Despite turning 60

Author: Michael Gott

Despite turning 60 years of age, Michael Gott said in 2004 that he “reaffirms that he has no plans to slow down.” To prove it, his whirlwind preaching tour of Ukraine, Poland, Austria, and the Czech Republic last winter and this spring was one of the most intensive schedules of his forty-year ministry and capped the celebration of forty years of marriage to his wife Jan.

Michael Gott’s public ministry was honored last year when he received the Roy Fish Lifetime Achievement Award for vocational evangelism. Fish himself gave the award; Gott was the first to receive it. His ministry was described by Baptist leaders as “unique and extraordinary” and as “a record of unwavering evangelistic activity that has often blazed a trail.” Tributes from Christian leaders flowed into the offices of the Southern Baptists of Texas when the recognition was made public. They came from twelve different countries worldwide.

After the awards ceremony given in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, Gott went to the airport and returned to his ministry schedule in Eastern Europe. He has targeted major cities of 300,000 to more than two million. One such city is Kiev, where he has held seven two-week events in the last five years.

Recently, while speaking in the largest Baptist church in Kiev, a respected pastor commented, “There are so many young people who come to this city who are unconnected people who have left behind their families and their small villages to start life here. They come here full of hope, but they end up lonely. As I looked into the faces of people who attend a Michael Gott evangelism event, it hit me that these are not the typical people who attend church; these are outsiders whom no one else attracts. They come, and Michael Gott and his team disarm them and touch their hearts, and as a result they make a deep commitment. A lot of these young adults at the university have faces that reflect they are reaching out and responding to love—they now find it in Christ.”

During the summer of 2006 the ratio of those who attended an evangelism event and responded to an invitation to come to Christ hit an all-time high. During the year 8,747 persons registered personal commitments to Jesus Christ.

As Gott and his wife and three different teams traveled to the eastern part of Ukraine near the Russian border, Michael Gott found a background of the leftover remnants of communism, but added to the mix were a high unemployment, industrial decline, and intense human tragedy in the Donbass region. Michael Gott noted that in three major two-week events he saw as great a response to the Gospel as he had ever known in Ukraine.

While in Donetsk Michael Gott talked with mine workers who spoke of their situation related to an incredibly short 56-year life expectancy due to working conditions in the mines. Gott commented, “These men told me of some of the pressures that miners are under; I understand now. But I reminded them that throughout history there have been moral and spiritual awakenings that changed a nation, that started with miners.”

Gott often referred to the political climate he found in today’s Ukraine. He said, “I won’t get involved in the personalities, but I’ll tell you—if Jesus Christ is dead and did not rise again, I do not see the slightest glimmer of hope for Eastern Europe, the situation in Central Europe or what is happening in other parts of the world.” Michael Gott spoke frequently and openly on international terrorism and violence. “Only God can give us hope. There are great promises that are ours directly related to the resurrection of Christ and the many promises and predictions He made concerning the future because He is alive.”

The churches of the region invited the Michael Gott team back for another two-week event. The invitation was accepted for the summer of 2007. One pastor said, “When I learned he had said yes, I could not keep back the tears of gratitude.” He predicted his church would be filled with over 1,000 per day for the ten-day event. Gott was called “a great messenger of God [who] preaches hope and gives honor to the Lord” by a leading Donbass pastor.

Michael and Jan Gott conducted a “commissioning conference” for those interested in being involved in future evangelistic ministry events, in May in Texas. People attended from as far away as Washington state, Virginia, Georgia, and Florida.

The schedule for the summer of 2007 is listed as: