Trends in British Church No1 2nd Jan 84 — George Verwer

Travel, Transportation, and Revolutionary Principles

Travel in general, just look at it for a moment. The whole vision for the ship was born out of the understanding that travel was important in missionary work. Missionaries did not understand this in the early days, and huge expenses went.

One missionary car, $20 ,000. Really, to keep one missionary and his little band mobile out in the middle of Zulu land. And we saw that by sharing transportation, and by working together as a team, we could launch so many more vehicles.

In 1962, I was almost the only truck driver, and I wasn't really a truck driver. There were no mechanics, and God gave us a little fleet of 15 or 20 vehicles. That was when OM was being born in Europe.

By 63, we had 125, 90 of those vehicles. Let's go to the next memo. Handling doctrinal differences. As soon as you finish giving out the one, go for the next one. Handling doctrinal differences. So, we had 90 vehicles cross the English Channel on that summer, and out of that were the initial seeds of the ship transportation concept.

So, please read this. Travel in general. Those who write to me saying they have read all of these memos given this morning, will be rewarded with a lovely, challenging, dynamic, overwhelming book. Not a magazine book, but a book.

So, we want you to read these. Alright, next. Handling doctrinal differences. Now, this morning, the main... This is just the introduction. The main subject this morning is present trends in the British Church.

Present trends in the British Church, and people who do not have their notebooks, we should have a special punishment, cleaning up in the lower holds, breadcrumbs, with an eyedropper. But, we won't do that.

So, this handling doctrinal differences fits very well into what we're talking about this morning. This is the seed of the little magazine book, Extremism, which is a chapter in the book, Revolution of Love and Balance.

Distributing Principles for World Evangelism

Okay, next. The most important memo we're giving you today, Revolutionary Principles for World Evangelism. Maybe, Dirk, you can get one man to help you and split the pile in half, and let him come over here.

Those in this row, go to the second man. This is a new concept of distribution I'm experimenting with. Revolutionary Principles for World Evangelism. Let's just look on them for a minute. I think we got a bottleneck with Dirk.

If you run out, do not worry. Some people may not want all of them. All these pages, just to give you a little background for this, were all going to be thrown away. They were left in the basement at Tweedy Road when we moved from a duplicated leadership manual to a printed one.

These were left. Someone wanted to throw them out. I said, how can we throw out all these tremendous papers? They even smell. Just give them a sniff. They have a basement smell, and the staples are rusty.

Anyway, are we up to Revolutionary Principles? Okay, please read that. Prayer letters. Start distributing prayer letters. But just turn to your Revolutionary Principles. Realize this was written about initially 20 years ago.

Internationalization. That was in preparation for all the people from other countries. Mass media, man-to-man, esteeming others, indigenous and self-supporting work, short-term teamwork, mobility, flexibility, no closed doors, mobilize the church, neglected areas, God is the provider.

Please, if you don't read the others, read that one. All right, you've already had a memo on how to do a prayer letter. These are just a few more thoughts on things to keep in mind as you're doing your prayer letter.

How many are now sending out your prayer letter at least once every second, third, or fourth month? At least it's going out. This is revival. Manfred did not raise his hand. Manfred, are you sending out your prayer letter?

He is. He was just so overwhelmed with the scenery, he couldn't get his hand up. Okay, transportation and highway safety. Are we ready for that? Transportation and highway safety. How many of you, all right, let's try to hold down the discussion.

How many of you have a driver's license? Raise your hand. Brilliant. Brilliant. How many of you feel you actually know how to drive? Raise your hand. Many hands did not go up. Highway safety is one of the biggest problems we are facing in OM.

Almost all the people who have been killed in OM, maybe ten, all through motor accidents, minus one sister in a bathroom accident where the gas burner was killed. One in the Mexico crusade drowned. Another one was shot on the doorstep in Turkey.

This is over 27 years, so don't let it frighten you too much. But if you are going to get killed in OM, the best possibility is when you get in a vehicle. So please read this prayerfully and realize how important it is to drive safely.

