VictorDawsonInterview
of his contact information there if you want to be able to get ahold of him because this is the last time I'll have it on the screen and there's also a picture of his new book titled as you go. It's a spark, a conversation that impacts eternity and Victor is going to be unpacking that in just a bit. But let me introduce him. Victor is an ambassador for Christ, a servant leader, entrepreneur, he's a global business owner, author, and world traveler. He spent the first part of his career in corporate executive positions in sales and marketing, manufacturing operations, engineering, and product development.
Very similar background by the way to me, Victor. And in the last 20 years, he's been involved in three new startups, the Summit Group International, a global product sourcing company, Cuddle Clones, and I know a little bit about that business, making one-of-a-kind plush pets that look exactly like your pet. And believe me, they do. And then as you go, his latest venture, Victor is passionate about evangelism and discipleship by living out the Great Commission. He has been involved with CBMC, that's Christian Businessmen's Connection, which I have known for many, many years.
I had the privilege of speaking at a number of their meetings for over 25 years and has served on the USA and international boards of directors. He and Nan have been married for 48 years and live in Colorado Springs, Colorado. They have two married children, a grandson and a granddaughter. And so I want you guys to welcome Victor to the program. And Victor, let's get started.
Tell us a little bit about, we know a little bit about your journey, but this, as you go, really, how did this all happen? Maybe go back and give us some background as to how God brought you to this place. Okay, great. Well, it's a pleasure to be with you today, Vance. I really appreciate the opportunity.
Just a little brief history. I actually accepted Christ when I was 17 and a freshman at Georgia Tech, Campus Crusade meeting, except nobody came alongside to disciple me. And so I just went on about my school and got married and career and all of that and wandered in the wilderness for 23 years until I was 40 and God woke me up and I rededicated my life at that point. But I didn't understand what a relationship with Christ was all about. So that journey, you know, led me to start into the spiritual disciplines of reading the Bible and small groups with CBMC.
That was when I first joined CBMC. And then the part about as you go actually probably initially goes back about 15 years ago, I was searching or asking God to share with me my purpose. I was seeking my purpose in life. Why am I here, you know? And one of my friends that was with CBMC, and I knew very well, he said, think about the things that really excite you.
And as I prayed, and then he said, you may already be doing it. And so as I prayed through that, in the next few months, I realized that my purpose was evangelism and discipleship, which is exactly the mission of CBMC. And I had actually been doing it for some time and didn't realize it. Then as I started to get more involved in sharing my faith as I traveled, I did travel quite a lot internationally as well, about 3 million miles in my life, by the way. I had an experience that led me to the name and to this ministry called As You Go.
About seven years ago, I had emergency open heart surgery, and discovered that I had over 90% blockages of the left main artery called the Widowmaker, and I was literally ready to drop dead at any moment. Thankfully, my wife, Nan, saved my life because she told the cardiologist that even though he thought the stress test looked fine, that that wasn't right. There was something wrong with me, and so they did a heart cath and found out I was in serious trouble. Didn't have any damage, but they did open heart surgery, double bypass. And one week to the hour after that surgery, everything went well.
I went home, I went out on the back patio to have my quiet time. And I remember thinking, God, if I'm still here, you must have something left for me to do. And I don't know if that's for two months or 20 years, but you're not done with me yet. And it would be really cool if I knew what that was. And for only the second time in my life, I heard the audible voice of God speak to me through the Holy Spirit.
And he said, I want you to write a book, and I want you to call it As You Go. And you know the stories that I've given you as you've traveled around sharing your faith with different people in different situations, that's what the book is about. It took me a while for any of you that have never written a book, or I found out it's a hard thing to do. But God's timing was even perfect with that in terms of the stories that he kept giving me. And so about two and a half years ago, I self-published this book called As You Go.
And it's a very conversational thing and telling stories, mine and some other people's stories of sharing your faith as you go along the way. Part of this is also the idea that had come to me before this that I would share when I had a chance to speak to groups like CBMC. How many of you guys are in full-time ministry? And nobody would raise their hand. So I am in full-time ministry.
I'm a business guy, I'm a business owner, but I'm in full-time ministry. I can talk to people that the pastor can even begin to think about talking to. Let me pause you just for a second, because that is so true. We are all in full-time ministry, but let me bring this back up again. For those of you who are watching right now, I want to highly encourage you to get a copy of this book.
