[00:00:10 – 00:00:32] Mell Smith

Welcome to Fellowship One:Seven, a podcast from Child Evangelism Fellowship for the Christian community. On this podcast, we dive into the world of child evangelism and discipleship through interviews and discussions with ministry leaders and thinkers.

I’m your guest host, Mel Smith. Today we have a special guest whose voice you may recognize, Vice President of USA Ministries, Jeff Nichols. Hi, Jeff.

[00:00:32 – 00:00:33] Jeff Nichols

Hi, Mel.

[00:00:33 – 00:00:35] Mell Smith

Good to have you here today.

[00:00:35 – 00:00:37] Jeff Nichols

It’s kind of weird being on this side of the microphone.

[00:00:37 – 00:00:51] Mell Smith

I bet it is. So today is your one year anniversary of being here at CEF International Headquarters, but it did not start here. So tell us a little bit about who is Jeff Nichols?

[00:00:51 – 00:03:21] Jeff Nichols

Yeah. I can’t believe it’s been a year, but I can’t believe I get to do what I get to do every day with the people I get to do it with. I was born and raised in Tupelo, Mississippi, the youngest of four boys. And from the very beginning, church was a really big part of my life. My very first memory in my entire life was actually being in a church nursery. Our dad was an alcoholic and our pastor of our church really had a big influence on him to stop drinking. So that was significant.

And then in high school, one of my best friends was my youth pastor and he discipled me, he mentored me, he helped me see behind the scenes of ministry what ministry was like Monday through Saturday, not just on Sunday. And he just really made a big difference in my life. And I didn’t realize until way later on after I had answered the call to ministry at the age of 16, that I was actually able to verbalize like I wanted to do for other people what this man had done for me and what Dwight Whitworth had done for me way back when I was in high school. And so I went to a Bible college to be a youth pastor, I thought, and never had a single youth ministry opportunity. During college. It was all children’s ministry opportunities because I thought I was supposed to be a youth pastor and went to my first church as a part time youth pastor, but we had a bus ministry and a children’s church. Went to my second church as a youth pastor, but I was in charge of bus ministry and children’s church.

And it wasn’t until Pastor Robert Morgan at the Donaldson fellowship in Nashville, Tennessee called me in 1993 and said, do you want to be a children’s pastor at our church? Did the thought ever occur to me that I could be doing children’s ministry full time. And so that’s when my children’s ministry days officially started. And a few years after that, Pastor Rob mentioned to me one day, he said we should check into doing a Good News club. I said, what is a Good News Club? I had never heard of it before. And he told me that was done by Child Evangelism Fellowship.

And we checked on it and we got a club started. And I’ll tell you, Mel, it was one of the best things our church had ever done. That club is still going on today, about 15 years later. And over the course of time got involved in that club and got involved in a local committee and then was asked to be the state director for CEF of Tennessee and was privileged to do that job for four years. And now here I am at headquarters getting to work with you for one year.

[00:03:21 – 00:03:43] Mell Smith

And we are so happy to have you here. And so it sounds like Ephesians 2:10, your life verse is written all over this situation, right? God’s been preparing you to come here and lead USA ministries. And so we’re a part of an 88 year old children’s ministry that has reached 29 million kids. Can you tell me a little bit about how we do that?

[00:03:43 – 00:05:06] Jeff Nichols

It’s amazing. It really is.

This 88 year old ministry has never swerved off its mission of reaching children to evangelize them, to disciple them into the word of God and get them established through to local chapters or I’m sorry, local churches. We do that through party clubs and Good News Clubs and 5 Day Clubs, but really it really rises and falls on those church partnerships. We work alongside the church, we recognize we are not the church. We work alongside the church to train, equip and support them to do the evangelizing, discipling and establishing. And it is amazing what happens when that occurs because the churches then feel the opportunity really to reach out to the kids in whatever format it looks like. It may be a Good News Club in an after school setting at a public school, we have legal permission to be there. If a school has any kind of after school club, they also have to allow a Bible club.

And so those church partners are trained up by CEF, they’re equipped by CEF, they’re given the curriculum by CEF, supported by CEF to do this club. And it’s neat to see those club team members from those churches develop the relationships with those kids and their families and then really connect to and minister to the kids and their families. It really is amazing.

[00:05:06 – 00:05:17] Mell Smith

It is a very amazing ministry. In fact, I think you’ve shared a story with me before about a specific club that was, I think open air In California. Can you share that story with us today?

[00:05:17 – 00:07:16] Jeff Nichols

Yeah, that’s an interesting story because the California chapters have met some real challenges about doing clubs in schools. And in many places they’re just not allowed to do those in the schools because they’re not allowing any kind of clubs there. And so this chapter decided they were going to do some open air clubs. This club, this particular day was being done in a park and this club leader was leading this club and she noticed behind the kids there was a boy that was kind of walking back and forth. You could tell he was interested in coming to the club. So she yelled out to him, hey, come join us, come join us. And he walked over and joined him.

