Dimensions
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Dimensions
The Impact of the Gospel on the Modern College Campus
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Dimensions 09/17/2025 - The Impact of the Gospel on the Modern College Campus
no-transcript and you know I want to take a minute because I want to get your thoughts on I haven't had you on here since then but your thoughts on what happened to Charlie Kirk and just kind of what maybe you're hearing around the college or what's kind of been happening and what your thoughts are and what God's going to speak to you.
Speaker 2:Well, it's very, very, very clear that we're in a divisive time Right, and that's been accentuated with what happened with Charlie Kirk. I know that this is somebody who I saw, that's, that's been used and that's been at a platform at a such larger capacity than me or a lot of my contemporaries, a lot of my peers that I work with in the campus ministry space. This is somebody who started the platform of Turning Point, usa when he was 19 years old, so he was a college-age student right that started and had this goal of going onto these college campuses and starting these dialogues and conversations with young people, with, that being said, on those who are rejoicing at his death. That's what it is. People are celebrating and happy that this has happened, that a man has lost his life. Whether you agree with his platform, whether you agree with his rhetoric, you know whether that be political or personal or how he carried himself.
Speaker 2:This is someone who declared the gospel to thousands thousands, if not tens, or hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people right, that's what his platform, that is what god used him to do and what he was, what he's been able to do in this time. Um, so it's a very um, it's almost a taboo secret or like conversation at this point. Um, what that to? To bring that up, and it's, it's funny. I'm actually working on a research paper and my, my default topic is always abortion and pro-life and my professor it was one of the um taboo or banned topics to write on and to share Right, and I didn't see that in the description in the instructions.
Speaker 1:So you weren't allowed to share about that. Correct, correct, really. Yeah, it was an informative.
Speaker 2:It was an informative or a, uh, argumentative paper, and it was. There were just certain topics, I believe. What were some of the other ones? Um, uh, bullying was one, it was, it was a, really, it was one off, and that one really stuck out to me, right, and so what I did, how God ended up using uh, this is a couple of weeks ago that I was picking this topic I talked to, I chose my topic to be a resurgence of Christianity and young men across the world, and so I didn't know that God was setting me up and I'm like what am I going to write about this?
Speaker 2:And then this Charlie Cook situation happens and which where we've seen hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of not just young men, but young people across the nation and across the world that are opening the Bible for the first time, that are going to church for the first time, to understand why would someone who spoke in a way that could be considered controversial, right, that could be considered, I would even say, inflammatory. I think that's a fair assessment right, but why?
Speaker 2:to the point that his life would be taken. What is about his message and his conviction behind it? That's something so evil would have to take place. So the Lord's been speaking to me a lot about this situation and what this really means for the body of Christ, but ultimately I think there's been a momentum shift in the body and especially the young believers who have tenure in this space. Right, I've been, I've been involved in in the campus ministry space for about two years. I would say I've been laboring for about a year right, and so I can see that there is a momentum. It's not a coincidence. Um, tomorrow the university of pittsburgh is hosting the first like revival type of event of its of its kind that I have known of right. I've been a student, I've spent a lot of time in Oakland throughout my life, being a native Pittsburgher. It's the first time I've heard of anything like this.
Speaker 1:I've never heard of it either.
Speaker 2:And it's happening across the nation. It's happening more and more, so I'm excited. I'm very curious to see how God is going to continue to use this event and how something is being incited in the people, um, and that the, the boldness of faith is starting to increase in the, in the young body of Christ.
Speaker 1:Wow, and you got some revelation you said about um, about the Orem, utah, and about Charlie and named Kirk and all that. Yeah, uh, share with me a little bit of what um, uh, you, you did some research on it, or yeah?
Speaker 2:So I'm a little bit of a of an etymology nerd. I love to see where words come from and how they've conveyed and changed over time. So the name Charles is actually like an original. It was used in Europe in Anglo-Saxon times. It was an indication, it represented freedom or a free man, right, and so the name Kurt. A very similar area of Europe was the word for church, right, and a lot of people know that and are familiar with that.