I've read it and it's a really, really great book, especially for those of you who need to hear the message, that no matter where you are, you are in full-time ministry, some powerful illustrations, powerful stories, tell them where they can get this book, Victor, real quick. You can go there to the website as you go ministry and I'll send you a signed copy, but you can also find it on Amazon in paperback and as a Kindle version. We're working on an audio version that will be out soon. That's great, but real quick, tell us a little bit about how you came up with the title, because that's kind of interesting, and then a little bit more about the content of the book or what your real desire and purpose is that's the takeaway for the reader. So God gave me the name.
I could have never come up with that. One of the things that I think is very, one of the scriptures that I think is very misunderstood is Matthew 28-19. That's what this is all about, the Great Commission. One of the things I discovered, it's a recent Barna survey in the last few years, is that 51% of churchgoing Christians do not know what the Great Commission is, and another 25% have heard of it, but couldn't tell you what it is, a 76% have no clue of the second great command that Jesus gave us. And then I found out something even worse as I started to research and prepare to write the book, that only about 3% of believers are sharing their faith or telling people about Jesus, 3%, and we're surprised at the way the world is going now.
So God gave me the as you go part, and so that scripture, therefore, as you go make disciples of all nations, I think it's of all nations that confuses people. They think that must be the pastor in the missionary's job, and they're really thrilled that that's their understanding, because they are scared to death to share their faith. So that's great to know it's not my job. Well, it is your job that Jesus was talking to every single believer, and in the great, the word go actually means as you are going. I think what Jesus meant was as you are going along your way every day and everywhere, you are to share your faith, you are to share about me, you are my ambassador, and we need to have that sort of mindset.
Part of what the book shares is just that you have your radar on. You're not so busy looking at your phone or everything else going on. God is bringing people to you all the time, or he will. And so one of the first things on this list of 10 items in the book is to pray. I pray almost every day that God will bring somebody across my path that I can share, and do you think he won't do that?
Of course he will. And so you get the opportunity and you just do the best you can, and you learn from your mistakes, and you keep going. And so the book has a lot of stories, but it also has 10 actual chapters on how to do as you go. Wow. That's awesome.
In fact, when you mentioned that, you've heard me say this, Victor, and perhaps some of you that are tuning in have heard me say it. Ever since we went through that big ordeal with Cindy, every day is such a blessing. It's such a gift, and I find myself now for many, many years going back to 2009. More often than not, the first thing when I wake in the morning is I say good morning, Lord. And I'm excited about today, and I choose to follow you.
Let's see you and I go and have some fun. And I actually ask him to provide the opportunities for me to be the man he intended, like others. But let me ask you this, because we're limited on time. As you know, I am really concerned about, as you are, the lack of discipleship. And both you and I have been involved in the discipleship business for many, many years.
And why do you think it is that so few men are truly deeply discipled the way Jesus intended for this to be? Why do you think, and especially in our culture, that this has been such an issue and such a problem? Well, I don't think it's something that is taught. I don't want to blame the church, per se, but we're not teaching about the Great Commission. We're not making disciples.
We're not creating disciple makers, guys that will disciple someone and teach them how to disciple someone else. And we just, I guess, let somebody else do that. I mean, that is probably the most satisfying thing I've ever done, short of the children being born and all of that, to disciple another man and see him grow, especially a younger guy. There's just nothing like it, but it's messy. It's time consuming.
You're going to do life with another guy who's, and a lot of guys are desiring that very much, but they don't know how to find someone who will do that with them. Yeah. And so I think we just have to keep pushing ahead and making people aware, first of all, of Christ and then the fact that you need to be discipled and find someone who will help you do that. Yep. You and I have been part of what we would call the men's movement or the men's discipleship movement for, well, going back to the beginning, probably 25, 30 years ago, and this reminds me of the broadcast.
The last broadcast I did was with Chuck Stekker, who is the leader of a chosen generation. And Chuck and I were having this conversation, and we were kind of talking about why men seem to be in worse condition today than they were when the men's ministry movement began. And we were kind of like talking about our tendency in this culture to event men to death, and the idea that if we could just get them to the Promise Keeper rally or to Vince's event or to Victor's event, that somehow that's going to transform their life. And what we're learning over the years is that it is that one-on-one, that more intimate or a small group of guys where they can be real together. And you and I, of course, are part of one of those groups.
