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How to Be a Missions Mobiliser
George Verwer

George Verwer (1938 - 2023). American evangelist and founder of Operation Mobilisation (OM), born in Ramsey, New Jersey, to Dutch immigrant parents. At 14, Dorothea Clapp gave him a Gospel of John and prayed for his conversion, which occurred at 16 during a 1955 Billy Graham rally in New York. As student council president, he distributed 1,000 Gospels, leading 200 classmates to faith. In 1957, while at Maryville College, he and two friends sold possessions to fund a Mexico mission trip, distributing 20,000 Spanish tracts. At Moody Bible Institute, he met Drena Knecht, marrying her in 1960; they had three children. In 1961, after smuggling Bibles into the USSR and being deported, he founded OM in Spain, growing it to 6,100 workers across 110 nations by 2003, with ships like Logos distributing 70 million Scriptures. Verwer authored books like Out of the Comfort Zone, spoke globally, and pioneered short-term missions. He led OM until 2003, then focused on special projects in England. His world-map jacket and inflatable globe symbolized his passion for unreached peoples.
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Sermon Summary
The video discusses the importance of distributing powerful sermon materials to churches and individuals around the world. It encourages viewers to make a commitment to getting involved in the distribution of these materials in their own churches and communities. The video also emphasizes the significance of attending missions events and not being deterred by personal preferences, such as music style. It highlights the need for missions mobilizers to gather information on open doors for new workers and emphasizes the importance of biblical teaching on financial giving and stewardship.
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Sermon Transcription
This message is especially for people that want to be missions mobilizers. What do we mean by that? I mean Christians who have a vision to see the fulfillment of the Great Commission, to see the world evangelized, and who really want to get involved, not only in evangelism themselves, but they want to get other people involved. Obedience to those words in 2 Timothy, where the Word of God clearly says, those things we've received, we need to pass on to others, who then can share them with others also. If we're going to see the world evangelized, and there's a special impetus in connection with that right now, in regard to AD 2000, then we're going to have to see some big things happen. And I believe missions mobilization is something that every committed believer should be involved in. Let's just have a word of prayer. Living God, we thank and praise you for all that you're doing across the world today. We realize we are in the midst of the greatest harvest of people to yourself that has ever taken place in the world, and we're excited about that. At the same time, O God, we're very aware of thousands of unreached people's groups, and so many places in the world where there are millions that still have not clearly even heard or read the Gospel. Lord, move upon our hearts that we may not only be excited and challenged and obedient, but that we may also learn the basic principles on a practical level on how we can be effective, how we can be committed to excellency in this task of world missions, as hard as that is, as complex as the challenge may be. Guide me, Lord, help me to really share what's on my heart and enable people who are listening to this tape in many parts of the world, adopt and contextualize these thoughts into their own situation. We thank you for so many local churches and fellowships that now have this vision and are moving in mission and world evangelism, and we pray for an increased partnership between missionary fellowships and local fellowships and international umbrella agencies like AD2000 and beyond and WEF and so many other powerful and important structures that you have raised up that this work may be done. Guide us now as we go forward together. In the name of Jesus, Amen. I want to share about 12 or 13 basic principles on how you can be an effective missions mobilizer. I think it's important to realize how God can use anyone who loves Jesus in this great task. I think some of you know my own testimony of how God launched me into missions and missions mobilization when I was only 17 or 18 years of age. When I was 19, God sent me to Mexico, and that proved to be one of the birthplaces of short-term missions, which has become so accepted now by most mission agencies across the world. As we look back over more than three and a half decades from our earliest beginnings, we can rejoice over about 80,000 men and women, largely young people but not exclusively, who have been mobilized into missions. Though in many cases it was only for a summer or a year as far as their involvement with us. But an amazing percentage of those people are now involved in missions mobilization or in missions outplanting churches among the unreached in a whole range of different ways. Many, of course, are back in very ordinary jobs, what I like to think of as marketplace ministry, but in varying degrees are attempting to help the cause of world missions. And it's exciting. Around that same time, many other agencies, like Youth with a Mission, Campus Crusade for Christ, somewhat before that time, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, were raised up of God. Long before that, many other major mission forces, like S.I.M., O.M.F., and so many others, had already been raised up and working with local churches or planting new