In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of unity and like-mindedness among believers. He warns that without agreement and a common strategy, there will be divisions and contentions within the church. The speaker also highlights the need for a plan of action and policy to carry out the work of world evangelism, even if there are disagreements. He mentions the significance of individual testimonies and reports, as they provide a deeper understanding of God's work. The sermon concludes with a mention of the areas that need balance in order to effectively carry out the strategy.

Lord guide us as we just consider a few more thoughts about strategy, about where we're going, about what you want us to do here in India. These things may be a foundation for our discussion. In Jesus' name, Amen. I have so much I long to share with you. I really believe it was in God's providence, it may have been an attack of the enemy, but I believe it was in God's providence through a series of mistakes that I was not allowed back in India in 1968 and ended up here in Nepal. I believe that in some ways if I'd remained in India I might have helped the work, but in other ways I would have hindered it. I've always felt that the key of the work in India was Indians, and I, despite all my aspirations, I'm not of that chosen group. And I believe that my departure further Indianized the work. We never wanted the work to be totally Indianized because we felt it should be international. We felt that marked and made the work unique. You see, it used to be that if a work was only Indians, it would be very unique. But the role has changed. The missionaries have departed. There are very few left. The church became very nationalistic, and there was a day which we were very proud to say there are no missionaries in our work. They've all gone. We've taken it all over. More in Africa than India. That is no longer so unique. Most denominations have hardly any missionaries. Everything is in the hands of Indians. The Bible Society was proud. It was all in the hands of Indians. Somehow one or two got back in there, like Ron Petty and other unique characters. So, in one sense, it's more unique in India to be international than it is to be totally Indian. After all, if this is India, so for something to be totally Indian today isn't really that special. But something that is still international in the post-missionary, post-Raj, post-British Empire days is unique. And to a large degree, the foreigners who are here are in submission to Indian leaders. I think this is exciting, and I believe that God has a very important role and place for OM India to continue to play. I believe we are seeing laborers thrust out from India to other needy parts of the world, and hope we can talk about this more. But it just dawned on me when I went to the Gulf, after traveling all over the Western world and hearing them pray for tent makers to go to the Gulf, and very few who have that as a missionary strategy get there. Try to follow me on this. Very few who have that as a missionary strategy get there. But in God's providence, hundreds of Indian Christians, because of the economic squeeze on India as a nation, are in the Gulf as tent makers, and they are witnessing, and the Indian church in the Gulf is alive, and they are wanting to be involved with us. And there are ex-OMers, graduates in every Gulf state, witnessing for Jesus Christ. You say, well, that isn't the highest motivation. How did the Jerusalem church eventually move out of evangelism? They had a lecture on evangelism, all got inspired and went forth evangelizing. No. Persecution came, and they were scattered everywhere. And India is a nation with severe economic problems, at least a large segment of the people. We know there are plenty of rich people. We know there are a lot of people with a lot of money. But there are still masses of people who are struggling to get a job. Struggling to get a job. You are living in a country, as you well know, where just getting a job is considered one of the most important factors in all of life. Many people have to bribe very heavily just to get the training to get the job. They sometimes have to bribe there as well. How many of you know Thomas Samuels' testimony of how he bribed before he was a Christian to get going? In fact, a lot of people don't get to the Gulf without paying bribes. I hope the Christians who are there got there without doing that. You know, even if they got there paying a bribe, especially if they faced up to that, realized it was wrong and repented of it, God can use them. The thing that amazes me, you won't like this bit of theology, is when God goes around using the people who haven't repented. And I will tell you, I used to believe that, you know, if you haven't repented, then I don't know how the Lord is going to use you. But after seeing God use unrepented wretches in his work for 25 years, you know, I don't know what to say anymore. I've adjusted that to say, if you repent, certainly God will use you more. The other problem in this, I took getting on sidetracks, it's terrible, but many times a brother hasn't repented because he hasn't understood. The ego is so tricky. I think of people who may be XOMers and are a little bitter against us, and our fellowship isn't all that it should be. And we may be waiting for them to repent and write a letter of apology. I say, forget it, just love him. Stop waiting for the letter of apology. He may be confused, he may think, I've had specific cases of this, he may think he's repented. You're saying that was a half repentance, that was a cheap escape, not a real repentance, so you're not feeling you can fellowship. And when I meet XOMers, they think that I know some of the problems they had with OM. Lots of people have had problems with OM, I've had a few. The biggest problems I've always had have been with myself, I don't know about you. But, you know, often I don't remember these things. I don't remember if somebody broke the social policies 24 years ago in Operation Mobilization. And if they did, I would care less. I mean, it's totally wrong that people have a stigma put upon them because they broke the OM social policy. It's just wrong. And I pray that forgiveness may flow through our ranks. Anyway, let's get back from the side road onto the main road. The main road is, what are we doing in India? What are the goals of OM India? Now, let's understand this. There is a lot of freedom for each area in each state. I have not been around for two years, so basically you're doing what you want with hopefully Alfie and Ray having a little bit of control. But now I'm here, so I'm going to just share how I feel, how I see it. Then we're going to discuss it. Then I go to England and you go off and do what you want. Yes. The hope is, the hope, you see, is that when you go off and do what you want, that you will want to do a little bit of what I'm talking about. That's the hope. It's called leadership by persuasion. I have no power to make you do this or that in your particular state. I can weep, I can pray, I can send you tapes, books, and I have had, by the grace of God, with other leaders, a little bit, perhaps a lot of influence on this work going back from its earliest days because basically I believe you're already doing largely what I want, what I felt we should be doing. But what I felt was not my thoughts alone but the amalgamation of the early founders of OM India, some of Thomas Amos' burdens, some of Greg Hiddleston's burdens, some of Alfie's burdens, perhaps a lot of my own burdens. And I am basically happy where we're going but I think it's good to constantly redefine, constantly take a look, especially since we have, I think, largely agreed that we want to cut down the number of people, the number of teams, and hopefully by doing that increase the quality, give more time to each individual, be able to specialize more in certain ministries and especially in training leaders. But let's give just some of the basic goals and aims of the work. This is based on scripture, scripture that not only do you already know but you're already teaching. What scriptures? Acts 1-8. Ye shall be my witnesses, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth. There is a need in any movement to constantly go back to the basics. Acts 1-8, reading. And then those verses connected with the Great Commission in Matthew where it tells us not only to go into all the world and preach but to make disciples. I like that, I like that. Teaching, follow-up. I've always felt that OM was 90% follow-up. Now some people don't understand that because they don't understand what we're aiming at. You're here at this conference now because of OM's emphasis on follow-up. We believe that you still need follow-up before you're going to be some apostolic church planter in the back outreaches of Rajasthan. Most of you, if you're headed in that direction, need a little more follow-up. And it has always been the goal of OM to try to create a revolutionary, dynamic, committed individual who would be a representative of what we read in the Book of Acts. That takes time, longer than I ever dreamed. And I've had to lower the standard a little bit from my early idealistic days and come into balance on a few extremist ideas. The key with your team is not the number of tracts they give out, not the number of books they distribute, or even the number of churches they plant if they start in that ministry. The key