Doug & Jen Koch
The Las Vegas Outreach Team is not a huge evangelistic ministry that does large crusades or uses a huge team of individuals from several churches to reach thousands each night. We don’t give a watered down message that tells people that if they will just pray upon the name of the Lord alone they will be saved. We don’t gloss over terms that are often skipped at many churches like sin, repentance, hell, regeneration, and sanctification. Instead, the Las Vegas Outreach Team in a small band of brothers and sisters who take the most vital elements of the Christian faith, the Gospel, and try to clearly speak it to as many people on the street each night. But like all members of God’s church, we have been given a call to preach the message and make disciples.
The road for Jen and I began on January 1, 2004. That morning I heard a message from Kirk Cameron about a new TV program that he and Ray Comfort were doing for Trinity Broadcasting Network. The program was designed to teach people how to share their faith. The program sounded real intriguing because Kirk and Ray also filmed each other sharing the gospel on the streets. That would have been enough for me to watch the program but then I heard the kicker. Kirk talked about how the program was going to reintroduce a biblical truth that had been forsaken for about a century by the church. This truth enabled the evangelist to bypass the point of intellect and go straight to their conscience. This was the hook that captured me. In all of his previous evangelistic encounters it seemed to me that they were intellectual debates with no clear winner or loser. After seeing the program for the first time a revelation come about and I was lead to share the biblical truth with others.
In October 2004, the Lord blessed me with the opportunity to co-teach the first Way of the Master class. Since then Jen and I have not looked back. The Lord has continued to open up opportunities to teach these truths to over a hundred people from many churches and I always look forward to each new class. Then in April 2005 the Lord made it clear that this was not just a task, but instead this was my gift and ministry. This was significant because for the prior eight years of my Christian life, I had prayed that God would reveal my ministry to me. For eight years I heard silence, but in the mean time I tried to apply myself in areas that I thought I was gifted, like children’s ministry and drama ministry. It was clear that neither area was where God wanted me to be. Then that Friday morning in April the Lord said, “This is where I want you.” I was mad at first because evangelism is very challenging and difficult. Because of my anger I questioned God on why the children’s and drama ministries were not for me since I was better suited for them. The response changed my life forever, “I desire to use you in evangelism because it is hard. If I used you in other areas that you feel more comfortable, then you would take credit for what I accomplished. Since you struggle to share the gospel you are forced to rely upon me to do My Will!”
Since February 2005 I have been blessed to lead people out to the streets. It has been a challenge but the blessings have far out weighed the struggles. In the midst of all the time on the street Jen has been my faithful helpmate. You won’t see her on the streets very often, because she is faithfully staying with our five children. The main task that Jen accomplishes comes with the organization of Team Outreaches. Jen is talented at planning for all the small details that help make the Team Outreach go smoother. Jen is also the one who cooks the food and cleans the house before each meeting we have in our home. When Jen does have a choice to go to the streets, her place of choice is the abortion clinic. Jen has a passion to see expecting mothers decide to keep the child and consider their options.
Doug & Jen Koch