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How do you center the gospel in your mentor relationship? In today's episode you'll hear from Kilton McCracken Sr., the Director of Mentoring at Gospel Village, a branch of The Mentoring Alliance in Tyler, TX.
Kilton helps lays out a vision for centering the Gospel in your mentoring relationship, and practical ways to talk about the good news with children.
Show Notes
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WELCOME
You Can Mentor is a podcast about the power of building relationships. Every episode will help you overcome common mentoring obstacles and give you the confidence you need to invest in the lives of others.
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SHOW NOTES
Kilton McCracken Sr. | kmccracken@thementoringalliance.com
Director of Mentoring at Gospel Village (The Mentoring Alliance in Tyler, TX)
Live in Tyler, TX? Apply to become a mentor at gospelvillage.com
Four Step Gospel-sharing Method
- God. God is the creator of all things (Gen. 1:1). He is perfectly holy, worthy of all worship, and will punish sin (1 John 1:5, Rev. 4:11, Rom. 2:5-8). Everything that is wrong, he will put to rights.
- Man. All people, though created good, have become sinful by nature (Gen. 1:26-28, Ps. 51:5, Rom. 3:23, Eph. 2:1-3). We are far from God, hostile to God, and deserving of judgment.
- Christ. Jesus Christ, who is fully God and fully man, lived a sinless life, died on the cross to bear God’s judgment in the place of all who would believe in him, and rose from the grave in order to give his people eternal life (John 1:1, 1 Tim. 2:5, Heb. 7:26, Rom. 3:21-26, 2 Cor. 5:21, 1 Cor. 15:20-22).
- Response. God calls everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and trust in Christ in order to be saved (Mark 1:15, Acts 20:21, Rom. 10:9-10). For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Gospel-sharing Practicals
- The longer you wait in a relationship, the harder it becomes to share the gospel
- If you share the gospel early, you can center the relationship around it easily
- Use every day examples: receiving a bad grade & missing the mark (sin), etc.
- The greatest thing you bring into your mentor relationship is your relationship with Jesus Christ
- View your mentoring relationship through the lens of Christian discipleship.
- "We want our mentees to become productive Christians."
- Learn your mentee's culture and contextualize the gospel for them where they live.
- When Paul preached to Greeks he talked about greek philosophy and the stars, intellectually-minded
- When Paul preached to the Hebrews he spoke about Abraham and the OT fathers, historical OT oriented
- Try to find something that your mentee is interested in, and relate it to the Gospel
- Use language your mentee is comfortable with. Jesus used parables to communicate.
- Brainstorm/Plan out a personal illustration (use sports, food, fortnite, etc.)
- Connect your illustration to God as judge, our sin nature, or the love of Jesus on the cross
- Show them simply how sin is connected to their experiences
- The Gospel is GOOD NEWS. Proclaim God's victory over your mentee's life
- Recognize the privilege you have in sharing the good news with your mentee
Bible Devotions with Kids
- The Bible is a story. Connect everything to the bigger story (JESUS).
- Our job is to share it. Pass the ball to God.
- God is the master of taking what we give and using it for his purposes.
- Don't put too much emphasis on how well you share it.
- Story of Noah and the Flood. "Every time you see rain, God's making a promise to you with the rainbow."
- Help them live what they read.
- Don't bog yourself down in trying to articulate every detail.
- Share it (read) and show it (help them recognize the story in lived experiences).
Gospel-sharing Questions
- What do you think this means?
- What does it say about God?
- What does it say about Us?
- Can you share the story we just read?
Creators and Guests
What is You Can Mentor: A Christian Youth Mentoring Podcast?
You Can Mentor is a network that equips and encourages mentors and mentoring leaders through resources and relationships to love God, love others, and make disciples in their own community. We want to see Christian mentors thrive.
We want to hear from you! Send any mentoring questions to hello@youcanmentor.com, and we'll answer them on our podcast. We want to help you become the best possible mentor you can be. Also, if you are a mentoring organization, church, or non-profit, connect with us to join our mentoring network or to be spotlighted on our show.