with your team is where are they individually and spiritually in terms of their walk with God, in terms of spiritual balance, without which people will not function, in terms of really effective cross-cultural communication. It's not a matter of just getting some brother out on the street shouting at the Hindus that they're all going to hell and that their idols shall be destroyed at the last day, or now, and then roll out and destroy. People did try that in God years ago. I think it was one of the Roman Catholic methods, burning the temples and destroying the idols. The Hindus down there never stopped talking about it. The personal spiritual life of your team member is the highest priority that you have. This means you've got to spend time with them. I've talked to team members that have never even once prayed with their own team leader. Much less the big area leader sitting back home behind his desk writing important reports that no one reads. I'll tell you, most reports do get read. But if you have to choose on that day between spending time with a brother in need on your team and writing a report, you know, see the brother in need, and forget the report for that week. I would love to have a report saying, during the hour I was going to write this report, I led a soul to Christ, gave out a hundred chacks, and counseled a needy brother for 45 minutes. That's my report. That's the kind of reports I would like, because quite often some of the Indian reports are getting a little dull. It's better to tell one individual thing about what you're involved in and what God has done, rather than a long list of things. Though personally, any report sometimes is better than no report. So I repeat, the individual spiritual life of that brother on your team, or sister, is the first priority of the work in OM. We are a training movement. Our burden is to build men and women, and anytime I don't mention women, you please add it. Because it is purely a grammatical malfunction, or it may be a hangover from my male chauvinistic days, which I didn't even realize were there until I was trained or sat in the ministry of certain women, like my own wife, on a private basis. I did have some really weird chauvinistic ideas, which I hope I have shed without going into the other extreme, and therefore be classified as a woman's liver. If you don't think any of these things have influence on India, then you must live in some very interesting situations. Training men and women, prayer, the word, relationships, cross-cultural communication, learning how to deal with their emotions, hatred, envy, bitterness. It all exists on our teams. We've seen people train on our teams in three years and go down in one day, even leaders, one day turn bitter. Sometimes OM is all right when it's going your way, and when OM is letting you do what you want, maybe that's sometimes the problem. But OM does have a limit, even in terms of strategy. As I'm sure you realize from what you've laughed at before, it isn't really a matter of going back and just doing anything you want. Sooner or later, Brother Alfie will be flying into your headquarters to have a personal chat about what in the world you are doing. If one of you leaders decides, after reading a scripture in the Old Testament, that you're going to take on an extra wife, you will discover how absolutely bullheaded, narrow-minded, and fanatical OM can be about marriage. But if it's just a matter of whether you serve sugar in your tea or you've advanced to higher levels of commitment and are now pouring joggery or juggery or whatever other thing into your tea, you know, we're not going to worry too much about it. I personally believe that though outwardly at times it doesn't look like we quite know where we're going, that most people in OM do know where they're going. They're after men, they're after women. To see them discipled, encouraged, to get them in the Word, praise God for the effectiveness of the study program. Of course, little Sammy Idealist comes out of the closet and if you get on these idealistic clouds where I have dwelt far too often, everything looks black. Study program, the vehicle thing, the maintenance thing, everything can look black. In an imperfect world with imperfect reading, people, and as John Brown would tell us, often reading imperfect Bible translations. But somehow, somehow it goes on. Somehow it goes on. And I think John Brown, because I like to use living witnesses, and I don't like to speak behind people's backs, I believe he is one of the most beautiful testimonies of someone with strong convictions, a very different background than some of us would be from, coming into OM not really being happy about certain things and yet getting his priorities sorted out. It wasn't a matter of John sacrificing convictions. It was a matter of finding out what was the priority. We're not asking you to sacrifice your convictions unless they're really miles out, and even then, if you keep them to yourself, you can get away with a lot. I've got a few kinks of my own, especially in the area of music, but we find out what the priorities are. We find out what the priorities are. And this is why it is good to sometimes come together like this, even though it comes at great sacrifice, and to just speak together and think together on some of these basics. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. You know, when I read the church growth statistics, and I read the computer reports, I get excited about OM India. Do you know Ralph Winter, considered one of the most radical leading missiologists in the world today, esteems OM as one of the most avant-garde, significant mission organizations in the world today. Robert McQuilkin, a leading missiologist in the United States who lectures to all these leaders of the mission world, quoted OM as one of the groups that's broken through all the foul that has stopped so many other people. Now, of course, we in OM oftentimes have a more realistic view. Some of us are very gifted at putting OM down. But the fact of the matter is that while other people have been talking about unreached people, it's taken us 2,000 years even to get the definition. That's right. For 2,000 years, we haven't had this terminology that is now enabling us to go forward. Hidden peoples. Unreached peoples. People groups. There's a whole new terminology. Recently someone exhorted me, please go to California and get this course so I can get my terminology straightened out. There are some who seem to be really more concerned of getting your terminology straightened out than getting your life straightened out. I'm not against terminology, but you're in a movement that's concerned about your life. Someone was saying to me just recently that one preacher, I think it was John MacArthur. You've heard his tapes. I was just with him. Pray that his vision increases a little bit because he's got this narrow, just the church vision and parachurch groups. This is very popular in Western teaching. Parachurch groups. Oh, they're nice, but second best. Second best. Of course, a lot of people won't touch anything like that. Only the local church. I have two tapes dealing with that subject in case you want to get into that. But praise God. John MacArthur is a dear friend. We love him. He puts 25 hours of preparation every message he gets. Great. I hope you give 25 years of living the Christian life behind every church you plant or whatever else you do because the fact of the matter is that a lot of people who put preparation behind messages, John MacArthur's not in that category because he has a life, don't have it in their life. And the world, maybe not India. You'll have to judge for India. But in the West, we've got more preachers running around who cannot back it up with the life that I think has existed since Pentecost. I can't prove that, of course. People are looking for those who will live the life. OM people in India are looking for leaders who do win souls to Jesus Christ, personally, or at least try. No one's going to judge you if you don't see any conversions. But you might find a little need for excitation if you aren't even trying. Some of the greatest joys I have are in personal evangelism. Not preaching on television or radio. I'm not even going to do loss in Tampa. That kind of high exposure media, radio, all the celebrities there all wanting to meet the leaders and oh I'm great, let them meet George Miley, David Hicks or some other more sane looking character. I'll pray for the Tampa ministry. I came to India in a substitute for going to Tampa, Florida. I have more of a burden than ever to be found doing some of the simple things. Giving out chaps as I still do all the time. Not every person that passes me. Preaching even to small groups. To me, if there's two or three, God, Jesus is in the midst. That's good enough for me. Where did I get that philosophy? I found it in Matthew. Try it, it's a great book. And if we should become smaller and I believe we should, then I believe it's that leaders may get their priorities sorted out and give more time to just simply walking with Jesus and doing the things that we all say every Christian should do. Indians perhaps more than most will learn by what we do, but not by what we say. You can listen to a hundred tapes and that will not necessarily change your life. Go spend one week with a man of God. Live with him, walk with him. Learn something from him and sometimes learn things not to do. Certainly true