churches, were moving forward around the world in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. Again and again, I'm reminded of the tremendous challenge of the Great Commission to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every person. The challenges given in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in different terms. And then, of course, in Acts 1.8, we have that final expression, before the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven. And I'd like to just read Acts 1.8 from the Living Bible. But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power to testify about me with great effect to the people in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth about my death and resurrection. The ends of the earth. That's one of the things that burns on our heart the most at this time. The first principle that I want to share is the principle of realistic and biblical commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ and His Lordship. We believe, of course, this is an ongoing process. There may be a crisis experience where we really begin to understand the Lordship of Christ, but then we have to go on learning what that's all about. And I feel it's just important as we think about missions to once again reaffirm that our priority is knowing God, it's walking with Jesus, it's experiencing the ongoing reality of His Holy Spirit in our lives. We believe the Holy Spirit is the chief executive officer of world missions. That's so clearly seen in great passages like Acts 13, where those men waited on God in prayer and the Lord, through the church, sent that first missionary team, including Paul and Barnabas, out into the harvest field. The second principle is the principle of really taking ownership of world evangelism. We often find a tendency for people to think someone else is going to do it or some other group is going to do it. And we find in all of our meetings right around the world that it seems to be only a small group who are really taking ownership, really taking ownership of this great commission that the Lord Jesus Christ has given us. This involves a sense of responsibility. This involves, of course, developing a greater understanding and knowledge of the challenge, of the fields, of the problems, the needs. That's why books like Operation World, New Edition, Just Out, is so essential. And I'm convinced that every committed Christian should be reading that book, praying through that book and distributing the book to others. Surely it is the greatest missionary book of all times. And I would urge you to prayerfully read through it. And as you read and pray through that great book and other similar material, by faith, take ownership. Sense real responsibility, not just to read, but to actually do something, to get involved in the action. The third principle is the principle in regard to prayer and a knowledge of spiritual warfare. We know in any great aspect of biblical faith, some people can go into extremes. And I'm always concerned about that. But I believe that a far bigger problem today is people overreacting to extremism and ending up in the deep freeze of tradition or even judgmentalism, legalism or dead orthodoxy. So we need a constant work of the Holy Spirit. Many of you, I think, have heard me repeat the story about D.L. Moody again and again, who would emphasize the need to be filled with the Spirit and the need to be filled again and again. And one day, a lady said, Mr. Moody, why do you keep saying we have to be filled again and again? And he said, Madam, because I leak. I think most of us can relate to that. But praise God, he can fill us again and again. Just as we read in Acts 4.31, where they gathered together in prayer, the place was shaken and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and went forth and spoke the word of God with boldness. What a challenge. Prayer is where the action is. And a worldwide prayer movement must run parallel with any kind of worldwide missions movement. Different believers approach prayer with different viewpoints. But without prayer, I think we acknowledge that it's never going to happen. We have that clear teaching in Matthew 9, that if we want laborers, in the very words of our Lord Jesus, we have to pray forth laborers into the harvest field. So missions mobilization, in a sense, starts on our knees. Now, of course, many of us believe that walking is one of the best ways to pray. And some of you have seen that new unusual book on the subject of prayer, walking by Steve Hawthorne and Graham Kendrick, a book I'm in the middle of right now. Wisdom and discernment is essential in what we are attempting to do. A.W. Tozer said the greatest gift we need in the church today is the gift of discernment. This doesn't come just in sort of a supernatural lightning way. It comes also as we become saturated with the scriptures, as we read widely, as we fellowship with a wide range of godly people, as we also stay in tune with what's happening in the countries that we're involved in. It's important. And I hope each one of us in the coming weeks could read at least some of the new books on prayer. One that I've been recommending lately is Don't Just Stand There, Pray Something by Ronald Dunn. But there are many other outstanding books on prayer that can be greatly used to help us strengthen that aspect of our life and of our ministry. The fourth principle is that we must prayerfully develop goals and aims. Some of the aspects of the AD2000 movement, which is very much a network, have been criticized because the goals and their aims were too high. Well, if that's true of a few people, I think generally we have to acknowledge