The Rev. Tiff Shuttlesworth has wandered the globe in search of souls, and next month, he will take his crusades to Piscataquis County.

The evangelist will preach at the Corinth Middle School at 7 p.m. Friday, May 18, then move to Piscataquis Community High School in Guilford the following week, beginning at 7 each night, May 20-25.

One of the goals of his Brewer-based ministry, Lost Lamb Evangelistic Association, is “to lead 1 million people to a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.” Doing that, Shuttlesworth, 42, averages 300 speaking engagements a year and has taken his crusade to 24 countries. Last year, he preached in Amsterdam and Slovakia, and has found that people have common needs no matter what their language or culture.

“The four questions most commonly asked by human beings,” he said, “are ‘Why am I here?’ ‘Why am I lonely?’ ‘What is the meaning of life?’ and ‘What happens when I die?'”

Helping Shuttlesworth is the Rev. Dr. Jim Coldiron, “on loan” from the Rev. Dr. Billy Graham’s organization. Coldiron is crusade director for next month’s event.

“His involvement has been a tremendous asset to us,” Shuttlesworth said. “If anyone had told me that we would ever have a chance to have a Billy Graham crusade director come on board to help us, I’d have said he was pretty grandiose in his thinking.”

Shuttlesworth has modeled his own work on the example set by the 83-year-old Graham. “Others have put their hand to plow and left with a black eye,” he said. “I have to take my hat off to the guy who has done this for so long. He is respected worldwide by presidents, kings and the common man for his goals and his integrity.

“There is only one Billy Graham and what God has done with him – you can’t explain it. He’s not been a fad for five years or a sudden burst on the horizon, but has touched millions of people over all those years.”

Shuttlesworth began his work as an evangelist after graduation from Zion Bible Institute in Barrington, R.I., in 1979. The third of four sons of the Rev. A.E. Shuttlesworth, he grew up in Pentecostal churches. His father was pastor of Glad Tidings Church on Broadway in Bangor for many years.

Music is a big part of Shuttlesworth’s ministry. He plays the electric guitar and sings. He has recorded CDs that mix his own compositions with more well-known songs. Music will be an important part of next month’s crusade.

He will perform a variety of religious music from contemporary Christian to Southern gospel, and a 100-voice community choir of singers from the sponsoring churches will join him for the Central Maine Crusade.

“Music is a universal language,” he said. “People and music walk hand in hand through all civilizations regardless of religion. I once told someone I met on an airplane that the difference between secular music and gospel music is that secular music is about life’s problems and gospel music is about life’s solutions.”

In recent years, Shuttlesworth has changed his approach to international missionary work. Instead of taking the Lost Lamb Crusade to large venues in foreign cities, he raises money for missionaries who can work with people and build a more permanent Christian community.

The Rev. Matthew Ward, pastor of the Charleston Pentecostal Church, where Shuttlesworth spoke last month, attributes the evangelist’s success to his ability to communicate. “He’s able to connect with folks both churched and unchurched, with people young and old, and make the message of the Gospel plain and clear,” Ward said. “He speaks in specifics. A lot of folks [preachers] are vague, but he preaches that when you have a relationship with God, He brings a radical change for the better to your life.”

Ward said that this is a good time for Shuttlesworth to bring his first areawide crusade to Piscataquis County because “the spirit of the Lord is creating a hunger in people in this area.” Churches in central Maine are growing, according to the Charleston minister, while Shuttlesworth pointed out that the United States is now the fourth-largest mission field in the world.

Shuttlesworth said that his emphasis is not on religion, per se, but on relationship. “I don’t think it matters if a person is a Baptist or Methodist or Charismatic or unchurched,” he said. “People have questions and want real answers. My philosophy is to stay away from what divides people and find common ground in what unites people.

“If we really believe the Bible, then we have a whole lot more in common than [we] do that is different,” Shuttlesworth said. “History has made more of an issue about that than people have. If you believe the Bible, when you get to heaven, you’re not going to be asked what church you went to.”

For more information on the Lost Lamb Evangelistic Association, call 1-800-LostLamb or 989-5588 or visit the Web site at www.lostlamb.org.