And in an amazing way, he took in the Bible lesson and hearing about the good news of Jesus Christ that day. And after the club, the club leader asked the boy, he said, hey, where were you going? What were you doing today? I’m glad you joined us. And believe it or not, that boy said that he was on his way to the end of the park, to some woods, and he was going to take his own life that day. And it was her invitation to come join that club. It was her invitation for him to hear about the good news of Jesus Christ that literally saved his life.

You know, in the book of Luke, it says that Jesus came to seek and to save sinners. Jesus sought that boy that day. I mean, he sought that boy just like he sought Zacchaeus. When he walked into Zacchaeus hometown and stood right next to the tree that Zacchaeus had climbed up in and looked up in that tree and he said, I’m going to your house today. He sought that boy just like he sought the Samaritan woman by the well. He didn’t have to go that way, you know, on his journey, but he went that way to that well on that day for that woman. And that club was being done on that day for that boy.

Because Jesus came to seek and to save sinners. And that’s what our ministry does. We just equip people, motivate people to do that. And it is amazing what God is doing through these clubs.

[00:07:16 – 00:07:30] Mell Smith

That is a really impactful story about the saving grace of our Lord. I know that we’ve faced many challenges and so Covid was one of them, but we had a great bounce back from that. You want to elaborate on that a little bit?

[00:07:30 – 00:08:34] Jeff Nichols

Yeah. Obviously when 80% of your ministry is a school based ministry and then those schools opportunities are taken away, that kind of sets you back on your heels. And have to be creative in that way. But thankfully, we’ve bounced back from those and done some creative things since then. But all of that goes to kind of to show that Satan doesn’t want us to be reaching kids like this. I mean, Satan does not want these clubs to go forward. He doesn’t want people to step up to the plate, step onto the battlefield and say, hey, I’m willing to fight for this.

I’m willing to go the extra mile for these kids. And these clubs are bouncing back even in places where ‘Satan Clubs’ have specifically targeted schools where we’re having after school Good News Clubs. ‘Satan Clubs’ are trying to get started there because they know many of those administrators will shut down all the clubs if a ‘Satan Club’ is threatened to start there. And that is exactly what the ‘Satan Club’ organizers want. But at the end of the day, the incredible thing is, Mell, we are still called to love those people.

[00:08:34 – 00:08:35] Mell Smith

That’s right.

[00:08:35 – 00:09:01] Jeff Nichols

We are still called to love the ‘Satan Club’ organizer. We’re called to be the hands and feet of Jesus wherever we go. And I love the story that I heard of a ‘Satan Club’ that actually got started. Not many of them actually go through everything and actually get started, but a ‘Satan Club’ actually got started. And whether the school administrator did it on purpose or not, I’m not sure. But he put the ‘Satan Club’ in a classroom right next to our Good News Club. Can you imagine?

[00:09:01 – 00:09:02] Mell Smith

I can.

[00:09:04 – 00:09:38] Jeff Nichols

And I’ll tell you that because of that opportunity, those Good News Club volunteers loved on those kids and loved on those ‘Satan Club’ organizers in an amazing way, in a startling way, they were kind of. The ‘Satan Club’ organizers were kind of caught off guard by that. Because we are called to love everyone just like Jesus would. Jesus would have loved on those people too. And we’re called to love on everyone, no matter if they’re organizing a Satan in the classroom right next door to our Good News Club.

[00:09:38 – 00:09:57] Mell Smith

That’s what I love about CEF, is that we are called to love on everyone. And we do that, feel like we do that very well even in situations with a ‘Satan Club.’ But we know that there are also people out there who will try to use this opportunity to do harmful things. And so tell us a little bit about how CEF protects the children from those things happening.

[00:09:57 – 00:13:11] Jeff Nichols

As with any ministry that is ministering to kids, child protection, safety and protection. And safety is very, very important to CEF. And we place a high priority on background screening and protection and supervision during the club. So anyone who desires to be part of our club ministry and to reach kids like this, we ask them to go through a background check. And we do a very thorough background  check, check their references. And then in the training, part of what we do and training is very, very important. In the 29 million kids that we reached last year, we trained over 500,000 volunteers how to do it and how to do it right.

And part of that training is training them how to properly interact with kids. Like, we never want an adult along with a child. We have a two adult rule, no matter where you are, a two adult rule. We never want the kids sitting on the adult laps. You know, it’s really easy to do, especially in a loving environment for you might not think very much of that, but we draw a line at that and say, we don’t want you to put the kids in your lap for any reason. If you’re going to give them a hug, give them a sideways hug. You know, just little things like that that many people don’t think about that we make a very big deal out of.

And finally, the biggest thing is we don’t want children coming to our clubs without the permission of their parents or guardians. And so when we’re starting a club in a school, a park or wherever, we’re going to be passing out parent permission forms and it’s going to be very apparent on that permission form that this is a Bible club. We don’t want to be doing any bait and switch kind of things. We want to let people know that this is a Bible club. They’re going to be being taught Bible lessons, they’re going to be taught mission stories and fun games. We’re going to be playing fun, fun games and being taught memory verses.

