I could say revival has broken out. Every church is growing and thriving. This is still a hard place. In fact, I would say this to give a dose of realism, Portland looks worse than it did 18 years ago when we started. So a person could say, well, then why did you do it? Hey, it’s beyond our control that Portland had 100 days of violent protesting in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. There are certain things that the church can’t control. But the fact that 200 churches have been walking together and praying for each other for 18 years. The fact that we have favor and relationship with the Department of Human Services, our school superintendents, our mayors, and our city commissioners because they see the church as a force for good, and we do believe that that’s giving believers more boldness, a little bit more boldness in sharing their faith. I mean, I would love to see revival and the kind of things we all dream of and read about in history. But I would say that until that happens in God’s good grace, there’s something beautiful about the church walking together. We see the difference it makes in Portland, and that’s why we’ve been super eager to find Within Reach, which is Omaha’s network, Transforming the Bay with Christ, which the CEO of Intel founded in the San Francisco Bay Area. On and on and on there are examples. I would say, even if you’re in a place that doesn’t have that, every little bit of intentional celebrating and accelerating, it could be you and one other pastor that’s near you, just the two of you saying, Let’s get together once a quarter for coffee and pray for each other. Let’s have a little relational network of pastors in our region, in our suburb if it doesn’t exist, what’s the worst that could happen? I find a partner in the journey. I’m giving a little bit of my time. I’m realizing that you have a great food pantry. Let’s contribute to your food pantry, and maybe we’re doing a better job mobilizing to serve this school. We’ll do that and you send us some volunteers, and you do that and we’ll send you some food that we collect once a quarter. I mean, there’s the simplest, dumb little ideas that give the people in your congregation a feeling that they’re part of something bigger. There’s something Kingdom about that.

Jason Daye
Yeah, I absolutely love that. I think that the Kingdom part is important. We’ve heard the phrase a lot, it’s not the church in the city, it’s the church for the city. It’s the idea of, again, that mind shift and that heart shift. That we’re here. God’s put us here. It’s not just something that randomly happened. God called this church. God planted and birthed this church. We’re here. Then, what does that look like for us to impact the city in which we are? Kevin, I would love to hear a little bit about kind of the steps. Let’s say there’s a pastor or ministry leader listening and there isn’t a network. There isn’t a city gospel movement happening right now in their particular area. Maybe another thing that I’m thinking of as we’re talking is pastors in more rural areas and stuff like that. Sometimes it’s like, well, that’s great for the city, right? That’s great for the city, but what about us? So talk with us, because I know you’ve processed through these and you’ve had conversations with pastors about these. So those are two things that we can touch on. What if you’re not in the city, but in a more rural area? Then the second thing is, what are some first steps if there isn’t a network around you?

Kevin Palau
Yeah, I would say, like when I talk about Portland, the church that I’m in leadership of on the other team, Cedar Mill Church is in Beaverton. It’s not Portland. It’s a different world. So in a sense, I would say, when you talk about a city, you’re just talking about a whole collection of neighborhoods and smaller parts that make up the bigger ecosystem. So I think that I would never despise the day of small things. I would say again, if nothing exists, which you might be surprised, go to that CityGospelMovements.org website, and there’s a mapping function. You can see if there might be something. But I would say again, if you’re in a rural area unless you’re literally the only church within 100 miles, which is probably unlikely. There’s probably someone else who’s in a similar context to you in your suburb or in your little town that might have three churches, there’s something powerful. You could be the person who’s willing to do the hard work of taking the first step, which usually just simply means, would I be willing to try to get a cup of coffee with the fellow pastor at the church? Whatever the church is nearest to you if you’re reasonably theologically aligned. I mean, I can understand if you feel like the nearest church is pretty divergent and like you wouldn’t have a lot in common. Maybe it’s a matter of going a mile further and starting with someone who you feel like there’s enough alignment, where you’re not immediately getting bogged down in like, wow, we’re not even on the same page of like, what’s the gospel or something. You’re gonna find someone that’s reasonably nearby, and it might even be someone, there’s probably even someone that you kind of know, but you just haven’t invested much into the relationship. So my challenge would be as simple as getting a cup of coffee within the next month with one other pastor and just listening. Give them a chance to listen to what they’re struggling with. It can be as simple as, like, What’s one thing that’s encouraging you, as you look at your work here at First Methodist Church in Bellevue, Washington, give me one thing you’re encouraged about, and then just listen. Then what’s one thing that’s a little discouraging or a little hard for you? I mean, it could be literally as simple as that and if they can feel like you’re a trusted person and that you’re willing to be vulnerable yourself and kind of model it, give them the chance to talk first, but be as vulnerable as you feel like you can be. Pastors need places to vent at times, to safely share about this elder that’s given them a problem, or what do I do with this situation? So I think there’s just something powerful about on the smallest of scales, trying to model what it can look like. Again, you might be surprised. Someone might have been trying to get a little group of pastors together once in a while. It’s hard work. People are busy. That’s why I say, if you can give even, let’s just say 5% you know, a half of a tithe of your time to investing in it. It might not feel like the most productive thing you do, but I think that spiritually, it’s important. I do think that over time, it can be something that actually will help further your own ministry.