that our goals and aims are too low. As chairman of the track in the AD2000 movement for the mobilization of new missionaries, after considerable discussion, prayer, and thought, we have tried to aim and want to aim at the mobilization of 200,000 new workers out into the harvest field. Others have higher goals than that. Some national goals are so huge that if they all came together and were fulfilled, of course it would go way beyond our 200,000 goal. But we want something in which we see a combination of the impossible and the doable. We want to be filled with faith, but we want to be realistic. And we don't see a problem if we end up with more than 200,000 new missionaries. When we think and pray about this, of course, an important scripture is Luke 14, where we're told clearly that we must count the cost. And the more we count the cost of what's involved in mobilizing such a large army of missionaries, the more Mount Everest the task looks like. We're not just talking about missionaries going from places like Canada and Germany, the States and England, some of the other traditional missionary sending fields. We are talking about people moving across borders in their own countries. Indians from Kerala, from Christian background, experiencing Christ, going to Muslims, maybe across the street or maybe to the north of their huge country where there are almost 900 million. We have seen the internationalization of missions and the globalization of missions in the past decade or two, and it's one of the most exciting things that's happening. So our vision in terms of missions mobilization takes in a vast majority of the nations in the world, and it's exciting. Each individual mission agency has to have goals and aims. Each individual church should have goals and aims. Then there will also be often national goals and aims that may be put together by a national umbrella group in a particular country, whether it's AD2000, WEF, Lausanne, people connected with Dawn. God has raised up a whole range of fellowships, structures and institutions. And one of our greatest burdens in AD2000 is to somehow be able to network together even though there may be things that we don't fully agree on, and surely as we attempt this, at times it will be messy. It will be complicated. There will be relational difficulties. And we must decide in the midst of it to put into practice biblical teaching from 1 Corinthians 13 about patience, about love, about forgiveness. We must stand against gossip. We must believe the best. And as we hear something about a brother, we shouldn't pass that on, or a sister, unless we're really sure. If we're angry and we feel a brother or a group has sinned against us, we should try to make direct contact with them and get it sorted out. Unity, biblical unity, is essential if we are going to see this task take place. At the same time, we can't be unrealistic. We can't spend too much time, effort and money trying to build a kind of structural unity that in fact is never going to happen. It's never happened since Pentecost and it's unlikely going to happen now. It's an area where we're going to have to find the balance. Do you have personal goals in regard to missions, missions mobilization, and finance that's so greatly needed for missions? If every person who has some degree of understanding, wisdom and commitment in regard to missions mobilization would just target to attempt to mobilize 10 others, can you imagine what would happen across the world? We realize often missions mobilization is teamwork. It's not just one lone ranger who somehow has a special gift to mobilize people and get them going. Often it's teams that are going to enable this to become a reality. We need small groups around the world and churches around the world, missions committees around the world that are going to sit down, spend time in prayer and discussion and develop definite goals and aims in regard to world evangelism and obedience to the Lord Jesus. The sixth principle is the principle of developing a greater knowledge of world missions. We need to read key materials, watch key videos, listen to key audio cassettes, and then we need to be involved in helping others get a hold of this material. Some of you may have seen the February issue of Evangelism Today, a Christian newspaper published each month here in Britain, which carried the article that I wrote concerning AD2000 and missions mobilization and especially the need to see a grassroots movement among a much larger number of people. At this stage, we don't have enough people involved. We need to see not just missionary remnants in different churches and groups, but we need to see the whole body of Christ, as much as possible, hundreds of millions taking ownership of this great task. Literature, cassettes, videos, every method of communication, I believe must be increased tenfold if we're going to reach the many targets that we've set, especially in connection with AD2000 or just beyond. I feel very strongly about this. I believe it's going to take an enormous release of finance. In my article I talk about a hundred million pieces of missions mobilization literature. I don't believe that's too much. A lot of this is already happening by all kinds of churches and agencies. I'm amazed at the material that's pouring in through my own post box from churches, from mission agencies, videos, audio cassettes, books, leaflets. It's exciting. If we can multiply what's already taking place by ten, I believe it would lead to the greatest missions mobilization action movement of all times, and that would enable us then to reach these lofty and phenomenal goals and aims that are being set in