Please find out more at www.youcanmentor.com or find us on social media. You will find more resources on our website to help equip and encourage mentors. We have downloadable resources, cohort opportunities, and an opportunity to build relationships with other Christian mentoring leaders.
You can mentor is a podcast about the power of building relationships with kids from hard places in the name of Jesus. Every episode will help you overcome common mentoring obstacles and give you the confidence you need to invest in the lives of others you can mentor.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, for being on the podcast today. It's so great to to see you. I know I visited you and Tyler, what was that mean? A couple months ago?
Speaker 3:Couple months ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It was great.
Speaker 3:You and the crew came down.
Speaker 2:Come on, man. Zach Garza with the 6 foot 8.
Speaker 3:Yes. I started to get a basketball, man, and see what he see what he had.
Speaker 2:We need to make that happen. It'd be amazing to see that go down because I know you were talking some game.
Speaker 3:It would be. I would I would love it. I wouldn't back down from the challenge with David and Goliath, but I would, get my smooth stone and see if I can make it happen.
Speaker 2:Okay. We'll we'll make a Facebook event so our listeners can can watch Facebook live kilton versus Garza. Well, for our listeners, I wanna let let them know a little bit about you. Kilton is a pastor of Fredonia Baptist Church in Kilgore, and you serve also as the director of gospel village. Can you tell us more about Gospel Village Mentoring Alliance if anyone's unfamiliar with what you're doing in Tyler?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So the Mentoring Alliance is our umbrella organization. And under the Mentoring Alliance, we have 3 programs, the Boys and Girls Clubs of East Texas, Rose City Summer Camps, and Gospel Village. And the design is is to where the kids will be impacted all throughout the year. So that's school program during the summertime.
Speaker 3:But the best program, in my opinion, is the gospel village program, and that's where mentors have the freedom to, mentor their kids during the school year and in between the school year. And it look they could pick them up from school. They can get them in the summertime. The activities are limitless. And so those three programs work together to impact kids and families, in Tyler, in White House, in in Bullard as well.
Speaker 3:And so we're excited to just continue to, you know, grow that, expand it, and and be a part of what God is doing in Tyler.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's awesome, man. Well, if anyone is in the greater Tyler area and is looking to get into mentoring, you need to connect with Kelton McCracken right now. So you need to email him right now. Check the show notes, email this guy before you even listen to this.
Speaker 2:This podcast is for mentors who are building relationships with kids from hard places. And so maybe maybe that's a difficult life situation they're coming from. Maybe they have a deficit of positive influences in their life or a lack of opportunity or access to those resources in their community. And we wanna equip mentors who are standing in that gap and meeting relational needs. And as followers of Jesus, we want to proclaim the gospel and embody Christ to our mentees in practical ways.
Speaker 2:And so I wanted to have you on the podcast as a pastor, but also as a leader in the mentoring sphere to answer the question, how do I share the gospel with my mentee? That is a consistent question that comes up. How do I do this? And and so when we talk about evangelism, that's usually a negative that there's a negative stigma when it comes to sharing the gospel. On one side, there's this fear of imposing our views upon someone, and whether we'll be rejected or received, what once we step out and share.
Speaker 2:And then there's the other side of, like, I feel called to this. I wanna make disciples. I want to teach people to obey Jesus. I want people to understand what Jesus has done, but I don't know how to have that conversation. I don't know how to lead things into that.
Speaker 2:And so I wanna ask the question, why why do we feel that way about sharing the gospel?
Speaker 3:I I think it's because actually, I just went through evangelism training with Mark Middleburg. He came to Tyler. And one of the things that he was saying, sharing the gospel is just it's uncomfortable, not just with kids, but with anybody. We just we we veer away from it because, because of how we could be viewed. Sometimes, we don't trust in the power of it.