Jason Daye
Yeah, that’s good. That’s helpful. So, Kevin, you’ve talked about, and with City Gospel Movements, you guys really talk about four different legs of the stool, or whatever image we want to use. But there are some key things that as you are banding together with other brothers and sisters in ministry, and as you’re focusing on, how can we bless the city? How can we be this for the city? There are a handful of things that you have processed through and say, Hey, this makes sense. Can you talk to us a little bit about those?

Kevin Palau
So in a sense, we began, as I mentioned, because the mayor assumed that this great community service was going to continue, which was not part of the plan. We then had to say, we didn’t want to form a brand new 501c3 and go raise a ton of money. So we just, again, this idea of celebrating and accelerating. What’s already happening? Let’s assume that the Holy Spirit’s already at work, duh. Because he is. It’s almost like being the curator of what’s already happening. So over time, what we ended up discovering makes it sound like more than it was. So prayer, so Together PDX is kind of the name of our overall movement. So there’s Prayer PDX, meaning who are the people who already wake up every day excited about prayer? Maybe they’re already doing things that are mobilizing prayer. So we had the idea of like, let’s figure out and curate who are the respected prayer kind of leaders. Could we kind of get them together and have them think and operate in a more collaborative way? So there’s the prayer side of things. There’s the pastoral unity side. What if, over time and again, we’re not there yet, and we’re 18 years in. But could we try to find an easy way for pastors to find a peer group geographically, wherever they are? So we have 25 different groups. Some of these city movements are further along than we are because we feel like there’s something powerful about pastors being together, not to plan events, but to have a safe place to process and to pray for each other. So we have kind of prayer things, pastoral unity kinds of things, serving the community sorts of efforts. So again, it’s a curating process. Which nonprofits or churches are already killing it when it comes to foster care, refugee care, houselessness, or partnering with public schools? You’re going to tend to find, wherever you are, that someone is already doing that. It’s not a matter of creating something new. So the idea of these kinds of movements isn’t to get a whiteboard, put up the needs of the city, and go start something new. It’s recognizing, has anybody pulled together the key players or the churches that are most focused on community service, and maybe have them say, what are we learning together? Then begin to say, you know what? Maybe next quarter, we could have a little lunch and share some of the things we’re learning about the best ways to serve our houseless community. It might just be pointing pastors toward the nonprofits that are doing the best work. The last one would be evangelism. So it’s kind of like prayer, pastoral unity, community service, and evangelism. Who’s already doing a good job? No one would say, again, we’re killing it. We don’t have enough room for all the new believers joining our church, right? Sadly, I don’t know lots of churches, in fact, I can’t think of one church that’s like, stop. Turn off the hose here. We’ve got too many new believers coming. Most of it’s like, wow, when’s the last time I saw someone that wasn’t just our own kids and grandkids being baptized? We all long to see genuine fruit of new believers. So who are the people who wake up every day with a passion for evangelism? Is it the FCA leaders or the Young Life leader? Is it the outreach pastor of this church? Is it the senior pastor of this church that’s really an evangelist in Pastor clothing? So we find to gather those already passionate, effective evangelism leaders. They often have not been in the same room together. This like, wow, I found my tribe. I’m mostly trying to get my congregation to care about evangelism and it gets discouraging because I feel like 99% of people are looking back with blank eyes, like, Can we move on to something that meets my needs? Can you move on to something else? I already feel guilty enough. I don’t need someone to make me feel more guilty about not sharing my faith. So when you can get people together who have that passion, they can keep each other encouraged. They can find stories. You know, every time we have a bigger pastors gathering once a quarter, we always have an evangelism moment where we just tell a testimony or show one testimony video to try to remind people in Portland, hey, there are still hungry people that want to hear the good news. Don’t let the evil one, the world, or the flesh tell you that nobody’s interested. Keep your mouth shut. I’m going to be embarrassed. Nobody cares about this. You’ve got to be reminded that the good news is still good news for everybody. So those are kind of the areas that I feel like trust me, there are already good things happening in each of those areas in your city. It’s just, is there a way for the right core of leaders to get together to, in a neutral way, convene and make people who are already doing good work feel like you’re not trying to co-op what they’re doing, take credit for it, or divert them to something else. But to say, Oh, you actually want to hear what I’ve learned? You recognize that I’m doing a reasonably good job in foster care or evangelism, and I can be with other peers and share what I’ve learned? I might be interested in that. What they don’t want is like, come to a meeting and someone’s going to pretend like I’ve not done anything and I don’t know anything, and they’re going to tell me and add one more thing to my plate. I’ve already got more than enough to do. But if you can celebrate and accelerate what God’s doing, there’s something powerful in that, and we’re beginning to see more cities adopt some level of this approach.

