By Holly Jo Evans, student news writer, Office of University Communications
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. — Rick Gage told the Campbellsville University chapel audience Jan. 15 “as the scripture teaches, we’re to be ready in season and out of season.”
Gage filled in for Dr. Ken Brockman who was ill, and Gage was “ready in season” as he accepted the speaking engagement 30 minutes before chapel time.
He used a scripture from a student’s T-shirt from Proverbs 11:30 that reads, “He who wins souls is wise.” Gage asked the audience if they wanted wisdom to be wise, and said, “The Bible says the way that you be wise is you win people to Jesus; you point people to Christ.”
Gage shared his testimony, starting with his time in college, when he was initially pursing a coaching career and when his heart was “a million miles away from God.” He was not concerned with reading his Bible, sharing the gospel or the fate of others’ souls and destinies. He said he was “on the highway that leads to destruction.”
During a recruiting weekend, his dad suggested Gage go listen to a family friend of theirs preach at a church near where he was staying. He did go that Sunday evening, and Gage repented of his sins and surrendered to God saying, “I want you to take my life God, and I want you to use me however you want to use me.”
Gage began reading his Bible, and he told everyone around him what God had done for him. In doing so, his strength coach invited him to a Bible study that met every Wednesday at 3 a.m.
He started going to the study, and later he went to a conference where he heard a message that challenged him to be a “soul winner for Christ.”
Soon after he led his first soul to Christ, which “set my soul on fire,” Gage said, he began coaching at Liberty University. In his two years there, he lost his passion and zeal for coaching, but it was because God was calling him to preach.
When asked, “How do you know God is calling you?” he used the words he was told by a spiritual friend, “If God is calling you into ministry, you will be miserable doing anything else.”
In trying to decide if he should follow God’s call to ministry, Satan put doubts in his head making him question if he should answer the call. Gage said as he was praying God told him, “Rick, I have already called you. I am waiting on you to take that step of faith.”
Gage answered the call to the gospel ministry, and for the last 32 plus years he has been traveling all over the world trying to do all that he can to advance the kingdom of God.
Gage shared about a ministry he started called GO TELL Camps, and the impact one son, who accepted Christ at camp, had on his entire family, leading his parents and sister to Christ.
He also shared about the opportunity this camp offers for high school seniors and college students to receive a half tuition scholarship for working at the camp.
Text INTERN to 85775, or visit https://gotellministries.com/get-involved/scholarship/ for more information about the scholarship internships at GO TELL Camps.
All chapels are open to the public free of charge and are televised live on WLCU (Comcast Cable channel 10 and digital channel 15) and are streamed live on the internet at wlcutv.com.
For information about chapel, call the Office of Campus Ministries at (270) 789-5227.
Campbellsville University is a widely-acclaimed Kentucky-based Christian university with more than 14,000 students offering over 100 programs of study including Ph.D., master, baccalaureate, associate, pre-professional and certification programs. The university has Kentucky based off-campus centers in Louisville, Harrodsburg, Somerset, Hodgenville and Liberty with instructional sites in Elizabethtown, Owensboro and Summersville. Out-of-state centers include two in California at Los Angeles and Lathrop, located in the San Francisco Bay region. The website for complete information is www.campbellsville.edu.
Campbellsville University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award certificates, associate, baccalaureate, masters and doctoral degrees. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097 or call 404-679-4500 for questions about the status of Campbellsville University.