Speaker 2:Now I believe that it was a plot and a ploy of the enemy Right. What God was saying through that was the freedom of the church was attacked when Charlie Kirk when Charlie Kirk was was attacked and was assassinated. I don't believe that he represented the church to God. I believe he's being used as a sign, right, and a representative, and the word he uses, harbinger. Is it right that God is using and moving into place to convey a point right?
Speaker 2:Now where it gets very, very interesting is the city in Utah which this happened, which is Orem, utah, o-r-e M. So when I looked at that right, I looked it up and now there are two different meanings that I stumbled across. The first one is the Latin. The Latin word spelled the exact same way, which is Orem, which is I pray, or to pray right. So that was very, very interesting to me.
Speaker 2:But then when I went into the Hebrew and into the Bible, a word that's transliterated in that same way is aurum, which is a cunningness. Now that cunningness is a cunningness or a craftiness, but the way that cunningness or that craftiness is always described is that the perpetrator of said cunningness or craftiness is always used against the person perpetrating and it's never used in a cunningness or a craftiness of someone that God is using. It's always by the enemy. It says in the book of Genesis 3, his crafty ways, and then it also talks about the craftiness and the cunningness of the adversary, and I believe it's Job, chapter 5, right. So I believe what God is saying is that the attack that happened on the voice and the freedom of the voice in the church, right, we've seen an attack on the voice and the standing out, the boldness of the church, right, and this has been a plot and a device of the enemy.
Speaker 1:But we're going to see this craftiness and this kindness ultimately hurt the perpetrator, which is the enemy and the wicked one and you shared with me before we came out too, about how he was shot in the neck, which is near the vocal cords, absolutely as well. I'd be curious to see what happens when the sheriff's department released the autopsy and all that kind of what happened. The coroner's report, I think it is that will show how he died and exactly what was damaged in there. But I didn't know this. So you said Charles stands for freedom, yes, and Kirk stands for church. Wow, I never knew that. So I'm looking at that there and you know what? The shirt he had on, right who's?
Speaker 1:that I didn't see that you never saw that. No, the shirt that he had on said freedom written across it.
Speaker 2:I did see that.
Speaker 1:Okay, so hearing you say that is just really unique. But you know, there's so many things that came about with that. There's a lot of stuff that people are saying about him. I have no problem advocating for um, for what he was doing now, some of his methodologies and stuff. You know, I get it, but you know, uh, but you know, this is my thing. I don't have wildfire than no fire and the way he went about standing up for the gospel. I went down to TPUSA. I don't know if you know that I was actually at a major event. I did a thing with William Federer on a podcast here just a few months ago and he's one of the major event speakers there. John Amachuku came for the Voice for the Unborn gala. He's part of TPUSA and if anybody would know that Charlie Kirk was prejudiced or white supremacist, it would have been him.
Speaker 2:He is.
Speaker 1:I mean like he's real black and everything. And he said, man, that's completely absurd. But anyways, the point of mentioning all this, I think it's really cool how he went in to colleges, set up a booth and I know, before all of this happened, you've been going into the colleges, you've been out street evangelizing, witnessing what are the schools that you've been going to and what's been happening, any stories of anything that's been happening as you've been evangelizing to people?
Speaker 2:Well, you know I started so this time last year I was starting a fellowship at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon, so I got to see it on a large scale and I've got to see it at a smaller, more unique scale at the community college. Right, because we compare the community college to more of a mission field in campus ministry. People have lives, they have families, even children. So it's two very different settings. What we're seeing is a corporate level of interest and now it's almost a trending thing to start getting your life together and getting your life with Christ. I was just sharing with you before we got on um the.
Speaker 2:You know there's a big rivalry between Pitt and West Virginia Friday night before that game Um, I thought the game was actually on Friday, I didn't know what day it was because of the partying and the rampant, everything that was going on at that time, and it just hit me in such a. I mean, my heart was just broken. God delivered me from that lifestyle, from a partying and revelry lifestyle, and so, um, to see so many people headed down that path, it broke my heart and I had to. I had to give a huge, huge, huge shout out um to the people at pit for purpose, um, their organization has, they're organizing the athletes who have, I would say, some of the biggest platforms in that space, um, in oakland, at cmu, at dk and at pit, um, they're organizing all these, uh people who are believers and starting a cultural trend. We're starting to see a cultural trend of young people at least asking questions or starting a dialogue which is so much of what Charlie Kirk was about.
Speaker 2:At the community college, you know we've seen multiple people starting to get. We've seen a spike. You know it was. It was very difficult for me and the people that I would bring on campus for you know, call it mission work to even get people, whether we had free things to give them. You know, people just didn't want to hear about it and I've seen a very, very stark change in the culture and when I was sharing, I actually had the opportunity of tabling last week in the middle at the different CCAC campuses, but in the middle of all of this happening, I got to be.
Speaker 2:It was an honor and a privilege to represent the only student ministry at CCAC the first one since 2017, right. And so a good friend of mine came to me when he found out what I was doing and he said years ago, when I was at CCAC, I tried to do the same exact thing you were doing, but the student government or whoever was in charge of accepting or not denying that they actually denied his request to start a student ministry. So I think it's not only the timing that people want it, but I think God is saying right here and right now. Last week I actually just saw I got the opportunity to share gospel with a student. First year student at CCAC was coming in and he accepted Jesus Christ right on the spot. It was his first time hearing the gospel and hearing it presented.
Speaker 2:So that's what we're seeing and that momentum is just continuing and building, and building, and building. People know that there's something going on, they just don't know what it is. So when we let them know who Jesus Christ is and that not only we have an adversary, but we have a perfect father who's taking care of business and who wants to see. See them with him for eternity, it completely changes the game.
Speaker 1:What? What do you? Um, what are you seeing the temperatures like on a college campus? Like you know, obviously, I'm a couple of decades removed from college and uh, so I mean, I don't look like it, but I'm a couple of decades removed, so I'm not as in touch with that age as you are. Um, what are you seeing? You think the biggest vice is? Or, like the roadblocks, people receiving Christ, or what do you feel that you, being a man of God and baiting the corridors of the doomed in the dam? What do you feel is the biggest part of the gospel that you have to enforce for people to see it? Do you follow where I'm going with that? Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Well, it just makes me appreciate what we've been doing at the ministry recently with discipleship. There is a discipleship crisis in the body right, without a doubt. So what do we as young people do when we want to venture out and be obedient to our calling and we don't have a connection to other people? We just do what we see the other people do. Right, we do what we see the elders do and what that creates is a lot of fuzzy lines, right, a lack of foundation. I've seen power built up in prayer meetings and prayerful ministries and Holy Ghost-filled ministries and people that love Jesus, with a lack of protocol, with a lack of experience, with a lack of wisdom, seeing it in discernment to lead the young people. Obviously, sex culture runs rampant on college campuses.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that ain't no different than all the colleges. That's not the community college. I was at a.
Speaker 1:Christian college. It was running rampant. Hey, that's what I was about to say.
Speaker 2:Christian folks get it in the nose. You know, and you know. So that challenge, challenge and explaining why I had someone who's a married father was actually talking to me and asking when I shared about my abstinence and my saving myself for marriage and what that means and escaping the wiles of pornography and these things. Right, and I share with you about the testing season that went through last week. It was unbelievable, and I had someone stop me in my season that went through this last week. It was unbelievable, and I had someone stop me in my tracks on campus just a few days ago and I said, hey, man, how's it going? And this is a guy I've been trying to reach for months faster. And he stopped me in my tracks and said, listen, man, I'm really struggling with lust and with some of these things Like how do you deal with it? And I said hey means what you're doing to not only yourself, but what it means to God when you defy yourself in these ways.
Speaker 2:Right, and so the way I put it about, especially Oakland, right, because before being Savior, I was going to my first college parties. I was 16 and 17 years old, just wanted to see what the big kids were doing, and so every year those first few weeks of class you can feel the atmosphere in Oakland shift and change, and I believe that's the injection of alcohol and partying behind it and the sex culture that's happening, and every year my heart just gets so heavy seeing how that takes place and it's amazing that we's a way to shift my focus until not only we see church and ministry groups full but we see bars and clubs start to empty. When people are starting to see their validation and their truth they find it in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Wow. Well, you know it's amazing what you're doing. I mean, you know you've gotten so many prophetic words saying that you're going to go into the colleges and minister to college students and I'm seeing that unfold and the process of that, and we're seeing young people come into the church. We're seeing people In fact. We've got a young man that's going to be getting baptized this weekend. We've got several young men college-age kids that are coming in. So listen, those of you that are watching if you're looking for a church that ministers to all ages, we've got that here. He's also in charge of our young adults ages 18 to 35. We got any events coming up?
