Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
Empowering Faith: Yes, You Can with Pastor Benny Tate
About this episode
Pastor Benny Tate, senior pastor of Rock Springs Church in Milner, Georgia for over 36 years, joins Philip Cameron to unpack the bold, scripture-grounded message behind his new book, Yes You Can. Benny opens with a stunning testimony: his wife Barbara was told by the Mayo Clinic she would have eight to ten seizures a day for the rest of her life — yet after Benny surrendered his doubts to God, she has not had a single seizure in over three decades. "What can you do that I can't do?" God asked him — and that question became the foundation of his ministry. Drawing on Ephesians 3:20 and the story of David being overlooked by Jesse, Benny challenges every believer to stop underestimating what God wants to do through ordinary people. "When everybody else saw a shepherd boy, God saw a king," he says. He speaks directly to the 1,700 pastors walking away from ministry every month, urging them to keep pouring — like the widow's oil in 2 Kings 4 — because the supply never runs dry as long as you keep going. Yes You Can is available at mycharismashop.com and on Amazon. Learn more about Pastor Benny Tate and upcoming free leadership resources for pastors at rockspringsonline.com/bennytate.
Part of our Faith collection of conversations.
Quotes worth sharing
“God said to me, son, what can you do that I can't do? I said, oh my goodness. I went to my boss and I said, I've gotta go home. I walked into that door, Philip, I looked at that little wife, and I said to her, you don't ever have to take those seizure medicines anymore. I know the Mayo Clinic said you'll have seizures till you die. I know they said you had a scar on your brain. But I am convinced also that God has touched you. Philip, that has been over three decades ago. She's never had one seizure.”
“When everybody else saw a shepherd boy, God saw a king. When everybody else saw a shepherd boy — oh my goodness. And I want our listeners to know, there is a king in you. There is a king inside of you.”
“1,700 pastors every month are walking away from ministry. 1,700 a month are walking away from ministry. And many of you feel like you can't. I want that pastor, I want that Christian worker to know, yes you can. Yes you can. Yes you can. Yes you can. Don't give an alibi, you give another try. You stay in the fight, you stay in the mix, and God is going to come through.”
What's Discussed
Pastor Benny Tate, 36-year senior pastor of Rock Springs Church in Milner, Georgia, discusses his book Yes You Can — a leadership and faith resource built on the conviction that every person was created to lead and influence others. He shares his wife Barbara's miraculous healing from chronic seizures after the Mayo Clinic said she would never recover, and uses David's story in 1 Samuel to illustrate how God sees kings where others see shepherd boys. Citing Ephesians 3:20 and 2 Kings 4, Benny calls on discouraged pastors — 1,700 of whom leave ministry monthly — to keep believing bigger and never quit.
- Introducing Yes You Can and Leadership
- Barbara's Healing Testimony and Miracle Faith
- God's Question: What Can You Do That I Can't?
- David the Shepherd Boy — God Sees a King
- Believing Bigger — Ephesians 3:20 and Casting Nets
- The Widow's Oil and Pouring Without Quitting
- Encouragement for Pastors Leaving Ministry
Scripture in this episode
Episode Transcript
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Intro
Philip:Hey, welcome to Daily Faith. My name is Philip Cameron, and I am so happy that you are joining us today. We've got a great program, a great guest, a great man of God. My mother taught me from the day I can remember any words in my ears: listen to the man of God, listen to the man of God.
Philip:She hauled me to every church, every preacher. If anyone ever came and preached in our church, my mom hauled me up to be prayed for. I got more blessings and more prophecies and more words over me than I could shake a stick at, because she knew that one of them was going to stick.
Philip:And she is now 97 years of age, living alone in Scotland. My two sisters, my brother lives back in Scotland, and that great woman of God calls my name up before the throne every day. I hope you're faithful in someone's life.
Philip:I hope you're loving someone and encouraging someone, and speaking hope and faith into their spirit. Through a great scripture, it says in the old King James version, your words confirm the feeble knees. And a translation of that said, your words kept men on their feet.