Jason Daye
Yeah, I absolutely love that. One of the things that you’re saying in there, Kevin, in regard to just the encouragement piece of it, right? Oftentimes, in ministry and local church, we’re doing our best and we tend to, oftentimes, we’re working in a particular area of concern and we have some volunteers who are invested in that and excited about that. But again, whenever you can get them together, right? Whenever we can get those teams together, those individuals together, or whoever it might be, and allow them to start sharing some stories, and allow them to see, okay, the effort I’m doing over here, and effort that you’re doing over there in the city, enough of those lights burning in the city lights it up. So it’s that idea of encouragement and drawing together, and then that collaborative effort and the creative things that come out of that. They’re like, Okay, you’re doing that. We’re doing this. They’re doing that. Maybe we can come together in the month of November and do something a little bigger that has a little more impact and celebrate and accelerate at the same time. So I think that’s so powerful. Kevin, as we’re winding down this time, it’s been incredibly helpful. I want to give you the opportunity for two things. One, if people want to connect with City Gospel Movements, what’s the best way for them to do that? I know you mentioned the website. I imagine that’s probably one of the primary ways.

Kevin Palau
Yeah, I’d say that that’s the best way because they can always then leave a message and we’ll get right back with someone. Like, help me out here, would you jump on a Zoom call with me? We’ve got three pastors here. We do that all the time. CityGospelMovements.org. Simple as that.

Jason Daye
Perfect. Then on that website, you do have other resources there, so lots of ideas.

Kevin Palau
Lots of cool resources and little videos. It’s not even a Palau. You’d have to dig deep, deep, deep to see the name Palau. It’s really just, we just see it as a find your tribe, find a group of people that kind of think the way you do and would like to see something like this happen.

Jason Daye
Yeah, I love that. That heart posture that you guys have is just kind of giving it away and saying, How can we make this happen? Yeah, how can we encourage this with others? So, we will have a link to the website in the toolkit for this episode. So for those of you watching or listening along, if you’re out jogging, or if you’re driving your car, don’t worry about it. You can just head to PastorServe.org/network, and in there, again, you’ll have the Toolkit, including links to City Gospel Movements, and all those fun things. But as we wind down, Kevin, I just want to give you a moment to share, speaking with pastors and ministry leaders, men and women on the front lines. What words of encouragement do you have for them?