if anybody ever comes with me. And that will have more of an influence than maybe those one hundred tapes. Personally, I believe in both. I believe in teaching with every ounce that's in us, but I believe that we should live the light. Light a fire and people will come and see how many fire departments or fire groups came to your fire there in Bombay. I don't like to call it your fire, that's not fair. I heard there were ten different companies. I'm sure some of those fire companies came just to see it. They didn't behave as if they were going to put it out from what I've heard. But anyway, we won't argue over that point. Others came to see it as well. Maybe a poor illustration at this time. But one of the things God has called me to preach on a lot lately is found in Hebrews. Our God is a consuming fire. I want to ask you. You're the leaders of all of India. If you don't have it, who will? Are you on fire? That's why when people come to me and they want a chart, I think that has been a mistake in some American groups. They think everything has to go on a chart. And Americans have upset many people around the world by exporting their charts, exporting their little evangelistic packages. You've had it in India for years. My burden is just to see Indians on fire. They can make their own chart. They can make their own strategy. I hope it will be within reason. I hope it will be aimed at some of these things we're talking about today. But it would be regimented. And in any case, that person can always leave O.M. and let the fire burn. And I think that's just so beautiful. It mocks us often as a European movement and an Asian movement rather than as an American movement, though I'm not anti-American. I love that country, and I don't believe Christians should be anti-any country. And I don't think you northerners should be anti-Kerala, and I don't think you Kerala people should feel persecution complex. You're like us Americans, feeling no one understands you, and no one really lets you crawl in your corner and hide under a banana patch. But we Americans, I'm still an American, though everybody thinks I'm an Englishman. We're the same everywhere we go in the world. People criticize America, they criticize us, and of course, some of it is valid. Why are we so afraid of valid criticism about our country or our state? As mature Christians, we no longer get uptight about these things. If somebody gives me five criticisms about O.M., I try to maybe point out the balance, then I get five others. Because these countries are just, what are they? What are they, these countries? If God took his restraining hand off these nations, they'd all bombard each other with nuclear warfare. And I just have this yearning for Christians to be different. And the greatest disappointment in my life with O.M., and with leaders in O.M., and if I saw it any better elsewhere, I'd be tempted to leave, really. I'm probably that kind of a case. And I'm always researching, always looking for bigger fires, and more sane people, and if A.W. Tozer started a movement, I'd probably join him. He couldn't even keep his own wife organized, the poor guy. That's right, he had a lot of family problems, and two of his children are totally away from Jesus Christ. And he admitted that one of his greatest problems was lack of moderation. Lack of moderation. He admitted, basically, that extremism was his problem. I think if he had traveled in Europe more, if he had a little O.M. training, and had read a little more of other people's books instead of just old mystics, he got so overdosed on old mystics that when he preached, if he coughed, either Gunyan, Madame Gunyan, or someone else came out. In fact, they couldn't produce his books because he would have been accused of plagiarism. All these things he was saying were rehashed mystics, and they had a lot of trouble producing his books. By the miracle, they didn't get in a lot of legal cases. Dr. Francis Schaeffer, in his amazing book, Ash Heap Lives, brings out the fact that Christian leaders have feet of clay. In other words, all Christian leaders, and that includes us, we have our weaknesses. You know what happens in O.M.? It's the big game we play in O.M. We go around judging leaders. Now, as senior leaders, like Ray and Alfie and myself, we have to sit down prayerfully, in agony, not even wanting to do it, and evaluate people's ministries. That's not judging. That's not gossip. Otherwise, the work of God is impossible. It is impossible. If we can never evaluate, why are we told to have discernment? When you go out recruiting, you need discernment. Before you recruit little Johnny New Convert, who's got a big smile, and sells a lot of books on the first day, and tells you you're the most wonderful guru that ever walked on the streets of this town. You might want to talk with a few other people. You say, but that would be gossip. What if one of the people said something negative? It's just unrealistic. We must evaluate. And yet, we must do it in compassion. We must always try to see the positive points. And we must, in all honesty, when there's something real and negative about a brother, go to that brother individually. Your job as a leader in this work is incredibly difficult. And if you think at any time that I'm criticizing you, even generally, for every inch of criticism, believe me, there's ten inches of deep sympathy for the difficult job you have. If I visited your team, and I found someone throwing tomatoes at you, spiritually speaking, criticizing and attacking you, you'd probably find that I would talk to you and take your side as much as I possibly could. Because I know how hard it is to be a leader. I know that no leader has everybody on his team happy. It's impossible. And I just pray that you'll not allow criticism to throw you off balance. Examine it and go back into the battle. So what is our goal? It's training men and women. It's bringing them into revolutionary Christian faith as we read about in the New Testament. It's taking all that we've heard in the teaching we've received from many great men of God and condensing it down into a way that it can be brought into the life of an individual. And you, most of you, have been exposed to a lot of truth, a lot of truth, a lot of truth. But is it functioning in your life? You've studied the Book of Acts. Study program, great. And yet you go out sometimes with little compassion for souls. I've been told, maybe the one who told me is wrong, but I've been told often even leaders without literature and somehow break every rule of the Book of Acts. And at that point all of us in OM feel very guilty. Well, not my fault. I didn't write the Book of Acts. I just simply believe it is possible. I've had tremendous temptations to give up this message, to just say it can be done. People will not live that way because I've seen so many who will not. But I just say and perhaps it's one of my greatest needs as I come here this weekend to recommit my own life to you and to the work here that it can be done. People can live in this same way. And I have had people totally outside of OM who were once critics, who know the Book of Acts, observe OM, see our weakness, and yet say they believe this is the closest thing they've ever found in this world to what they found in the Book of Acts. It's because the enemy is so clever and is so detached so much of what happens today from what we read about here. Do you realize what's happening to the prayer meeting? Just in case you think I'm exaggerating. Prayer meetings are absolutely basic to the Book of Acts, are they not? Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 4. Absolutely basic. You can't study the Book of Acts without seeing that the New Testament church is a praying church. So just take that one thing and take a survey of the churches in India. I've taken it all over the world. And you'll discover to a large degree churches no longer have a prayer meeting. Or if they do, only a few people are there. And if they have that meeting, often it is completely dead. Completely dead. Fifty years ago there were several who felt that the Pentecostal movement was it. Now, we leaders, we can all be very honest. We all know where our land stands. There's no one here foolish enough to think that I am anti-Pentecostal. I am accused all over the world of being a raving Pente. Especially in Germany. And, you know, I'm not anti-Pentecostal. I'm anti-extremist. That puts me at odds with a lot of people. But we did think, even 25 years ago, the charismatic movement, the Pentecostal movement, this is it. And a lot of people because that, because that became very narrow. It wasn't new. The Southern Baptists already felt they were the main ones. And they still do. They still do. Bless their hearts. And I'll be happy to send that tape to any Southern Baptist church at that section of it. Because there's Southern Baptist leaders that now acknowledge their denominationalism. And there's a new revival movement starting in the Southern Baptist church in which Roy Hesham and Calvary Road has been the spearhead in the hands of the Lord to bring people to repentance and turn it from sectarianism and denominationalism to a more mature faith in Jesus Christ. So the Pentecostals, big thing born around 1905, the Azusa Street revival, really began to burn. It still is one of the great movements in the world today. And I thank God that we have many linkings. But it wasn't the movement. And now the leaders of the