Pete Miller: We’re a ministry that has about a thousand conversations a day with people who either have questions or doubts. Some are believers, some aren’t. Some are searching. Many are hurt by the church or running from God. We don’t ask for any information. We don’t ask them to do anything. We just try to remove all the hurdles for someone who might want to have a faith-based conversation.
And you know, the beautiful thing about him is he can relate to all our issues. He’s been tempted like we have. God brings each of us through scenarios and situations and difficulties in our lives, so that when we meet someone with a similar challenge or problem, we can share the good news of how Jesus Christ walked us through those and redeemed us and transformed us and was faithful and gracious toward us no matter what that problem was.
Eden: Today on the podcast, I’m going to introduce you to Pete Miller. Pete serves as the CEO of Need Him Global. Need Him Global is a ministry that has faith-based conversations with people online. Pete reached out to us a few years ago asking if we would like to partner with Need Him, so that visitors to our website could have the opportunity to speak to a real person about their questions. And this ministry has been a tremendous blessing to us. As we got to know Pete and his ministry, we were so encouraged by his love for Jesus and his faith in the power of the good news of Jesus to change lives. So we’re excited to introduce you to Pete today, and we hope that after the podcast, you would click on that “Chat Now” button on our website and have a conversation with someone from Need Him Global.
Well, Pete, thank you for being willing to share with us a little bit about your life and your ministry. I’m excited to hear what you have to say about Need Him Global. But before we get to that, I always love to get to know our guests a little bit. So what are a couple of things that bring you joy?
Pete Miller: Joy? Oh, wow! Well, probably first and foremost, family. It’s a gift. I know it’s difficult for some people. We don’t all experience that gift equally, but being with my kids and now my grandkids is absolutely joyful. It brings a smile to my face. It lightens my heart. I forget about the troubles of the world. So that’s the easy one.
I am, as most of my closest friends know, a baseball addict. So baseball brings me joy. And I am the one person you probably know who is actually, since day one, a Toronto Blue Jays fan. So at the moment, there’s lots of joy, because we’re doing okay in the playoffs.
And then I guess the third one I think of would be nature. When I’m in places that sort of overwhelm us with the beauty of God’s creation—and the easy example is the Grand Canyon, but it could be a mountain and ocean, all kinds of places—there’s a lightness that comes to spirit, because you recognize not only [is] the God of creation responsible for these gorgeous things, but he also cares about me enough to include me in his plan. So yeah, those would be the quick ones that come to mind.
Eden: Wonderful. As you were talking, I thought about how all of those things are about enjoyment or joy. You know, you talked about disconnecting from responsibilities and stuff when you’re with your grandkids or just the rest that comes to our spirit when we see nature or baseball, which is just playing—like it’s fun! And our God is a God of joy, and he loves us when we enjoy his creation and the things he has made, whether that’s people or baseball.
Well, Pete, can you tell us: What is the ministry that you are a part of? How did it begin? And what is it all about?
Pete Miller: Yeah. Love to. The name of the ministry is Need Him Global. And we’re about to turn 30 years old next year. So, back in 1996, some research came out that said, “Only 35% of people who listen to Christian radio are actually believers.” And a bunch of ministries got in the room at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention and thought, Wow, this is low lying fruit. We shouldn’t miss this opportunity, while we’re playing Christian music and messaging, to offer people a chance to have a conversation. And they were all willing to contribute in different ways, whether it was radio stations giving airtime or the ministries creating media. But nobody had the resources to actually answer and have the conversations. And that was the genesis of the ministry.
We became a safe place for people to go and have a conversation about what it means to know and trust and follow Jesus Christ. In 1996, what that meant was a lot of phone calls coming from Christian radio. But fortunately, the original board of the ministry was about using all forms of media and meeting as many people as we could, not just those listening to one form of radio. And so, we started thinking about other places we could share the message. And the iPhone came along several years later and changed how we all think about communicating.
