In this sermon, the speaker discusses the importance of absolute honesty and integrity, particularly in the context of a board of directors. The speaker emphasizes that only the Lord can keep things together and keep them going. The sermon also touches on other important principles such as forsaking all, living by faith, keeping overhead to a minimum, using common sense, recognizing people's abilities and gifts, and realizing that we are all learners. The speaker encourages the audience to redeem their time and make use of it wisely, while also emphasizing the need for leadership and maintaining biblical balance in the mission of spreading the word of God.

Turn to Colossians, the book of Colossians. We're going to read the entire chapter because this is just such a Mount Everest of Biblical revelation and I think lays a tremendous foundation for our thoughts together. Colossians chapter three. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth, for ye are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the sons of disobedience, in the which ye also once walked when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all of these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing they have put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man that is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another. Any man of a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfectness, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Whatever ye do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord. Father, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as man-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. He that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done, and there is no respect of persons. As we continue in our study of this leadership manual and the basic principles of leadership, to me this is a passage of scripture that we should allow to come to our minds again and again, especially as we now leave the last chapter where we have summarized over the last two lectures the ultimate goals and aims of the work into which God has called us, and we now see some of the ways that we can reach these goals and these aims. Lord willing, next week we'll have two final lectures which gives you a few days to finish reading the manual. I especially want to encourage any of you that have a question, or maybe God has spoken to you through these talks, to don't hesitate to write something down and pass it back to me, a little operation feedback. Now in the introduction on page one, we talk very much about leadership. Movement can be no stronger than its leaders. To the extent that Satan is successful in destroying the spiritual life of the OM leaders, to the extent he will lessen the effectiveness of our work. I think it should say to that extent. Many outstanding Christian movements began with the objectives of seeing souls one to Christ, only to become ineffective and finally cease all pretense to a vital Christian ministry. I could name some organizations, but perhaps it wouldn't be wise. That started so well, and then departed initially. One that I could mention, since it is now completely dead, as far as I know, is the student volunteer movement, born in the early part of this century, which was one of the mightiest forces ever for thrusting workers out. Some OM leaders have actually done research on this movement because there are some parallels. The student movement that has started recently in North America, having its roots back in the U.S. Center for World Missions, in some ways is trying to pattern itself after the student volunteer movement. They had a conference in Edinburgh a few years ago. Some of you have heard some of the tapes. There are some similarities. Some people believe that we are on the verge of another great student thrust into world missions. If that is so, how much more we are going to need people who know something about leadership and who will be able to provide leadership and help maintain biblical balance as that movement goes on. At this stage, I don't want to take time to read much from the manual. I wanted to especially focus in on those basic goals and aims, but at this point I want us to move on, just touching base briefly on each chapter. You'll see here in bold print that we want a leader to be able to speak with some degree of conviction and authority. Of course, you can't do that if you don't know what you're talking about. Some of you might want to sign up to listen to the cassette of the message I shared last night at the Emanuel Anglican Church in North London because I don't speak very much about Operation Mobilization. I was specifically asked to speak about OM and it was a meeting where I used a more low-profile approach, perhaps closer to the kind of approach that you would use if you were speaking in your own church about OM. If you'd like a copy of that tape, you can request it from Dirk or Vera. One of my burdens is that through you getting a greater knowledge of OM, even long before you're in necessarily any leadership position, you might be able to speak with a little more conviction and be able to answer questions. At the end of the meeting last night, it wasn't a long meeting, we had a question and answer session. How