Speaker 3:And sometimes, we think that we need to be able to do it like somebody else did it. And so, we we become Moses in a sense. I can't go and speak to your people because I have this speech impediment. So we start making up all these excuses of of why we shouldn't do it. And what happens is the longer you wait, the harder it's gonna get.
Speaker 3:Wow. And and so I've learned just as a Christian man, the earlier you share it, the better off you'll be. Mhmm. Now I'm not saying you say, hello. How you doing?
Speaker 3:Hey. Jesus is the Son of God. But you don't need to wait. Go ahead and get it off your shoulders. And and that way, the relationship will begin to be centered around the gospel.
Speaker 3:Really good. You don't wanna center mentoring around activities. You know, those things are great and you need to do those, but the relationship needs to be centered around the gospel. And so just the advice that I would give to any mentor is to share it early and share it often. Use use your everyday world around you to share it.
Speaker 3:If you see something happen, you know, figure out use your use your mind and figure out how can I tie this back to the gospel? If you listen to different people, they have these different analogies, all these examples, and that's good. But get your own. Find find the best way that you can share it. It.
Speaker 3:And you may not be able to you may not get a response from your kid. You may not even get, completely through what you wanted to share. But at least start. Yeah. Start the conversation.
Speaker 3:You know, you can do something as simple as, you know, do you believe in God? You know? Yeah. And it they they, you know, most people are gonna say yes. This is how I do it.
Speaker 3:I I break it up into 4 segments most of the time. Okay. It's God. I talk about God first. Then I talk about and how God is the ultimate judge.
Speaker 3:And then I go to man and how man has messed up and fallen. And then there's Jesus Christ who came in to supplement that falling and that sin. And the 4th one is, now, how do you receive that? What is your response to that? So, you could even break that up into 4 different dates with your mentor.
Speaker 3:Like, there's ways to there's ways to do it. And I think a lot of time, we hear these wonderful stories of I shared the gospel and they believed, and now they're passing a church in Uganda. And we look for these these wonderful endings because we we see it glamorized on TV. I mean, I just saw the movie Overcomer. And, Priscilla Shire, she was the principal at that school, and she shared the gospel with little girl one time.
Speaker 3:Little girl, I mean, just went on fire for the Lord. But the reality is that don't happen like that all the time. Yeah. It it doesn't and so we're not responsible for the response of the kid. We're responsible to share it.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And that's easy. That's good. That's that's all we have to do is share it. We share it, and then it's like, God, here you go.
Speaker 3:Your turn to shoot now because I've I've done what you. I've known what you told me to do. You know? And so I just think it's you have to share it early and you have to share it often because the longer you wait, the harder it becomes. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Be because you begin to doubt yourself. You begin to doubt the power of it. But share it early. Use use everyday examples. They they make a bad grade.
Speaker 3:You know? Say, hey. I wanna help you, you know, bring this grade up. And that's Mhmm. You know, that's kind of what how life is, man.
Speaker 3:When we're born, we're born as failures with bad grades.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:Jesus Christ, he died to help us, you know, to achieve what he wants us to achieve. And so you can use everyday examples to to share the gospel with your kid. Take out the Christian cliches, because they're not gonna understand it, you know, but be practical with them. Yeah. And and, you know, I think I think it works.
Speaker 2:And it it's it's kinda like we feel like we have to be professionals. There's this hesitation if if we don't communicate everything theologically correct That we've set this kid up for destruction and, and it, it just leads you into this place where you're just like, you don't share anything. And for our, for our kids or even for anyone, is anyone going to get to heaven without having some theological misunderstanding? And I feel like there are some basic truths, like what you just kinda said of the the four things, like God loves you, you've messed up, Jesus came to pay for your sins, and he wants you to respond to that love. What, what are you gonna do about it?
Speaker 2:And I think that's really good, man. And we don't have to make it complicated. I like your encouragement of setting the tone for the relationship to be centered around the gospel. How do you like, how practically are your mentors applying that?
