Shawn Wooten became a Christian, helped fourteen of his friends and family members become Christians, and then joined a mission team to Moscow, Russia as a baby Christian.  He planted a church in Kiev, Ukraine with his future wife, Elena, a Russian national.  Shawn has remained on the foreign mission field to this day. 

Shawn dreams of the Kingdom of God growing exponentially and has come up with an experimental plan to spark growth in older, slow-growing churches.  He is forming a mission team with disciples from around the world and going back to a smaller existing church in Budapest, Hungary with the goal to double the church in nine months.  If successful, he plans on replicating that missionary surge pattern in many other small churches throughout Eastern Europe and beyond.  

Takeshi Yamazaki was studying at the University of California, Berkeley when he heard the call to move to Tokyo, Japan and plant a church.  He listened to that call in the mid-eighties and has remained true to that vision for over thirty years.  He now has a wife, Manami, and three children and lives in downtown Tokyo.  In this episode of the Rob Skinner Podcast, Takeshi reflects on how he did it and the sacrifices necessary to grow a large church on one of the most difficult mission fields in the world.

Dinesh was the first baptism of the Delhi mission team. Dinesh and Caroline got married in 1991. In 1996, they took on the responsibility of leading the South Asia churches. Presently they are leading the church in Bangalore which has close to 1450 disciples. They also serve as Regional Family chairman for the South Asia family of churches which includes the churches in Srilanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and India. Presently in this region they shepherd 6982 disciples in 66 cities.

Growing a church is difficult.  Stepping in as a new leader and growing a church that has been stagnant for years is nearly impossible.  Rekindling growth in a church and being the same leader from beginning to end is borderline miraculous.  Find out how to bring "dry bones" to life again in this episode of the Rob Skinner Podcast

Joel and Beth Nagel lead the Lansing Area Church of Christ. Joel planted the church in 2004 as a satellite ministry from the Detroit Church of Christ with about 30 members. For the first 5 years the church stayed stagnant overall and couldn't grow above 40 members. In 2009, with the same people and the same leadership, things started to change.

Over the last decade the church in Lansing has doubled, tripled, and quadrupled with growth every year to over 125 members. They have been able to hire full time campus ministers, buy a church building, get extra funding from outside sources, and create numerous resources that have helped many other churches small and large.  Joel loves to talk to Christian leaders about how conviction and creativity can overcome any bottleneck to growth that we may face. When he’s not behind the pulpit you might find him praying in the woods, trail running, or jumping off of waterfalls in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Few people have I met as gifted with people and language skills as Herve' Fleurant. Herve' is truly a "man of the world."  Everywhere he has gone he has impacted people with the Gospel.  Find out why in this episode of the Rob Skinner Podcast.

Herve' Fleurant was born in Boston, Massachussetts in July of 1965.  His parents emigrated from Haiti and his father earned a PhD in Music and taught at various universities in the Boston area for over forty years.  His mother went to medical school in France and Spain.  Herve' speaks English, French, Spanish and Haitian Creole.  He started university in Cadiz, Spain and finished at the University of Massachussetts, Boston.  He became a Christian in 1986 and started his ministry career in 1988.  His missionary journey started in Paris, France in the summer of 1988 and then he went on the Cairo, Egypt Mission Team in 1988-1989.  On his way to Sub-Saharan Africa, Herve' stopped off and planted two churches in Port-au-Prince and St. Raphael, Haiti.  He continued on to join the mission planting in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Africa with Mike and Anne-Brigitte Taliaferro.  He took over leadership of that church in the summer of 1990.  He then married Janet Veasey in August of 1991.  He spent a year in Johannesburg South Africa in 1993 receiving additional training.  He returned to Abidjan in 1994 and led the church to grow from 300-1,250 in four years.  During this period, he planted fourteen churches across French-speaking Africa.  In January, 1999, Herve' and Janet moved to Nairobi, Kenya and planted five churches in East Africa.  He returned to the US in 2003 and served first in Denver as Point Evangelist and then in 2007 moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he continues to serve as an evangelist alongside long-time friends Mike and Anne-Brigitte Taliaferro in the Mission Point Christian Church.