Philip:And what I want Daily Faith to be is a message in your heart to keep you on your feet. You're not done yet. You're not defeated yet. You're not finished yet. God has a purpose. God has a great refurbishing program in his work.
Philip:And I know I failed, but the failure has been my learning lesson, and the learning lesson has brought me to the next level in service to him. So we've got a great program. My wife Chrissy and my daughter Melody just came back from Moldova. For those that don't know, 35 years ago I adopted a wee boy from there, and that began an adventure our whole family has been on for 35 years.
Philip:A quarter century ago, I was putting windows in the largest orphanage in Moldova — 391 windows. And at the end of this very expensive gift I'd given to the orphanage, a whole bunch of girls were sitting on a park bench. And I looked at them and I says, what are these? And they told me that they were finished. I said, wait, finished — where do they go now? And the director went...
Philip:And that was the day I saw and I realized that these girls at 16 were put on the street, and traffickers got them and used them 30 to 50 times a day until they killed them. And my wife and I almost died.
Philip:And as I'm talking to you, I can see the bench, I can sense the feeling. And we had already built one home for other kids. And I said to my wife, how many more kids can we take in that house? And she says, well, if we take the computer room away, we can fit three more bunks.
Philip:Three more bunks. And there's 18 girls sitting there. I says, Chrissy. And that was the beginning of an adventure. And we now have an amazing place called Vara Village, with six homes on the edge of the largest lake in Moldova.
Philip:It was built for rich people, and they poisoned that lake because it had algae and it killed everything — the fish and everything else. And the folks that were building those homes didn't want them. They were unfinished, and we bought them.
Philip:We now have them filled and packed with the most amazing kids you've ever seen. We put them back in school, and these orphans are now missionaries. It's crazy. All of the house parents were once orphans that we've rescued. And Chrissy, every year, goes with my daughter and shares Christmas with them.
Philip:And they sent me a video of them in a different place, because we've grown so much. Watch this — every girl you see, if left alone, would be sold for $300,000. Watch this.
Chrissy Cameron:As we celebrate Christmas in 2025, we want to say a huge thank you to all of our friends, our supporters who have made this possible. We've had to find a new venue this year because we were bursting at the seams. And all of these kids and all of this in front of us is because of your love and your generosity.
Chrissy Cameron:And as 2026 comes, we need you more than ever. So we thank you for your love, your generosity, and the kindness that you've shown all these kids — that they are your fruit. And we are so thankful for you. Thank you.
Philip:And that's my wife and my sweetheart. Melody, my daughter — Melody's work all year long, gathering stuff to make that night a miraculous night. We are growing. We're opening two new homes for little kids between the age of four and 16. We can't open these homes until we have enough support — 300 people giving a dollar a day.
Philip:You can change a life for eternity for a dollar a day. And if you could help us, I'd really appreciate it. We have two new houses that need to be finished. And the price of the new house to get finished, compared to the ones we've done before, has doubled, because Moldova is next to Ukraine, and Ukraine is at war with Russia, and costs are just exploding.
Philip:And we need two houses at a hundred thousand dollars to get finished. And you may want to give a one-time gift or become a monthly sponsor of our ministry at Orphan's Hands. Really simple: PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. You can also go to our website, DailyFaith.tv — there's a giving page there, a whole bunch of information on that page.
Philip:You can also go to OrphansHands.org, and that gives you a history of what we've done over the last 35 years. Or if you are like me, you just call a phone number, because that's all I know how to do. And it's really simple: 833 Daily Faith. You just dial 833 and then spell out Daily Faith on your keypad, and a real life person will pick up the phone. And together we can continue to change girls' lives — and boys', we've got a boys' home there also. So let the Lord speak to your heart and watch what God can do when we all pull together.
Philip:Many hands make light work, and that is the truth. I'm delighted I have Dr. Benny Tate with us today. He's pastor of Rock Springs Church for over three decades. Sounds like he's kind of committed to what God's called him to do, like I'm committed to what I'm doing. That's the kind of people God's interested in finding in these days.
Introducing Yes You Can and Leadership
Philip:And it's a multi-campus church — a lot of folks go there. He served as guest chaplain for the US House of Representatives and Senate, and he's written a brand new book that I think is going to be important in your life. And I'm delighted to have Dr. Benny Tate with me. Benny, thank you for joining with us today, my friend.