Pentecostal church, as they look back over 50 years, in which there have been thousands of adulteries, thousands and tens of thousands of church divisions that would stay in the very hair up on your head. And every kind of problem has hit the Pentecostal church as much as any of the churches that they felt that God did not have the Spirit. God still uses them. And every Pentecostal church, as every Brethren Assembly, as every Baptist church, has to be judged on its individual value rather than its denominational reputation. And so we fellowship with individual churches of many different groups. The greater differences are not really between the Pentecostals, the Baptists, the Brethren, the Anglicans. The greater differences are between those who are extreme, judgmental, or dead. That's the other end. And those who are alive, believe God's Word, believe 1 Corinthians 13, and have something in this basic message that during your years in OM we try to fill your heart with. Many Pentecostal churches now have hardly any prayer meeting at all. If they haven't, hardly anybody comes. And sometimes it's the most ritualistic thing you have ever sat through. In other cases, it's just pure, unadulterated noise for one hour. And at the end of the hour if you ask anyone what they believe God was actually going to do as a result of that noise, no one would know. No wonder I have more invitations from Pentecostal churches than almost any other single church. Because when they hear this message, even as I'm sharing with it now, many of them want it. And one thing I must say about the Pentecostals often, they're at least more willing to give you a chance. It's that, what shall you say, that spirit of bleeding still for the miraculous. Most of them still believe that. And wanting God's message. A little more hunger than the average church. That at least you get in the door. At least you get in the door. And it's hard to preach if you don't get in the door. When I went to Mexico in the early days, I couldn't get in these sophisticated Methodist churches. I couldn't get in, I didn't have Baptist credentials. I couldn't get in some of these groups. The Pentecostals had me. And they were concerned about fire. And I come in, and they couldn't understand the Spanish, but they smelled the burning. And when I gave the invitation, they all came forward. I've often thought that one of the greatest ministries in OM is simply bringing people from false fire to true fire. Some of you, if you're honest, when you came into OM, you were so extreme you could barely fellowship with yourself. And God somehow, through this feeble group with much failure, has brought you to some degree of balance. And let me tell you, when you leave OM, if you don't have balance, you're going to have a lot of problems. I mean you're going to have a lot of problems. Balance is not an optional extra. Do you know that terminology? Is that an optional extra? If you buy a car in the United States, the air conditioner is optional extra. You don't need an air conditioner. It costs too much. A stereo is an optional extra. If you're in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, that's all thrown in with a car. Yeah. But the poor Americans, it's an optional extra. The Kuwaitis, it's an optional extra. Spiritual balance is not an optional extra. If you teach your brother five things on your team, study program, evangelism, prayer, a lot of other things, and he doesn't develop balance which involves the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5. It involves love. It involves discernment. If he doesn't learn spiritual balance, whatever he's learned, he may actually use it to propagate something that you wouldn't even classify as acceptable. We've got to teach spiritual balance. You have got to represent that in your life. And I feel this is one of the goals in terms of basic spiritual training. Don't think balance comes into a brother through going to one OM conference and hearing a message even by someone who may be very gifted on that subject that that's going to produce spiritual balance. It's learned out in the highways and hedges as your team sees you react to different situations. How do you react? Let's take a little inventory. When everything goes wrong on the team. How do you react when you're criticized? How do you react when someone openly opposes you in the morning devotions? They're not supposed to do that, but they do it. And our reactions are often more a difficult area of spiritual struggle than our actions. How do you react? I'm very concerned about this because I believe that some leaders seem to be specialists in putting younger Christians into a guilt trip. How do you handle a brother who's just come back from breaking one of the OM's 25 major rules? Now, they should be keeping rules. We don't want people living in the dark. But your reaction to them when they break that rule is more important than whether they broke the rule. And if you don't react in patience, love, discernment, and balance, beloved, you have just broken a bigger rule. God's social rule. And I feel it's so important to react properly and compassionately to people when they break rules. If someone steals from your team, you don't break their heart. That's what they do in Saudi Arabia. They chop it all. But you talk to them. Why was he stealing? Could it be that your team treasurer is such a cotton-picking scrooge, to give the terminology, that no one would ever in his right mind ask him for money? He'd rather steal from the book sales. That's easy. I can teach him many ways how to teach to steal from the OM book sales. You have to be a real idiot not to be able to get away with that. And many do it. They think they're clever and be sure their sin will find them out. But could it be that the extremism in guarding the money in India, Lord Protector, that's what Judas was, has created an extremism that has caused people to steal. It happens in Europe, much less India. And this is why in everything we do there must be spiritual balance. Let me jump ahead on a few things and then come back to the subject of balance. I want to just mention a few other goals lest we leave out something important. One of our main goals after training these men in spiritual life is to train and mobilize local Christians. Train and mobilize local Christians. You want to use other terminology? Revival of the church. Revival of the church through prayer, through preaching. I see several ways that we disciple and influence people in O.M. One way is when they become part of us. They join our team, right? There's a danger in O.M., especially O.M. India, that we think that's the only way to be discipled, join O.M. We must understand there's another whole area where we can disciple people in the context of their own culture. Not taking them out of their culture. Not telling them leave your job, leave your home, join the O.M. women's team. We must turn down some of these women, my dear sisters. We cannot take so many women. How many of you heard me say that? So, therefore, we must learn to disciple them in their culture. Bible studies. Living with them maybe on a weekend of training. You can have a weekend of training and a lot of contact without dragging them off for a two-year program. And I'm convinced Dennis Alexander is one of the strongest proponents of this section over here. He believes O.M. is way off. Always thinking, got to join the team, got to go to the O.M. conference, got to go on the summer crusade. It's like a record in O.M. I still believe in that. But I can see the weaknesses in that. And I believe we've got to do both. This team can have an enormous input in this group of people that never maybe read the discipleship manual. And don't believe in our social policy. But they do love Jesus. And you know, this group around the world, they are the people that's supporting this work. And many of them have never been in O.M. A lot of people, and this breaks my heart, they come in O.M. and they go and they never send a rupee back to support this ministry. And I want to tell you, if you think we're discipling all these brothers in an in-depth way that come in our teams, you're crazy. I'm being too blunt. You're crazy. Give, give, give, give. We are now in need. We are now plowing our backs. I want to see if people are going to turn around and give. But if they don't, I won't be disappointed to despair because I've already been disappointed so much in life. I don't think I can go any further. It's going to be all uphill from now on. I've gone down, I think, as far as I can ever go. God's chosen people, so often God's frozen people. I would rather we cut down and train 200, yay, 100 men to be absolutely revolutionary, absolutely unselfish, absolutely radical if it takes five years than this great mass of people who go through this program. They go out and somehow they didn't catch it. They didn't catch it. Unselfishness, Christ-likeness, brokenness, tract distribution. Some of them don't even catch that. Beloved, some of the message that we declare is a hard message. It's a radical message. You don't pick it up on a weekend. But let's understand this. If we increase our prayer life, probably one of the greatest needs in the work worldwide, if we increase our prayer life, then I believe the Lord would lead us more to prepared people, even within this category over here, not ready to join OM, yet hungry for God. They get some OM books. They meet an on-fire team. This is