regard to reaching every person by the year 2000 and planting a church in every people's group by the year 2000. Now, we could have a great discussion about what that means. Some of you have read the AD2000 handbook, which I feel is essential reading. Some are already saying, as I read in Evangelical Missions Quarterly recently, that the great window of opportunity for mobilization and information and getting this started has already passed. I think this is why it is important that we don't just fix a date, the year 2000, but realize it is going to continue after that. At the same time, our hearts cry out, the sooner the better, because we know this is connected with lost people, real people, who are going out into eternity without a knowledge of Christ. This is an area where all of us can so easily be involved. Invest a few dollars, a few pounds, a few Deutschmarks, whatever your currency is, or a few hundred, into missions mobilization material that you will have handy, that you will take with you. Have missions parties in your home, in which you could show a video, share literature. It's just unlimited what could happen if Joe and Janie, ordinary Christian, would realize they can be involved in a way that will ultimately affect millions of people across the world. The seventh principle is that we have to gather information on the open doors where new workers can go. Now, there's already an avalanche of information, but the average person doesn't have it. Every missions mobilizer should be in touch with at least, I would say, a dozen mission fellowships, getting their information, finding out the open doors. It does take correspondence, phone call, faxes, e-mail. When we think of all the communications methods that we have today, we really don't have an excuse. Can you imagine the Apostle Paul having at his fingertips a cellular phone like I have? God has given these things as tools. We should not be afraid of high tech. High tech can be misused, but this is even more reason why we should use it properly. We need to be on the phone with one another, praying, exhorting, encouraging, passing on urgent prayer requests. We need to see millions of prayer groups born across the world. Praise God, many already are. Networking with as many others as possible, often through modern communication, in order to have specific, up-to-date prayer requests on the unreached people of the world. The adopt-a-people movement is another vital part of this. And many of the different tracks in the AD2000 movement, many of the different sections of Lausanne and WEF can tie in together as we attempt the impossible. Let's realize in the midst of all this, as Ralph Winter once said, there's a great place for the little Sandlot mission, the little newly born small mission agencies. There are thousands of them across the world. In places like India, Brazil, Korea, of course, and many other countries. And those of us who have been in missions for a couple of decades and have many decades of experience, we need to be generous in sharing that with these new agencies, helping them to avoid some of the mistakes that we made. This is why I believe networking is so important. There are open doors. And I believe as people, ordinary people and those potential recruits hear of these open doors, they are going to respond. We have to get that information, that presentation to them. We need thousands of missions mobilization teams that are full-time in this task. Though I believe the greater bulk of the work will be done by the layman, as some people call them, the layperson, or will be done by people who are ordinary marketplace, nine to five jobs. I don't think we should allow competition between those who are full-time, like those Caleb teams, and those who can only engage in these things part-time. We must see in a grace-awakened way the barriers broken down between different strategies, different groups, different ways of going about things. That's one of the reasons I believe one of the most prophetic books of our day is this book, Grace Awakening, by Charles Swindoll. And I'd like to see that book sort of required reading for those who are in missions mobilizations. Basic spiritual challenge and missionary challenge must be married together, just as working in our own hometown, working in our own church, must be married to worldwide outreach. And this means working together. This will often mean greater repentance and brokenness, that brilliant message of Calvary Road, because the way ahead is not going to be easy. The eighth principle is in connection with our church relationships. Each committed mobilizer should be involved in a local church. Different people respond to this challenge in varying degrees. And it's an area where, again, we need to avoid generalizations, judgmentalism, and, of course, extremism, because Satan is subtle and is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. I've just been reading a book about how a whole church movement became extreme and under the banner of that beautiful word, discipleship. We have many new books coming out indicating that a lot of people have been hurt in the past 10 or 20 years through extremism in local fellowships and churches. Those of us in mission agencies know that we also have hurt people when on the field we haven't had enough grace or we have become heavy-handed or in any way dictatorial. It is going to be an uphill battle all the way. But as we move in the power of the Spirit with humility and openness and teachability, I believe we can see a new day in regard to our church relationships, in regard to working together, in regard to seeing the right percentage of finance going out from