Publicity, Churches, and Sharing the Vision

Publicity. Are we ready for publicity, Dirk? Okay, we definitely don't have enough of each page. Let me say a word about publicity. Attention, this is a tremendous thing for Monday morning. People are getting their blood circulated, several eyes have actually opened.

A lot of people are confused about OM's publicity policy. And often the ships are accused of breaking the OM publicity policy. But you know it was one of the goals in the 1963 summer campaign to try to provoke secular publicity for the gospel in the towns where the teens visited.

So what you are doing in provoking publicity in the secular press, which is our bigger concern, in order that the gospel gets into the secular press, actually was an initial goal in the early days of OM that was not fulfilled very much.

Because we found they were not too interested in writing up about a little OM team rolling into town in an old British lorry. So read about that because it will help you. Working with your own assembly or church.

How are we doing? Are we still on publicity? We are re-discussing the subject of publicity at the Coordinators Conference again this year. So I appreciate prayer for that. Okay, working with your own church or assembly.

Again, in the tremendous ship manual that you receive, some of these items are covered. And this is just a little overlap to that. But some of these basic issues of working with your assembly. You people already got all yours, right?

Okay, I thought maybe you went ahead there. Working with your own assembly. We are almost there. Let me just say that last night we had a tremendous meeting here in this auditorium. Again and again it's proven on both ships that the Sunday night after church rally is often the meeting of the week.

And I was spending time late last night praying for the people who stood up here. They all filled out little feedback papers. Some of them on almost gum wrappers. They got anything they could write on.

Some of them didn't stand up but just gave me prayer requests. And some of these people here on the ship last night are in desperate situations. Desperate situations. It's hard to believe. And I wish there was a way to mobilize more prayer for some of these individuals.

But it's just a lesson that when you're talking to someone who's come up this gangway, you don't know what problem they're in. They may be ready for suicide. This may be their last effort before taking their own life.

And we had about 50 to 60 people stand up. And as I shared with you in Swansea, Welsh people do not easily stand up in a public meeting in an unfamiliar place surrounded by friends. But 50 or 60, many middle-aged and older people also stood up to recommit their life to the Lord Jesus.

Next. Did you get over here working with your own assembly or church? Okay. Informing others and sharing the vision. We had to do one at a time or it would get completely chaotic. We wouldn't know who had what and everybody would start looking around and oh, then it goes really wild.

How many of you have a loose-leaf notebook that you can keep things like this in? How many have such a system? Very good. If you don't, I hope you at least have a file folder. In the early days when I refused to spend money for hardly anything, I used old cornflakes boxes for all my file folders.

They served quite well. But you may find some old, even now I use mainly used ones. Informing others and sharing the vision. You know, this is one of the continual ministries of OM. And that you have more opportunity than most.

And, you know, the opening that came for me yesterday morning here in Newport, in a church that I've never been into before, and without the ship's visit, I probably never would have gotten there. One of the biggest churches in Newport, a church that was Presbyterian has left the Presbyterian denomination, similar to the way the Bible Presbyterians have in Singapore.

They don't work with Billy Graham, but they welcomed us and God moved in that meeting. We couldn't sell any books, but we brought them anyway, magazine books and my own books. We gave them away and we had an absolute, mainly magazine books.

Don't think people even stop and get a free magazine book after a Sunday morning traditional church service. Ninety-five percent... Please move on to organizing prayer groups. Ninety percent went to the book table, even though they had to stand, some of them, for ten minutes in line, in a queue, just to get that literature yesterday morning.

And that meeting was one of the most encouraging meetings I've had in Britain in a long time. I had lunch with a pastor, who will be here tomorrow again. I think God has started a permanent relationship with O .F. in that church.

Long-Term Commitment and Organizing Prayer Groups

Now, I want to say something, it's very important. When you come to places like Britain, it's true also in Germany and the States. Are we on to organizing prayer groups? Oh, hallelujah! When you come to places like Britain and Germany and Sweden, etc., you don't always see the big fanfare, you know, the masses of people, Madras, Karachi, Rio de Janeiro.