So fast forward to today. We’re a ministry that has about a thousand conversations a day from people all over the world, all in English. We have a volunteer base in 28 countries who log in and have safe and secure conversations with people who either have questions or doubts. Some are believers, some aren’t. Some are searching, many are hurt by the church or running from God. We allow them to come in anonymously. We don’t ask for any information. We don’t ask them to do anything. We just try to remove all the hurdles for someone who might want to have a faith-based conversation. And so, we get to talk to people from 200 countries a month on about every imaginable topic you could think of and, in the process, share the good news of Jesus Christ with each of them.
Eden: Wow, that’s wonderful. And as you are talking to these people, how do you address those topics on a given conversation?
Pete Miller: Well, we make it very clear up front: We’re not counselors. We’re just all a bunch of believers. We’re very much a volunteer organization, obviously vetted and trained, but we’re here to share the good news in Jesus Christ. And the beautiful thing about him is he can relate to all our issues. He’s been tempted like we have. His Word has an answer for every situation. And it’s not that we want to beat people over the head with the Bible at all, but often, God brings each of us through scenarios and situations and difficulties in our lives, so that when we meet someone with a similar challenge or problem, we can share the good news of how Jesus Christ walked us through those and redeemed us and transformed us and was faithful and gracious toward us no matter what that problem was. And it’s fascinating to watch how often a conversation that comes in from halfway around the world lands in front of a volunteer who has a very similar story somewhere in their background. We joke it’s God’s AI. He just keeps bringing conversations to each of us that we can relate to. And my simple example is our COO: His dad died when he was a young man, 40 years ago. He dealt with the anger towards God, the question of “why would this happen?” And he probably talks to more people who are experiencing the loss of a loved one in a week than I do in a quarter or a half a year. And it’s not because those are being sent to us, or we’re grabbing them because we know exactly what someone wants to talk about; it’s just the Holy Spirit using our stories to encourage others to take that leap of faith towards Christ.
Eden: Yeah. Wow. And, Pete, what is your own story of coming to faith in Jesus? Were you saved as someone who grew up in a Christian home? Were you saved later in life? How did you first come to know Jesus?
Pete Miller: Yeah. How much time do we have? It’s a really long story. I’ll try to keep it short. I was fortunate. We had a bit of a mess of a home when I was growing up, but Mom put us on a bus ministry to a good Bible teaching church when we were kids. So this bus would show up every Sunday morning, and we’d jump on. And there was just a faithful group of people there—in my case, three older men—who just modeled what it meant to be a man walking in faith. And I was fortunate enough to hear the gospel and understand it and accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior when I was 13.
I had that experience many of us do, where my walk wasn’t what it should have been, wasn’t what we’d want it to be in [my] college years. And it actually took a really unfortunate turn of events for me to get really serious in my faith. I was married, at the time, for 17 years. We had an eighth, sixth, and fourth grader. And my wife, completely unexpectedly, with no warning, walked out on all of us to pursue a gay lifestyle, of all things. [I] never saw it coming. And it was that moment where, as I walked and talked with God, I’m not saying it was audible, but I felt it deep in my soul: I love you; I’ve always been with you; I always will; Trust me. And it was a moment where my faith journey was really transformed.
I hadn’t left him. I was still involved in my faith, attending church, sharing the Word with my kids, but not to the extent that that change in my life triggered. And that was a moment where not only my daily walk with the Lord, but ultimately my future would be changed entirely. And I’m one of those people who can look back at the worst moment in their life and see how God was there and was going to use it for something really good and sweet.
So now I can say my walk is different. My children, their relationship with the Lord, is probably completely different because of this. And it’s better. And it’s a story that was really hard to tell when it happened. It’s become easier, and I’ll relate it back to what we were just talking about.