Benny Tate:Philip, it's a joy. I have been looking forward to being with you, and thank you, thank you, thank you for all you're doing. What a treat to be with you on this time.
Philip:It's great. Well, my wife came back home and we brought a pastor — you may have recognized him on the screen. His name is Wesley Pritchard. He does the vocal arrangements for Bill Gaither's videos. And he's been my friend for many, many years, and he and his wife Theresa came over. They supply all the really high quality gifts for our own kids. We give thousands of Christmas presents out in orphanages, but for our own kids, they've never had Christmas before. And they make them up and it absolutely blew their mind.
Philip:And they want to go back as soon as they can. I'm delighted to have you with me because I feel in the world we're living in a growing crisis of confidence. We're watching the TV every day. And frankly, if you didn't have Jesus in your life and you're watching the Venezuela thing and the Russia-Ukraine thing and the China-Taiwan thing and all of the stuff that's going on in the world, it would certainly give you pause regarding, how do I fit in the future? What can I do to change such enormous, cataclysmic events that are taking place? But everyone has a part to play in this thing, Benny. Everybody has.
Benny Tate:Exactly. Well, here's what I know, Philip. The principles that we live by will determine the world that we live in. I wrote a book called Yes You Can, because by the time a young person reaches 18 years of age, they've been told 148,000 times either no or you can't.
Benny Tate:I think somebody needs to come along and say, yes you can. Yes you can. The scripture tells us we can do all things through Christ. And this book — it's a book on leadership, but it's a different type of book. It's a book that says every person was created to lead. Because if we understand, Philip, leadership is nothing less, nothing more than influence.
Benny Tate:We're here to influence other people. In this book, we talk about the fact that everybody was created to lead, and then we talk about what are some tools, what are some handles in which we can lead other people better?
Philip:Well, your book Yes You Can has got such an empowering message. And I know in my life — I was up all last night because a personal thing happened in our family. And I put together the skeleton of a book last night. I was up till five o'clock this morning writing, writing, writing, trying to get this out of my mind onto paper, into my computer, to expand on it. What was the trigger? What was the thing in your life that happened that caused this aha moment to say, I could put something down that helps people realize that yes, you really can?
Barbara's Healing Testimony and Miracle Faith
Benny Tate:Well, I think the secret for any believer is the fact that Jesus Christ lives within us. I think the secret is that we have the power of the Holy Spirit. Early on in my life, when I was young in ministry, God taught me that he could do anything. I married a young lady, and literally was discouraged from marrying her. Her father said, I wish you all would not get married.
Benny Tate:She has seizures. She'll have eight to ten seizures a day. She'll have a seizure and lose five pounds. She'll have a seizure and gush up blood. She went to the Mayo Clinic. The Mayo Clinic said she had a scar on her brain, and that she would always have those seizures — she would never not have those seizures.
Benny Tate:But she came to me and she said — Barbara said to me — God has healed me of those seizures. I was young, I was young in faith. And I said, well, I just believe you need to keep taking the medicine. I think she was taking 14 pills a day — Dilantin, phenobarbital — 14 pills a day. But she kept saying, God has touched me, God has healed me.
Benny Tate:One day I was talking, Philip, to God, and I said, God, Barbara's gotta take that medicine, because I can't be there all the time. But I said, God, I'll make a deal with you. What about when I'm home — the days that I can be at home — she doesn't have to take the medicine, because I can cup my hand over her nose and mouth. I can get her out of the seizures faster than anybody.
Benny Tate:Philip and listeners, God said to me, son, what can you do that I can't do? I said, oh my goodness. I went to my boss and I said, I've gotta go home.
Benny Tate:I walked into that door, Philip, I looked at that little wife, and I said to her, you don't ever have to take those seizure medicines anymore. I know the Mayo Clinic said you'll have seizures till you die. I know they said you had a scar on your brain. But I am convinced also that God has touched you. Philip, that has been over three decades ago.