Speaker 3:So we have we have 5 priority outcomes in our program. That's Ferocity for Boys and Girls Club and for Gospel Village. And so we one of our priority outcomes is vibrant faith. And so we always, we always tell our mentors to strive for these 5 priority outcomes. But while when we're training them, we tell them specifically that the greatest thing that you bring to this relationship is your relationship with Christ.
Speaker 3:Yeah. That your relationship with Christ is the greatest thing that you're bringing. Not your accessibility, to, to be able to go here and there, not your connections in the city. The greatest thing that you can bring to the relationship is your relationship with Jesus Christ. And so, that we want the whole relationship to center around that, the, that that arena of this is what we're in here for.
Speaker 3:The ultimate thing is for us to mentor you through a Christian discipleship, to mentor you not to just become a more productive citizen in the community, though that's a part of it. But you can become productive and still go to hell. We want you to be a productive Christian in the community. And that's where change, that's where change happens. We can sit around and complain about the next generation, what they're not doing.
Speaker 3:Change happens when we get off our pews, get into the community, and start mentoring kids that are not at our church and are not at our home. And that's what, generally, that's what most Christians are doing. We are we're taking care of business at home. We're taking care of business at church. And we're waving at everybody else, and saying, man, they need to do better when we should be seeking the good of the city because in that good, we'll find our own good.
Speaker 3:Good. And that's that's scripture. You know? Yeah. So, we can make a difference.
Speaker 2:In mentoring, there's a generational gap. Like, we're designed to pour into the next generation. But there there are obvious differences between the generations nowadays, like, with technology and the way culture's going. And so as a pastor, you I mean, you preach, you're probably looking at the room, seeing what the people are experiencing, how the culture's moving and shifting their own views. Like, you see the sheep and you you wanna help them see the good shepherd.
Speaker 2:But in order to do that, you speak to the issues through the lens of God's word. Does does a mentor have to take on that same mentality and become acquainted with the language, the culture, the experiences of kids in today's culture in order to be effective in sharing the gospel?
Speaker 3:No question. Definitely. If if you're gonna be effective, you must be able to cross the tracks in a sense, and and come to somebody else's culture, come to somebody else's level. And this is much bigger than, just a different race because because the way that my mentees are growing up, is totally different. Not totally different, but is a little different than how I grew up.
Speaker 3:And so you when it comes to mentoring, if you we always tell our mentors, if they live, for example, in South Tyler and they mentor a kid in North Tyler, we say, hey. Don't just come get them and bring them back to South Tyler. When you come get them, go to the park that's in North North Tyler. Because what's gonna happen is, if you if you only come and take, come and take, you've become their savior. Wow.
Speaker 3:And I don't know nobody that's walked on water before. So you're not you're not that we don't want that savior mentality. And so, we say, hey, go don't just take them to your church. How about you flip the game a little bit and go to their church?
Speaker 2:Come on.
Speaker 3:And what happens is transformation begins to happen. That's why one of the things that we always talk about at Gospel Village is we're making mutually transforming relationships.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:Because if you go into the relationship and really find out who these people are, you're gonna be changed as well. You're, you're gonna see you're gonna be able to look through life through a different lens. And, you know, as I tell mentors all the time, sometimes kids do start life one leg behind. I'm a perfect example. When I started after 18, I I wouldn't I wouldn't prepare for corporate America.
Speaker 3:And and I had to learn that stuff on my own, you know, through also through mentors. But
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And so, pour back into these kids what you what you already have and what you've learned that you you have to be able to come to their level in a sense. Yeah. You know, when when Paul would preach to Greeks, he talked about philosophy and the stars and and and things like that because they were enthused with, like, information and Yeah. But when he went to the Hebrews, he said, now the God of your father, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, like, he would make his messages relatable to who he was talking to. There's no reason to go talk, you know, to the to the Hebrews about, Greek philosophy because they they didn't know it.