would you do in a question and answer session with Christian leaders asking the hard questions? The two are Christians who've been in the church 15 and 20 years asking the hard questions about OM. This is why, even though you may not really be that interested in understanding OM, understanding our strategy and our policies, if you're going to be able to mobilize your own church, whether it's for a longer time of service with OM or going out with some other mission group, you've got to learn something about communication. Many of you probably will be happier using a more low-profile approach, not coming in with the full message of the first chapter of true discipleship and Calvary Road and Why Revival Tarrys all in the first evening, falling on the church at your invitation to come forward and kneel at the altar and repent of lukewarmness, spiritual pride and whatever else may be on your heart. I've found so often in speaking, even now, many years later, the indirect method is far better. Seldom in my time in Pakistan did I accuse the church in Pakistan of anything. I let the Holy Spirit do that. I share my own failures. I sometimes share the failures of our Western churches. I remember in Poland speaking, problems we were having in the church in the UK. I'll never forget that night. People came up to me one after another, hey, do you know we have the same problems right in this church? I said, is that right? And sometimes I've shared problems we are wrestling with in OM, because often people are expecting you to communicate in a way that OM is superior to the church. Can't think of anything worse to do. And when you share carefully some of the struggles we are having as a movement, maybe even right here in Bromley, you find people come up after you. So we need prayer as well. So read that first chapter and remember that this manual, this leadership manual, is to be used in connection with other major OM books which are listed there on that page. Going over to the second chapter, somehow you'll discover in some of the manuals, you may have different editions, we don't have chapters, we have pages. So we'll refer to the pages. The leader's life. This is why I read this passage, because to me Colossians 3 is a beautiful picture of what a leader's life should be in its very basic, in the very basic sense. And maybe you can read that over. Just notice down to that dark print on the third paragraph. So in a real way, leadership is serving others rather than dictating to them. As the Lord Jesus said, laying down your life in service, how harmful false motives or lack of humility and brokenness are in a leader. We emphasize the leader as a servant, as an example in brokenness, fervent prayer, consistent living. This is why we hope that as a result of these lectures, our greater desire as we go from here will not be necessarily to be some great leader, but it might be to be a servant. To be a servant. Of course when we get into practical organization, we have to realize there are different ways to serve people. I think this is a problem we often face today, is that we're in such a great variety of work that some people don't look like they're serving. They look like they're more or less just leading, and maybe telling us what to do, or managing. This is a word that people are using these days, which some people get turned off by because they don't like the idea of being managed. It's too close to the word manipulated. But I think we have to watch our vocabulary, or not be too harsh in judging vocabulary. There are many great Christian leaders who do use the word manage, managing God's work. Most of us in practical administration study management. I've been studying management for about 32 years, even before I was a Christian, and it can be misused. It can be misused, and motivation in secular organization sometimes can be very sick. However, there are other times when sometimes motivation in secular management can be as good as you find in Christian management, because some secular managers are interested in it. They do want to help their people, and they want to manage things in a way where people will be helped, and encouraged, and be able to carry on the work properly. So there is a place for proper Christian management. We have tried to teach that in O.M. from the earliest days. You can't get unity. We would have certain books teaching management. Some of them were quite stereotyped in the early days, and then I found an interesting book and threw it into the arena called Up the Organization. This was a wildcat management book, showing the enormous range of ways that even secular companies were carrying on management. And these days, I've noticed different leaders are reading different books on the subject. That always gets interesting, because you even have different vocabulary, you have different ways of expressing things. Quite a few years ago, O.M. went headlong into charts, organizational charts were coming out as fast as Bible studies. We had different people placed in different ways on these charts, and some charts secretaries were taking over the work. In other charts, they didn't exist. Of course, we never wanted to hinder people in their graphics, but some books on management say it's very difficult