This is Russ, I will use this page for bio information on my life and some 'blogging':).
I thank many of you who have requested this information. The best I can give you is right here.
I was not raised in Church or with any knowledge of the Bible or God. I was a spiritual seeker in the 70's dabbling in occult materials, seeking spirits, spiritual concepts and studying golden Buddha. I was taught how to meditate and 'leave the body'. I had OBE,s and felt supernatural powers. None of these encounters seemed to bring the final answer. None of it took me into relationship with the real and living God. I was seeking anything that could give me an answer.
At a party when I was encountered by a man who seemed to radiate the power and presence of Christ, I ran! But I could not escape what I heard and felt from him. This 'presence' he had was clean and awesome. At home away from everyone I just couldn't get this Jesus out of my mind. I finally surrendered to the Living Christ and received Him as my Lord and Savior. He filled me with His Spirit that night. I was blown away! I knew all my wrong was cleansed and that a new Power and Presence was in my life. God was there all the time but now He was in my life. Jesus was no spiritual concept, He was and is God who has come for us.
I found a Christian book store and bought every book I could and filled every pocket of my old army jacket with them. Going to Church was new to me and it seemed nothing could stop me now; I was on a whole new venture. The Lord Jesus was leading my life and it was amazing. I got to witness to my friends and family and tell them what happened....what Jesus has done in my life.
Some came to Christ right away some later......some I am still waiting for.
I can only tell you that this was the transformation of my life, future and destiny. Jesus is Alive and is all that the supernatural Word of God says He is.
My favorite gospel tract is the 'FOUR SPIRITUAL LAWS'. It begins with 'God loves you and has a wonderful life'' to offer you. He really does..........not just an endless spiritual search but landing into personal relationship with God, knowing God being amazed and growing forever in Him. You know some day I will see God face to face. I hope you will too. If you don't know Jesus as alive and living in your life by the power of His Spirit them please read the 'FOUR SPIRITUAL LAWS' and email me if you have questions or if you too accept Christ into your life.
MINISTRY
My first experience of ministry was giving my testimony at a Youth for Christ meeting in 1975, 22 students accepted Christ that night and I couldn't wait to share Christ again. At my Church the Lord led me to teach Sunday School which then lead to teaching youth and then becoming the youth pastor at Green Baptist Church for two years.
I had the privilege of being a senior pastor of 4 Churches in the last 28 years.
First Southern Baptist Chapel in Canton Ohio when I was a student of Malone College and Highland Park Community Church which was a merger of two churches.
During this time I also worked for Greater Akron Youth for Christ (15 years total) and became the Director of this Chapter for over 5 years. We saw thousands of youth during this time with hundreds who came to Christ. My great fellow workers labored to reach youth and we had at times over 240 Christians helping in crusade event evangelism. I still love youth and know they'er best life and future is with the Lord Jesus Christ. These were some of the best years of my life during which I met my wife and we opened our first home to a number of young folks who were in need.
Next was the Cathedral of Tomorrow where over 22.000 visited and over 700 were saved in a two year period. This was a great time of evangelism and many special ministry projects. This work was where we unleashed major spiritual warfare.
The Final Church, Calvary Community was one of the best and most powerful Churches I have ever been in, it was one of the most loving but also one of the most beaten and torn Churches I have ever seen.
We did see over 300 get save and about 300 baptisms and a lot of great ministry. We also opened our doors for prayer deliverance ministry which drew 100's of people in need from over 40 Churches in our area.
I am deeply thankful for the time, friends and opportunities I had during all this time. It was here that I learned that no matter what people did or what bad things happened you must stay faithful.
Staying faithful in times of painful trial will leave you with no regret and prepare you for bigger doors of ministry from the Lord Jesus. He sees and knows all your life, deeds and heart. 2 Corinthians 1
I left Pastoring in 2006 which was the toughest choice ever. I finally launched out into what I feel I was called to do and trained for all of my Christian life.
I hung on to pastoring as long as I could but finally stepped out and took the ministry of Evangelism--the unique work of Shatter Darkness into full time work in September 2006.
I founded Shatter the Darkness in the mid 80's when I was the Director of Akron Youth for Christ. Shatter's ministry grew for the next 20+ years with hundreds coming to us for deliverance and inner healing prayer. Many got saved and many hundreds more were ministered to over those years in conferences, evangelism events, and training courses.
Shatter kept growing quietly and developed to its current level on a shoe string budget and a lot of sacrifice. I am so grateful for the many volunteers, workers and friends who at times risked there lives for the sake of victims of satanic ritual abuse. Many thousands of hours were poured out to many from a number of states.
Since launching out full time in September 06 and starting from scratch the development of the Web sites we have now been flooded with so much opportunity it is hard to keep up. We have continued the local training courses and launched in 2007 the web/internet Theology for the 3rd millennium courses.
Doors have opened to preach, teach, and continue to do seminars here and in 4 other states. I launched Preemption Broadcast as a 'pulpit to the world' not knowing that this would become one of the main outlets for preaching, evangelism and teaching.
A number of radio and internet broadcasting stations found us and began what has now turned into hundreds of hours of interviews for evangelism and education. I am grateful to all of these new friends.
Shatter in its first 16 months of full time launching out received over 1 million 300,000 looks at the web site. The pages of teaching, evangelism, discipleship, training and newsletters have been looked at and reviewed over 140,000 times (pages). Also there have been thousands of downloads of the audio messages. Many thousands listened to the radio interviews and the new broadcast/pod casts from Preemption Broadcast. People from 60+ countries have heard the messages and listen often.