Benny Tate:She's never had one seizure. God showed me as a young preacher — yes, yes you can. Yes you can. The people that know their God shall be strong and do exploits.
God's Question: What Can You Do That I Can't?
Benny Tate:What I would say to people — I wanna come alongside people, I want to encourage them, I want to give people a push. I want people to know that yes you can. That you're underestimating what God wants to do with your life.
Benny Tate:God just uses ordinary people, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, through being persistent, yes, we can do exploits. When I came here pastoring this church, Philip, I pastor in Milner, Georgia. Milner, Georgia — our population right now is about 800 people. I mean, we're out here in the middle of nowhere. Our zip code is E-I-E-I-O. We're in the middle of nowhere.
Benny Tate:What good thing can come out of Milner? Nothing. Yes, we're in the middle of nowhere, but we have thousands of people. We have multiple buildings. We have three services at this campus that I'm at today, every Sunday morning — thousands of people.
Benny Tate:What am I saying? I'm saying yes, you can. I wanna say to that young person, yes you can. I wanna say to that person that's just about ready to give up, yes you can. I wanna say to pastors and ministers, yes you can. God can do anything, and God can do it through you.
Philip:You sound like you were up with me all last night, because all this stuff that you're talking about — I tell the story. I wanted to play the accordion. In those days, the accordion was portable. Today it's guitars and keyboards. I wanted to sing and play because my dad preached, and I wanted to go and travel with my dad and my sister. My sister Wendy was with my dad — she sang and played, and I was useless.
Philip:They tried to get me to go to church lessons, and the guy — his name was Joe — took me back to my mom's house and said, in front of me, Wendy, Philip has no musical ability. Don't even waste your time. I nagged, kept nagging. She put me back in music classes.
Philip:Mrs. Ellis one day gave me an envelope after a couple of weeks and she says, give that to your mom. And I ran home with this envelope out in front of me like it was a hundred dollar bill. And I ran into the house and I says, mom, this is from Mrs. Ellis — thinking it was going to be great. My mom opened it, tore it open, began to read: dear Mrs. Cameron, Philip has absolutely no musical ability. Don't waste your money or my time.
Philip:And my mom said words that nearly killed me with kindness. She says, never mind, Philip, you stay home with your mom, and your sister Wendy will travel with your dad. She condemned me unknowingly. I prayed and asked God. And one night I literally stole her accordion.
Philip:I just wrote this last night. She was going on a date with a guy called George Lemon, and she left the accordion out in the living room. And I grabbed it and ran upstairs, and I put it on, and I says, Jesus, I need you to use me. That's the most important thing of my life.
Philip:And I unsnapped the little strap that holds the bellows and the keyboard together, and I began to play. I began to play. And by the time my sister came back from her date with George Lemon, I was sitting on the stairs playing the accordion better than she could.
David the Shepherd Boy — God Sees a King
Philip:Praise the Lord. Yes, I can. So what you're saying today, Benny, is resonating in my spirit. Someone's watching, and all they've heard from the devil is, no you can't, you're not smart enough, you're not good enough, you're not good looking enough, you're too heavy, you're too old. And the Holy Spirit has caused you to reach into their life today to say to them, don't listen to what the enemy says. Yes, you can.
Benny Tate:That's exactly right. Well, think about it — you were in good company, Philip. And many of our listeners today are in good company. We love the story about where in the Bible Samuel goes down to Jesse's house to anoint the next king. You know the story.
Benny Tate:Jesse brings the seven sons out there. Seven sons. Now think about this — he never mentions the eighth son. He never mentions David. Samuel says, is there another one? Do you have another one? And here's what I'm saying: when everybody else saw a shepherd boy, God saw a king. When everybody else saw a shepherd boy — oh my goodness. And I want our listeners to know, there is a king in you. There is a king inside of you.
Benny Tate:I would challenge people — I'm 61 years old. I've been the pastor of the very same church for 36 years. Literally, our church has grown from 25 people. I've often said, we started out with 25 people — the average age was deceased. I mean, literally, we were just a few people.
Benny Tate:I often tell them, they said, well, how were the finances when you first came? I said, well, when I first came, I sold furniture to supplement my income. They said, furniture? I said, yes. I sold my living room suite, my bedroom suite, my dining room suite. I sold furniture to supplement my income.
