Overview
Come learn to share the gospel with others through this unique event. Learn to articulate the good news of the gospel simply and effectively. Engage in tract distribution before the parades, street evangelism among the crowds, booth and prayer evangelism, and open-air preaching. You will receive clear, practical teaching from our speakers each morning and be equipped to share the gospel with others. Our speakers this year include Eli Ayala from Revealed Apologetics, Tony Ramsek from Gospel Equip, Dr. Anthony Silvestro from Creation Training Initiative, and Jon Neifert with Tulip Gospel Outreach. They will cover a variety of topics on evangelism and apologetics.
We will provide tracts and booklets for you to distribute during your time at the event and will be equipped to engage in one-on-one conversations about Christ and the gospel. Our outreach and witnessing time will be led by experienced team leaders and coaches to help guide you as you apply your learning. This event coincides with the annual Pella Tulip Time Festival celebrating the settlers’ Dutch heritage, the tulips, and the Christian history of the founders of Pella, IA.
The event is free, but we suggest a donation of $30 per person, or $75 per family to help cover the cost of putting on this event. Simply Donate after registration or in-person when you arrive.
Volunteers are responsible for their own food, lodging, and parking. You are encouraged to fellowship and share your experience with your team members over a meal during the festival. There are plenty of options available.
Download and print this flyer to share with your church.
Schedule
May 1 - 3, 2025| Thursday | ||
| 8:30 am | Welcome and Registration | |
| Come early to get checked in, review the tracts available and meet others. It is a great time to connect with others and ask questions about the schedule for the next few days. Each morning we will start with prayer and a hymn before training begins. | ||
| 9:15 -10:15 am | Evangelism Lessons from Jonah | Jon Neifert |
| You will receive a brief overview of the Christian history of Pella and its founders who fled religious persecution in Holland, arriving in 1847. Then we will explore some simple lessons in evangelism from the book and person of Jonah. | ||
| 10:30 am - 11:30 am | Navigating a Gospel Conversation (A) | Tony Ramsek |
| Learn the art of how to build a relationship in just minutes and earn the right to share the gospel. The Gospel Roadmap is a tool that will embolden you to faithfully proclaim Jesus without fear. With the Gospel Roadmap you’ll always know where you’re going and what to say next. | ||
| 10:30 - 11:30 am | Open-Air Preaching Workshop (B) | Dr. Anthony Silvestro |
| We will cover these key questions to prepare you to preach the gospel in the open-air. Do you want to 1. Learn about the Biblical examples of open-air preaching in the Bible by Jesus, Peter, and Paul? 2. Learn how to open-air preach? 3. Understand how open-air preaching increases the evangelism opportunities for all of the evangelists present? This session is targeted for men. | ||
| 12:00 pm - 7:00 pm | Public Outreach + Meals | Outreach Teams |
| Work together with your outreach team to role-play what you have learned, grab a meal together and begin your outreach. You will have different time shifts to gain varied experiences in sharing the gospel. | ||
| 2:00 pm | Parade Tract Distribution | Outreach Teams |
| In the time before the parade, there is great opportunity to hand out the valuable message of the gospel with tracts to those who have gathered to watch. | ||
| 7:00 pm | Sharing & Prayer | Speakers |
| Gather together to share successes and learn from each other. Pray for the lost that we encountered | ||
| 8:00 pm | Parade Tract Distribution | Outreach Teams |
| In the time before the parade, there is great opportunity to hand out the valuable message of the gospel with tracts to those who have gathered to watch. | ||
| Friday | ||
| 9:15 am - 10:15 am | Understanding Presuppositional Apologetics | Eli Ayala |
| Why do so many apologetic approaches fall short in evangelism? This talk will unpack the practical power of presuppositional apologetics in defending the faith and sharing the gospel. You’ll learn how to expose the self-refuting nature of unbelief, demonstrate why only the Christian worldview provides the foundation for reason, morality, and science, and engage skeptics with confidence. Whether you’re talking to an atheist, agnostic, or religious pluralist, this method will equip you to stand firm in the truth of God’s Word. | ||