Speaker 3:You know? And so you have to become those individuals to a certain extent. You have to, because if not, you're gonna be, you're always gonna be this other person who doesn't really know what's going on.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Wow. That's so good, man. Contextualizing the gospel for our kids is is gonna look different in every relationship. But, but I love what you said of as a mentor, we got across the tracks when it comes to having conversations with kids in the Bible, like reading, reading the Bible with kids.
Speaker 2:How how do we help our kids not just know the right answer? And we we make Bible time into this trivia time. How do we translate that into them experiencing the answer and not just reciting the answer?
Speaker 3:I I think one of the things that I do with my own 2 kids is and when it comes to the Bible, so we do we do our devotion to generally, we do it every day. Unless a revival's going on, we get home late, then we can't do it. But, generally, we do it every day. And what I try to do is make sure they know that this is a ongoing story.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:Because if if it's not a story, then it's hard to put the pieces together in an individual, you know, in an individual story. Like, if you're reading, you know, if you're reading the the Adam and Eve story, if you don't connect that with the big story, it it doesn't really make sense. And so I just say, I try to be very practical, when I'm reading. But I also know, too, that no matter how will I explain it, again, you my job is to share it.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And then I pass the ball to God. And I think sometimes we get caught up on, if I don't share it well Mhmm. They're not gonna get it. And God knows how He takes, He can take what we do and and I mean, He's a master at doing that. He he takes those things, those broken areas, even if we don't share it like we think we should share.
Speaker 3:We put too much emphasis on how it's shared and the nuances of how it's shared versus just hush and share it. Mhmm. You know, we we put too much in there. My kids are 6 and 3. So you know when I'm reading to them, most of the time, if it's a question, the most of the answer is, it's Jesus.
Speaker 3:But but also, we're right now, we're reading through the storybook Bible. And, we are right around the time I believe it's right after, right after Noah. You know? And so, it's practical stuff. Like, when I talk about the rainbow, I say, this is a promise that God makes to us, that he's not gonna flood the earth, you know, again by rain.
Speaker 3:And so I just practically tell my son, you know, because he can understand a little bit better. Every time you see it rain, God's making a promise to you when you see that rainbow that comes afterwards that no matter how much it rains in Tyler, Texas Wow. It is not gonna flood like it did during Noah's day. You know? And so making that now you're living what you've read.
Speaker 3:Because when you see that rain coming down, you know as much you know, because my little girl, sometimes she don't like hearing the rain come down because she's 3. And and so now I'm teaching them that, hey. This is a story, but this is how you live it. Yeah. This rain gonna stop one it's gonna stop one day.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. It it's in in I mean, it's going to stop. It's not gonna so just trying to be more practical Mhmm. In it, taking it from the the words off the pages and trying to apply it. You know?
Speaker 3:And then there's times where I share stuff. You know, I mean, I can imagine if if that storybook Bible had, like, the details of Abraham's sacrifice and Isaac. You know, that's gonna be kinda hard to explain. KJ, you would've been on the altar. You know, like, that's and and so I'm not gonna bog myself down with trying to articulate every little detail if they don't understand it, but I am gonna make sure I share what I know to my best ability.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And, God, you got it now. I mean, it's it's it's up to you.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Our responsibility is to help our kids see the truth of the scripture in reality in their everyday life and not just be able to answer a question, but actually be able to recognize and have, like, the vision to see how the kingdom of God works and see Jesus in everyday life. And I think that that's that's really important. And then secondly, my responsibility is to share it, that, that sometimes we become more dependent on ourselves and our own ability rather than God's responsibility to speak to the child. We insert ourselves in in between thinking that it's it's my own eloquent.
Speaker 2:It's my own wisdom that's gonna bring this thing through rather than, no, God can use it.
Speaker 3:Yep. Yeah. Sometimes we limit him. I mean, there's a theologian that said, one of the best ways to describe who God is is to just look at his name, God. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean, he he can do all things. I mean, he we just need to share. And once we share it, you know, let God do the do the work behind that, you know.
