In this interview, Ashley talked with Dr. Doug Small about the “1 Million Souls” campaign and his vision for a great spiritual awakening in America. He emphasizes the need for authentic, relational evangelism and shares plans for a July 4th sunrise service to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary. Dr. Small encourages believers to reject passivity by actively praying for and engaging with those in their communities. He appeals to all believers to pray for the non-believers around them to begin a journey of evangelism in their communities.
00:00:00 Introduction to the One Million Souls campaign
This is Ashley Carter with Crawford Media Group, and I am sitting down with Dr. Doug Small, who has started the One Million Souls campaign. Dr. Small, thank you so much for joining me today.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, it’s an honor to be with you. Thank you.
SPEAKER 01 :
So tell me a little bit about this One Million Souls campaign and what inspired you to launch it now in this specific moment in American history.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, we desperately need a great awakening. We need a moral reset in the nation. And what we’ve called that in times past is Great Awakening. In the first Great Awakening, we saw 12% to 15%, some say 20% of the population that had a spiritual reset and came to Christ. And that created the climate, the environment that really gave birth to the nation. So I keep saying we had a Great Awakening that gave us birth. Now we need one to save us. And so national turnarounds are measured in the number of people that re-center their lives in Christ and all that he represents. And I think it’s the only thing that can save the nation. So that’s why we started this Million Soul Campaign.
SPEAKER 01 :
And, you know, you’re talking about this great awakening, and it makes me think of, you know, the reference guide that I read, you referenced Ben Franklin and his question about whether the sun was rising or setting on Washington’s chair. Given the current landscape of the USA and our need for this great awakening, would you say the sun is rising or would you say it’s setting?
SPEAKER 02 :
I’d say it’s setting. And despite the 130,000 kids… at least have given their heart to Christ on college campuses this year. That is extraordinary. The number of people that we will see saved by the end of the year, it looks like we’re on track to see about 700,000. That is a 40% increase over the number of conversions we’ve been having in America. We’ve just kind of, our altars have become barren. That is an indication. That could be an indication that I think it’s a little early to say that we’re on the early curl of a turning back to God. And this generation, this Gen Z generation, their hearts have holes in them, 42%. Their father was already gone when they were born. They are looking for something that only Christ can bring to their life.
SPEAKER 01 :
And do you kind of credit this like Gen Z with this sort of growth to move back towards Christ, or is this more of the older generations that are leading this charge?
SPEAKER 02 :
I think it’s Gen Z. I think it’s happening with Gen Z. And surprisingly for some of us Protestants, a 23% uptick in Catholic attendance all over the nation. What does that tell you? Well, it tells you that this generation is not going to go to the big churches with the light shows and the fog machines. They’re not going to go to the warehouse churches. They’re looking for something authentic, something ancient. And so that’s shocking to a lot of people is once young Gen Z said, I want to have ashes on my forehead, and I want to do it on my knees next to somebody that’s radically different than me. I think there’s a depth. There’s a depth in their search for God, which makes conversion not an easy thing. It’s a journey for them. When I grew up, and I’m an old person. I’m 107 years old. But you evangelize somebody, and then you disciple them. Not now. You disciple them to conversion. It takes a long time. It takes patience. And you’re not doing the talking. You’re waiting until they are asking you the questions. And that means a bridge of love. It means slowing evangelism down. It means a different kind of evangelism than I grew up with.
SPEAKER 01 :
So kind of with that in mind, what’s your primary vision for this One Million Souls campaign and primarily for the Sunrise Service on the 4th in terms of evangelizing and moving forward in that?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, there were five organizations working on a Million Souls campaign. The leader of the pack got to 187,000 sign-ups who are willing to pray for others. The second got to about 85,000 or so, and they were working in a pool of 46,000 churches. So what we’ve discovered is that we’ve all failed. We’ve all failed, but we’ve learned, but we’re falling forward. And I think we just have to recalibrate, so our plans are to roll this out again next year. One of the things that happened as we reached Pentecost, which is the 50th day, is we realized we needed to extend the goal line, and that’s when somebody came up with the idea on our team of a July the 4th sunrise service. What an interesting idea. July the 4th sunrise service, and it’s tied to that idea. We want the sun, S-O-N, to rise on America. We want to see the nation saved, and we believe the only way that’ll happen is to see a great spiritual awakening. We’d love to see 10,000 people, families, churches, or cities do a sunrise service on July 4th or that weekend. And that’s about a fourth of the number of people who celebrate the National Day of Prayer. We have about 42,000 locations that celebrate the National Day of Prayer. But we think this has viability to meet with God. My wife and I are doing one right here in our home in our neighborhood. And we’re inviting our neighbors to come spend an hour. Use the wonderful guide that you can get at prayerattheheart.org. It’s a wonderful guide. And we’re looking back where we’ve been as a nation. We’re looking around. Where are we now? We’re looking up. And we’re looking for the Hollywood Prayer Network. I just got a call from them. All these actors that are turning to God out there, they’re doing a very similar thing somewhere else. in Hollywood. So we hope the whole nation will pause on July the 4th and say, thank you for 250 years, God, but we want to see this nation live longer and in deference to you.