One of my first conversations when I started volunteering for the ministry was with a woman who came on, and her topic was marriage, and she was really reluctant to talk. It felt like she wasn’t going to open up. And I finally said, “Listen, all I know is your first name. It sounds like something’s troubling you, or you’re carrying something heavy. Give it a shot. You never know.” And she said, “Well, okay, I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to relate, because my husband’s leaving me for another man. And I have three children.” And I was able to say, “Well, I hope you’re sitting down, because I’m about five years ahead of you in that journey, and I’ve got good news for you. God is faithful and loving, and he hasn’t turned his back on you. He’s right there.” And it was just a sweet moment where, again, he’s redeemed me through something, and I get to share the hope that he gave me with somebody who needed it really badly at a moment that I could completely relate to.
Eden: Wow. Wow. Pete, thank you for sharing that story with us. [It] breaks my heart to hear that you had to walk through that. Yet I’m thinking of what you mentioned earlier, which comes out of Scripture, where the Word says that God the Father comforts us in all of our afflictions, that we might be able to comfort others with the same comfort that God has used to comfort us (1 Corinthians 1:3–4). As we go through difficulties, the Lord takes those experiences, and he equips us with them to minister to other people going through the same pain.
Pete Miller: Well said. He never wastes that pain in our journey or in others. I get to work in a ministry that I get to see that happen every day through the conversations that take place. And it’s just a sweet, sweet reminder of how loving and gracious he is, even in what seems like the worst times of our lives.
Eden: Yes. As you just said, your ministry responders are not counselors; they’re just believers in Jesus. And this week, I heard a talk where the person said, “You don’t need a platform to lead others to Jesus. You just need a finger to point in a mouth.” And I love through your ministry, what you make clear is that we, as followers of Jesus and as those who trust His Word, are ultimately leading people to a person: not a program, not an answer, not a book, but to a person who really is the answer to our deepest needs.
And as you think about your own life and the story that you shared, I’m thinking of someone who’s listening, who hears you on the other side of that, and they might be going through something similar. Could you share with us some of the specific comforts that God impressed upon you that now you share with other people out of that place?
Pete Miller: Yeah. Well, there was many, many lessons learned. One of the sweet things he did, he provided an individual who now would be considered one of my closest friends—this is 20 plus years ago—who was about to start a men’s group Bible study, a new one. And here it was, landing in my lap, at a moment when I needed to get deeper in the Word. I needed more accountability. I needed a place where I could find trusting, godly men who I could share frustrations with and not show those frustrations to my kids, who were very young at the time, or in the workplace, or other places in life where it wouldn’t have been beneficial. And that group, to this day, still gets together every Monday morning. And we just went on a retreat together. And it’s been a gift. So one of the things I tell people is you need that community. Doing the hard things in life alone makes the hard things even harder. And we all need that. And God wants to provide it. We just have to be willing to step out from that comfort zone.
Our natural reaction is regret, shame, guilt—even if we’re not responsible for what’s happening. And the enemy wants to drive us into a dark, lonely place when those things are in our hearts. And God wants to do the opposite. Not only just time in the Word but time with believers, setting an example for those around you that even though it seems like I’m down, I’m not: I’m walking with the Lord and trusting that he will be with me, and there will be good that will come from this somehow, some way. So yeah, there are many lessons learned, but those would be the ones that come to mind off the top of my head, because so often people in hard places going through hard things are avoiding that community and getting out of that dark, lonely place.
Eden: And I want to highlight something that you said that I think is very wise, which is that on the one hand, you found godly men that you could voice your frustrations to. And that lament and that honest grieving and even sometimes letting out anger is the way that the Psalms teach us to deal with our emotions, to actually cry out to God in our pain [and] to be honest about it with other believers. But then what you also said was [that] you were aware that you were a witness to the people around you and that there are times and places, like either to the Lord in private or to godly people, in a community setting, where it’s proper to express those things. And yet, on the other hand, there are times when we need to testify to God’s faithfulness, even in our pain.
Pete Miller: Absolutely. Holding on to them isn’t good, but how you let them out is just as important as letting them out.
