From Closet Atheist to Corporate Evangelist – Kyle’s Story

Kyle Campbell is an InterVarsity alumnus who's seen Jesus move powerfully through moments of risky evangelism in his corporate work setting. We sat down with him on the InterVarsity World Changers podcast. Below is a summary of his story, but you can listen to his full story here on the podcast.

Kyle Campbell grew up “making Christian noises.” 

As the son of a pastor, he was a worship leader and a youth group leader in his church growing up. Despite all that, he and his twin brother entered college as closet atheists. 

“I was the guy that liked to debate Christians,” Kyle said. 

Everything changed the night God saved Kyle’s brother from committing suicide. As his brother prayed and cried out to God, he began to experience unexplainable joy. The next day, he approached Kyle with a Bible in his hand and asked, “What if we lived like everything in here is true?” 

A Story to Redeem 

Although Kyle was unconvinced by his brother’s newfound faith, he agreed to give God 30 days to prove himself. 

“I very arrogantly challenged God,” he said. 

Part of that challenge included meeting with Andrew Givens, his InterVarsity campus minister who is now an area director. 

Earlier experiences with racism led Kyle to hold prejudices towards white people. Andrew sensed Kyle’s apprehensions towards him during their meeting and asked him about it. 

"I don’t really trust you people,” Kyle confessed. 

Andrew responded by being humble, curious, and willing to dig in with him. They continued meeting regularly, and when they did, they argued, asked questions, and wrestled back and forth. Eventually, Kyle agreed to attend InterVarsity at UNC Wilmington. 

Already, God was starting to redeem a piece of Kyle’s story.

Kyle eventually became a worship leader in his chapter and through that, became close friends with his co-worship leader, a white student named John. During this time, Kyle was also having trouble coping with an extremely traumatic experience from his childhood. 

One night he became deeply depressed and called John at 2 a.m. 

“I told him I felt like dying,” Kyle remembered saying. 

Fifteen minutes later, there was a knock at his door. John came over and decided to stay the night with Kyle to make sure he was okay. 

“He was the picture and the voice and the arms of Jesus,” Kyle said. 

Although they had nothing in common, Kyle realized that their love for God was the most important thing they shared. That moment shifted his perspective forever. Through Andrew and John, God was showing his love to Kyle through the people he least expected to receive it from. 

Evangelism in College and Beyond 

Until InterVarsity, the idea of evangelism was foreign to Kyle. 

“I believed you didn’t really talk about your faith unless you were one of God’s ‘special people,’” Kyle said. 

Sometimes when his InterVarsity chapter gathered, they studied a passage in Scripture before going out in pairs around campus to share the gospel. 

“It was scary and weird, but God showed up in miraculous ways,” Kyle said. “And I learned early on that God doesn’t need much. He just needs a yes.” 

While he was in college, Kyle assumed God would use his evangelistic experience to be a missionary overseas. But instead, God called him to be a missionary to the marketplace. 

After graduating, he started working in the corporate world and was the first Black employee his company ever hired. Unfortunately, that work environment stretched him in some very uncomfortable ways. Other employees complained about Kyle unfairly and he ended up working in a windowless room, isolated and unseen. Despite this, he worked hard and managed to get promoted 11 times in eight years. 

In this hostile work environment, Kyle couldn’t help but think, “I would love to go where people don’t hate me.” 

Just like in InterVarsity, he wrestled with bitterness toward others. So, he began to challenge himself. Each day, Kyle asked God to reveal someone to pray for in his workplace. Then, he invited those people to lunch and asked them about themselves. One effective strategy was asking for the three most important nouns in their lives. When he shared his own nouns in return, he mentioned Jesus. At the end of the lunch, he asked the other person how he could pray for them. 

“It’s hard to hate people when you know their stories,” Kyle said. 

Through this process, Kyle realized that God used InterVarsity to shape him into someone uniquely able to witness in this difficult workplace. Once again, he broke through barriers of distrust and racial tension and found deep connection. 

An Exercise in Humility 

One particular prayer turned into years of regular meetings. 

God brought the face of a senior executive to Kyle’s mind one day. Nervously, he sent an email to the executive with the message God gave him, which was that he should love his wife the way Hosea loved Gomer in Scripture. After reading the email, the executive asked Kyle to meet him by the lake and confessed that his marriage was falling apart. 

“I have no idea how you could possibly know what’s going on,” he told Kyle. 

At the end of the walk, the executive asked if they could keep meeting every other week by the lake. 

During their walks, Kyle shared the gospel with him. Ultimately, Kyle wanted the executive to know that he couldn’t promise that God would fix his marriage. 

“But I can promise you what I was promised,” Kyle told him. “One, in this life you will suffer. And two, [God] will be with you. Him being with you will be better than if you had never suffered at all.” 

Kyle doesn’t know if the executive ever came to faith, but that doesn’t matter to him. 

“Evangelism is an exercise in humility,” he said. And it’s one he continues to practice in his personal life and work life, whether it’s through how he cares for his family, one-on-one prayer lunches with co-workers, or the small group he leads in his corporate office.