Benny Tate:But here's what I want our listeners to know — God can do anything. And after 36 years, if I could do my ministry over, Philip — and we can't, we've gotta live life looking forward, but we understand it by looking back — if I could do my ministry over, I would believe bigger.
Benny Tate:Somebody said, Brother Benny, what do you mean? You would dream bigger. You're in the middle of nowhere and you've got this large ministry. Well, the Bible says in Ephesians 3:20, now unto him that is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think — he can only do the above if I'm believing for more.
Believing Bigger — Ephesians 3:20 and Casting Nets
Benny Tate:You know, you remember Jesus told Peter, he said, cast your nets out on the right side. Philip, the only thing that determined the size of their catch was the size of their nets. And they broke. The only thing that's going to determine the size of your catch is the size of your net.
Benny Tate:I preached last Sunday on 2 Kings chapter four. You remember the widow lady that had lost her husband? And he was one of the sons of the prophet of Elijah. And they were literally going to take her boys for the debt. And Elijah said to her, go in your neighborhood, borrow all the vessels you can. And don't borrow a few.
Benny Tate:Here's what I know, Philip. All she had was one cruse, one jar of oil. But as long as she was pouring that oil, her jar never went dry. Here's what I'm trying to say. You said, Pastor Benny, why did you write a book? Yes You Can. I wanna keep pouring that oil.
Benny Tate:I want to keep pouring that oil. I wanna say to that pastor out there today — 1,700 pastors every month are walking away from ministry. 1,700 a month are walking away from ministry. And many of you feel like you can't. I want that pastor, I want that Christian worker to know, yes you can. Yes you can. Yes you can. Yes you can. Don't give an alibi, you give another try. You stay in the fight, you stay in the mix, and God is going to come through.
Philip:God is going to come through. And I just, again, as you're talking to me, I can feel faith. I can feel it — you are exporting the gift of faith into my spirit.
Philip:And if I can feel it, and I've just spent all night in the presence of God writing a book on the same thing — don't quit, get up, don't quit, get up — if I can feel it, I know that there are pastors watching us right now who sat down at their desk and last week was a disaster. They've thrown sermon after sermon in the garbage, and they're thinking, how can I leave?
Philip:I had a pastor friend who ministered in Alabama. And every Monday morning, Benny, he would get in his car and drive out of the town he was pastoring in and pretend he was leaving. And he would drive — depending how despairing he was — he would drive a mile, or three miles, or ten miles, sometimes 20 miles out of the town, and then turn around and go back, because he just wanted to go. He was tired of it all.
The Widow's Oil and Pouring Without Quitting
Philip:And I know watching this now that our pastors and moms and dads and business people that are sitting thinking, it's done, it's over, there's no point in fighting — well, the Holy Ghost has arranged us to meet you today, and the message is yes, you can.
Philip:And I want you to get this book. If we can put up on the screen the slate so you can see it — there you go, Yes You Can, a blue book. You can get it on MyCharismaShop.com. Steve Strang is a dear friend of mine for many years — MyCharismaShop.com. You can order it there. You can also order it on Amazon.com.
Philip:And I sure would like you to get in contact with Pastor Benny Tate. I think if you're a pastor, you may find resources in what he does that will strengthen and encourage you to get up and climb that hill again. Man, this is fabulous stuff. I can feel the Holy Spirit in me stirring by your words.
Encouragement for Pastors Leaving Ministry
Benny Tate:Well, that's encouraging to me, Philip, and that's what we want to do. We believe that when you reach a follower, you add. We believe when you reach a leader, you multiply. That's why at Rock Springs Church, we're constantly doing things like lunch and learn. We're bringing pastors in, we bring Christian workers in. I think our next one's coming up in March. We're constantly bringing Christian workers in. It's all free. We just wanna love on them, we just wanna encourage them, we just wanna resource them, we just wanna teach them leadership. Literally, we just want to come alongside pastors, Christian leaders, and say, yes you can. Yes you can.
