Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Whoa.
Yeah.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: Come on.
[00:00:08] Speaker A: Hey, everybody, Mike Wing here from Kingdom Bound Ministries.
Welcome back to the KB Insider podcast. So happy that you're with us. This is a very special episode of the Kingdom Bound Insider podcast because we are going to revisit our conversation that we had back in the winter with Mike Gordon. We first sat down with him and in. In first episode, we had a lot of good stuff, but there was a lot of stuff that we actually didn't air. And so we want to share with you the entire episode here, the entire interview. And that's going to be our episode today. So sit back, relax, and enjoy our full interview with Mike Gordon.
[00:00:47] Speaker B: So, Mike, you're here in Lockport, New York. You text me a couple months, couple weeks ago that you had an open night in your thing. So thank you so much for, first of all, coming to our area. It's huge that you would just come to Lockport Upport. You know, if people in Buffalo, they feel like Lockport, driving to Lockport's like driving to Hawaii. Like, it's impossible for some reason. And so whenever someone has a chance to come to our area, it's super cool to have people like you. And so thank you so much for just coming and ministering to our kids and tell us how you're doing, tell us what you're up to lately.
[00:01:18] Speaker C: First of all, thanks for having me. And yeah, this is what happened. So, like, I'm speaking and with my schedule, I thought I was done for the year, you know, and then I had one invite to speak at a Christian high school.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:01:30] Speaker C: And that turned into, I think, seven other speaking engagements all in around two days, basically without embellishing. But then I had Wednesday night off, which is right now. Yeah. So I messaged you because I have a great relationship with you and Kingdom Bound and thinking, hey, like, I would love to come serve somewhere. And you were the one that said, hey, Lockport, I've been to Lockport before, I enjoy Lockport, you know, and I actually knew where it was, was a no brainer. So, yeah, first of all, thank you for arranging tonight. We had a great night with the youth ministry and I think we had over 100 young people show up in a snowstorm. Also, lock where, you know, snow everywhere, you know, how am I doing? I'm doing great. I'm kind of wrapping up for the year, you know, and which is a good thing because I'm already ready, ready to hit the ground running in 2026.
I mean, this year I think I did about 130140 speaking engagements and then finish writing a book in the process. And as mentioned to you, just before we started recording, kind of jumping into the TV world a little bit, too. And I love it. But my problem is if I don't stop, I just keep going and going and going. So it's a bittersweet season for me right now where things are slowing down, but I know they will ramp up very quickly.
[00:02:46] Speaker B: Well, that's one of the things I wanted to ask you because you. Like you said, it's a bittersweet season because things are ramping down. Like, a lot of people this time of year, they look at the end of December and they're like, I don't want to go to Lockport on a snowy night freezing my butt off. And like, you had this open night.
You're filling your schedule with as much things. What keeps you on the grind. Like, what keeps you motivated just to minister. Get in front of as many people as you can. Like, what pushes you? What is inside of you that says, instead of taking the time off or going Christmas shopping or going to a Christmas party, like, why are you here in Lockport, New York? Why are you in Niagara Falls ministering? Why do you keep pushing this much that you do?
[00:03:26] Speaker C: Well, I'm not at a Christmas party because I had no friends and no invitation.
I'm not Christmas shopping because I'm poor.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: You have nowhere to buy.
[00:03:40] Speaker C: I love it. But, yeah, I guess I could be doing other things. Very true. But like, my heart to serve, that's just my heart, you know, I love Jesus, I love people.
And for whatever reason, God has given me this little speaking ministry, which I think just brings both worlds together. You know, you got to share Jesus and hang out with people. Great opportunity, but my heart is really to serve. Like I mentioned when I was a little younger, new as a speaker going back maybe 13, 14 years ago, I think I looked at speaking as speaking gigs. And what I meant by. What I mean by that is I felt like I had to get gig to boost my profile and boost my network and get my name out there. And there's almost like a check mark of like, okay, did my 200 gigs this year and whatnot.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:29] Speaker C: And just. That's me being honest.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:30] Speaker C: But. But over the years, he started realizing, like, you know what, I'm doing ministry. I knew I'm doing ministry, but just kind of changed. I knew a heart of serving. It's now, it's not. I want to speak to help my profile now. I want to speak so I can just serve these amazing ministries like here in Lockport or Kingdom Bound as well. My heart to serve. And I know at Kingdom Bound, for example, for whatever reason you keep booking me, I'm gonna keep saying yes until. Until. Until I'm an old man.
