By Faith - The Story of CRISTA Ministries

Though Mike Martin’s story here on earth reached its conclusion in the last episode, the story of CRISTA is far from over—in fact, it's still being told today. This final episode of By Faith will outline how King’s Garden grew into CRISTA, transforming thousands of lives for Christ along the way. Current executives and staff of the ministry will tell this story, recounting how the Martin family inspired them to live lives of complete surrender and faith to whatever God has in store.

Listeners will discover all that CRISTA is doing both locally and internationally today, and learn how they too can partner with the ministry to be part of the work God first started when he called a young man to leave a life of comfort and embark on an adventure that not only changed his own life, but the lives of thousands. Mike Martin is living proof that Jesus can truly change everything—no matter who you are, where you’ve come from, or where you’ve been—if only we’re willing and available, just like Mike was all those years ago.

Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4dRHYcI

By 1958, the Martin’s 10-year lease on King’s Garden was up for renewal and had to be approved by the tuberculosis board and city officials. In this penultimate episode of BY FAITH, the miraculous story of how God fulfilled His Jeremiah 32 promise to give Mike the city will be recounted—including details like the miraculous clerical error that gave Mike’s team the ability to purchase the property, how the Martins managed to acquire $100,001 in cash in the span of a week, and the dissolution of the lease on Mike’s birthday, of all days. The stories in this episode are a true testament to how the God of the Old Testament heroes can still shut the mouths of lions today, even when those lions are more likely to be found in public property hearings than in a pit with a prophet.

In 1948 God promised Mike he would go into full-time ministry for 10 years, and in 1958 He fulfilled that promise with the purchase of King’s Garden. Though this episode recounts that epic conclusion and sets the stage for all that’s to come with CRISTA, “Shutting the Mouths of Lions” will also tell the story of the final miracle in Mike’s life: his entrance into the Kingdom. A few years after the purchase of King’s Garden, Mike and Viv embarked on a cross-country ministry trip. Before the trip even began, Viv had a premonition something would go wrong, and all along their route Mike’s health continued to worsen. Eventually the couple would end up in a Detroit hospital, Mike suffering from a severe heart attack coupled with pneumonia. In her own words, Viv tells the story of how Mike knew it was his time to go be with the Lord, describing his dream about Heaven and how God was calling him home. Mike passed away in his sleep the day after he told Viv about the dream, and the Martin family, along with the CRISTA family around the world, grieved the loss of this humble servant leader. 

Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3SKzZ96

As CRISTA continues to grow and expand, their family of ministries starts to take shape. Episode 5 will tell a series of stories illustrating how different parts of the ministry began, from a rest home for the elderly where seniors heard about Jesus—some for the very first time—to the oneus for King’s Schools in the spring of 1950. Wondering how CRISTA got to be what it is today? The Martins take us back to the early days here, showing exactly how each member of this family of ministries got its start, and, like countless other aspects of the BY FAITH story, God’s hand in every area. A few friends of the ministry were there as CRISTA began to expand into what it is today. Find out more about CRISTA Ministries by visiting crista.org

Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4dhTXAx

By August of 1948, the Martins were needing a larger space for their growing King’s Teens ministry. Purchasing a farm was being considered, that is until a friend told them about Firland, the former tuberculosis sanatorium, on the outskirts of the city. After driving out and walking the property, Mike felt God tell him that this was the place He had set aside for King’s Teens. Bringing to mind verses 26-28 from Jeremiah chapter 32, God told Mike, “behold I give you this city,” and the location of what would eventually be called King’s Garden was realized. A lot of work needed to happen before that vision would become a reality, though.

This episode marks a turning point in the BY FAITH story, as Mike and his team appeal to those in authority to lease the massive sanitorium property for $1 a year and work to transform it from a hospital for the sick to a respite for spiritual healing. All throughout the months it took to put King’s Garden into living and working order, God continued to show up for the Martins and their staff—taking the ordinary and making it miraculous (kind of like He did with some loaves of bread and a few fish) as this group low on supplies, money, and people continually saw each increase in ways only God could do.

Find out more about CRISTA Ministries by visiting crista.org

Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3Yoedvo

This third episode of BY FAITH will recount the many miracles Mike and his family witnessed during those early years of trusting God and living by faith—from Mike’s physical healing and protection to the ways God stepped in to support the ministry both financially and through individuals in the community.

Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3LngaAL

Find out more about CRISTA Ministries by visiting crista.org

What began as their daughter’s friend needing a safe place to live for a few weeks turned into a ministry that has transformed thousands (and counting!) of lives for Christ. BY FAITH’s second episode will tell the story of CRISTA’s beginnings as King’s Teens, a ministry for wayward teenagers, that the Martins started after taking in their daughter Joyce’s friend, Joanne, and seeing how living in the stable home centered on the Gospel forever changed her. Through the hand of God, King’s Teens soon transformed into a series of summer camps and weekly meetings, during which hundreds of area teens came to know and serve Jesus. Mike and Vivian’s own kids were saved at King’s Teens meetings, along with the parents of many other teenagers through the ministry’s annual Valentine’s Day dinners.

Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3xyM4Hg

Find out more about CRISTA Ministries by visiting crista.org

This first episode recounts where it all began: with Mike’s call into full-time ministry. A successful oil executive, Mike, along with his wife Vivian, were living what many would call an American Dream. They had successful careers, a full social calendar, and went to church enough to feel good about themselves. What more could a young couple want? That all changed one day when a wild night of drinking and dancing led to Mike’s near-death encounter with a bottle of bad moonshine. After having an out-of-body experience that he would later attribute to a divine encounter with God Himself, Mike turned his life around and chose to follow God with more than sporadic Sunday morning church attendance. Weeks later, Mike audibly heard from God not once, but twice—the first time calling Mike into full-time ministry and the second telling him to witness to the many unsaved in his own community. 

“The Calling of Mike Martin” will walk listeners through Mike’s early years of ministry—floundering and then thriving as he takes increasingly larger steps of faith to discover the divine call God has for him and his family. 

Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3RTfKWx

Find out more about CRISTA Ministries by visiting crista.org

Today, we live in a world that  is asking, “Can God?” Do we believe miracles and promises from God are for another age? Hebrews tells us plainly that God is the same today as he was yesterday. The story of Mike Martin and Vivian is the story of miracles, of prayers answers, of mountains moved. It is the story that could have only been realized By Faith and nothing else. It is the testament that God is at work today and that the miraculous can happen each and every day if we are willing to see it. Witness how one man’s simple yes impacted thousands and birthed a ministry still changing the world 75 years later.

By Faith starts this July! Subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcasts so you will find out when the first episode launches. Find out more about CRISTA Ministries by visiting crista.org