But often there are believers, serious believers, and when they make a commitment to stand with O .F., they will stand with us the next twenty years. This is one of the interesting things about the way northern Europeans and British people often think, that they may be slow, but when they decide to take that prayer letter, many of them, not all, they will be giving and they will be praying for many, many years to come.

So do not think, do not judge things by the fanfare of the moment. Do not be a head counter. How many heads went up the gangway? Anyway, we want whole bodies. But we trust that you understand that often a greater work takes a longer period of time.

It's a slower work, building relationships with churches. This pastors' conference today, leaders' conference, will probably not be a huge bonanza with pastors queuing up. But, you know, we build brick upon brick.

And that's why we're glad so many of you are around for two years. Because the Holy Spirit is not in a rush, even though I know sometimes we are. It would be very encouraging to hear from some of you.

If you write to me in London, the letter will be forwarded by carrier to me in Pakistan, that you've actually read all these memos. How many do we have? You don't all have... how many? Nine. Now, if you didn't get nine, whatever number you have, if you read all those, do underline them and write to me that you read them, especially if you can say anything intelligent in your letter, it would be very encouraging.

Now, hermanos y hermanas de América Latina, he oído personas en el desayuno hablando en español, en secreto. Y yo entiendo muy bien que no es fácil siempre hablar en inglés, siempre oír inglés, inglés, inglés, hasta la garganta.

Y yo espero que en el año 84 no vas a, como se dice, desmayar. No vamos a desmayar. No vamos a perder el favor, el ánimo para aprender inglés. Y yo quiero animarte, rededicar su vida a aprender inglés.

Y no debemos hablar español demasiado en secreto o con nuestra novia. Bueno, no sé qué regla tiene para hablar con su esposa o su novia, qué idioma. Es una batalla. Tenemos que trabajar mucho, leer todos estos memos en inglés, orar en inglés.

Okay, I was just challenging the Spanish speakers to learn English. And let me just add that some of you from the English-speaking world speak atrocious English. So do not be proud, but perhaps take your grammar book and study a little English yourself.

It's a long-standing battle in my life because my English teachers used to look at me over the top of their glasses wondering what I was saying. Okay, we're going to talk about present trends in the British church scene.

Why Church History Matters for Understanding Britain

I shared this message on Lagos some days ago, and I had a very, very, very good feedback because I found that even British people don't always know what's going on in their own country. History is important.

Now, if you don't have anything to write on, there's blank spaces on the back of these memos, but we want you to take notes. History is very important. Seventy-five percent of your Bible, that's a rough, verbal generalization because I've been reading a lot in the Old Testament lately, is history.

History must be important with God. At least, if it isn't, then I have some real problems with the sections I've been reading lately in the Old Testament. And the history of the church since Pentecost is also important.

And if you can read some church history books in the library, and there are some good ones, it will be a blessing to you. Let's just pray now and ask the Lord to help us in this brief time. Lord, we just thank You that we have input from so many different sides as we work together on this ship.

We thank You that You've given us some basic principles and policies in which to carry the work forward, whether it's our vehicles, or taking church meetings, or writing prayer letters, or living together with people of different backgrounds and doctrinal positions.

Help us now to understand more the church in Britain today, and therefore be able to better share the message of spiritual revolution and the challenge You've put on our hearts for the churches. Help us now at this time, especially those who are still learning English.

We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, to talk about present trends, we have to spend a few minutes giving you some background of the churches in Britain. Now, you must understand, first of all, that Wales, in many ways, is like a separate country.

You have not yet arrived in England. Some of you went to England yesterday because it's down the road about 15, not even that many miles. When you arrive in the Merseyside, Liverpool and that area, you will be in England, and you will find a different situation from Wales.

Later on, you will be in that famous city of Glasgow. That is Scotland. That is also a separate country. Most Scottish people, and a degree of Welsh people, are actually mildly anti-English, and quite a few are not mildly anti-English.

They are anti-English. And even the church situation is completely or very distinct in those three different areas, and it's good to understand that. When you go to Belfast, you will be in a totally different world altogether.