I tell you every time I. I say, you have me, use me. You know, my heart to serve. You know, if you want me to go speak on that big stage or that tiny stage or, you know, how. Whatever. That's just my heart by behind what I do. And it's really changed in ministry because, you know, I'm coming in not with a how do I boost my kingdom with, how do you be a part of God's kingdom? I know, like, that's a silly thing to say.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:19] Speaker C: Going back 14 years seemed obvious. Like, oh, of course. Of God's kingdom. I can probably look back in a season of my life as a speaker where I would have looked at an opportunity tonight as a. Oh, here's another network that I can maybe, you know, get my name out there. It might lead to bigger things. Yeah, no, no. Tonight was. Hey, I had a night off. Here's a ministry I want to serve. And great people I know surrounded by that ministry, and here we are. So that's what. That's what motivates me. Serving, ultimately, sharing Jesus and loving people.
[00:05:48] Speaker B: That's why we keep asking you, because of your heart, because you're so.
[00:05:52] Speaker C: I'm a terrible speaker.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: I didn't say it.
No, but seriously, like, you have that heart that you just come and you say, I'm willing to do whatever. I just want to serve.
[00:06:05] Speaker C: I.
[00:06:05] Speaker B: And that's what you literally tell us every year, and we take you up on it every year. And, like, even last year for the. This past festival, you helped me with some of the seminars and some of the concepts and ideas that we had, and we kind of tried some new things. And you.
You are one of the few people who is, you know, one of the speakers or artists that we bring in, but that I can feel comfortable enough to just text and say, hey, Mike, can you help me with this? Like, I can't do that with a lot of different artists and speakers. I don't have that relationship with them. But because you have that heart to serve, I think that's why we. We bring you back. I know that's why we bring you back, but I think that's why God's opening so many other doors first.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: Right.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: Because Jesus said, like, if you want to lead, what do you have to do? You have to serve. You have to do the things that no one else is willing to do. And we've seen that in, in you just by coming to the festival. So it's, it's really neat. It's been really neat to watch you have that heart to serve and then also like improve in your skills and get better. And I think God has blessed your heart to serve. And so it's been really neat. Now, you said you had 135 speaking engagements this year. Is that 130? And on top of that, you wrote a book.
[00:07:19] Speaker C: I wrote a book.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: What is, how did that come about? Tell me, why did you, you wake up one morning and we're like, I have a book inside of me. Tell me about that.
[00:07:27] Speaker C: I, I wish it was that easy. You know, I, I think for me, I had an idea for a book a long time ago, but I had no desire to actually write a book. I know it sounds really silly, you know, maybe I did not want to work hard at it. You know, I'm not sure what it is. Or maybe P.S. you know, PSTD, you know, like, you know, I failed, you know, too many English classes, you know, and you know, grammar checked. I'm not, I'm not sure what it was, but for a long time I wanted to write, but didn't actually want to physically write. Again, very silly.
What inspired this whole writing journey I started was a couple years ago, you know, I was in 2019, I'm about to speak at a, at a Christian conference, a pretty significant conference to me at least. And the day before I'm rushed to the hospital, you know, and I'm hoping it would just a minor situation which wasn't the case, like end up being in the hospital for almost, almost 25 days. Almost literally almost lost my life in the hospital. And that's not embellishing like a circumstance.
[00:08:30] Speaker B: I remember you going through that.
[00:08:31] Speaker C: Yeah, it was crazy. Yeah. And like a doctor gave the whole like 30% of people die in your situation. So like might hang in there.
I'm not sure if, I'm not sure if he said hang in there, but good luck. You know, that actually inspired the book because here I am going through a really hard circumstance.
I'm giving the odd like social media update so people knew I was alive.
If I missed a day or two, like, oh, Mike, are you there?
[00:09:01] Speaker B: Getting texts.
[00:09:04] Speaker C: And what inspired the whole book was how many well meaning people messaged me during that time trying to explain why it happened so why I was in the hospital and why I was almost dying and why I had to cancel in 81 city speaking to her because of it. Like, wow. Seemed like everyone had an answer to the why, and to me, none of those answers made sense.
[00:09:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:27] Speaker C: And they're all very different.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:29] Speaker C: So I think what came out of that season was, you know, is there an answer to the why? And I think maybe sometimes we go through hard circumstances and maybe there is. Here's why it happened.