where I've seen the ship just do unbelievable things, unbelievable things. They come into a port. The Spirit of God has prepared people. And sometimes people seem to go further in a week than some people in OM in two years. You know in Europe, some people after the end of the two-year program, you know where they are? They're defeated, discouraged, bitter, hearts full of unforgiveness. Some of them go home and that's the end. Now praise God, not many. Spirituality does not come automatically. It's not a matter of how many teams we have. It's not a matter of how many are on the team. What's happening in their lives in terms of in-depth, long-term, deeper walk with God and all the reality that is involved in that. And with small teams, we can affect the churches. If there's even one man on the team who has an anointed ministry, together with a praying team and some powerful books, we can affect the churches. We can affect the churches. I know it's hard. I know it's long-term. We all know what Worthing Tabernacle has done for OM. But very few people know how many years we've been involved and how many hours and how many sermons and how many journeys and how many sermons and personal conversations are involved to build that relationship. Now that was already a live church, but not to the missionary vision and degree and intensity for the pastor for launching out every six months in evangelistic crusades in the innermost parts of the earth and the church happy about it and actually commending workers. If we could build some in-depth church relationships in India, I believe we could eventually move to the place where churches would be commending people to OM, financed and commended to OM. I know it's idealistic. I know it's way down the road. Let's at least aim in that direction. Then we could have two avenues of keeping people long-term in OM. Follow this because it's very important and we're going to discuss it. Number one, we feel that a person can stay on. We can't take them anymore in this category at present, but we feel just so strongly he must stay on. The Lord has given testimony to this in a number of ways and so we take him on and he has to basically live by book sales or by the book sales of the group or we have to bring in subsidy, which we're trying to cut down so that the work can be more indigenous. That's the way we do it now. But if somehow we could develop this in-depth relationship with churches, they could really get to know what OM is, the way we live. To do that, it may mean some suffering. Then there could be the second avenue in which we'd say to a brother, look, we can't keep you in if it's going to be the tent-making thing. The tent has just collapsed. In other words, there's just not enough money from the book sales and even from the gifts to keep another person. Many organizations evaluate every single new individual, every single one on the basis of budget. They simply say, you know, one of the great movements in this country is the student group, the EU. Why? If they had the money in one sense, they could have a thousand more workers, I believe, or at least several hundred. But each new full-time staff member with that group is carefully calculated on the basis of budget. Now, I may be wrong if I am incorrect. That's the way it was when I researched it and talked to people who were in it. Whereas I am, we're very, very sort of cavalier, you know, let's all go. If each state just takes a little bit of liberty, there's ten states, it seems, about ten, then automatically we've got, before we know what happens, 50 more people all who need to live. And when they get married, and when little Johnny comes and little Sally, whatever you call them over here, Monju, when she comes along, she's got to go to school, you're talking about a lot of money. And to presume this just keeps falling out of Europe is one of the greatest mistakes that we could ever make in this world. So if eventually we could develop this second method, which is, by the way, the method we use everywhere else in the world, misunderstood greatly, thought as, oh, we just pray in our money. That terminology alone is so confusing people don't know what we're talking about. The OM policy is a combination of praying in the money and believing that the local church should support the people. I already talked to you about Singapore. I could give you a few other stories to help it all stay in balance. And the reason we have chosen the tent-making road in India, it evolved that way, is there was no way in the early days that churches were going to support people and send them on Operation Mobilization. Only in the past five years are they supporting missionaries in their own denomination. Many of you could leave OM now and your denomination would support you, right? But your denomination or your church will not support you as long as you remain in Operation Mobilization. That's why some of you ought to go join your denomination. Blow it up! In love, of course. Praise God! I've heard that this brother Shantiji is now a leader, a key leader in the Methodist Church in Gujarat. Praise the Lord for that. There are others scattered around, exilers, infiltrating the church. We always have the two types. We have those that infiltrate the established churches and work toward revival and new life. We have those that don't like that. They go crazy if they're in that kind of ministry. They can't even bear the translation of the Bible they're reading in that church, much less all the people. So they go down the road, the SNDASs, and they plant new churches. Hallelujah! We're happy either way. We don't want to be narrow. If you bring revival to the cathedral in Calcutta or even to the Assembly of God Church, I guess they don't think they need it, but if you go out anywhere, we'll be happy. Or if you go out like SNDAS and Brother Sakar and others across the country and start new churches, we'll be happy. You can't expect OM, an interdenominational movement, to just take one road or the other. Different OMers have different preferences. Even Peter Main and I are different in this area. Peter Main's from the Brethren background, and he's one of the most open-minded among the Brethren. But he's still in the local Brethren church, and he's consulting the elders, and he's in submission to them and so forth. And I tried, I thought about that, and I went along to the little Brethren establishment in Bromley, Louis Street, Assembly. If you blink your eyes walking down the main street, you miss it. And I just, you know, my wife couldn't even bear it. I mean, I could have, I could have, I could have survived. I love the people there, and I don't mind hearing the same prayer every week for several weeks. We're all different. We're all different. I just heard today that Joseph D'Souza comes from a tight Brethren assembly. You guys ought to get together. And the day they send him his first gift for world evangelism and reaching North India for Christ, we'll all get together and put the tight Brethren up one more notch. And the day they send him his first gift for world evangelism and we'll all get the tight Brethren And the day they send him his first gift for world the tight Brethren up one more notch. And the day they send him his first the tight Brethren out one more notch. And the day they emphases, and you're willing to tolerate OM for a while. Now, I'm teaching you things that you've got to teach others. I'm teaching you things maybe you've never heard. So when you're in OM, you tolerate OM. You'd maybe like a little more tongue-speaking. You'd maybe like a little more healing. You'd maybe like more prophecy. These things are very important to many churches. We have prayed about these things. We've discussed them. We have been very open to God, but we don't believe that with what God wants to do with us today, that these particular gifts, which we do not despise, would be useful at the present time in the present situation. But if you leave, and you go down the road, or even when you're in OM on Sunday in your own church, if you feel more strongly that way, nobody's going to judge you. We've infiltrated a large percentage of all large Pentecostal movements in the world with a message and the emphasis on balance, and the book Love Covers. God is using it among those people. Many other emphasis, and leading more balanced Pentecostal people greatly respect OM. Many, many balanced Brethren people who don't agree fully with us, because if anything, the Brethren won't. They want to baptize you. I mean, that's... In the years gone by, they would, you know, almost tackle you going down the road and get you in the baptistery. Now, that's interesting because Darby and the exclusive Brethren still baptize children. You probably, of course, already knew that bit of church history. The exclusive Brethren still teach infant baptism. So, obviously, they had a little disagreement, even in the very early days. And I'm convinced, or let me just say this, there are many men in the Brethren, leaders, who would totally agree with everything in OM. We're a little too broad for that. But they'd love to send their children to be with us for a summer or a year. And because they've seen so many children in the Brethren go completely atheist or agnostic, they'd be willing to compromise and even have them become OMers if they went on for Christ. You know, I don't care if my son is here. It's not fair. But I don't care if my children, they grow up and