Speaker 2:We got yeah, we got our big blowout in October coming up called the Alternative. We celebrate, not Halloween. We don't deal with Halloween because it has wicked pagan origins that you know we'll get into. You got to come around, right, I'm sure you'll be sharing on Dementia soon enough about it.
Speaker 2:And, pastor Jay, you shared about how one of the children actually, when hearing your Halloween message, went back to the family and said I don't want any parts to do with it, I don't want to participate. So what we do is we give an alternative right to being out there in the world. Right, we have people who aren't saved. That come, and I think it's unbelievable A couple of years before I really started living for Christ, when, where I really started living for Christ, when I was in the party lifestyle, when I was out there doing my thing, right, I would withdraw on those nights because something in me felt like I can't go out tonight, and that was God preserving me from God knows what.
Speaker 2:What could have happened? Because when you're deep enough in it, you know that there's a weekend, that there's going to be activity, right, because all a function. And if you go to a party, and it's obviously such a great party, but it's in the world, that is just a devil's playground, that is a spiritual playground, and so I believe God was starting to already preserve me and save me. And it's not a coincidence. That is the most boisterous, that is the most eventful weekend on a college campus, barring a huge rivalry football game.
Speaker 1:Right so these are.
Speaker 2:These are the times to get saved as a time, as you've been talking about, to have oil in your lamp, to keep that sin and leaven out your life and to have love in your heart for the young people. So the alternative we're going to go head-to-head with the enemy. Friday, october 31st, we're going to be getting it in, we're going to have a word, we're going to have worship, we're going to have musical performances and I'm just ready to see what God is going to unleash every time we get together in this ministry space, whether it be a Sunday service, whether it be the young people. We had an unbelievably powerful encounter with the Holy Spirit the last worship night we had, and I think that was just Him letting us know like hey, I'm here and I'm about to make myself comfortable, not just with the fathers of the house, but with the sons as well.
Speaker 1:Amen. Well, I think that's outstanding. And yeah, to his point too. We'll be having the alternative here at 605 Thompson Run Road, right here in Pittsburgh and in North Hills, and we've got candy for it's all ages too. It doesn't matter what age you are, but we don't celebrate any of that and some of dimensions. I'll be teaching on it. I want to say that 31st is down. It was like the 26th, I think. It's the last Sunday in October.
Speaker 1:I'm going to be talking about why we don't celebrate Halloween. That's coming to you. Matter of fact, I have this guy across the street from me he's actually behind me across the street because I live on a corner area and he's got this huge light it's got to be 20 feet tall like this demon standing up in his uh, his front yard and all these things. You know a lot of people do stuff ignorantly. You know we do stuff. We don't even realize why we're doing what we're doing. And to your point, when you mentioned about the two young kids, they were in our ministry. They came out, their parents, their parents were in church, and this is no knock against it, it's just that churches aren't talking about any of this type of stuff. And so they came out and I talked to them about the origins of Halloween and where it came from, what it's about, what it consists of, what still happens today, ladies and gentlemen. There are still child sacrifices, there are still human sacrifices, maybe not right here in Pittsburgh, but we don't know. We're talking about Satan worshipers. And do you realize I don't know if you know this the portal for the demonic is the most open on that day than any other day of the year, and one of the things you will recognize from October 31st to December is one of the greatest times where you see unexplained deaths that come out of nowhere. There are all sorts of incantations and sorcery and things that are done, the calling forth of the dead dealing in the demonic realm. All of those things happen on that night.