| 10:30 am - 11:30 am | How to Reach Catholics with the Gospel of Grace (A) | Tony Ramsek |
| We’ll examine key doctrines of the Catholic Church—such as the authority of the Pope, the role of Mary, purgatory, and salvation—and compare them to the clear teachings of Scripture. Are these beliefs rooted in biblical truth, or do they add to or distort the Gospel message? This isn’t just a theological debate; it’s a matter of eternal significance. Learn how to share the true gospel of grace alone with Catholics in a gracious manner. | ||
| 10:30 - 11:30 am | The Evils of Marxism (B) | Dr. Anthony Silvestro |
| What is Cultural Marxism? You will get a primer on how it came out of the Enlightenment period, rooted in the 1800s, and then started to change America in the 1900s. You will then be equipped on how to handle the most common issues stemming from Marxist ideology today (homosexuality, transgenderism, economic socialism, & relativism)! | ||
| 12:00 pm - 7:00 pm | Public Outreach + Meals | Outreach Teams |
| Work together with your outreach team to role-play what you have learned, grab a meal together and begin your outreach. You will have different time shifts to gain varied experiences in sharing the gospel. | ||
| 2:00 pm | Parade Tract Distribution | Outreach Teams |
| In the time before the parade, there is great opportunity to hand out the valuable message of the gospel with tracts to those who have gathered to watch. | ||
| 7:00 pm | Speaker Panel Q&A | Speakers |
| This is a favorite of many. After you've had some opportunity to share the gospel with others, you can ask questions of the speakers who have had many years of experience. | ||
| 8:00 pm | Parade Tract Distribution | Outreach Teams |
| In the time before the parade, there is great opportunity to hand out the valuable message of the gospel with tracts to those who have gathered to watch. | ||
| Saturday | ||
| 9:15 am - 10:15 am | Engaging the Atheist | Eli Ayala |
| Conversations with atheists can often feel frustrating, but they don’t have to be. In this session, you’ll gain practical tools for steering discussions toward the gospel by showing that atheism cannot account for logic, morality, or human dignity. We’ll cover common objections, ways to keep the conversation focused, and how to challenge unbelievers in a way that is both biblically faithful and intellectually compelling. If you’ve ever struggled with how to reach atheists effectively, this talk will give you a clear, gospel-centered strategy. | ||
| 10:30 am - 11:30 am | Engaging the Mormon | Eli Ayala |
| How do you share the gospel with a Mormon when they seem to believe in Jesus too? This talk will break down key differences between biblical Christianity and Mormonism in a way that is clear, practical, and evangelistically effective. You’ll learn how to ask the right questions, expose the contradictions in Mormon doctrine, and lead the conversation toward the true gospel of grace. Whether you have Mormon friends, family, or missionaries knocking on your door, this session will equip you with the tools to share Christ with clarity and confidence. | ||
| 12:00 pm - 7:00 pm | Public Outreach + Meals | Outreach Teams |
| Work together with your outreach team to role-play what you have learned, grab a meal together and begin your outreach. You will have different time shifts to gain varied experiences in sharing the gospel. | ||
| 2:00 pm | Parade Tract Distribution | Outreach Teams |
| In the time before the parade, there is great opportunity to hand out the valuable message of the gospel with tracts to those who have gathered to watch. | ||
| 7:00 pm | Sharing & Closing Session | |
| 8:00 pm | Parade Tract Distribution | Outreach Teams |
| In the time before the parade, there is great opportunity to hand out the valuable message of the gospel with tracts to those who have gathered to watch. | ||
Speaker Information
Eli Ayala is a Christian apologist, YouTuber, and teacher at a Christian private school, where he teaches middle school students in Old Testament studies, logic, and debate. As a passionate advocate for biblical truth, Eli is a speaker, who addresses topics in apologetics, theology, and philosophy, equipping Christians to defend their faith with confidence. He holds a Master of Arts in Theological Studies and a Master of Divinity with a theological focus from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. Eli lives in North Carolina with his wife, Breanne, and their three children, Autumn, Ethan, and Calvin.