decide to join YWAM. I don't care if they go to where my one son goes in the mornings to the Bradford House Fellowship Stream, which, you know, I don't think is the greatest, most balanced thing going in Britain today. Well, in the evening, he goes down to another church. He's still sort of, you know, deciding which direction he should go in. My daughter thinks most all the churches are absolutely boring and dull, so I don't know where she's going to go to. She thinks OM is great, but I don't know if she'll ever join. But, you know, that is not my big thing. I think most of us who are parents are just so thrilled just to see our children going on for Christ. There is a sense in OM where the standard is too high. It's too high. You're going to drive people crazy, some of you, if you don't come down a little bit. You're going to drive your own children crazy. People don't live up here the way sometimes in OM we at least get the idea we should live. And sometimes the heavy guilt trip we put on them when they fail. So our burden is to train, to mobilize the church, to work for revival within the church. There are many ways we can do this, and each state has freedom. Some don't do much in this area. Well, there's so many other things you can do. Nobody's going to jump on you. Bangladesh doesn't want to do much in this area. They want to plant churches among the Muslims. They're working in a totally different situation than most of us, in a totally different historical context. Though I would not be opposed to the possibility of one team getting involved with an apostolic church planter in planting a Muslim group. I don't think we're ready to do that on our own. There's a lot that can be said about that. And then one of our goals is still mass evangelism. Mass evangelism. This was one of the marks of OM in India. And I may have not said this completely before, but whereas some talk about reaching unreached people, I think many who know OM know that this is what we have been doing. Do you know that many of the people you have reached all over India in the last 17 years are classified as totally unreached? Totally unreached, hidden people's groups. You met them in the markets, you met them in the open airs, you gave them the gospel. None of that information is in the computer. That's why I really believe on the basis of what even OM India has done, the statistics for unreached people are false. And to a degree, they're actually lies. They give a false impression. Because in India alone, we have reached over 200 million people. And a lot of those were in these so-called hidden groups because we weren't smart enough. And I wonder how smart they were when they launched out in the Book of Acts. Will you tell me how much of all this computerized information they had in the Book of Acts? Forgive me if I overstate it, but I still believe a little more of the Holy Spirit and a little less red tape, ticker tape and computer tape, would help us get the job done. I really believe that. Now, one of the problems is definition. Some are saying nobody is reached until there is a church in their midst that speaks that language. I don't agree with that. Because some people are resistant, they've had the gospel, they've had literature, they've been preached at and we've talked to them face-to-face. Now, I believe we can say, depending on where we draw the line, perhaps we could say they're among the un-evangelized. Certainly no church growth there. I think we've left out a chunk of terminology that's very important. That there are different levels of reaching people. And that a movement like OM have reached people, even hidden peoples and unreached people, in a very basic level that to a large degree the church has very little interest in. Do not think that church planting is the new thing. Church planting is the oldest thing in missions. Every mission group has been involved in church planting minus very few. I'm not speaking here of help organizations like literature organizations. I'm talking about African Inland Mission, TEAM, any of the big missions. They plant churches. And the parent church groups, get this in your head, have done more church planting than some of the church-church groups. This is interesting, isn't it? And I believe that in the context of where India was when we came here 20 years ago, this kind of mass evangelism, coupled with the training, was more radical and more important at that time than church planting. Because if we had just gotten church planting, we'd probably been stuck in a couple of states. Probably the way we were, we'd all failed anyway. Now, we have some missiologists that are telling us to stop doing what we're doing here and all go to the tribes because they respond. Number one, if we as foreigners especially go to the tribes, we're all going to end up over in Pakistan. Now, Mike Wakely wouldn't mind. We are dealing with heavy security problems that are being faced in countries all over the world. I feel that tribal work must be done outside of Operation Mobilization. An interdenominational mission running on foreign money to some degree cannot be heavily involved in tribal work in India at this time. Individuals who don't care, it's a separate situation. Praise God for the number of ex-OM people who are going into tribal work. To me, this is why OM is so exciting because when people leave us, they go into all these ministries that are on your heart. We can't do all these things ourselves. We're limited by many factors. We may deal with that another day. The limitations we've got to face about ourselves and where we are. But the people that graduate, that receive this training, that get this foundation of reality in spiritual life, are going into all kinds of ministries. I feel that if an area is responsive, if an area is responsive, there is less need for OM. Because if it is responsive, history has shown many groups will soon be working there. There are some exceptions. And it's horrible when there's response and no one goes. And we need to tell the Indian church about these areas. We need to get this information out. Maybe our new newspaper that we put out can be somewhat linked with reaching the unreached or something. I don't know. That would be, again, politically perhaps a problem. But the Indian church must take the responsibility of the tribals and must take the larger share of the responsibility where there is response. Existing denominations, existing movements. What in the world is Bhaktsingh's group all sitting back in Andhra and Tamil Nadu? I've been trying to tell him and his people for 20 years to move out. I can't believe how deep they are stuck. And I'd be happy to send them the tape. Because he is not afraid to speak out boldly. And some of the things he says are nonsense. And so I'm not afraid to speak out boldly, knowing sometimes what I say is also nonsense. Maybe from some of the mixture of nonsense we will get sense. But you see, people are telling us only go where the church is growing. People really put down this kind of work some of you are in. Going among Muslims. They're not responding. Nonsense. Praise God, even some of the people who were saying that 10 years ago have changed their message. They've changed their message. We were too dumb, maybe too much filled with faith to feel that we should give up on Muslims 20 years ago because they were not responsive and still are not responding. Except in Indonesia. And a few very tiny experimental projects. Unless you think Bangladesh is anything more than that at this present stage. I believe we must continue with mass evangelism. Not to the sacrifice of the other more important goals. And I believe that literature is valid especially among church people who will not give generally to this kind of evangelism. We've been forced by the providence of God. Such is the history of the church, my beloved. Such is the history of the church. The providence of God has forced us into a tent-making strategy that sometimes we don't like. Sometimes we don't like book-selling. It doesn't sound spiritual, does it? Say, he's a book-seller compared to he's planting a church. I mean, it's obvious. The one is a graduate. He's graduated from the book-selling and he's now a church planter. To keep that in balance, you may go interview some of the church planters across India and see what they do during the eight-hour day in which they live. If you want to get a depression, make a tour of the nation, one end of the coast to the other. Why? Because some have gone prematurely into a ministry that is way over their heads. And they have to sit down and write letters all over the world in order to get finance so that they can go one more week because they're in a dead-end street. It's hard. And we need a lot of wisdom in that area. Yes, I believe in church planting. I don't believe a main strategy of OIM India is direct church planting, but I believe indirectly OIM India is going to result in the planting of hundreds of churches perhaps in the next even few years. And if it doesn't happen, I don't think we should put ourselves under a triple guilt trip. We've been proclaiming this, we've been teaching it, we've been practicing this to some degree, and if the church doesn't respond, we can only go so far. And you're going to beat yourself into a spiritual pulp if you think you can just do it without the church because we're part of the church. When I speak of the church, I speak of live churches based on God's Word