Speaker 1:And what does the devil do? As always, he always disguises it with fun, with candy, with oh, it's just a scary something, but they have things like and starting October 1st, they have like 30 days of fright. Every day there's horror stories and all that. Think about it. It's all about. Think about this, ladies and gentlemen. It's all about evil. That's all it is. It's fear, it's evil, it's death, it's zombies, ghosts, jason, friday, the 13th Chainsaw Massacre. I mean you go on, chucky. I mean everything that the devil promotes and glorifies. We celebrate it for 30 plus days. So, ladies and gentlemen, that's why we need you to come on out and be a part of this. It'll really be a blessing to you. Like I said, he's going to be doing some great things. Anything new coming up in the college campus I know you're out there. Have you ever thought about doing something like Charlie Kirk did?
Speaker 2:You know a thousand percent and I actually I wanted that outreach. That's going to be a big part of our outreach moving forward right.
Speaker 2:Is starting this dialogue and starting these conversations. So right now we're just getting them in from the north, south, east and the west and seeing who's there to really link arms with this call right. It's funny you mentioned that because I'm actually getting the equipment together and everything right now to start this and to start these conversations where I am. So I mean, I'm as ready as I ever have been and I know that there are a lot of people in my situation and in my parallel right now that feel the exact same way. So I think that this is just something that's started. That's very new, and we're going to keep seeing people saved. Whether I'm at CCAC, whether I'm at Oakland, we're going to see God do his thing in the way that he desires, because this is so much bigger than what we've been looking for as believers. God, I believe, is even trying to prepare and to ready up his generation I'll even go as far to say a Joshua generation of saints right now on these college campuses amen.
Speaker 1:I might even up you on that. I might call this generation. See, my generation. There was called the Joshua generation.
Speaker 1:The reason why I'd that, I'd say we're the Daniel generation and I agree with you. I see what you're saying about going in and I think it's part of it, but I also think we are in almost like an exilic time. Daniel was alive during the exile. You know they were solely the captivity, where basically what Daniel represents is that Christianity is not dominant anymore. It doesn't mean there's not going to be a revival. It doesn't mean that God, that it doesn't mean God's lost anything. It means that there's now, at one point, like when my dad's generation and my generation I was a generation X guy, you know you saw Christianity starting to be dwindling, Matter of fact, I feel, between my dad's generation and generation X, and then you got into, uh, between my dad's generation and Generation X, and then you got into what was it? Gen Z and Gen Y? And although the X was, I think, the bridge that brought us to where we were, it was our generation that I saw the change from. Everybody was really focused on God and I saw my generation.
Speaker 1:A lot of people were raised in church, walked in church. Many of them aren't serving God today and it was like that generation. Something got missed. You know, x is a missing variable. Whenever you have, x equals something's missing there. There was something that got missed there, which I believe is the gospel, and that's why I've always called myself the child of two fathers.
Speaker 1:What I mean by that? I am old enough to remember the old ways, young enough to remember where we lost our way and still able to bridge the gap between your generation and to bring the two together. I always felt that the Generation X was called to be the ligament to bring the two together. Because you didn't get raped, you came into what we're in now. I remember how it was. I remember we're the only generation that it was like you were in church seven days a week type thing. You know what I mean. But then it slowly began to dwindle until we got to where we are now, and it was my generation and us growing up.
Speaker 1:I remember all of my friends. We were all in church and then, as we got older, all of them fell off. They all in church. And then, as we got older, all of them fell off. They all fell off, and I was one of the few that still stayed with it and I believe now God wants to bridge those two back together. But I always think about you with that because I was like man, before anybody even heard of what happened with Charlie Kirk and all of that, you were already out there, you already had a mission to do that and I was thinking man, you know I'm connected A lot of people don't realize this, but I'm connected with TPUSA and there's a chapter here. There's people that we've worked with and brought pastors together, not for college stuff but for pastors, and because part of his mission as well was getting pastors to stand up for what was right. You know standing up and you know be bold. I don't need none of that.
Speaker 1:I mean I already got that in me but I'm running with people that want to do that.