Eden: Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you for sharing your story with us. [It’s] so encouraging to hear your reflections on just the Lord bringing you through that time. As you look at the conversations that you have on Need Him, could you tell us two of the most frequently talked about topics, just your pulse on where people are at in terms of feeling hopeless and searching for answers and then how Jesus speaks to those things, how the gospel speaks to those things?
Pete Miller: Yeah, interesting question, as it feels like there’s a change starting to happen in those topics. We track all the conversations. We ask volunteers to note the topics that are discussed in each conversation, and they can pick from a large list, as many things that apply. And as a ministry, when we started doing this, it was very much spiritual-based questions, people listening to Christian media. And as we expanded our reach and now offer this invitation in all kinds of secular places, more sin struggles came to light, and people started bringing things—whether it would be addictions, or pornography, or struggles with same sex or gender confusion, or loneliness—we got more conversations from people who maybe weren’t Christ-centered and were just trying to figure out how to deal with the problem.
There seems to be a bit of a revival happening, where more and more of our conversations are faith-based. Our number one topic for the last 18 months in a row now has been prayer. So it’s sweet, right? Because people volunteer, and they want to talk about faith-based topics. They’re not afraid to talk about the sin struggles or the things that are different.
I think right now, the resource I use most often is some resources around anxiety. The world is moving at a very fast pace. Time is a precious gift, yet we all somehow find a way to waste it. And what’s left is this anxious world we live in that’s constantly telling us we’re not good enough, fast enough, smart enough, rich enough, pretty enough, whatever it may be. And I think that topic, more than any, is one that we’re seeing just grow and grow.
Unfortunately, not that it’s a top topic, but the other one that comes to mind is suicide. People are struggling, and I might have taken one suicide conversation every month ten years ago. Now you talk to somebody who might mention it once a day. It’s a real struggle. I think it’s almost [come] to a point where now it’s so easy to talk about it, or it’s thrown out so casually. The word is used by people who have no intention whatsoever. But, obviously, anytime someone mentions it, you want to take it seriously, and you want to sort of get inside their heart to figure out really what’s going on and what’s causing you to even want to throw that word into the conversation.
So, yeah, historically, over 30 years, we haven’t had a lot of moments where culture has created a huge influx of conversations. Going back to 9/11, even, there was a handful. When Israel was attacked, a couple of years ago, there was a handful. Black Lives Matter—there was a handful. But the Charlie Kirk killing has brought an avalanche. And it’s really been interesting for us as a ministry that so many young people were affected so deeply by that terrible event that they’re reaching out. And almost universally, they’re reaching out to try to figure out how to go deeper in their faith or how to bring their loved ones into a knowledge of who Jesus is. And I had one [a conversation] the other day with a young man. He was in his mid-30s, and he had gone back to his faith because of that event. And he was growing deeper and deeper and more encouraged. And he said, “But I’m married to a woman who’s an agnostic, and I need help in how I can talk to her about this good news that I’m now re-experiencing in my own life.” So, it’s a fascinating time.
There is a lot going on that’s different. [There are] more young men coming to us. It’s always skewed more female, and it’s encouraging [to see more men entering the conversations]. God is always at work. It’s easy to lament all the things that are wrong in the world, but we are a ministry that’s constantly reminded, whether it’s a person experiencing a dream in Egypt or a tragedy somewhere else, God is working through those things to reveal himself to those who don’t know.
Eden: Yeah. Wow. That’s wonderful. Sometimes a conversation is what changes our lives. But other times, it’s other types of media or different ways that we interact with God’s revelation. So, for those that are new to the faith, we like to give them suggestions for things to put on their bookshelf that might be transformational. And so, are there any books that Jesus has used to transform you as you walk with him?