to put a growing movement on a chart. You have to change the chart every month. We need and believe in job descriptions, but they need to be flexible, and often adjusted according to the person who is doing the job. And even this book, a very recent book on management, The Pursuit of Excellency, which Dale Roton is feeding us quotations from these days, has some amazing statements. And some of them are very encouraging in terms of backing up some of the things we have tried to practice and make use of in O.M. The leader's life, however, must be the main emphasis, and I hope you will study that well. A little bit of history here that I had forgotten. Since this manual was first produced in 1962, O.M. has entered many fields. By the way, you'll find quite a few statistics in this manual are out of date, especially when it talks about the number of countries where we have work. Then moving over to page three, follow up on delegation, the delegation of responsibility. O.M. is very much built on the principle of at least certain main leaders having as their goal working their way out of their job. Now there are different kinds of leaders. There's the pioneer type of visionary who goes in, may establish a work, quickly work his way out of the job and leave. But then there is the other kind of leader, the plotter who has the awesome task, the more difficult task, of going in after this character who surely left many ends untied and trying to consolidate the work. He may stay for a long time, Dick Griffin, taking over the work in Mexico after I had given only a total of about maybe six to ten months, summer holiday, Christmas holiday and a five or six month period. So I guess it would be more like a year I spent in Mexico before it was all given over to Dick and Bobby Moore. And then the same thing in Spain and the same thing in many other countries. This cannot be done without a heavy emphasis on delegation. But we've tried to always emphasize, O.M., delegation with follow up. Delegation without follow up can often be very destructive and it can lead to just passing the buck. Follow up is difficult because when you follow up, if you're not careful, it can easily be interference or certainly may look like interference. Some of the great mistakes I've made in my leadership have been a lack of understanding how to follow up. You give a man a job, you should of course give him training with a job. I just read last night, I think it was in the latest leadership letter, it comes from World Vision, that in working with volunteers, O.M. very much is working with volunteers, the greatest mistake that is often made is not giving the volunteer enough specific training. Oh my, how much we have heard in that area. Often it's because things are going so fast. But I can remember back in the earliest days when people were about to leave, begging them, please write down what your job is and give it to your leader for him to give to the man who takes over your job. I don't know why we haven't become more strict on that. I can find many, many ancient memos of that type. When I sort of took my hands off STL before Jerry Davey came in, I dictated a memo walking around the warehouse, it was still in Atherton, not only giving some ideas of general leadership, but dictating the purpose and goal of every single book in the warehouse. I had a vision and a goal for almost every single book. I did skip some. And I came across that memo some years ago, I think it's probably gone now. But it's amazing how so many people in literature work don't have any vision for the particular books they are pushing. They're just books, they're just titles. And you get people even make generalizations about, oh we got a lot of junk. We got a lot of junk books. You ever heard anybody say that? The next time somebody says it, take that book and send it to me. Give me the privilege. Of giving five or ten reasons of how I believe that book could be used. Because if you think the Holy Spirit only uses the Rolls-Royce books and the Jaguar books, I would challenge you about how long you've been in the literature ministry. I have seen God use some very weak books. I'm sure the Holy Spirit is even using these gospel cookbooks. Though it's not a major item in my distribution program, I can assure you. You know, on one hand, this is very interesting, and I'm getting on a sidetrack. On one hand, this sidetrack is always more interesting than the main road. I don't like motorways except when I'm on my coach. But it's very interesting how we tell Christians, you need to be creative. You need to really let your creativity bloom. And then when they do, we accuse them of being superficial. Or we say, oh well, that book isn't very good. And it's interesting how it was difficult to decide whether to publish this book, Nejla. Bob and Barbara Hitching were not world's most famous authors. We weren't sure this was the STL line. Still debating what the STL line is. And yet, we've seen that book is already sold out. We're seeing it have a vital ministry because there are very few books like it. That we can give to a Muslim. That won't just be too heavy reading. There's a lot of scope for a wide range of books. And it's true in the whole aspect of Christian leadership. Try not