Every week we are packed with counseling, prayer mapping/intercession, evangelism/reep outreach trips, teaching courses, preaching and much more. With salvations, deliverance's and ministry to many we are over whelmed with the Mercy and Grace of God.
With growing numbers of students, researchers, new friends and a network of great servants 2008 has launched out and has already set pace to more than double the work and ministry of 2007.
A great miracle of help came in January of 08, this has set Russ, Shatter, its ministries and Preemption Broadcast up for a wider open door. I am extremely grateful for the prayers, support and help of many! May the Lord Jesus richly bless you!
EDUCATION
After barely graduating in 1974 from Green High School (just ask my mom :) I would never have dreamed that I would one day read thousands of books and go off to 5 different schools. When Jesus Christ came into my life and I was saved (born again John 3)....well it seemed that the books began to fly off the shelves and into my lap. In the early days I would pack my old army jacket with books and read every chance I could.
I started my ministry education at Moody Bible Institute evening school and continued it for over two years. Thank God for they're push to study the Word deeply verse by verse.
From there I went to Cumberland College for two summer sessions and then transferred to Malone College in Canton Ohio. What a great time I had there. It is where my Daughter is now enrolled.
At Malone I went through graduation services in 1984 for a BA in Religion/philosophy Christian ministries degree. I took advanced courses in Theology, Apologetics and Greek.
For two years I was a visiting student at the University of Akron studying military science and criminology. It was during this time I became a Police Chaplain for UAPD unit 78 and was allowed to teach some in the police academy on cult crime.
Studies continued and I found that seminars, conferences and specialized training sessions were of great worth. They seemed to pack in an expert level of information in a focused and intensive way. This is what I now love to do because of the Impact value in a short period of time.
I also took training courses in evangelism, discipleship, counseling, theology, leadership development, recruiting and care of volunteers, spiritual warfare, deliverance, inner healing, time management, and marriage and family issues.
I sought studies in the occult, satanic issues, satanic ritual abuse and spent over 20 years seeking all the training I could get on SRA/MPD/DID and mind control technologies. This included hundreds of books and thousands of hours with victims.
The above training came from Youth for Christ USA, the Southern Baptist Convention, Navigators, Master life Master builders, and many other various training conferences throughout the nation.
I got to take specialized training in Basic, Biblical, suicide, crisis, pastoral and other forms of counseling at Emerge Counseling Center in Akron Ohio and in other seminars.
Cult crime and advanced training in the field work of occult crimes occurred at UAPD, OPOTA and Def TECH. Specialized training occurred with Tom Wedge author of the book Satan Hunter. I got to attend many training conferences the last one being at the St Louis seminar on occult/cult crime ministry occurred in 07.
I have done course work and have been to seminars at the Anaheim Vineyard California in power evangelism and power healing during the days of a dear brother John Wimber. I continue to take studies from Vineyard USA and have attended the Columbus Vineyard for further training. This is a great local church out there that represents what I feel is a great witness of Christendom.
I am currently taking courses in criminal profiling, criminal investigation and surveillance technologies. I have also enrolled in LION Investigation Academy for studies in private investigations.
I am finishing a Masters Degree with the Wagner Leadership Institute in practical ministry soon and hope to move on to a Masters program in New Testament Theology and a Masters in Greek New testament manuscripts.
I love to study and continue to read all I can which includes researching in depth the streams of occult, cults, religions, philosophy and luciferian belief systems. Got to know the enemy- Daniel Chapter 1; Eph 5.
I have now developed 16 training courses that I have taught locally. All of these are being uploaded and launched for web Internet schooling. The most advanced course is the new Preemptive Systematic Theology training. I am willing to come to any group/church to teach these as seminars.
My first book The BLACK AWAKENING should be done the end of July 2008 and hopefully published in August (I am pushing to get it done now). I will follow this one with a 'part two' 'THE VOICE OF AN ANCIENT HATE' then books on Evangelism, the Holy Spirit and one more...... 'THE FINAL RAGE' a book on the end time ramping up with the unprecedented manifestation of supernatural powers.
I love good Coffee-French roast, old book stores, motorcycles, technology, Chinese food, Pad Thai and working in the sun. I continue marital arts training and like to walk/jog hike the mountain bike trails. I drive an ooold f150 truck and hope to get a new four door Jeep for field work and travels. I will do many mission reep trips this year to over 30 cities.
The joys of my life are my beautiful wife of 27 years and my now teenage daughter both are gifts of God to me. They both love God and serve Christ well. It is such a gift to have my little family, I love it. I hope to be a good man and a man of God in there sight. They both inspire me.
Oh yea and our crazy dog Mickey who loves to ride with me in the truck.
There is simply and clearly one driving goal in my life. To bring as many people as possible into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.! Corinthians 9:19....This is the greatest joy of all I get to do!
I do believe that God in His mercy and Grace will visit us with massive spiritual awakening with millions coming to Christ in these chaotic last days.
There is one reference point, the center of my life.....Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. He is everything, there is none like Him....no One else Isaiah 46.
The embrace of the Infinite, Immeasurable, and Awesome God is amazing!
He is my friend and the King of Heaven! He is personal and relational.
Because some ask, I am an Evangelical/Biblically focused charismatic Christian. The best term is Empowered Evangelical or better yet just be a real and good Christian 1 John 2:6.
I just want to be a simple faithful Christian who loves God and has a passion of reaching others for Christ....................before it's to late........................................... and it is late you know!
If you have not opened your heart to Jesus PLEASE do so, what else do you have?
JOHN 3
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[a] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.''
Russ Dizdar
Romans 15:13