I feel there's other times in life you may not get an answer. So that little season of my life stuck with me. And the idea of wanting to write a book. Oh, by the way, I didn't mention wanting to write a book. I had no idea what to write about. You know, that was also problem number two. But just seemed like the two worlds came together now. I had the desire to write, but now something to write about. The whole book is really about when you go through a hard time. What if you never get an answer? What does that look like?
[00:10:06] Speaker B: So, you know, it takes on some
[00:10:07] Speaker C: heavy topics and emotions. Yeah. However, if you heard me speak before, I know you have.
I have a very twisted sense of humor, and I love storytelling. And it's just weird all around.
[00:10:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:20] Speaker C: The book is, like, a really weird read of, like, there's some heavy stuff and tons of fun stories and. Okay. You know, I'm just thinking of the person going through a hard time and just feels like they can't get out of bed or maybe they're going through a brutal, like, divorce or going through, you know, chemo.
And somehow my book landing in their hands, and I. I picture people bursting out in laughter.
Not tears, but laughing. Reading this book, you know, in the hardest time of their life, it's laughing. And I want to bring joy to people, you know, with the book, but also give them peace, knowing sometimes you might not know why it happened, but that's okay. Doesn't change the fact that God loves you. Does not change the fact that he sent his son. Jesus died for our sins. Like, those things are still reality and true no matter what you're going through. So that's the motivation behind the book. That's why I wrote and hoping maybe it can help bring joy into someone's life. Is going through a hard season.
[00:11:13] Speaker B: We want God to use, like, all the things that we think we're good at the most. Like, we want him to shine a spotlight on those things. But you didn't have anything to write until you went through the worst season of your life that you've ever been. Through.
And isn't it interesting how God will use those really tough times or the times that you do your best to avoid, or the days that you dread, or the days that you look back on and you just question, but that's what God gives you the book to write about.
[00:11:43] Speaker C: 100. And I think I had some good people come alongside me who either give me that wisdom. Canadians, I'm not very bright, you know, but gave me that wisdom and said, hey, you can use this story, you know, you can use, you know, how you saw God through to a lesson you learned to maybe help other people.
I don't want that to be in vain. I don't want that to be a situation where it's almost died. It's like, I'm fine now. I think there's more to it. I think I can take that and was able to kind of package it into some words.
[00:12:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:12] Speaker C: And hopefully can use that to just encourage that person who doesn't know why they're going through what they're going through. They keep following, you know, don't give up on Jesus.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: Yeah. I tell people, you know, people say all the time, why does God let this happen? Right? And I said, well, God might not have let it happen. He might not have orchestrated it, but he can redeem it. And it sounds like he is redeeming that situation in your life, even though you might not still even have the answers.
[00:12:34] Speaker C: Oh, 100%. I don't have the answer. And there's another story in the Bible. In the Bible? Not in the Bible, this book. I'm not writing the Bible.
I'm not writing the Bible.
The new mic translation, that'll be like all heresy, I guess.
[00:12:48] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:12:48] Speaker C: Yeah, that won't be a bestseller.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: Slightly different than the mad.
[00:12:52] Speaker C: I won't be back at Kingdom Bound if I wrote that one.
By the way, there's another story in my book talking about when my dad passed away. And it was beside him when he died. And I remember just my natural, I guess my nervous system, spirit, whatever it was, over and over. After I watched him passed away, I sat there for two hours. I mentioned this in the book and over and over, just like God, why does this happen?
[00:13:13] Speaker B: Why?
[00:13:14] Speaker C: Why? Why is something that you think I want to know. And that's just also one of those stories where here I am just a few years later. I still have no idea why that happened. But I have peace knowing that's okay. Right. And. And I think if you can get to that point of having peace and not Knowing. Yeah, I think you're in a pretty decent spot.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
You minister all over the place in North America, Canada, United States. You see teens, young adults all over the place. What's something hopeful, something that encourages you about the next generation that you can share with us? That, like, you see kind of across the board of the next generation coming after us, younger people? What's something encouraging?
[00:13:56] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I remember reading something very recently, and I think they shared that the amount of young people purchasing Bible, they're downloading the Bible app is higher than ever in history.
Which I'm like, at first I'm going, wait, what? But you look at church, you know, sometimes we're going, why is there less teenagers in church right now? But then you see a stat like that going, maybe something is happening. Right. So when I hear something like that, it gives me hope. I think they're looking for truth.
Maybe it's the result of living in a postmodern culture where everyone around us is saying, there's no truth and go do whatever you want, no consequences if it makes you happy. It's all good.
And maybe they're realizing it's not all good.