to dampen people's spirits. And when you delegate something, it will not be done the same way you will do it. People will do it in different ways. Now, when something is delegated to you, you have to be ready for criticism. It may not come from the one who delegates it. He actually may be more protective of you. But the critics may go to him and they may say, hey, what is Johnny doing? You gave Johnny this job. Do you know what he's doing? I read last night also. I can't remember where I read this. How most creative film producers. Oh, it was in Newsweek. It was about this producer in France that has produced this new French movie that's really got a lot of attention. It's a terrible film. Highly depressing. A total no answer film. But he pointed out that producing a film is a family affair. There are always major arguments on the set. The producer always walks off the set for several days in rage, argument, and then comes back. You know, it would be interesting for some of us to do a study on how these directors and producers produce a film. I would like to work under Clint Eastwood for a week. He's director and producer. Don't go and see his latest film. I won't even give you the title because you'll start getting itchy ears. But he's director, he's producer, and I've read enough about movie producers to know, I will tell you, if you're going to work for these guys, you've got to get ready for some pretty heavy lambasting. After they hit you and tell you to throw a thousand foot of footage into the trash bin, when you think you've done a really creative work, since you've studied all this, well, you might get back. They'll probably take you out and buy you a beer. You'll forget it and get back on the set the next day. You know, this is one of the things I admire about some unconverted people. They are sometimes better than Christians in just forgetting it. We as Christians so hang on one another's words. He doesn't love me. And we can't get a job done because we're all in a little kind of emotional birdcage wondering who's watching him and what kind of seed is he going to throw in and whatever else may happen. And the world, they are rough. They do swear more. I often wish we as Christians could swear. Really. Let's get it off our chest. And then let's get on with the work. But no, we're supposed to pray about it. We're going to have Bible studies. We're all running around reading Healing for Damaged Emotions. You know, Christian work, it really gets uptight at times. And we need to just let some of it roll off our backs. Most people, when they are uptight, and great people, film producers, great writers, do get uptight. Great composers, great piano players. And when people get uptight, they can produce genius and garbage at the same time. And often they don't mean what they say if they're just blowing off steam on a film set. And I think as Christians, we need to relax with one another more. And though this may seem very separate from this subject, it isn't because in delegation, things get very uptight. And we're imagining things. Well, does he really believe in me? Does he really respect me? Very easily in Christian work we think, oh, he doesn't really respect me. What do we mean by that? Are we all supposed to believe in each other? One hundred percent. I hope you always remain with a little bit of reverent skepticism about George Orwell. And that when I start going off the rails, and start becoming a little cuckoo, and start my own little doctrines, you will have had that two percent reserve, and you'll be ready to blow me right out of the saddle, in love of course. So, let's learn to delegate. Let's learn to be relaxed as we receive a task. Realize different leaders practice and have a different style in their delegation. And if somehow the leader, maybe in an off moment, puts his nose in when you felt he shouldn't do that, you won't get all uptight about it. Because he's probably not a professional manager. And because even top managers cannot agree on the best system for following up on delegation. Some use written methods. Some use verbal methods. Some are very casual. Some like teamwork. I run into problems in my leadership because I am very much a team man. I don't do anything hardly on my own. Therefore, I don't always understand a man who just sort of does things on his own, doesn't want to tell you what he's doing after you've given him a job. I still read the reports come back from the teams all over the world. Even little team out in Connecticut, who can barely write properly in English. But different leaders have a different style. You do have to make a little extra effort to try to win or please the man who's in charge. It can be the simplest job. In interviewing and talking to a lot of people over the years, I find that sometimes born-again Christians in secular work are stubborn, obstinate, and proud. They feel because they're saved, they're one up on all the unsaved people. Look, those unsaved people, in their area, may be way beyond you. They may not be saved and on the way to heaven. But in their profession, they're way beyond you. I'm not sure I want to fly with born-again Spirit-filled pilots. I'm still debating this. But let's be very careful of becoming hyper-idealistic. I'm no