local churches to the regions beyond which are so often only given the scraps off the table, if you understand what I mean. Let's avoid any kind of boasting. As we attempt to bring local churches into this vision and many times it is local churches bringing others into the vision, let's use a more non-threatening approach. This is why the brilliant book Re-Entry is so important. As people return from the field, they should read that book in preparation for re-entry into their hometown, into their own local church situation. Many a young person who is planning on a missionary career has been shot down through discouragement or other fiery darts during the re-entry period after his first short term on the field. We must work on this. We must use maximum materials and we must lay hold of the kind of reality that is expressed in 1 Corinthians 13. Another brilliant book is by Betty Barnett called Friend Raising or Building a Missionary Support Team That Lasts. Moody Press has just turned out a book similar to this. Another key book is Serving as Senders by Neil Pirolo. Khan has given us phenomenal tools. A lot of similar material is on cassette tape and video. But to be honest, as I analyze the situation right across the world with many partners and co-workers, the distribution is often so small of this powerful material. Would you make a real commitment to get involved in the distribution of these powerful materials right there in your own churches, your own church or churches in your area or wherever you go? We know a lot can happen on the university level. We think of, again, what God has done at Urbana. We think of the network of IFES under the leadership of Lindsay Brown, who was on OM for a year or two. We think of what's happening in the Christian unions here in the UK under the leadership of Nigel Lee, who was with OM for many years. This student movement, as well as Campus Crusade and other movements, are a major part of the missionary backbone in the world today. Let's pray for groups in nearby campuses. And if you're in one of those groups, be a missions mobilizer. Don't leave it to one or two in the group who are excited about missions. Get involved, if you can, this coming summer in some kind of missionary activity because that's extremely important and we'll get to that in a moment. Number nine, which I've already got into, is the need for real action in terms of distributing the key books and tapes and other materials, some of which I've already referred to. Another great book I wanted to mention was Priority One by Norm Lewis. This book is now being distributed widely in Spanish and in other languages. One of the major prayer requests is that we may see more of these materials getting into other languages. I've got a mental list of about 25 major languages that I would like to see major missions material published in, tapes produced in, videos produced in. At present, really what's being done is very, very inadequate. Of course, the mountain that immediately looms up in front of us, and it happens every time I talk to somebody about these things, where do we get the money? Brothers and sisters, we need to commit ourselves to the kind of intercessory prayer that will release finance for world missions. We see this clearly in the scriptures. At the same time, we need to understand biblical fundraising. There are now many tapes and books that will help us in the whole area of releasing finance. Let's beware of cliches. Let's beware of putting down another agency or another group because we think their methods are unspiritual. All of us at one time or the other have been fairly unspiritual. He was without fault. Let him throw the first stone. God's unity is in the midst of diversity, and we need a greater biblical compassionate strategy for releasing finance. We need to teach biblical lifestyle and avoid extremes on both ends of the spectrum. People need to understand the clear teaching of Jesus about laying up treasure in heaven, about the fact that it's so great to be involved in giving. It is more blessed to give than receive. We need to talk again about the story of the widow's mite. At the same time, we need to study history and realize how God has mightily used men and women in the marketplace who earned through hard work and tears considerable resources and then shared those resources with mission agencies and churches for the sake of world evangelism. To me, this is just so important and so exciting. The tenth principle is that we must get in contact as missions mobilizers with as many agencies as possible. Too many people are operating in ignorance, and some of the things that I read and even some of the statistics are not true. People are not doing enough research before they release some of their statistics. Even some of the stories of great things when research takes place shows that some of these things never happen. This produces general unbelief. It causes a lack of credibility toward the missions movement and is going to be one of the most slick tools that Satan is going to try to use. We're told in Proverbs 18 and many other places that we need to make sure of our information before we open our mouth and speak. Now we must not be intimidated by this because then we won't do anything. Sometimes just by explaining when we're sharing that we're not sure of a particular thing and we're in the midst of doing more research about it. There are little phrases we can bring into our vocabulary which communicate reality and humility and teachability and I believe that is very, very important. That key word in Philippians about esteeming others better than ourselves is also very important. Let's esteem