SPEAKER 01 :
And you mentioned 250 years. What does it mean for you personally that this campaign is launching and you are seeing the beginnings of this Great Awakening on such a historical birthday for the United States of America?
SPEAKER 02 :
I think that’s what prompted it. I think we realized that that republics don’t last. You know, Ben Franklin was leaving Constitutional Convention. Somebody said, what kind of government have you given us? He said, a republic if you can keep it. Republics don’t tend to last very long, and this one has endured for an amazing 250 years. And so I think we settled on this date this year. We were planning to roll this out last year, but it just didn’t work. We weren’t ready for it. And so we said, no, this is exact date we need to do this, on the 250th anniversary of the nation, asking God to extend the life of the nation so we can finish our obligations of the Great Commission. Every nation on the earth lives here. Every nation, over 500 languages. Over 50 million legal first-generation immigrants, 21 million who fit the profile of an unreached people group, a spiritual awakening here would set the world on fire.
SPEAKER 01 :
And kind of with this, you know, the Sunrise Service and the One Million Souls, you are challenging believers to reject passivity in this. For a listener who might want to accept that challenge but feels a little overwhelmed in the current landscape that we see ourselves, what would you say it looks like to step forward in Holy Spirit-led obedience and reject that passivity as a believer?
SPEAKER 02 :
So we’ve resurrected the Billy Graham, Operation Andrew thing, and we’ve… And there’s a number of the resources, but time doesn’t permit. But we’re just saying, sit down and make a deliberate list of ten people that you deeply love, that you’re close to, that are not practicing their faith. And pray for them every day. Have coffee with five. Share Christ with three. And get one of them. to get back in church with you or get one of them to pray with you. 10, 5, 3, 1. Don’t start by telling them that they need this or that in their life. Start by saying, you’ve never told me your God story. You’ve never told me why you’re not involved in faith. You’ve never told me why you’re an atheist. I’m all ears. Tell me. And then don’t say a thing. And then ask them at some point, hey, you know, a week ago, a month ago, you told me your story. Can I tell you mine? You’d be surprised. And you tell them not by glorifying sin in your life, but you tell them enough about what your life was like before Christ and where you were headed. And then you say at some point, there’s one more story I’d love to tell you. And it’s the story of how much God loves you. This is about love. It’s not about confrontation. It’s not harsh. It’s not quoting a hundred scriptures. It’s not trying to make people feel guilty. Conviction is the job of the Holy Spirit. We’ve been trying to do his job in evangelism. So we’re trying to build a bridge of love. We’ve got truth, but it’s heavy. We want to build a bridge of love to people and show them we care. And that takes a much longer time than a five-minute break. evangelism presentation, that’s dead in this generation.
SPEAKER 01 :
I appreciate the way that you’re saying, you know, kind of meet people where they are, learn their story first so that you can give them yours. You mentioned scriptures, and one of the defining scriptures of this movement is 2 Chronicles 7.14. What does that verse mean to you and to the overall movement?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, 7 Chronicles 7.14 is kind of a wild card. When a nation… needed correction, specifically Israel, the king would call a national solemn assembly, or a prophet could do it, or a priest could do it. And those are the three offices that we have in our, you know, we don’t have a king, we have a president, but it’s executive branch, we don’t have priests, but we have representatives, we call that Congress, and and we don’t have a prophet, but we have the judiciary, and they’re modeled on those three great offices of Israel. And so when you can’t get a king or the president to do it, although President Trump came very close to this just recently, when you can’t get a king or a priest or a prophet to do this, the wild card is this, if my people, if they’re grassroots, a swelling thing, that rises up and tries to reckon with God and say, Lord, we, not just individuals, but we as a nation have done wrong. And we know that you judge nations, and we know that there are sheep nations and goat nations, and we want to be a sheep nation. We want to be a good nation. And so we want you to bless us. And by the way, the event that was just held in Washington, people may not know this, but But the congressional convention is just about stalled. It did not – they were about to pack their bags and go home. They couldn’t get anywhere with the Constitution. And somebody said, let’s pray. Let’s spend a day in prayer. And that day of prayer was exactly 250 years from the day that they recently met in Washington. It was the 14th. I can’t remember now. Exactly 250 years. that nobody knew that nobody planned that in fact in fact it was planned to be a week off that date and then somehow by necessity it got moved to that exact date 250 years after that day of prayer that turned everything around in the constitutional convention and gave us the july the fourth and subsequent signings of our constitution i think that’s significant i think god’s finger is on the scales here and he wants to do something significant for our nation well if our listeners want to help in you know god wanting to do something significant for our nation how can our listeners get involved with you with the one million souls campaign and with the sunrise service on the fourth well you can go to prayer at the heart no no no spaces or letters dot org prayer not pray but prayer at theheart.org. And you can look at resources and watch all kinds of videos that tell what we’re trying to do. You can download free books and resources like Evangelism as Blessing, and you can find a wonderful prayer guide that you can print off for use for this July the 4th or July the 4th weekend. And do it, again, individually as a family, neighborhood, a church. I know some cities are planning a meeting somewhere in their city on that July the 4th weekend.
SPEAKER 01 :
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Small, for talking to me today and letting me know about One Million Souls Sunrise Service and just what this means for the great awakening of America here on our 250th birthday.