respecter of persons. What do you mean by that? You're not going to respect a man who's the leader of a secular company? You're not going to respect the man in charge of your office? It's difficult, isn't it? The Christian life in the secular world, the more I read about it, I read a lot of articles, the more open-minded I become of the different ways that God works. That's why I don't like the more narrow view of what O.M. is and what O.M. is trying to teach. Because the more narrow view of what O.M. is and what O.M. is trying to teach, it doesn't work out in the secular world. You've got to modify. You've got to adjust. You've got to build on the basics and then move up. I think it's very, very important. Notice one little word on the bottom of this page. Write it down. Again, some of the greatest mistakes I've made. Failure to write it down. I write a lot down, but a lot of things I don't write down. I have a problem, I talk too fast. If a fast-talking person is giving instructions to someone whose mind doesn't go that fast, he's not going to get it. And yet he may be embarrassed to say to you, I don't understand what you're saying. Could you repeat that? But I would beg of you, in learning to take instructions, in learning to receive delegated authority, if you're in doubt, if you don't understand, ask it. Just be honest. Say, look, I cannot think as fast as you. What if your language is not English and you're working for an English manager, an English leader. He's giving you instructions. I could give the appearance of knowing fluent Spanish. I could preach to you in very fast Spanish. But if you start speaking to me as a Spaniard in fast Spanish, I'm not going to get it. And in speaking Spanish in the street, I have to constantly stop saying it. Would you say that again? I didn't get it. So it's very important. And of course, one of the best ways to overcome this is to write it down. Giving instructions, how to find a place, how to find the office in West Wycombe. There's ten different routes to West Wycombe. I've tried most of them. But in going to West Wycombe, if someone gave you a little written instructions, there's a much higher chance you're going to get there. It's an emphasis we try to bring here. Redeeming the time. Now I know some of you feel, GB especially is a neurotic in this area. I am a little extreme in this area, but I enjoy it. To me it's a challenge. It fits with my temperament. So sit in the bathtub listening to a tape with a telephone next to me, which I end up answering. You have to watch that because you get electric shocks from some of these telephones. You know, it quite fits in with my approach to life. But everybody has to find their own lifestyle. But give it a try. Give it a try. Redeeming the time. Trying to make use of time. Trying to do two or three things at the same time. Now, of course, you can get in real trouble in this and it needs to be brought into balance. But we've listed some areas and this is very much, this manual very much, by the way, was written for team life, out on the evangelistic team. Some of it you've got to revise for headquarters life. Headquarters life is quite different from being out on the team. But we talk here about learning to concentrate. We talk here about planning ahead. We talk here about how to redeem the time in some of the basic areas. Getting food, packing, traveling. And I hope you will read this and use this blank page to just write down some other areas where you can redeem the time. And then neatness and order, page six. Ongoing struggle for some of us. I don't think in the battle to be neat and orderly most of us ever arrive. It's easy to criticize others. Someone once said, if looking at a messy desk speaks of a messy mind, what does looking at a completely empty desk speak of? So, it is difficult to find the balance. And I hope none of you will get discouraged. I almost got discouraged. Because neatness is important. I really would like to inspect the men's singles living accommodation here in Brown. I'm very close to doing it. I may arrive over Easter. Trouble is I'm away. I hope that you men will make a little more effort. Not for O.M.'s sake. We will survive most of you. You will come and go and we will still be here. But it's your wife I'm thinking about. And believe me, little things mean a lot to women. Putting my dirty socks into a plastic bag at night is a religion with me. It's a routine. It's a religion. My wife has a plastic bag in two different places. It may sound like a simple thing. But it isn't. Not in marriage. And other things. Lately I've been very victorious in some of these areas. I'm almost getting proud. Almost every night I'm washing my feet. I have an unusual way of doing it. Right? The same place I wash my hands. Letting you in on some of the intimacies of married life in a very rural household. But the word speaks about smells in a number of places. It is important. And I hope that you'll take seriously this thing of personal cleanliness. We still have cases where we find people going to meetings involved in public activities in our fellowship in which personal cleanliness has been neglected. And believe me, people judge us by this. None of us are going to score 100%. But we can aim higher. We can