In fact, we met this morning before the broadcast, and I love it when we see men going deeper with each other. That's how true discipleship happens. It's not just reading the word, although that's the key, that's important, but it's moving that teaching or that word from life implication to life application. And that really can't be done apart from a small group environment where men are loving each other and encouraging each other. Even reading a book, I mean, my book, whether it's my book or whether it's your book, they can give us great ideas, but we need to process that together.
Now, let me ask you one more question before we get ready to sign off. Let me just mention this one other point here. Men need a safe place. Women are so much better at this, sharing their feelings and being transparent. Men are not able to do that very well.
They need a place where they can share with someone one-on-one or in a small group and know it's not going any further. They can share something, be totally transparent, and seek help for the issues that we all are facing. But as I read your book, tell me if you don't think this is true. Maybe you've got some examples of people that are already doing this. Wouldn't it be a great resource for a group of like businessmen or people in the business community to process?
Maybe there's 10 chapters and you take 10 weeks and go over each chapter one a week and then talk about the implications of that in my sphere of influence, in my environment. I think this would be a great book and would highly encourage men to do that. Have you seen some examples of men that were using it that way? Yes. Yes, I have.
In fact, one of the board members at CBMC down in Tampa, he suggested that several teams do that and they ordered a number of books and were going through that in their weekly meeting. The book is also written and I borrowed this idea from someone else I had author I had read where at the end of each chapter are three or four key points to summarize it, but then three or four questions that are written in the first person for you. What am I going to do next week about what did I just learn and what am I going to do? And so I think it could be used that way. One of the things that I'm going to be working on this next year is a small group curriculum that includes videos and a further study guide and information that you could use as a small group like that.
All right. Any final word of encouragement for those who might be watching that are like me for most of my life been intimidated when it comes to wanting to get out there and sharing your faith? I know we've all gone through this, but any word of encouragement maybe for that viewer or listener right now that is saying, yeah, you know, I know I'm supposed to do these things, but it's just so hard. It's so difficult and in our workplace environments today it's becoming more and more, as you know, complicated and sometimes dangerous. But any word of encouragement that you might have before we sign off?
Two things. One is if you had known me 30 or 40 years ago, you would be, I would be the last person you would think that would be writing a book on evangelism because I was very shy and now I'm willing to talk to anyone anywhere and you just have to get started and you'll fall down and make mistakes and whatever. But here's the really last point I want to make. We have a wrong definition of evangelism. We think that if we share our faith and the person doesn't get down on their knees and pray the prayer and accept Christ, we have failed miserably.
That is not true. It's a process for someone to go through in order to reach that decision point. And many people are not anywhere near that decision point. My objective in sharing my faith is to try to lead that person one half step closer to Jesus. And so I even have used the example.
I mean, I might sit down on an airplane and talk to a guy and he may shut me down. He may tell me, don't talk to me about that nonsense. I've heard all that before. I didn't fail. I did the best I could.
God's going to save him. Who knows? Two months from now, his life's going to change and he's going to say, oh, remember that guy I talked to him? I shut down on the airplane. He was trying to share this with me.
You just don't know. You just have to be faithful to do the parts you can do and leave the rest up to God. And then you don't have to worry about it. Yeah. No, that's good.
That's so true though, because we feel like a failure sometimes if we don't watch away having made the sale. You know what I mean? And sometimes what I find is it's not that you have to share the four spiritual laws. Sometimes it's just letting people know, hey, let me tell you what happened to me. Something just telling your story.
Man, I was a mess. And then somebody introduced me to this Jesus. Stories are powerful. Stories are powerful, but not only my story, but the other person's story. Yes.
I hope one of the quotes that could be used out of the book a lot is that we also think we have to do all the talking. We have to have all the answers. Listening, not speaking, is the most important skill in building relationships and sharing the gospel. Just ask the person that you don't know that you've just met or whatever. I'd be interested.
Would you be willing to share a little bit of your story? No, that's so powerful. Again, that's so powerful. That's so true. So true.
So true. Again, everybody, Victor Dawson. So glad you had an opportunity to get your message out. For those of you who are watching right now, you can see his book on the screen. Make a note, pick a copy of it up.
And we are going to look forward to being with you guys again on the next Target Point broadcast. Until then, everybody, don't…