Tony’s goal in life is to exalt Christ, equip the saints, and evangelize the lost. Through his ministry Gospel Equip, God uses this humble, yet passionate communicator to mobilize the church with powerful biblical truths and practical tips to inspire believers to reach our lost and dying world. Coming out of a Catholic background, he has a special heart for those trapped in false religions. Tony specializes in bringing theological depth and clarity to people’s understanding of the gospel.
Dr. Anthony R. Silvestro, Jr., was once an unsaved evolutionist but now is an avid Biblical creationist – teaching adults and kids alike that God didn’t create man from ape-like creatures, and that the Bible can be trusted from beginning to end, starting with the book of Genesis!
Dr. Silvestro resides in a suburb of Cleveland, OH, with his wife Julie, and his son, Anthony III. After receiving his Bachelor’s Degree in Math and Chemistry from Baldwin-Wallace College, he attended The Ohio State University College of Dentistry and received his dental degree. Dr. Silvestro continues to practice general dentistry in Middleburg Hts., OH, and is also trained in most of the dental specialties.
After years of training and self-study, Dr. Silvestro speaks for Creation Training Initiative with former Answers in Genesis speaker, Mike Riddle, on many popular topics. He also trains new evangelists at Ray Comfort’s Ambassador’s Academy every year. You may have even seen him in the Christian movies, American Gospel, and American Gospel 2!
Christians have benefitted by his teaching at conferences, youth groups, and Christian radio shows, including ApologeticsLive.com. Fan-favorites include presuppositional apologetics for the layperson, problems with the social justice movement and critical race theory, Biblical evangelism, and street-level apologetics to be able to witness to anyone, even your family members at the Christmas dinner table! He also does teaching on Biblical Creation and how science supports the Biblical account of creation as well as the age of the earth.
Dr. Silvestro especially enjoys teaching presuppositional apologetics, the biblical apologetic method, to help equip Christians to proclaim the Gospel. He recently published his first book, On the Origin of Kinds, to help teach Christians how to Biblically evangelize using the Law and Gospel while answering any objection to the Christian worldview.
His book, On the Origin of Kinds, is one-of-a-kind. While many fantastic books exist that teach Biblical evangelism, presuppositional apologetics, and creation apologetics separately, there are not any that put everything together into one easy-to-apply book like this does. In this book, you will learn how to Biblically evangelize, using the Law and the Gospel, and to handle the most common objections using presuppositional and creation apologetics.
Jon Neifert is the founder of Tulip Gospel Outreach and finds great joy in sharing the gospel message and telling others of the work of Christ. Jon has has attended and served as a team leader for the Living Waters Ambassador’s Academy and has experience sharing the gospel and coordinating outreach events since 2017.
Jon, his wife, and two sons enjoy technology, outdoors, hiking and wildlife, and raising animals on their acreage near Pella, IA. Jon has a degree in Applied Computer Science form William Penn University. He grew up as a pastors kid in the Friends church. He currently attends and serves his local church, Tracy Christian Reformed Church.
Location
First Church, Pella
605 Broadway St, Pella, IA 50219
Lodging
Pella Tulip Time Festival is a large event and many of the hotels in Pella and the surrounding towns (Pella, Oskaloosa, Knoxville, Newton) get booked early. Here are some useful links to find your lodging options. Visit Pella
If you are travelling from out of state, you may consider staying at the Christian Conference Center near Newton, IA. It is 30 minutes from Pella, but provides a few, but limited, options at their campground. Please contact them at (641) 792-1266 and let them know you are with Tulip Gospel Outreach.
Event Sponsor: Jon Neifert