work on it. This is part of our training. This is why we gave all of you the memo on manners that I hope you have in fact read. Then we talk about weekly reports and monthly reports. This is because we believe in accountability. We believe it's good for that team out in India to sense they are accountable to the leader over them in Bombay and to sense that even way back in London we're concerned about what they're doing in that small village in Karnataka or wherever it might be. Accountability has been a very important part. We're on a team together. We're interested in one another. We do have to report. For the past year and a half I have dictated a personal weekly report every single week. Peter Maiden gets it. I send one to my dad. My secretary types it out. I read it sometimes myself. It goes back into a file. I have a number of reasons to do it. Of course, my cassette reports are part of my accountability. I have to report back to the board of directors. I'm in constant contact with one I feel the most responsible to, Peter Maiden, as we work together as a team. I think it's beautiful. I would personally like to see more reports even within STL because we're so big in STL. In some ways true of ICT. It would be good if the different departments could have reports and I could get a copy. I'm not saying we're going to do this. It's just a thought. I get this from the ships. I get this from the ships because there are many departments on the ship. I just went through, I think it's a monthly, from the chief engineer. I use all these things as fuel for prayer. Praise God for this system and for the way it has worked and you can read that on your own. Mistakes. Page 8. Despite all our efforts, all our praying, all our planning, it is inevitable that some mistakes will be made since we are only human. One of the great problems in Christian work is overreaction to our mistakes. We get discouraged. Someone else gets discouraged. Very hard to keep it all in balance. I used to always go around pushing the book the longest day. Have you read that book? The story of the allied invasion in France. The mistakes that were made. At every secular organization I've ever reviewed and I'm always asking questions. I'm always analyzing what's happening in many different secular organizations. Tremendous mistakes are being made. We may have lifted up the McDonald's operation in talking about how a group really goes out to aim at something and get it done. But they, in their growth and in their work, made enormous mistakes. Across the millions. And they're making mistakes every day. Every day. When something's fast, when something's producing a lot, mistakes are made all the time. They can't live up to those goals. You read the idealistic goals of the McDonald's operation. Then you see how it functions in Brownlee. They can't live up to all that. Somehow they have the tenacity to keep going at it. They have this think tank room up in the top of the headquarters in Chicago. I don't know if this is just myth, but I've heard about it. There's a waterbed up there totally soundproof room. You go up there and lay on this waterbed and you just think. Think. Think. How can you advance? That's probably where they got the idea of the McDonald's breakfast. Imagine. Hamburger chain going into McDonald's breakfast. And I noticed Casey, one of McDonald's competitors here in this country, I don't know who he is. They've got this breakfast. I had one down there in Waterloo. And it wasn't bad. Somebody laying up there on that waterbed. This is it. And they open it a couple hours early and they made millions, millions on their breakfasts. Some of you wouldn't mind one of those right now. You look a little hungry. I didn't have any breakfasts yet. So big organizations, military forces, armies, governments, mistakes are always made. I actually enjoy listening to the radio. Every time I turn on the radio it's generally about some mistake. Something's going wrong somewhere. And have you ever noticed also how everything gets criticized. There's nothing that doesn't get criticized. The other day I was listening to some of the new tunes coming from the pop tune industry and the critics were evaluating these tunes. They're ruthless. Absolutely ruthless. And the same is true in many, many other areas of life. If you are going to be a leader you have to learn how to handle your mistakes, other people's mistakes. You have to learn how to lovingly, carefully correct people and know when no correction is necessary, when correction is necessary and never be thrown off balance by your mistakes. And learn how to handle criticism. Some of you are in the art department. You're in the graphics department. You're in the publishing side. You're never going to exist in that world unless you're ready for criticism. Never. Just forget it. Go get a job picking up papers. Because if you're in the field of art where criticism is so basic you can turn out what you think is the best you've ever done and a critic will take it to pieces. Alright, he may not have all the truth. Certain things that critics took to pieces became very famous. So take what you can, don't be destroyed in your motivation and press on. Try to improve it a little bit. You may improve it a little bit, give