Rick Gage was born on February 11 and raised in Texas. He is from Houston, Texas and is one of four sons of evangelists Freddie and Barbara Gage. His father, Freddie Gage, was a prominent Southern Baptist evangelist, and his mother Barbara helped sustain the family’s ministry efforts.
The Gage household was described by a family friend as one “saturated with the presence of the Lord”, reflecting a deeply religious home environment. Rick was baptized at age eight and later referred to himself as a “preacher’s kid”, indicating his upbringing in a minister’s family.
Sport was a significant part of Gage’s childhood. He played organized football from fourth grade through college. After high school he attended Blinn Junior College in Texas and then transferred to Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Health and Physical Education in 1981. These early educational and athletic experiences, along with his family’s faith background, defined Rick Gage’s youth and education.
| Fact Category | Verified Information |
| Full Name | Rick Gage |
| Nationality | American |
| Profession | Business professional |
| Primary Field | Business and corporate sector |
| Career Activity | Involved in professional business roles |
| Leadership Roles | Associated with management-level positions |
| Net Worth | Not publicly disclosed |
| Income Source | Business-related activities |
| Data Availability | Based on public records only |
Rick Gage is best known as the founder and long-time leader of Go Tell Ministries (formerly Go Tell Crusades), an evangelistic organization launched in 1990. A former college football coach turned evangelist, he left the coaching profession in 1986 to pursue full-time ministry.
Since founding Go Tell, Gage has traveled extensively to hold evangelistic events and youth outreach programs across the United States and abroad. Over three decades of ministry, he has organized hundreds of multi-night crusades and summer youth camps, leading tens of thousands of people to make commitments to Christ.
His relentless focus on rural and small-town America often called a “small-town Billy Graham” approach has brought him recognition as a leading evangelist among U.S. Baptist and evangelical communities.
Early in his career, Rick Gage worked in college athletics. He served as a running backs coach at Liberty University from 1984–1985 while completing his education.
In 1986, Gage made a pivotal decision to “surrender [his] life to full-time ministry,” stepping away from a promising coaching track at Texas Tech and other universities. He returned to Liberty University, later earning a Master of Arts in Religion in 1998, to prepare for his new calling.
By the late 1980s, Gage and his brother Daniel began launching Christian youth events, feeling “called…to launch a camp ministry that could impact the lives of young people.” This led directly to the creation of Go Tell Ministries.
Gage often recounts that his greatest career shift came when he obeyed what he saw as God’s call to evangelize full-time; four years after that decision, he officially established Go Tell Crusades Inc. (now Go Tell Ministries) in 1990. Those early years of transition defined his professional purpose and set the stage for his life’s work in evangelism.
Go Tell Ministries was founded in 1990 to organize large-scale evangelistic campaigns, particularly in partnership with local churches. Gage envisioned the organization as a unified effort of congregations “saturating” their community with the Gospel.
The ministry’s guiding mission is reaching people for Christ “in the spirit of the Rev. Billy Graham,” but with an emphasis on places often overlooked by larger evangelistic campaigns. He and his team mobilize resources to host stadium crusades, student camps, school assemblies, and mission trips.
Go Tell’s stated vision focuses on equipping churches nationwide in evangelism and discipleship. In practice, this means Gage works closely with pastors and church volunteers to recruit stadiums or civic centers for nightly services featuring Christian music, personal testimonies and clear Gospel presentations.
This collaborative model of ministry involving local leaders in planning and follow-up has been a hallmark of Gage’s approach since he founded the organization.
Youth outreach is a core component of Rick Gage’s career. In the summer of 1989, just before formally launching his ministry, Gage and his brother held Go Tell’s first youth camp in Georgia.
This camp effort expanded rapidly; by the mid-1990s, Go Tell was hosting annual summer camps at venues like Liberty University (Lynchburg, VA) and conference centers in the Southeast. These camps combine dynamic worship, sermons from trusted Christian speakers, and fun activities to engage teens.
By 2024, Go Tell reported that more than 110,000 students and youth leaders had attended its camps, resulting in over 40,000 recorded decisions to follow Christ and roughly 3,000 young people committing to full-time Christian service.
In addition to camps, Gage developed the “On Track” school assembly program. This initiative sends Go Tell evangelists into public and private schools to address middle and high school students about life choices, especially the dangers of drugs and alcohol.
Over the years, Gage has noted that his team has delivered the On Track message to an estimated two million students nationwide. These assemblies often occur in the same cities that later host Go Tell crusades, helping to engage the youth in advance of larger public events.
The large-scale evangelistic crusades are the most visible facet of Gage’s work. Go Tell stadium crusades typically last 3–4 nights, with each evening featuring a Christian music concert (often with notable artists), testimony segments, and a sermon by Gage or an associate.
Thousands of spectators may attend each night. Gage’s team coordinates dozens of local churches of various denominations to serve as hosts and volunteers. Recent crusades have seen participation from 30–40 churches working together, with hundreds of volunteers staffing counseling, follow-up, and logistical roles.
These crusades have taken place across much of the United States and overseas. Gage has held events in his home state of Georgia and throughout the South, as well as in states like Alabama, Arizona, Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and others.
Internationally, Go Tell teams have conducted outreach in countries including Russia, Mexico, Romania, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Argentina.
Many of Gage’s crusades have yielded significant results: one of his 2023 stadium campaigns in Mississippi drew over 10,000 attendees and recorded about 2,000 public decisions for Christ.
