Founder, Global Media Outreach, largest provider of online evangelism and discipleship
Former Silicon Valley tech leader at various companies including:
Apple, Inc, 1986-1992, General Manager/Operations
Computer Sciences Corporation, 1992-2004, Sr. VP/Officer of Technology Consulting Group
GUEST BIO
Training the Missionaries of the Future
The 700 Club
CBN.com
– EARLY BEGINNINGS
Walt grew up in New York City. “I was a street kid,” he says. He joined the Marine Corps and was seeking God because he knew he couldn’t answer the question: Where would he go if he died? His girlfriend who later became his wife gave her life to the Lord while they were dating. “I was startled to see the change in her life,” says Walt who had known Dee since they grew up together. A pastor came to the house and led Walt to the Lord.
After he got out of the military, Walt asked the Lord to provide him with a job since he was a high school drop out. Dee was pregnant with their first child and he soon found a job with Fairchild Semiconductor. After spending a number of years with them, he joined a small start up company in 1986 called Apple, Inc. He spent six years with them as General Manager of Operations and a member of the management team that led the company into the Macintosh era. “We thought we could change the world through personal computing,” says Walt. “I was fortunate to be a part of the Mac roll out.” He left when Steve Jobs left in 1992. Walt finished his business career with Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), a $16 billion, US global corporation with 600 offices worldwide and more than 100,000 employees. He served as Senior Vice President and officer of the Technology Consulting Group managing the business in Pacific Rim countries based in Tokyo.
While working for CSC, he met clients from MIT. Part of his assignment was to get their large clients engaged in the worldwide web. In 2004, during a meeting with MIT clients, questions began to come to Walt in rapid fire. Could we put God’s Word on the worldwide web? Could we minister out of it? He came up with the idea for Global Media Outreach. Today they are the largest online evangelism and discipleship provider. He says there are 7.2 billion cell phone subscriptions on the earth. Ninety-one percent of the population lives within a cell phone tower around the world. “Mobile technology has moved across the earth,” says Walt. “Cell phones are in the hands of people who don’t know where their next meal is coming from.” There is still much work to do. “There are 1.1 billion people who have never heard the name of Jesus,” says Walt. “Through technology, we will get the name of Jesus to them.”
148 MILLION MIRACLES AND COUNTING…
Currently, Global Media Outreach has over 6,000 online missionaries in 132 countries. “We can connect a new believer with an online missionary,” says Walt. The next process is discipleship. “We get them connected to a church or Christian community,” he says. They have seen more than 148 million decisions for Christ in the last 11 years. “We have 148 million stories,” he says. One of his favorite responses came from an atheist who emailed to say he was born and raised an atheist. He claimed he didn’t like pastors or Christians, but had just prayed to receive Christ. “It shows you the power of God’s Word where someone at home can explore the claims of Christ on a computer and the impact of God’s Word on someone’s life,” says Walt. He says God’s timing is always perfect. “We have people who are suicidal who are directed to our site.” One girl from Europe had all her pills lined up on the counter. She remembered she had to send her girlfriend a message. She got on her computer, drifted off to one of their websites and prayed to receive Christ. Today she’s an online missionary in Europe. Another favorite response is from a guy from California who was about to commit suicide. He emailed Walt and Walt sent him a scripture. The guy read the scripture and began to cry. He emailed, “I put down the gun.” The man went to a recovery program at Saddleback Church.
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