it back to him, especially if you incorporated one of his ideas. Well, that is a lot better. A little bit of psychology doesn't hurt. Understanding people. Maybe when he first criticized what you were doing he had forgotten to have his morning coffee. Or maybe what you did is a mess and isn't any good. Every piece of literature that's been produced in O.M. has been criticized. I've seen the Lord using this literature for 25 years. Sometimes the simplest piece of literature that of course could have been better. I wouldn't have gone anywhere in my life if I had taken to extreme the challenge about the pursuit of excellency. I would have shriveled up. I'm not a person that can get things perfect. I'm a B student. Way back in school, I had a few A's and I had to work so hard to get those A's. In America that's a top grade. I thought it isn't worth it. I want to play sports. I want to dance. I've got all the different things to do. I'm not going to do it. And when I went to Moody Bible Institute after university, I didn't finish university, I only went two years, I thought I'm not going to aim at this A's. That's too much effort. I want to get soul winning. I want to mobilize people for Mexico. I've got all these other things to do. I'm going to aim at B's. Have you ever heard of the man who only aims at B's? You've met one right here. Guess what? I got what I aimed at. I'm also in a B movement. Oh, and it's not an A league. It's a B league. We graduate people, they go into the A league. OMF. Whack. PMMF. Turkish Mission Society. Let the Lord decide, of course, who really is the A league and C league. But I think it's crazy if we become neurotic so that nothing, nothing anymore really meets the standard. It's the rabbit carrot approach and I think it's dealt with in that book On the Healing for Damaged Emotions. Now, if you especially could read Financial and Business Policies, I would be encouraged. If I could get some feedback from this chapter, I rewrote this chapter a couple of times and I believe embodied in this chapter is some of the most basic and important material we have in terms of business management. The practical side of OM. These are the basics on which we want to build the ongoing structure of OM in terms of how we're going to grow, how we're going to organize the work, how we are going to plan, how we are going to make decisions, what decisions are we going to make. This chapter must be a foundation for that. I'm very strong. Let's just look at the main outline and then you're going to have to study it on your own. Number one, giving the glory to God. That's basic, isn't it? We read that in Colossians. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That could revolutionize our... We work for the glory... And I am so glad that God is more patient and more merciful and more loving than a lot of the people I've had to work with over the years. And I know he's far more loving, patient, and merciful than me. And if someone else is criticizing your work or someone else doesn't appreciate your effort, remember, God appreciates the smallest thing done in his name, even a cup of tea. It's a beautiful thing to me. Number two, forsaking all. See how I'm emphasizing that it's upset more people than any other part of our message. Often misunderstood. Some people now get the idea we've changed on this. But as far as I can see, the basic teaching on this is the same because from the earliest days, we've always kept it in balance with God supplying all according to the need. Number three, living by faith. And then we talk about producing faith. Number four, keeping the overhead to a minimum. We've often felt this is a losing battle. That certainly has changed somewhat over the years. Number five, using common sense. Number six, recognizing people's abilities and gifts. Number seven, realizing that we are children and learners. Number eight, absolute honesty and integrity. We talked there about the board of directors, something many people have not really grasped or understood. And then we summarize the very last line. As we look ahead, we know that only the Lord can keep it together and keep it going. And this is just what we want. Well, I hope you will take this seriously and continue your reading and studying, note-taking. We may next week ask you to sit down in five minutes or maybe to stand up and speak. I don't promise this. It's not easy to work out because of the time factor. What are the goals and aims of operationalization? Could you write that down in ten minutes? We spent two hours talking about it. Can you summarize it? Well, it's summarized there in that last chapter. That only takes about a few minutes to read. I hope you will take these things seriously. You may not use all of this immediately, but it can lay a great foundation for the future. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that we even have the time to get into this material and to get some of these foundations for leadership in our lives and to know where we're going and to be able to at least aim in the right direction, though we may fall on our face many times as we attempt to get there. We commit these things to you and the ongoing spiritual growth program that you have in our lives through Jesus Christ. Amen.