Even more routinely, hundreds of gospel decisions are seen at each major crusade. Gage also frequently emphasizes youth-specific gatherings: one recent crusade in Mississippi included a Wednesday youth rally that drew over 4,000 students. Such events underscore his career emphasis on engaging the next generation.
Rick Gage’s ministry accomplishments are extensive. By 2024, Go Tell Ministries was celebrating 35 years of evangelism.
The cumulative impact reported by the organization includes tens of thousands of professions of faith and many communities reached. For instance, overall camp ministry statistics exceed 110,000 young attendees and 40,000 decisions for Christ through camps alone.
Thousands more decisions come from the crusades. Gage’s outreach also includes mobilizing young Christians into service: roughly 3,000 youth from Go Tell camps have reportedly responded to calls into full-time Christian ministry roles.
His evangelistic efforts have been recognized by peers and institutions. In 2010 Rick Gage received the American Bible Society’s Pilgrim Award for Workplace Evangelism, an honor acknowledging his lifetime of service through Go Tell.
Local Baptist leaders regularly commend the scale and organization of his campaigns. After a 2023 crusade in Brandon, Mississippi, for example, a state convention executive director described the outreach as “well-organized, Christ-centered,” noting that many first-time decisions for Christ were made.
Gage himself often underscores the urgency of his mission. He has stated, “There has never been a greater opportunity to reach the lost than now,” reflecting his view that the current generation presents an unprecedented opening for evangelism.
These achievements have built Gage’s reputation as a trusted leader in the evangelical community. He is sometimes informally referred to as a “small-town Billy Graham” because of his consistent focus on reaching people in rural areas and smaller cities.
Throughout his career he has maintained an emphasis on collaboration with churches: his crusades and camps are explicitly inter-denominational efforts. This approach has fostered broad support for his ministry among Southern Baptist and other evangelical pastors, many of whom credit Gage with uniting their congregations for evangelistic outreach in powerful ways.
As founder and president of Go Tell Ministries, Rick Gage carries a leadership role characterized by both vision-casting and hands-on involvement. His leadership is often described as grounded in biblical principles and high integrity.
For example, pastors who have worked with Go Tell events commend the ministry’s structure. After a recent event in Mississippi, a local pastor praised Go Tell as “biblically based, Gospel-centered and Christ-exalting,” adding that the team’s “organizational structure and method of ministry [were] clearly understood” and that the ministry placed “a priority on integrity from beginning to end.”
Such comments highlight the trust many church leaders place in Gage’s work. Under his direction, Go Tell’s team generally includes several on-stage evangelists and a support staff; Gage often preaches the final night of crusades.
He also invests in training young believers through Go Tell’s internship program, passing on leadership skills to the next generation. Within the broader evangelical community, Gage is known for humility and teamwork.
Denominational leaders note that his crusades bring together Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal and non-denominational churches without friction. In one citywide campaign, a pastor observed that congregations of different backgrounds “came together across denominational and racial lines with a united goal of loving and reaching people.”
According to that pastor, the experience was unforgettable: volunteer testimonies after the event repeatedly said, “I have never experienced anything like this” in their ministry involvement. These endorsements from peers reflect how Gage’s personal leadership style and Go Tell’s collaborative model have earned him respect and credibility in evangelical circles.
As of the mid-2020s, Rick Gage remains actively engaged in evangelistic work. Go Tell Ministries continues to schedule multiple evangelism campaigns and camps each year.
For example, the summer of 2024 saw Go Tell youth camps being held in Alabama and at Liberty University in Virginia, the very campus where Gage himself once studied and coached.
In recent years he has frequently spoken at conferences, campus chapels and church events in conjunction with crusade preparations. Gage and his team often begin a new crusade by visiting local schools and churches in the host town during the day, followed by evening crusade services.
This model continues to be a core pattern in his career today. Looking ahead, Gage has indicated that Go Tell will keep prioritizing outreach to smaller communities.
He often comments on contemporary cultural trends, emphasizing that many rural areas are considered “unchurched” or have declined in church attendance. This reinforces his drive to reach those populations.
Under his leadership, the ministry still plans mission teams to both national and international destinations. While Gage’s own schedule involves extensive travel, he also directs a team of evangelists and leaders to sustain Go Tell’s operations.
As of 2026, no reliable public estimate of evangelist Rick Gage’s net worth is available. Gage is an American evangelist who founded and serves as president of GO TELL Ministries, a nonprofit organizing large-scale youth crusades and camps.
He derives income from these ministry activities, his reported nonprofit salary is in the tens of thousands of dollars per year, and from related speaking engagements and publications. Major financial outlets like Forbes or Bloomberg have not published any personal wealth figures for him, so any online net-worth claims are unverified.
Rick Gage is an American business professional referenced in publicly available business and professional records. He maintains a relatively low public profile compared to widely covered public figures.
Rick Gage is associated with business-related and professional activities. Specific details about his current role or industry focus are not consistently disclosed in public sources.
Rick Gage is not widely recognized as a public figure in mainstream media. Available information suggests limited public exposure and selective professional visibility.
There is no verified or publicly disclosed information regarding Rick Gage’s net worth. No major financial publications or official records provide confirmed estimates.
Based on public records, Rick Gage’s income is generally linked to professional or business-related activities. Exact income sources are not publicly detailed.