It is a Bible club. And at every single Bible club, we give the kids an opportunity to talk to somebody about Jesus one on one. And again, in the group setting, I remember a little boy that came back to our club that I worked with from our church in Nashville. And he gave his life to Christ that day. It was January, February of the school year. And I asked this little third grader, I said, where do you go to church? And he said, I’ve never been to church.

Actually, he said, first I come here and we were sitting in a school gym and I said, is your family looking for a church? He said, I’ve never been to church. And that affected me. That may be the reason I’m standing here, talking with you today, Mell, is because God used that little boy’s testimony of his life that we were taking the gospel to him. Not sitting back, waiting on him to show up at our church. I’m not sure if his family ever would have showed up at our church because they didn’t know Jesus. And we want to tell people about Jesus and take the gospel to them.

And so we’re very cautious and very protective in the the way that we do that. But we want to be very aggressive in the way that we’re doing it and doing it as many times as we possibly can to share Christ with kids in as many way as possible.

[00:13:11 – 00:13:25] Mell Smith

So CEF has come a long way over the last 88 years. And we protect the children, we care about them, we have an effective outreach. But it didn’t just happen out of thin air overnight. So tell us about the inspiration of CEF.

[00:13:25 – 00:14:23] Jeff Nichols

So if we decide today that we wanted to start a worldwide children’s ministry, I’m not sure that we would choose as the founder of that ministry someone who did not believe children could become Christians. But that’s what God did. Way back in the 1930s, he had his eye on a man named J, Irvin Overholtzer. And this man had grown up in a denomination or a group that said that children couldn’t receive Christ as Savior until they were 21 years old. And he grew up believing that actually answered the call to ministry. And he went into the pastorate and pastored this way well into his 60s. And when he was in his 60s, he read a quote by the evangelist Charles Spurgeon that said, a child as young as five years old, if properly instructed, can be as regenerated as anyone or become a Christian just like anyone.

He didn’t believe it, Mel.

[00:14:23 – 00:14:24] Mell Smith

He didn’t believe it.

[00:14:25 – 00:17:51] Jeff Nichols

He still did not believe. It was too ingrained in him. He had believed this way his whole entire life. So he went out and he did a little experiment in his neighborhood, and he talked to about 20 kids and tried to talk to them about Jesus. And to his amazement, about 10 of them wanted to talk about Jesus. And those kids actually prayed to receive Christ as Savior. And he still did not believe it, Mell. He still didn’t believe it because again, he had believed this way his whole life until he saw the mom of two of the girls who had prayed to become a Christian at a revival service.

And he had been trying to get this mom to come to his church for a while, and he was curious to what changed her mind and what made her come to that revival service. So he asked her after that service, and she said, it’s because of the difference that I’ve seen in my girls since you talked to them. Now these weren’t 30 and 35 year old alcoholics, drug addicts that turned their life around in a few weeks. These were 9 and 11 year old young ladies who God changed their life and perspective. And their mom could tell it. And she was so changed by that, the change that she was seeing in her daughters, that she decided to come to church. And God used the testimony of that mom.

And he planted something in Mr. O, as we call him, inside of Mr. O’s heart that just spurred him on, sparked his interest. And he wanted to tell kids about Jesus. He wanted to tell other people about telling kids about Jesus. And from the very beginning, he wanted to make sure that those people were being trained in doing it right. And because of that and his desire to see kids know Jesus, as we said last year, 29 million kids heard about Jesus.

Now I don’t think that Mr. Overholtzer discovered a secret formula, Mell. I don’t think that he discovered a secret way to reach kids that nobody else was doing. I just think he had the heart of God. And the heart of God is that boys and girls need to know about him. God is not willing that any of these little ones should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And so he prioritized training, he prioritized keeping the Gospel message in every single lesson.

And that’s still true today. And he emphasized praying, praying, praying more than anything else. And it takes a lot of money to do this type of ministry all around the world. And from the very beginning, his philosophy, and it is still our philosophy that we want to ask God and tell people about the needs, about what God is doing around the world. And that’s still our philosophy today. And it’s so neat to be a part of a ministry like this that’s reaching kids around the world and basically in the same way that they were doing it in 1937. And it’s amazing to see what God is doing here in the United States because God is on the move.

We partner with other ministries in really cool ways. And it’s just, it’s amazing to hear the incredible things that God is doing not only through our ministry, but other ministries right now. God is on the move in the United States and we are glad to be a part of it.

[00:17:51 – 00:18:00] Mell Smith

God is certainly on the move in the United States. And one thing still rings true. Nothing is more effective than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I just thank you for being here today.

[00:18:00 – 00:18:01] Jeff Nichols

Thank you.

[00:18:01 – 00:18:27] Mell Smith

It’s been a really great time to have you, even though you are on the other side of the table. And I thank you for sharing what’s happening in our own backyard. If you’d like to learn more about CEF Ministries, visit cefonline.com/ministries to learn about all of the ministries we offer. If you have questions, email [email protected], give us a like and subscribe to keep up to date on this podcast and our U-Nite Radio program for kids. Thanks for listening.