Speaker 2:Well, and and I think children have a natural disposition to be more curious. Like, what questions do you ask to kinda engage their imagination?
Speaker 3:So one of the things that I I like doing is just basically asking them what did they hear me say? What what did, you know, what we just talked about? What what do you think that means, to yourself? And I try to listen, you know, when they respond, to see if I can help them go a little bit deeper in it. Or, you know, if I can say, hey, that's that that's good.
Speaker 3:And so, I just try to listen to what did you hear, and then I try to build off of that. Because if if I don't know what they've heard, then I'm just I'm just talking and it's not really making any sense to them. And so, again, you are sharing it with a kid.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And so, they're they're not gonna be able to write a dissertation on what they just heard. They may have pieces all over here and, you know, I mean, just the basics of God is the father of Jesus. Mhmm. You know, those basic things and try to build a a foundation. And as they grow older, you know, then we should go go a little deeper as they grow.
Speaker 3:You know? And and so, you know, you you wanna every relationship is different. And you wanna be able to assess, you know, where is my kid, where is he at? If you, if it's hard for him to understand physical and natural things, then you know it's gonna be hard for him to understand spiritual things. I mean, Jesus even talked about it in Scripture.
Speaker 3:So, you gotta know, what to share and and know when to also, cut it off as well and and go on to to something else. So
Speaker 2:Yeah. The way we ask questions can really help them to internalize the story of the scripture, which if like with your son, like the story of the the flood and the rainbow, that story is ingrained in him now. And so maybe a maybe a good question to ask is, like, could you repeat the story? How have you equipped your mentors in sharing the gospel with their mentees? What what do those conversations look like?
Speaker 2:Because I I want our listeners to walk away with any practicals that you shared with your own mentors. What does that process look like with a guy walking in the door says, I want a mentor, but I need help.
Speaker 3:So if if a mentor, you know, calls us, an existing mentor calls us and says, hey, I I would like to know some practical ways of of sharing the gospel with my mentee. I I think I would center that conversation around, try to find some physical examples that you can naturally see. Mhmm. And when you get around that physical thing or that conversation comes up, use that to help them understand the gospel. The only way you're gonna be able to do it with a kid that's in a sense of strength to your kid that's not in your house is you're gonna have to you're gonna have to use language that they're used to.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And that's why, I mean, the greatest preacher ever did it, Jesus, he used parables. He said as ambassador to Christ, we we gotta use parables as well. We gotta take a spiritual thought, and try our best to use it in a natural example. And so I would I would tell a mentor, start brainstorming.
Speaker 3:You know, plan it. Plan it out. You know, don't don't freestyle, plan it out. Like, think of, you know, like the the Chick Fil A deal. Think about that.
Speaker 3:Everybody knows about the Chick Fil A and the Popeye's battle right now. Everybody knows about that. And so even a even a probably even a 4th or 5th grader probably knows about it. Find something. You know, I'm a basketball fan.
Speaker 3:And so one thing I do with my mentees, I I use basketball a lot and because he, you know, a mentee, they both like basketball. And, just try to show them, man, sometime when you shoot it, you're gonna miss, man. You're you're gonna you're gonna miss, you're gonna miss that shot and that's that's similar to life. We we're born bricking. We we are born not able to shoot.
Speaker 3:And and so that gives the the the opponent a greater chance to win the game when you're when we're missing shots. But man, thank God that we have we have Jesus Christ who, can in a sense erase those missed shots. Yeah. And so you just have to you gotta come to their level. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Whatever they like the most, hook that up with the gospel some kinda way. Find out what they like the most. If they if it's Fortnite, you know, which I've never played Fortnite, but I you know, the kids love it. So if it's Fortnite, find a way to link. You know, find out some Google some details.
Speaker 3:We have too many resources, at our fingertips to not be, experts at sharing Yeah. The gospel. We have too much at our fingertips. And so, find a way, whatever they like the most, whatever their favorite thing is. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Find a way to link that up.