Speaker 1:But I can get connected with college people to with TPSA, with you, to get them connected, see what they might be able to do to help you. Because I believe in your mission and the ministry God's given you. I believe in what you're doing. You're raising up people. You're out there making an impact. You're preaching the gospel. You're willing to stand. You're out there making an impact. You're preaching the gospel. You're willing to stand. You're out there beating down the corridors of the doomed in the dam to bring the loss to Jesus Christ. I'm proud of you for what you're doing. Make a stand, because I think this is one of the hardest generations to make a stand.
Speaker 1:Other generations, Christianity wasn't as frowned upon. Now. I mean you see the first Christian martyr in the West, now Western civilization and now we're seeing it hit soil. I mean there was something. It's not a coincidence that it was called a turning point, that he was called turning point, it's not a coincidence. Something has changed. You mentioned the word harbinger earlier. Something has shifted in the world today and I believe that it's almost like there's a couple of things. There was, there was a post 9-11 in a pre-9-11 world. There's a post pandemic in a pre-pandemic world. I think there's going to be a post this charlie kirk martyrdom and a pre and we are now in post of that and um, I think what we're about to see is it's a change of the time, something supernaturally has shifted in the spiritual and I believe that it's also going to give. Even as I'm sitting here talking to you, it's going to give a push, a huge push into the return of Jesus Christ. I think we're a lot closer than we've ever been before. So any closing thoughts, man.
Speaker 2:No, I just I mean those words. I want to say thank you. You know and so much of, if not all, you know, what God's been able to do has been just being a product and a son of your ministry and you know what you've invested into me and to the others around me.
Speaker 2:You know, and that's young ministers, to the young people in campus ministries get connected and be rooted to a house right, you will magnify and spread the soil that you grow up in, and so much that I have is because of you and your brothers and your family investing into me and showing the way, and I'll keep using these words and people will hear me use them time and time again a culture and a heritage of serving God, and that's what I want to implement, not just for myself, but for anyone I come across and anyone who will hear me, right.
Speaker 2:Um, so I just I'll continue to be in prayer, um, you know, for the, for the nations and for my backyard, which which consists of these college campuses.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm excited, man, I'm gonna have to get out college discussions and I love what he did. When he asked me, he started off. I don't even know how he started. He started off and said ask me anything. Then it turned into prove me wrong and I always felt that he is a modern day Elijah. When he's up on the mountain. He said all right, you're saying Baal's God, I'm saying my God is God. Let's come together and have a debate.
Speaker 1:When Stephen was stoned, it was in the middle of a debate in the square and they were going back and forth about that. All he did was debate. It's a sad thing when you think about that. All he did was debate, whether you agree disagree. Even Al Sharpton stood up and said hey, I may not agree with everything. As a matter of fact, he said Charlie Kirk called me out about things I was doing wrong, but he said that man did not deserve to die and he did it. But his blood was shed, unfortunately, and I believe that we're going to begin to see a turning point.
Speaker 1:So listen, all of you young people out there, get connected to this guy. If you see him out on campus, get connected with him. He's really standing up for the faith. We need more men of God that are willing to go out there unashamedly, unreservedly, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ Because, remember this, the heart of the human problem is the problem with the human heart, and the mission of the Great Commission is to get the gospel of Jesus Christ in the dying heart of humanity. That's the only thing you change. I wish I had more time with you, but you can't legislate racism. You can't legislate it. That's why I don't want to get into this now.
Speaker 1:And all that stuff. Man, I'll have to have you back. We'll talk more about that, because a lot of people don't understand that you can't legislate any of that. It's racism, it's hatred. All those things Can control. They talk about gun control. I mean, I believe having rules and all that stuff for guns, but you can't legislate murder.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean? You need the gospel of Jesus Christ. The only thing that can help us, ladies and gentlemen, is the gospel of our Lord and Savior, jesus Christ. If that gets in the heart of men and women, it can change anything. It changes you, the gospel, changes your nature, and that's the only thing that can help America and help us. So let's stand strong, keep doing what you're doing. Brother, it's great to have you on Dimensions. Ladies and gentlemen, don't forget like, subscribe, follow, share. I apologize for any technical difficulties we had up front. Don't get to download the podcast wherever podcasts are being held, and be willing to come back tomorrow night 8.30 pm. Your boy will be back here for another episode at Dimensions. I'll see you on the next level, thank you.