other agencies, not just our own. Let's take interest in what they're doing. Let's not be put off by some little bit of bad news or some little thing we read and fail to have the big picture and fail to see how God has used so many different churches and agencies and movements yes, despite their failures and weaknesses and sins. This will bring us together in a greater way. We can't all work together on a practical level but we can have a good attitude toward the whole body of Christ, toward other agencies. There are many tensions in missionary work. I've listed dozens of them and we need to realize that unity is going to be in the midst of diversity. As we find people interested in moving for missions they start reading material, they start getting excited. You have a conversation with them. One of the next steps and it fits into this is to get them into some kind of missions event. Not everybody can go to Urbana but there's TEMA here in Europe. There's Comibon sponsoring events in South America. Almost every major nation now is having missions events. Let's get our people into those events. Let's not be put off because we don't like the music. How sad it is that the body of Christ is fighting over style of music when history proves so clearly that the Spirit of God has used a wide range of music to bring people into a greater walk with Christ. Think of how God has used the music of our dear brother Keith who's now in glory. Keith Green. It's exciting. Let's not get hung up on areas we may not agree on. As Swindoll brings out in his book we need to learn how to agree to disagree and get on with the basic living out of the Christian life and presenting the gospel to the whole world. Let's keep one another informed about these missions events no matter how small they may be. And those of us who lead these events and who are involved in these events let's be sensitive to the wide range of people we have. Let's not purposely be controversial. Sometimes purposely being controversial can be a little bit of an ego trip. We get special attention from certain kinds of people. But the attention we get from those people isn't always healthy. We need to listen to those who don't agree with us. We need to listen to those who feel we're extreme or we're stating things that are over the top so that we can build unity and so that we can get on with the priorities. The eleventh principle is the principle of getting people involved in evangelism. We must not see evangelism at home in opposition to evangelism in other parts of the world. Now we have people of unreached people's groups living among us in most parts of the world. It just seems so simple, so basic that people who love Jesus and are committed to world missions will get involved at least in some way in reaching out to unreached people right where they are including students that come from some of the most needy nations in the world. At the same time there is value in getting people right out of their own nation into another nation both as a learning experience and because it's proven to be a vital part of God's strategy in not only evangelism but church planting as well. There's plenty of proof about this right now. So try to get the people you are influencing for missions into short term, summer or year or two year as soon as possible. You don't have to have a special call for this. God is leading different people in different ways. For some it may be a summer in one or two years and then back as a sender rather than as a goer though we know in the wider sense we are all or we at least should be both. This is exciting and a large number of career missionaries and we desperately need more career missionaries are coming out of the short term movement. The twelfth principle is formal education. This isn't just for those that can go to Bible college and praise God most Bible colleges and I guess I've spoken at a couple hundred of them if you count the small ones across the world have a fairly good commitment to missions. Mission agencies traditionally work closely with Bible colleges. Quite a few Christian colleges have a significant missionary thrust. I've had the joy of speaking at missions conferences at places like Northwestern College in Minneapolis and many other Christian colleges. That's a phenomena that is largely in North America. Here in Great Britain a high percentage of Christians are found at Cambridge and Oxford and other universities. I'm in Cambridge in a few weeks again presenting the challenge of world evangelism. It's not either or focusing on Bible colleges or focusing on the Christian Union at Cambridge. We've got to have an all-encompassing strategy that brings everybody in including many who've never had the privilege of higher education. Again and again we've seen God sending out ordinary people. We're not just looking on the mission field today for theologians and sophisticated church planters who are brilliant at learning languages. We need behind-the-scenes people. We need mechanics and secretaries, bookkeepers, computer workers. How sad it is that so many people are ignorant about the range of people that are needed. We desperately need staff for people who will work in their home offices in their own country. The first challenge isn't geography. It's reality. And if you want to be in the heart of the missions movement you need to get in a stream with people who are moving in that direction. Whether you're working in your own country in some dynamic missionary fellowship or you're planting a church in Turkey or Afghanistan or Bangladesh or one of the other mega-nations where the church is so small or in some cases like among the Kurds barely exists. Praise