Speaker 2:That gives you so much room to connect current events and the things going on that in their life to one of those four points of, I mean, like school shootings. That's, that's something that you can directly connect to.
Speaker 3:We're born with a sin nature.
Speaker 2:That's a conversation that I think is helpful for our kids to connect to a spiritual component of our need of a savior, our need for things to be put to right.
Speaker 3:And yep. And a lot of times what you have is we try to win people over to Christ by just telling them that God's love he God loves them. And that's true. Mhmm. But true conversion happens when we realize how messed up we are.
Speaker 3:If you just God loves you and and you come, that you're not dealing with your sin. He loves us, but he also hates sin. And so we have to deal with that. And that's why that second part is important. We are we're messed up.
Speaker 3:We're sinners. We want to do everything that he tells us not to do. And so we have to deal with that element of you are a handsome little child or you're a pretty little girl. I tell my kids, KJ, you are a handsome guy. Dude, you got you're we we are we're messed up, man.
Speaker 3:We need Christ so bad, because we cannot help ourselves.
Speaker 2:That's so good. And I think even particularly for our kids who come from hard places, like it is good to connect, their understanding of sin with their experience and that the, the world is broken. That not only they are broken, but things have been done to them because of sin, that Jesus has come and he's died for those things that happened to them. And that the things that, that ultimately God as a judge is a very good thing. It's a good thing that God is going to judge sin.
Speaker 2:And and for for our kids to be able to understand that that Jesus is the hero, we're not the hero, and and that the the gospel is really good news.
Speaker 3:It is the good news. You know, the the term gospel is it derives from when the messenger would come back and let the the people know that they won the war. Mhmm. That was the best news that they could receive at that moment. Like, I have good news that the war is over.
Speaker 3:We won, And that's what the gospel is. That war God is not fighting Satan right now in a long battle. It's not no. That that battle is over. Wow.
Speaker 3:That we already have the victory. Jesus died. He rose from the grave, and now we're we're fighting from victory in a sense. This is this is a won. This is a fixed fight, but we have to trust and put our complete trust in the victor.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And and and that's, you know, that's what we have to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That changes the way I I'm getting emotional because it change it changes the way you look at your responsibility to share the gospel is that I am proclaiming victory over this kid's life. I'm I'm coming to show him, you know what? That the the world is broken, you're broken, but Jesus loves you and he has died to put things to right and that that that is a privilege to bring this the pronouncement of victory.
Speaker 3:You are bringing that news to to a person who thought that the battle maybe was being lost. Yeah. They didn't really know the battle existed. So it's good news for either either person. It's it's it's the greatest news that they could ever hear.
Speaker 3:Man, we are no longer fighting in a battle. It's it's it's over. It's won. We the the battle is won, and Jesus Christ is the one. That's why he come back riding on that white horse.
Speaker 3:It's like he is the the superhero in this story. Yep.
Speaker 2:Amen. So good to have you on the podcast, Pastor Kilton. Man, how can people connect with you, Gospel Village, if they wanna mentor with you guys?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So you can go to gospelvillage.com, and on the website, you will see at the bottom where, you can apply to be a mentor. And for for any reason, if a parent is listening, they can also apply to get their kid a mentee on that same website, gospelvillage.com. And, also, my email address is kmccracken, k mccracken at the mentoringalliance.com. Mentoring, m e n t o r I n g.
Speaker 3:And so reach out to me, because, you tell me you're ready. I'm I'm very aggressive. I'll show up to your house, and get you get you through the system because we have plenty of kids who are always single parent kids who need, need some assistance.
Speaker 2:It's awesome, man. Mentoring will change a kid's lives, so definitely wanna encourage you. If you're in the Tyler area, connect with Kilton, and he'll get you mentoring and sharing the gospel, keeping the gospel at the center. So we'll leave Kelton's information in the show notes for you so you can connect with him and, just thank you so much for being on the podcast.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir. Thank you so much. And if you got anything for me, if I can help out any way, man, just, you got my number, give me a call.