where people love Jesus Christ, although they may be as dead as doornails and as visionless as bats. They're still God's people, and the scales can fall off, and things can happen. And it's amazing what's happened to the Kennedy Explosion Program in some parts of the world through other programs like Evangelism in Depth in Latin America. In the next few years in O.M. India, one of our major strategies should be to push the work, the vision, and the task back into the hands of the church where it belongs at least to a large degree. We can be a voice, we can be an avant-garde force, we can be those traveling teams we see in the Book of Acts that minister to churches and that launch out planting the seed hoping that as the church follows or someone follows, even an individual, there can be the follow-up and a new church born. This will have to be worked out in every area of India. And then, to bring this to a close, let me mention a few of these areas of balance. I was going to meet with the state leaders at 5, but I felt it was better just to go on because, you know, when the water is flowing, I like to not turn it off because I may not get it all tomorrow. And I have the state leaders for endless hours and I feel these things need to be heard by everyone. But here are some of the areas we're going to have to work for balance if this strategy is going to be carried out. There's a lot more I can say about strategy. Strategy is easy to sort of say, but it takes a lot to defy, you know, and we'll be doing that in the next three days because I believe even such things as seeing Indians going out to other areas of the world is included even if it be on the smallest beginning stage level. And there are other things I'd like to say. But if this is going to be carried out, there's going to be some balance and these are some areas we've got to work on. You know, number one, the balance between state strategy, national strategy, and international policy and some degree strategy. Never ending issues. Now, we all know our brother John Lee has a tremendous vision for West Bengal. It's wonderful to be able to speak openly about these things. God is obviously moving, unless I'm reading the reports wrong, in West Bengal. People are responding, especially from the villages. So he's got some visions. He's submitted three, four pages of visions. He's strong-minded. He says at the end, great, if you come along with us, I mean, if you go along with us, great. Otherwise, well, maybe I read it wrong. He said, I'm going anyway. I mean, we all know that's John Lee. Onward, Christian soldiers. Great. Here we are, back in London, you know, just hanging on to OM International, and we see suddenly revival in West Bengal, or church growth, or John Lee growth, or whatever. So we're going to discuss that. That is not going to be easy. Let's all be praying about what we're going to talk about in West Bengal. This is a leader's thing. We all can know about this. Then we don't have to all, you know, we all meet in the toilets. What did we say in that session? We're going to talk about West Bengal. And, you know, if we come out of the meeting, and John's hair is all, and I've got a patch on my eye, you'll know we've really had a heavy discussion. I don't know if we'll let Janice come. State strategy, national strategy, how is what perhaps our brother wants to do in West Bengal, how does that fit into what everybody else wants to do? I remember a brother who was a leader, one of the most interesting we ever had. We used to think if he had his way, every truck would be in his state, everybody with any maturity would be in his state, and I would leave, surely Bombay or London, and join his team as a literature man. Slight exaggeration, but you got the point. We've got to pray together, and we've got to see where we're going nationally, what are the problems, what about the money? Everything costs money. And then how much can we do in that state? What about the neighboring state? What about the state next door? We just can't do everything, because I think many of us already realize, at times OIM India seems to be a breaking point. I know that Ray at times wants to get out. I know that. Because anybody in that job, it just blows your mind to think of all that's happening, and all the cross-sections of opinions and ideas and criticisms. It's a heavy responsibility to me, this work. There are not many in the church that have ever done it. Do you know that Michael Griffiths just resigned from the OMF? And I know that one of the reasons is the intensity of leading that number of people. The travel it demanded, away from his family. And he just felt he had to settle, children, this thing, that thing. He left a mission, long-term commitment. He's a man of long-term commitment. He left the mission. He's now the president of London Bible College. Some of us missionary fanatics feel that's a bit of a side road for a guy like Michael Griffiths, really. But we've decided not to judge him. Because the Holy Spirit usually handles things better than some of us who are sitting on the edge of the ballpark or the cricket patch, not patch, the cricket pitch. You know, just evaluating people at a distance. We do too much of this at OMF. Evaluating people from a distance. Many times, even our leaders, when they're judging other parts of OMF, they don't know what they're talking about. They don't know what they're talking about. They have what I call, diarrhea of the mouth. Obviously, that's not an Indian expression. But it's an expression very commonly used, especially in certain countries. Not usually on television. States, strategy, national strategy, international policy. We might say, what do these people internationally have to do with us? Well, who's sending the money? Who's sending the workers? Who's paying the bills? We are committed to each other. What you do here affects us there. The whole work is affected by this fire. I dare to say some overseas are more under the burden of that fire than some of you in this room. Not Alfie or Rudy, who's had all of his equipment go up. But maybe some others, who just by temperament, by your own way, I mean, the fire in Bombay, how many of you fasted and prayed automatically without anybody telling you? Just for that. Had a special prayer, or maybe decided to send some of the money and stashed home in a safety deposit account to help get out of the fire fund. It's interesting how people pray for money. They hardly ever think that maybe they should do some giving. And I believe we are deeply involved in a national and an international movement in which we've got to constantly work for understanding and balance and sympathy. In the long run, through unity, we're going to accomplish more in each individual state, even though at times they will have to compromise what they are dreaming about temporarily. The history of OM is a history of compromise. I've had to compromise some of my deepest dreams just to survive in the movement, so I'm not afraid to ask other people to compromise as well. And then the balance... Let me just see how much tape I have here. The balance... between tent making and other forms of evangelism. Tent making means book selling. Praise God. The kind of tent making we do really isn't tent making. It's a ministry in itself. Paul was making tents. Dennis Alexander works in a secular job. That's what... really what tent making is. We wouldn't have to call our book ministry tent making. It's a ministry in itself. We wouldn't care if you made any money. The fact that you do make money in this type of situation with a church the way it is is key to growth. But a ministry of books is valuable in itself. It's valuable in itself. Don't stop doing it when you leave OM simply because you don't need the cash. And it seems that we need to train our people more thoroughly in all the aspects of book selling. There should be a four-lecture series on book selling, not a one-lecture series. If you give one lecture to it, you're esteeming it for what it is in many people's minds. Very, very little. We need a number of lectures somehow, locally. Study program. I feel some of the things we teach in the study programs are things the young people use very little. They can't keep all that in their head. I study the Bible as much as most. What I've studied, what I can use is a long distance. I was a fairly high student at Bible College. In my theology course, my doctrine course, church history, I knew that book. And today, I can't give you a lot of that material. I can give you other material. But I believe together with theology and doctrine, we need to give them that which they're living in. Six days a week in OM. That's their very bread and butter. We have a naive, immature view about life. And if book selling isn't enough, let's train some more mechanics. Let's train women how to sew. Let's train people how to be secretaries. Let people, when they go from OM, have a skill that they can use to work in this difficult world. Not everybody going from OM is going to be an evangelist, a pastor, or a teacher. It's a great grief to my life in Bangladesh that so many, when they leave OM, the only thing they can do is go on the missionary dole. I call it the missionary dole. You become a little worker for a mission, receive a little salary, and do whatever they tell you. A really indigenous church worker. I will tell you, they're in tremendous inner struggles in Bangladesh about the strategy there. India is