Pete Miller: Wow. Good question. I assume we’re talking about other than his Word, which constantly is transforming us and reminding us. There’s two books that came along at a time in my life when I needed to be reminded how to walk well with God, and they’re both “pursuit of” books. Jerry bridges wrote a book, Pursuit of Holiness, that’s just a sweet, sweet picture of both the discipline we need to walk well but God’s grace towards us as we’re doing so. And you probably know the other one: Tozer wrote a book, Pursuit of God. And both of them, in their own sweet way, ministered to my soul, gave me energy and wisdom that probably was right there on the surface. But if you’re not looking very intentionally, you can miss them or pass by them quickly, read the words, and not let them sink in and change [you]. And yeah, both of those books, I think are well worth putting on the shelf—hopefully reading first—but being part of that collection of things that you might not only go back and read again, but very possibly you’ll go into and offer some part of that to someone who needs it in your life and help them on their journey.
Eden: Yeah. And at the beginning, you said this is a book besides the Bible. So, in God’s Word, is there a part of God’s Word that’s especially precious to you? And if so, how did it become that way?
Pete Miller: Yeah, the thing I’ve learned through that men’s group, the six of us every Monday morning for 20 years, is just the beauty of the entire book. We talk to a lot of people who are investigating faith, and they question the Old Testament. There’s two different gods, right? And they get these two different pictures. But when read in its entirety and in context, we see a God that’s not only perfectly holy and perfectly just but perfectly loving.
It’s hard to pick one area. I guess I’ve come to appreciate so many portions of the Old Testament, much more so than I did as a new believer or as someone who was walking in faith, maybe not as deeply as he could have. But I guess if there’s one verse, or two verses, Philippians 4:6–7. We’re back to anxiety. “Don’t be anxious about anything. But in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ.” And it certainly was a verse that carried me through some seasons, and it’s a verse I probably share almost every day with people online who are searching for Scripture, or wondering if God’s Word has anything to say [to them]. When you really break it apart and think about it, it’s saying we can hand it all over to him; and he will not only be with us, but he will lift us up through it. And it’s just a sweet, sweet reminder. We take for granted that people know Scripture, and they don’t. The first person I gave John 3:16 to, he said, “Who’s John? And is 316 the page number?”
Eden: Wow. Yeah.
Pete Miller: So, we really try to simplify the Bible when we share it. That’s a verse where if you wrote an abbreviated version of it, P-h-i-l-four-dot-colon-six-eight, it looks like hieroglyphics to a non-believer. But if you say, “God has a message for you, and he gave it to us this way,” and you just quote the verse, suddenly people want to go deeper. And they want to know more, because they realize there’s something there for them.
Eden: Thank you for sharing that with us, Pete. I love that verse. And there’s a version of it that’s sung by a place called Scripture Lullabies. And I thought that they were paraphrasing, but I came to find out they were using the NLT translation. And I love that translation. And it says, “Don’t worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done” and the peace of God, far beyond what we can understand, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And I love that verse, partially because I think we hear [it] initially as a command, and it is a command: Don’t worry about anything. But in that is also an invitation and a reflection of God’s heart, that he wants his children to be at peace. And he doesn’t want us fretting about things that he’ll take care of for us.
Pete Miller: There’s a promise underlying all of it, and his promises are perfect.
Eden: Yes. Yep. Well, Pete, thank you for your time, for sharing your story and about Need Him. I hope that someone who listens to this podcast will be prompted to chat with you online or pick up the phone and interact with Need Him. I know that you have rich, Jesus-centered conversations and that you’re ministering to many people every day. So, thank you. And thanks for the partnership that you have with our website. So -anyone listening that does want to talk to you guys can just hit the chat button on our website and start talking to one of your responders. We’re grateful for you guys.
Pete Miller: Likewise. Thank you so much. Blessings.
Eden: You’re welcome. Blessings.
Thank you so much for listening to our podcast today. If you enjoyed our conversation, I would encourage you to like or subscribe to our podcast so that you can hear the next conversation. And if something that you heard today spoke to your heart or got you thinking, I would encourage you to not let the day go by without talking to God about what’s on your mind. We believe that he loves you and that he’s pursuing you today out of that love.