The Evans family experienced a series of losses beginning in 2018. Starting with the death of Tony Evans’ niece and culminating in the loss of his dad, Arthur Evans, and his wife, Lois Evans. And then 2020 came, and the loss of the church gathering weighed on Dr. Evans as well. This was a time of deep grief for Dr. Evans. His family gathered around him and together they collectively stepped in to continue the ministry work. In the eighth episode of Start to Finish: The Life and Ministry of Tony Evans, you will hear from family, friends, and ministry partners about how Tony Evans has continued his ministry and the impact and legacy he is leaving as he does his work.

Recommended Resources:

The Urban Alternative

Reconstructing Faith podcast

Tony Evans Training Center

Oneness Embraced

A flywheel serves two functions. It gets an engine up to speed and then stores and provides energy as needed to keep the machine running smoothly, preventing spikes and lulls in power. Dr. Tony Evans’ early publishing titles, along with his growing radio presence, got The Urban Alternative up to running speed and have continued to store and supply energy to his ministry as needed. But as we’ve already seen, if The Urban Alternative is the engine, then Promise Keepers was the nitrous tank strapped to it. And when that red button got pushed, Dr. Evans took off like a rocket. In the seventh episode of Start to Finish: The Life and Ministry of Tony Evans, you will hear from publishing partners, people Tony mentored, and others in his life about the legacy Tony Evans is creating through his work.

Recommended Resources:

The Urban Alternative

Reconstructing Faith podcast

Lifeway.com 25% discount on one regular priced product, use promo code Evans25 (expires 10/31/2023)

MoodyPublishers.com/TonyEvans

Tony Evans Training Center

In high school, Tony Evans played three different sports – football, swimming, and baseball. God’s plan for Tony’s life didn’t include playing sports at the next level, but it didn’t take long for God to reveal how Tony could serve the sports world. Tony served as chaplain for the Dallas Cowboys in the 1980s and again in 2009, and he was also the chaplain for the Dallas Mavericks that entire time. But in the years you might consider Tony’s halftime with the Cowboys, another type of chaplaincy occurred. In the sixth episode of Start to Finish: The Life and Ministry of Tony Evans, you will hear from coaches and players who were impacted by Tony’s ministry and about his involvement in the Promise Keepers.

Recommended Resources:

The Urban Alternative

Terminal: The Dying Church Planter Podcast

Lifeway.com 25% discount on one regular priced product, use promo code Evans25 (expires 10/31/2023)

MoodyPublishers.com/TonyEvans

Tony Evans Training Center

In 1982, Tony became Dr. Tony Evans, the first African American to earn a doctoral degree from Dallas Theological Seminary. The Urban Alternative had been started the year before, and he was deep in his church plant, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. And on the family front, Anthony and Jonathan had arrived, bringing the Evans’ family total to six, with four kids under the age of 10. In the fifth episode of Start to Finish: The Life and Ministry of Tony Evans, you will hear from Tony’s four kids about what it was like growing up in the Evans’ household and about the beginnings of the radio ministry.

Recommended Resources:

The Urban Alternative

Terminal: The Dying Church Planter Podcast

Lifeway.com 25% discount on one regular priced product, use promo code Evans25 (expires 10/31/2023)

MoodyPublishers.com/TonyEvans

Tony Evans Training Center

In 1976, Dr. Tony Evans was finishing his master’s degree at Dallas Seminary. He and his wife, Lois, had two little girls. And they had a bible study that was about to turn into a church plant. Mentored by his professor Dr. Gene Getz, Tony, who had been planning to become an evangelist, began to develop a vision for the local church.  In the fourth episode of Start to Finish: The Life and Ministry of Tony Evans, you will hear about the very first days of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship and how his relationships with Crawford Loritts and Martin Hawkins impacted the church.

Recommended Resources:

The Urban Alternative

GenSend

Terminal: The Dying Church Planter Podcast

Kingdom Leaders Summit

Kingdom Purpose by Tony Evans

In 1970, racial division was very real, and it’s all anyone wanted to talk about, particularly in Atlanta, where a young Tony Evans was more than up to the challenge. This was a period of testing for Tony. A period where he was refined by the heat of the socio-political climate he found himself in. After an intense few years of street preaching and racial debates, of being a newlywed and new father, Tony’s time at Carver was drawing to a close. He was faced with the question every college graduate is peppered with: what’s next? But given Tony’s passion for both the Word and for learning, the choice wasn’t really what, but where. In the third episode of Start to Finish: The Life and Ministry of Tony Evans, you will hear about Tony’s transition to Dallas Theological Seminary and the access he had to conservative Biblical training his black mentors had been denied. You will also hear about the pressures of being a student and having a family at home and about his connection to the local church and the NBEA – the National Black Evangelical Association.

Recommended Resources:

The Urban Alternative

Pastor Resources

Kingdom Leaders Summit

Kingdom Purpose by Tony Evans

Lifeway.com 25% discount on one regular priced product, use promo code Evans25 (expires 10/31/2023)

Sam Hart sent an 18 year-old Tony Evans to Carver Bible College to receive his Bible training. While there he met Howard Dial and John McNeal, two professors who would have a great impact on Tony’s life and who came to know him as a student with a lot of questions. Before he got to Carver though, Tony had an appointment in Guyana – one that would lead him further down the road to ministry and would introduce him to his future wife, Lois. In the second episode of Start to Finish: The Life and Ministry of Tony Evans, you will hear from Tony’s mentors to learn about his experience going to college in Atlanta, the hub of Martin Luther King’s platform, and from Tony and his daughter, Chrystal Hurst Evans, about the beginning of Lois and Tony’s love story.

Recommended Resources:

The Urban Alternative

Where the Light Fell by Philip Yancey

Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin

The Power of the Holy Spirit’s Names by Tony Evans

Kingdom Leaders Summit

Lifeway.com 25% discount on one regular priced product, use promo code Evans25 (expires 10/31/2023)

If we’re honest with ourselves, the representation the evangelical church has received in the media recently has been focused on messed up people who keep perpetuating a messed-up world. So, we asked, “Where are the good stories, the stories of the guys who are doing it right? The stories about those like Paul who ‘are being poured out as a drink offering, who have fought the good fight, who have kept the faith.’” So that’s what we set out to do: tell the story of God’s faithfulness, His provision, and grace through the life of an obedient servant. One name rose to the top: Dr. Tony Evans. In the first episode of Start to Finish: The Life and Ministry of Tony Evans, you will hear Tony’s story from the beginning, starting with his childhood home in Baltimore, Maryland, where his father, Arthur, had a dramatic conversion experience and led his entire family to the Lord. You’ll hear about his life as a teenager living through segregation and how it shaped his theology. And you’ll hear about two men who mentored Tony and set him on two paths that would greatly impact his life.

Recommended Resources:

The Urban Alternative

In 1986, Dr. Tony Evans was invited to speak at the opening session of the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. He was a young pastor from Dallas, Texas. And for most, it was their introduction to him.

But that isn’t the beginning of the story. Not even close. Before he was Dr. Tony Evans—pastor, author, radio broadcaster—before he was chaplain to multiple sports teams and counselor to some of the top voices around the world, he was a high-energy kid from Baltimore with a work ethic to match.

Dr. Evans agreed to sit with us for a series of interviews about the entirety of his life and ministry. But we didn’t just talk with Tony. We also talked with his kids. And just about anyone else who would take our Zoom calls, including James Brown, Kirk Franklin, Tony Dungy, and many more.

Start to Finish: The Life and Ministry of Dr. Tony Evans episodes drop soon. Subscribe wherever and however you listen.