[00:14:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:41] Speaker C: What do I turn to?
I'm curious how they even know the Bible of what they should turn to, you know, what's happening in between there. But the encouraging part to me is I think young people, youth and young adults, I think they're more open to Jesus than we realize.
[00:14:58] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:14:59] Speaker C: And I know it sounds silly, but I think there's a weird message that has really come along with this. The post, the millennials, and even into the Alpha generation, where we're kind of assuming, like, they're completely done with church and that church is hopeless when it comes to young people and, like, you know, no. Never going to come back or come to church or pick up a Bible.
[00:15:19] Speaker B: And.
[00:15:19] Speaker C: But people are picking up the Bible. So I don't think we should buy into the mindset that young people today, although the culture looked different, maybe a little darker than normal or what we're used to, I don't think that means we write people off. If anything, maybe that dark culture is what turns people to Jesus. So that's what gives me hope that. That it doesn't seem hopeless. I think we're actually on the verge of something really big and something really cool and a generation that can really just shift this whole Christian movement to have a whole generation on fire for Jesus again. And an abdominal effect of that. Who knows? Like, you know, maybe it's young people Living that out in their colleges and all sudden that public secular college being mistaken for a Christian college because so many people are on fire for Jesus in there or that job they get down the road, the office they work in. You know, maybe there's a domino effect where these young people can have that boldness and a generation can really change a nation and bring people back to, you know, bring the light. Yeah, darkness.
[00:16:17] Speaker B: It's almost like they're, they're not looking for something to be a part of that like is already cemented. It's like they want to be a part of something that they help to create and they help to bring about. And so it's almost like they're doing this on their own apart from like the, you know, the church on the corner or something that's already happening. Like they're, they're really passionate about their personally like being a part of something and coming together because you're seeing it on like Christian campuses, you're seeing, seeing it all over the, the United States where people just like, it happens organically. They don't want it to be like, you know, Sunday morning at 10am necessarily, but they're happy to do it at 9pm on a Tuesday night.
[00:16:57] Speaker C: So true. That's so true. And I think that also goes to the postal nals how they're wired as well. You know, they want to have ownership. They want to feel like they're making their own decisions.
So, you know, own decisions mean, hey, this is a very organic thing that's happening on Tuesday nights in our, on our college campus. You know, they feel like they're part of that versus I'm told the only time I can worship is at 10am Sunday morning. They might not feel like they're in that decision making mode and being told what to do. But I think you're 100 right. The more natural, organic, you know, movements of Christianity in those circles that I think is very attracted to them, but also, I think it's also very sincere. Yeah, I think very real and I think it's fresh in a good way. So.
[00:17:38] Speaker B: All right, so the last question, the most important one, the one we want to know the answer of the most, the one that we're going to ask all the people that we interview on our podcast. Is a hot dog a sandwich?
[00:17:48] Speaker C: I have never heard that before. Is a hot dog a sandwich?
[00:17:51] Speaker B: Is a hot dog a sandwich in your opinion?
I feel this is a, a long. I can't believe you might be. Maybe it's because you're Canadian, but This is a long, debated.
[00:18:01] Speaker C: Well, a sandwich. I eat a sandwich with two hands.
[00:18:03] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah.
[00:18:04] Speaker C: You hot dog eat with one?
[00:18:05] Speaker B: Sometimes.
[00:18:06] Speaker C: Unless maybe it's a big one. Yeah, like a foot long. I.
Oh, that's not a sandwich, man. No, no, I think a hot dog is not a sandwich.
[00:18:14] Speaker B: So Mike Gordon says a hot dog is not a sandwich. That's probably. Okay, good. So we can put that on the out of the fact. We'll mark it down.
Hey, thank you so much, man. Seriously, thank you to Freedom Church for hosting. But seriously, thank you for reaching out, for texting me, asking me if. If we had something available.
Thanks for coming. Thanks for your time here. This is kind of something we're trying to get off the ground, and. And when we started thinking about a podcast, I said one of the first people I want to reach out to is Mike. So thank you so much.
[00:18:41] Speaker C: Well, thanks for having me. And I love what you're doing. I love the ministry that you do personally and Al, also Kingdom Mountain, and what you have is special. So thank you for allowing me to come and hang out, and I can't
[00:18:52] Speaker B: wait to see where it all goes. Absolutely. All right, thanks, man.
[00:18:56] Speaker C: Get him up now.
[00:18:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:00] Speaker C: I feel that joy in the Lord tonight.