far, far more advanced in church situation. You can get in an indigenous movement when you leave OM, and even be supported by Indian money. Bangladesh is not anywhere near, neither are most countries. And a lot to thank God for. And some of you, when you're mature, and you know this kind of thing we're talking about in these days, you're not going to have any trouble getting a job. There are organizations that are looking for mature, disciplined, spirit-filled, balanced men. But they're scared of extremists. They don't want lazy people. And I know, it doesn't always just fall out of the tree. The balance between that which is keeping us going financially, it also makes us more of an indigenous movement, it's that which has gained us respect. In India, in a day when men living by faith were, their credibility was at an all-time low. Believe me, it was at an all-time low. Those who were going around living by faith. Because most of them ended up begging for money. The fact that you work hard to make at least a part of your money, at least your food, that's what I've always said, at least our food can be purchased. A lot of our clothing, the Lord gives us in different ways. And that will make us at least semi-indigenous and will gain the respect and the credibility of other people. People today in India are often more impressed with hard work than they are with big prayers. So when it is, when we're in the age of skepticism, and we know people that get and pray big prayers and don't know how to work hard, we cannot produce that kind of person. I'll bring this to a close. But could someone find out if supper is actually ready? It's always good to close just as the supper comes out. The other forms of evangelism, we believe in them, especially for the women. I believe, oh, in India, it's much more difficult for women. Therefore, we need more flexibility. We need more open-mindedness, new strategies, new ways of doing things, Bible study groups, work among nurses. Personally, I'm so open on this. In some ways, I don't care what you do as women. If you love Jesus and you live in the life, tell us what you want to do. And if it isn't completely screwy, you know, we're going to, I think, give you the go-ahead. Of course, sometimes things we want to do are not possible for other reasons. We may give the go-ahead and then something else stops you. And I think that it, it's amazing how the women have continued at book selling. It's distinctly non-feminine, isn't it? Ooh, rubs against your very feminine instincts. I don't know how we can improve that. I think one thing is to add cookbooks and sewing books to the women's arsenal. It's interesting how women all over the world sell things and they don't consider it anti-feminine. You join around the door to door, it's anti-feminine. Maybe we should have book parties where we go in somebody's house and we invite people to come in. They're probably already doing this. Women all over the world. Again, not so much in India. I realize we're distinct culture, distinct cultural problems. I wish we could get a one-hour lecture from Indira Gandhi on how she's done it. But I don't know if she sells books. She sells a lot of other things. But I believe that somehow the women's work is just so beautiful and so vital and it involves a lot of different forms of evangelism. I think we have been incredibly open with letting people do new things. Films. Open air preaching. What does O.M. not do, would you tell me? In forms of evangelism. Now Rudy, he's always got some new idea. Blacklights. What do you do with blacklights? Shine them in people's faces they can't see and get them in the church and lead them to Christ. Well, blacklights. And then gospel tricks. We've got people standing up playing with ropes. And people think the local Zuku is there in town. Then we present them the gospel. I'm not so convinced about all these things you do in India. But you won't find me interfering. That's your business. That's a state-wide decision. Unless something really goes wrong. But in all the other things, beloved, if you want to eat, I'm telling you straight, if you want to eat, you're going to sell books. Because that's the method God has given us. Now if your church says, we don't want you to sell books. We're going to send you back to O.M. Here's your monthly support. Then we'll talk about a change of strategy. Because that's action. If we just talk about other things, it doesn't become reality. We put the pressure on. Ray and I haven't always totally agreed. I gave him the go-ahead. Put the pressure on everybody to pray in so much money. Some have done it, many have not. Others have found a lot of guilt by this. Others have started to write to friends across the world. We don't want you to get your money from California. That's not the way O.M. is being led of God. Otherwise, I wouldn't have abandoned the United States 22 years ago. We want you to pray a breakthrough in your own church. We want the Indian church to come of age and do what the Bible commands. And if she doesn't do it that way, then we don't want it. We're willing for a few exceptions. We're not judging others who do it that way. But if everybody else is doing it that way, then we're going to do it the other way. It's either book sales or the church in India changing, responding, sacrificing, or giving. We're not going to send money back when it comes from overseas even to your name. And we've been helping XO Embers in more ways than people will ever know. So we can help in these ways, but at the same time we know in what direction we want to go. And that's going to help the church come of age in regard to missions where other things is only going to hinder the church from becoming of age and taking on her God-given responsibility. I saw that especially in Mexico. And then lastly, the balance, we'll have many other areas of balance, between training, the training, the discipling, the building up of the brother, and the work. There shouldn't be contradiction, but often there are problems. So much work. Alfie would like to be, I'm sure, more time training people, preaching, teaching. He does some of that, but he's got a mountain of work that some of it is at a desk. There's nothing unspiritual about sitting at a desk. Forgive me if I've given that impression. The most godly men that have ever lived have spent weeks, months, years at desks doing the translations of the Bible, writing to people letters of compassion. Desk work can be as spiritual as preaching. In fact, I'm more effective reaching people with my pen than I ever have been in the open air. Because in my open air I lose my voice. I've already had one operation, and I better just be a little careful in the open air with my temperament. Because if you think I get excited and start going into orbit, here, you can imagine, in the middle of an Indian market, I once shouted over at least five or ten or twenty hawkers, all kinds of screaming babies, peddlers. I let my voice go full volume and stopped them all. What's this? It's just some kind of outer space American cockroach that's landed in the marketplace. But when I use my pen, my voice gets some relaxation, and that's very, very helpful. These are some things that just burn on my heart. I think about them again and again. I know each one of you has to modify this. We have to discuss it and then see how it's going to work in your state, even more, in your own life. But I believe, to a large degree, these are things we can agree upon. Listen to this tape again. Go over these notes again. Better to get one set of very basic concepts deep in your heart than endless things on the superficial edge of your intellectual system. Because, you know, if we don't have some degree of like-mindedness, it's just going to become chaotic out here. There's going to be more and more divisions and contentions and arguments, more and more differences between what we're doing in one state and another. Ultimately, we won't even be able to recognize the work if we're not careful. You know, one of my favorite quotes, one of the few quotes of my own that I give so that I don't forget, because of world evangelism and the reality of the spiritual warfare, we need to agree on a plan of action and a strategy and a policy to carry out that action, even when there are things we don't like or agree with. Beloved, you're not going to agree with everything that I say. You're not even going to understand everything. I'm still learning myself. But I believe to some degree these are our goals and should continue to be our goals with plenty of flexibility to be able to accomplish what the Holy Spirit wants. And when the team goes out, George Brewer isn't there or Alfie, it's just you before God, hopefully with some basic principles and then God's direct line of communication, what to do on that day. There needs to be more planning. There is not enough planning. Planning is not anti-Holy Spirit. Leaders should not send a team, unless it's a special exception, into a program that is not being planned, prayed through, prayer mobilized around the world. If you do that, you're going to see a lot more happen. There can still be the spontaneous times. I believe in that. I gave men 24-hour notice at Lagos and Goa. We launched out, especially in seed sowing and blitzing. That doesn't need so much planning. But the more in-depth kind of work you want to do, staying in an area, following up, mobilizing the church, it needs planning. It needs a lot.