Furthering the Great Commission: Professor leads by example and encourages students to spread the gospel

Liberty University’s motto is “Knowledge Aflame,” which David Wheeler, professor of evangelism and senior executive director of LU Shepherd, emphasizes in his work at the university.

Wheeler highlights Liberty’s motto to emphasize that at the heart of Liberty lies the goal to set students’ hearts on fire for God and let that flame spread to the world. Wheeler strives to live out this mission himself. One way he does this is by sharing his phone number to every student he teaches — over 40,000 of them over the years — so that if they have questions, prayers or concerns, they can reach out to him personally.

“I get calls all the time; I get texts all the time, and students ask me to pray for them. … I’ll have students text me and say, ‘Hey, can I FaceTime you? I have a friend here. He’s got a question,’” Wheeler said.

One of Wheeler’s core values is multiplication. He wants to reach as many students as possible with the gospel so that they can reach as many people as possible with the gospel, and so on.   

However, Wheeler was not always so committed to the idea of ministry and evangelism. While he recalls becoming a committed follower of Jesus at age 8 and telling his mother and grandmother at age 10 that he wanted to be a preacher, he ran from this ambition as a teenager.

But God eventually brought him back when he was 16 and used him to share the gospel with a girl named Debbi, whom he had invited to his house and played basketball with. He had been convicted by a youth pastor to share the gospel with someone that week. He was reluctant to do so, but the Holy Spirit kept prompting him to share anyway. He approached her and asked if she went to church, and she said no. Still hoping to get out of his divine assignment, he asked if she was a Christian; she said no.

Then, he took her inside, grabbed a Bible and proceeded to stumble through what he called “the worst presentation of the gospel since the beginning of time.”

“It was the Romans road. … I didn’t know the difference between Romans and Revelation, to be honest with you,” Wheeler said.

Yet God worked through his presentation of the gospel, and to Wheeler’s surprise, she believed and was saved. Seven years later he married Debbi, and ever since then, his burning passion for the gospel has grown.   

At 20 years old he embraced the call to become a preacher and started sparking youth revivals, taking every opportunity he could to speak the gospel. He eventually landed a job as an interim pastor, and then over the course of the next 12 years, he pastored several churches and served as the evangelism director for the Indiana Baptist Convention.

After accepting invitations to speak at Liberty several times, Wheeler finally accepted a role on staff in 2006, and he has felt at home in his job ever since.

“I tell my students that I want you to feel you’ve fulfilled your calling to where you never work a day in your life. I’ve been here 18 years and have never worked a day. I love what I get to do here,” Wheeler said. 

Wheeler is passionate about relationships and community. He says that the church cannot operate apart from relationships; it cannot function separately from the community. The fire of evangelism spreads through people, and it will die in isolation.

Wheeler encourages students to pray for, serve and share the gospel with the people they already know and then meet more people and do the same for them.

Since 2016, Wheeler has been serving as the executive director of LU Shepherd, which he helped build after being asked to create an office that would appoint and train students to be spiritual leaders in their halls. The LU Shepherd office has been growing and expanding since then. It is currently establishing its 24/7 prayer ministry and preparing to bring on more Resident Shepherds after the completion of Commons IV.

Every semester, Wheeler continues to motivate his students to pursue evangelism and service in their day-to-day lives, whether that means buying someone a birthday card, giving coaching lessons or sitting with a lonely person during lunch. Anything that engages in a relationship is an opportunity to spread the fire of the gospel and create a flame that will spread for generations.

Freund is a feature reporter for the Liberty Champion. Follow him on X