Kevin Palau
Yeah, I guess it’s kind of what always comes to my mind is, I know pretty well from a lifetime of ministry how hard it is to be a pastor. Our church went through the worst experience of our 80-year history during covid for a variety of reasons, some generic that we would all relate to, and some unique ones. So I know how close pastors that I know come to quitting or would if they could kind of a thing. So I guess I would just say, I’m not going to try to kid you. It can be the hardest work imaginable at times. But if you feel like God has called you this, if you felt like, at times, God has called you to this. If God’s calling you to something else, I’m not saying he doesn’t. But for most of us, I think it’s not a matter of not feeling like we were called. It’s a matter of like, this is hard. So I guess I would just say we do love you. The reason pastorship exists is they and many, many others that don’t say it enough. We love you. We appreciate you. I’m not saying don’t get discouraged as one more guilt trip, but just, if there was anything we can do to try to help you realize that what you do matters and is life-changing, and every cup of cold water. I mean, Matthew 25, it’s the least of things. It’s the unconscious things that we do that we don’t know, that we’re doing where we’re the fragrance of Christ. You being who you are, ineffective as you might feel, if most pastors pastor small churches that struggle financially, you don’t have everything you wish you had for your family or your church, but that the Lord sees. Just be faithful. It’s easy to say, but as I mentioned, Portland looks worse than it did when we started this journey, so the call to us as a group of leaders in Portland is to say, are we going to be faithful when our story isn’t just of unvarying success that looks like every church is growing and the downtown Portland looks better? Downtown Portland looks worse than it did because of decisions that were made by our city, etc. So faithfulness is what is called for, more than anything else. Faithfulness in the ways that nobody sees in our spiritual practices and our devotion to the Lord, but that’s always going to lead to the simple cup of cold water that the attempt to share the good news when it seems like it’s not landing on good soil. Yeah, the Lord sees, and what you do matters. I don’t know why I’m getting emotional, but yeah, it really does matter. Yeah, if I can convey that what you do matters. We love you. A lot more people love you that don’t say it enough than the few people who criticize you who unfortunately tend to say it. It’s a painful journey and we’re walking with Christ, and he’s walking with us.

Jason Daye
Amen. I love that, brother. Good word. Thank you so much, Kevin. Love you, friend. Love all the work that you guys are doing, the way you’re encouraging pastors and ministry leaders, the way that you’re walking along with them, and that you’re helping them collaborate on Kingdom things. Yeah, just such a beautiful thing. As you said, it doesn’t matter how big your church is or how small your church is. It doesn’t matter what the circumstances are or how challenging they are. We all have things that we’re facing. But, we can come together, contribute, and collaborate, and do some beautiful kingdom things, and that’s fun, that’s exciting, it’s encouraging. So brother, thank you so much for making time and taking the time out of your schedule to hang out with us and share with us. Absolutely love you and appreciate you. Love all that you are doing and the entire Palau team, what they represent, and what they’re doing. We love it. So God bless you, my friend.

Kevin Palau
Thanks so much, Jason.

Jason Daye
Now, before you go, I want to remind you of an incredible free resource that our team puts together every single week to help you and your team dig more deeply and maximize the conversation that we just had. This is the weekly toolkit that we provide. And we understand that it’s one thing to listen or watch an episode, but it’s something entirely different to actually take what you’ve heard, what you’ve watched, what you’ve seen, and apply it to your life and to your ministry. You see, FrontStage BackStage is more than just a podcast or YouTube show about ministry leadership, we are a complete resource to help train you and your entire ministry team as you seek to grow and develop in life in ministry. Every single week, we provide a weekly toolkit which has all types of tools in it to help you do just that. Now you can find this at PastorServe.org/network. That’s PastorServe.org/network. And there you will find all of our shows, all of our episodes and all of our weekly toolkits. Now inside the toolkit are several tools including video links and audio links for you to share with your team. There are resource links to different resources and tools that were mentioned in the conversation, and several other tools, but the greatest thing is the ministry leaders growth guide. Our team pulls key insights and concepts from every conversation with our amazing guests. And then we also create engaging questions for you and your team to consider and process, providing space for you to reflect on how that episode’s topic relates to your unique context, at your local church, in your ministry and in your life. Now you can use these questions in your regular staff meetings to guide your conversation as you invest in the growth of your ministry leaders. You can find the weekly toolkit at PastorServe.org/network We encourage you to check out that free resource. Until next time, I’m Jason Daye encouraging you to love well, live well, and lead well. God bless.