God for the networking and the coming together of the Bible College movement and the missions movement. And it's something we shouldn't neglect. Some of your missions mobilizers or people you're attempting to influence, some of you listening to this tape should consider getting into Bible College for a year or two. Perhaps majoring on missions while you get grounded also in the Word of God. At least get the information. Have the information available. Visit those places and see what they're really up to rather than just going on hearsay. And then my final principle though of course I'm sure there are many more and I'd love to hear from some of you and you can add to my list is the principle of evangelizing among ethnic minorities right where we are. I've already touched on this but I just want to re-emphasize it. And in saying this I want to urge people not to emphasize the people of their own culture. In fact some of your great missionaries right in your area may be people that still don't know Jesus Christ. One of the greatest ways to stay on the cutting edge of world missions is to be involved in evangelism yourself. Beware of the struggles you will face as you launch into this. There will be failure. There will be disappointments. But remember disappointment in evangelism can often be God's appointment to teach us something greater and something better. You've got to stand against the fiery dart of discouragement. I've wrestled with this all of my Christian life now about 38 years. God's grace is sufficient. Great biblical mountain-moving faith is not in the absence of doubts and struggles and discouragements, yes, even sin. But it's in the midst of those things as we claim the cleansing of the precious blood of Christ as we renew ourselves through the work of the Holy Spirit and come back to the cross and the place of obedience. I'm sure that God is already using most of you listening to this tape more than you realize. Beware of the subtleness of putting yourself down in an unbiblical way. Just as I know you would be aware of allowing yourself to be puffed up. God is doing great things in the world today. He's working through older churches. He's working through newer churches. He's working through new agencies. He's working through older agencies. And it's exciting. I hope that you will make a commitment to be a missions mobilizer. I'm hoping to see many of you at coming missions events. I'm hoping to see some of you at the great Jiko-e conference in 1995 in Korea, which is sort of a mid-term working conference event for the AD2000 movement. These are exciting days. Don't miss out on what God has for you. Put your hands on the plow, as Jesus said, and don't turn back. Let's pray. God, we thank you for the power and the reality of your Holy Spirit. And we are trusting you to do a greater thing in our own lives. Give us wisdom as we share this cassette. Give us wisdom as we distribute powerful missions mobilization literature. We pray especially for our pastors and the leaders of our churches who are living in days of phenomenal tension and pressure. We think of the fiery dart of immorality that has attacked so many. And we thank you for those that have stood firm against that fiery dart. We thank you for the way you're using books like The Snare by Lois Mowdy to teach people how to stand firm against these fiery darts which are attempting to bring confusion and destruction everywhere and slow down the whole world mission thrust. Lord, we thank you for the discernment that you are giving us as we move together as one army in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. And oh God, we would present our bodies now as a living sacrifice according to Romans 12, 1 and 2 to go where you want us to go and to do what you want us to do. For we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. For more information or if you have some questions please feel free to write to me Box 17, Bromley, Kent, Great Britain. And I hope you also perhaps could be in contact with Perry Rickards, the coordinator of the track for the mobilization of new missionaries in the AD2000 movement. And if you want to write to him, care of me, I'd be happy to pass the letter on to him. More than that, I hope you can be in contact with perhaps the missionary fellowship you feel the most linked with or the action group or missionary minded people there in your own church. God bless you and we do hope you're going to experience great things in your own life in the months and years to come.
How to Be a Missions Mobiliser
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George Verwer (1938 - 2023). American evangelist and founder of Operation Mobilisation (OM), born in Ramsey, New Jersey, to Dutch immigrant parents. At 14, Dorothea Clapp gave him a Gospel of John and prayed for his conversion, which occurred at 16 during a 1955 Billy Graham rally in New York. As student council president, he distributed 1,000 Gospels, leading 200 classmates to faith. In 1957, while at Maryville College, he and two friends sold possessions to fund a Mexico mission trip, distributing 20,000 Spanish tracts. At Moody Bible Institute, he met Drena Knecht, marrying her in 1960; they had three children. In 1961, after smuggling Bibles into the USSR and being deported, he founded OM in Spain, growing it to 6,100 workers across 110 nations by 2003, with ships like Logos distributing 70 million Scriptures. Verwer authored books like Out of the Comfort Zone, spoke globally, and pioneered short-term missions. He led OM until 2003, then focused on special projects in England. His world-map jacket and inflatable globe symbolized his passion for unreached peoples.