Benny Tate:Philip, somebody in your life, with the ministry God has entrusted, somebody came along and said, Philip, yes you can. Yes you can.
Philip:It was my auntie Maggie. I failed. I tried to sing in church, I made a fool of myself, and I ran out the door. And as I got to the back door, my auntie Maggie said to me, Philip Cameron, you blessed your auntie Maggie tonight. And I ran home, and by the time I got to the house, I said, well, if auntie Maggie was blessed, and if auntie Maggie is blessed, I can bless other people. That was the moment.
Philip:Listen, we are out of time. Thank you for being with me today. Please come back again. I want more of this anointing that you have. Get in contact with Dr. Benny Tate — it's really simple: RockSpringsOnline.com/BennyTate. And there's the information on the screen. Avail yourself of this man's anointing. If you're a pastor, get in contact with him. Thank you again for being with me, my dear brother. You have enriched my heart so much.
Benny Tate:And I pray God's blessing in return in your life. Thank you again. It's been my joy.
Philip:Thank you for watching Daily Faith. We'll see you again. Bye-bye.
For over 25 years, the Cameron family has been changing the lives of orphans in Romania and Moldova — from providing running water, flushing toilets, and clean wells, to coal for heat, new windows, as well as food and clothing. They champion the physical needs of the orphans in these broken and desolate countries. Many of Moldova's orphans are saved from the horrors of trafficking through homes founded by the Camerons.
And in the process, orphans become daughters and sons. They come to know their heavenly Father and are forever changed by the love of Jesus. God helped the Camerons lift these amazing young men and women out of darkness — now no longer orphans.
They wanna return and invade that very same darkness with the light of Jesus Christ. Orphan's Hands equips these daughters and sons to become missionaries. Your monthly gift of $31 will allow us to rescue and take in more girls and boys, saving them from the hell of human trafficking.
Your monthly partnership will allow us to care for those in the Orphan's Hands homes in Moldova and Ukraine. If you want to join Philip and Chrissy in taking care of these precious young people, please contact us today by calling 833 Daily Faith. You can also give by going online to www.DailyFaith.tv, or by writing to Post Office Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. So many lives depend on what we do. Thank you for loving the lost.
Common questions
What is Benny Tate's book 'Yes You Can' actually about?
Tate says it's a leadership book, but with a different angle — his core argument is that every person was created to lead, because leadership is simply influence. He wrote it partly because research showed that by age 18, the average young person has been told 'no' or 'you can't' roughly 148,000 times, and he wanted to counter that with an empowering message grounded in the idea that we can do all things through Christ.
What personal experience convinced Benny Tate that God can really do the impossible?
Early in his ministry, Tate's wife Barbara had severe seizures — up to eight to ten a day — and the Mayo Clinic told her she would have them for life due to a scar on her brain. She insisted God had healed her, and after Tate heard God ask him, 'Son, what can you do that I can't do?' he told her to stop taking her 14 daily seizure medications. That was over three decades ago, and according to Tate, she has never had another seizure since.
How did Benny Tate build a large church in a tiny town of only about 800 people?
Tate has pastored Rock Springs Church in Milner, Georgia for 36 years, starting with just 25 people and finances so tight he sold his own furniture — his living room, bedroom, and dining room suites — to supplement his income. Today the church has multiple buildings and draws thousands of people across three Sunday morning services, which he holds up as proof that God can do anything anywhere.
What does Benny Tate say he would do differently if he could restart his ministry?
Tate says he would believe bigger. He points to Ephesians 3:20 — that God can do 'exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think' — and argues that God can only do the 'above' if we're already believing for more. He uses the image of Peter's nets: the only thing that limited the size of the catch was the size of the nets they brought.
What does Benny Tate say to pastors who feel like quitting?
Tate says 1,700 pastors walk away from ministry every single month, and his message to all of them is simply: 'Yes you can.' He urges them not to give an alibi but to give another try, stay in the fight, and trust that God will come through. His church also runs free 'lunch and learn' events specifically to resource, encourage, and teach leadership to pastors and Christian workers.
Topics
benny tateyes you canpastoral encouragementchristian leadershipovercoming doubtrock springs churchfaith testimony