Andy and Tammy Fleming have served as full-time Evangelist and Women’s Minister for over thirty years in the International Churches of Christ (ICOC). Andy is a Canadian and Tammy an American, who met in the Boston church of Christ in 1985, and later married on the Stockholm mission planting in early 1987. Career missionaries, they have invested their lives in the churches in Scandinavia, the UK, Los Angeles, and the former Soviet Union. From 1991-1999 they lived in Moscow, Russia, during which time they oversaw the planting of 24 new congregations, the largest of which are currently Moscow and Kiev, each with over 1000 members. They have also worked with the ICOC’s administration, have overseen mission efforts in the Middle East, and currently serve on the ICOC Teachers’ Service Team and Catalyst Team. They are fluent in several languages and are published authors. Their daughter, Britain, (30) and her husband Max lead the campus ministry in Kiev, Ukraine, and their son Justin (21) is a disciple in in Seattle, Washington, USA. Andy is pursuing a Doctor of Ministry degree in Missional Leadership from Abilene Christian University (Texas) and Tammy is a certified Advanced Grief Recovery Method® Specialist. From their home in Kiev, they work in cooperation with the Greater Eurasian Mission Society and Eurasian churches’ leadership to strengthen the disciples in the churches they helped to plant and encourage them to remain true to the faith. (Acts 14:21-22)

Josue and Veronica Ortega have led and planted churches all over Central and South America.  During a ten-year period, 1996-2006, they planted all the ICOC churches in Central America and then planted 26 churches in nearly every state in Mexico.  They live now in San Salvador, El Salvador, which has a homicide rate of 106 murders per 100,000 people, one of the highest rates in the world.  In spite of their circumstances, they are training, equipping and sending out missionaries all over Latin America.  

Josue can be reached at:  503-70699444.  Facebook Josue Ortega and Twitter joss1710.

Who are Vince and Ro Pierce?

Vince and Ro Pierce serve as the Evangelist and Women's Ministry Leader for the Tulsa International Church.  They have served in campus, singles, youth and family, and marrieds ministry for over 20 years in various leadership roles. They have served in large, medium, and small size congregations.  They met and graduated from Texas A&M University and moved to Tulsa in 2017 to lead the church. They have big faith and big dreams of God changing lives in Tulsa. They are passionate about discipleship, evangelism, and building family in the church.

Who is Christian Ray Flores?

• How did you become a Christian?
• You have an amazingly diverse background, can you tell a little bit about it?
• From what I understand, you were a pop star in Russia.
• What is one of your best memories from your time in the former USSR?
• You seem to have a strong Entrepreneurial tendency.
• What advice would you give to a leader trying to adjust to life under the Coronavirus?
• What innovations are you seeing arise during this pandemic?
• How do you envision life as a Christian after life returns to “normal?”
• Where should a person start if he wants to impact people in this current online environment?
• What advice would you give a person, man or woman, who wants to make a difference and live "no regrets" life?
• Tell me about a time when you came back from a setback or failure.
• What advice would you give to people who are dealing with failure or discouragement?
• Tell me about something that keeps your spiritual fire and ambition burning brightly.
• If someone wanted to contact you, where would they go?

Who are Harliem and Vania Salim?

Harliem and Vania Salim started with a church of around 1,000 members and multiplied it to 35 churches in Indonesia with over 5,000 members.  Along the way, they have started three schools, built their own building, and converted a large number of influential and wealthy individuals and celebrities.  They have done this by insisting on each small group "doing life" together.  They emphasize building a healthy community in each small group and church.  They have two beautiful daughters and offer help and guidance to many other churches in Southeast Asia and around the world. 

Program Outline  

• How did you become Christians?
• What brought you back to Asia?
• Please tell me about the size and growth of the Indonesian churches over the past twenty years.
• Coronavirus, what’s changed for you and the church?  
• You are a couple that is making a difference, what drives you?
• Why did you start your schools and how?
• You've reached some influential people in society, how did that happen?
• What was it like raising a family on the mission field?
• What advice would you give a person, man or woman, who wants to make a difference and live "no regrets" life?
• Do you have any regrets, anything you wish you could do over or differently?
• Tell me about a time when you came back from a setback or failure.
• What advice would you give to people who are dealing with failure or discouragement?
• Tell me about something that keeps your spiritual fire and ambition burning brightly.