You will be in Northern Ireland. Southern Ireland is a separate, independent country. It is not part of Great Britain, though they have a special, unique relationship with Britain. I don't think this ship on this visit will be visiting Southern Ireland or Ayr, but you will be going to Northern Ireland, where, of course, there has been civil war in a very unique and extreme form for as long back as many British people, young people, can even remember.

And even just a few weeks ago, some IRA terrorists broke into a Pentecostal church and murdered, killed a couple of people. That is a situation, I believe, closer to the border. What are some of the main denominations here in Britain?

Anglicanism and the British Denominational Landscape

Let's mention some of them quickly. Number one, overall, of course, the Anglicans. You cannot understand England without understanding the development of the Anglican church, which is a divided church.

A church that is divided into high Anglican and low Anglican. Or it's divided into what some people call more traditional, and then, of course, what's called evangelical. Our work, the work of OM, is almost exclusively with evangelical Anglicans who believe the Bible, who preach the gospel and the new birth.

And they are a rapidly growing movement. They are divided into two. There are other smaller divisions. Basically, those who are charismatic and lean in that direction. And that has been a major source of life in the Anglican church.

You'll not understand present trends in the Anglican church without understanding the charismatic movement. And the unique British charismatic movement, which is far more balanced than that particular movement in some other parts of the world.

And you have such outstanding leaders as David Watson, who every person in England would know, who has been one of the leaders of the British Anglican charismatic movement, though he's not a man that is overly infatuated with labels.

And that's one of the reasons he has acceptance among many Anglicans who are not necessarily charismatic. So the Anglican church is a major force. And even when I was preaching in Scotland, they booked me a meeting in the Anglican church.

Some of you had meetings yesterday in the Anglican church. But actually, in Scotland and in Wales, the Anglican church is not that strong. In Britain, of course, it is. And one of the unique factors of OM is that God has given us linkings with the Anglican church.

Many of our board members are evangelical Anglicans. We are not Anglican in our roots, in our background. But as we came to Britain, and as I came to Britain, very much I saw, as we later saw in Germany, that we should work with Lutherans, evangelical Lutherans.

So in England, we felt we must work with these evangelical Anglicans, even though there are things we may not understand. There may be some things we don't even particularly agree with. Then in Britain, you have the Baptists, not nearly as strong as they would be in the United States.

Also, the Baptist Union of Britain, especially 50 years ago, moved strongly, many of them, into the liberal position, which is true of every mainline denomination, minus, say, a small Pentecostal denomination like the Elam, or the Assembly of God, which is bigger.

They have not moved into liberalism. But your older, your older mainline denominations, most of them, 100 years ago, before and after that period, moved through the seminaries into liberal theology, which literally ransacked the Church.

And when you don't understand a word, you write the word down, the best you can, and you ask someone later, what does that mean, ransacked the Church? George Burwood doesn't have that many new words, or big words.

I have a limited mentality. But if I come out with a word, maybe you will find out what it means. You may discover it's not even in the dictionary. Then you'd have to check with me. Good fellowship over that word.

Some Baptist churches, like, and this has happened in most denominations, of course, became independent. But many are still in the Union, and so you would have evangelical Baptist churches, and then you would have more traditional Baptist churches, or liberal Baptist churches, where the Gospel would not be preached, where people don't know anything about, or would not know much about the new birth.

Presbyterianism, the Holiness Movement, and the Pentecostal Divide

In Scotland, you will come across the Church of Scotland. The Church of Scotland is basically a Presbyterian church. There have been enormous tensions between Scotland and Britain. Some of you have seen films like Mary Queen of Scots, and you picked up a few of the vibrations.

And you know the history of the Scottish Covenanters. And you will get orientation on this later on. The Church of Scotland, therefore, is quite distinct from the Anglican Church, and has remained more orthodox, but not necessarily more alive in some places, though liberalism had its inroads there.

And out of the Church of Scotland, you have a number of different groups. You have one that's represented on the ships. The Free Church of Scotland, very conservative, do not even have music instruments of any kind in their meetings, only sing the Psalms, very biblical, very orthodox, some very good people in that church, but often very, very, very skeptical about anything like interdenomination.

Very anti-charismatic, very, very, very Calvinistic. Totally unique to Scotland. They're called by some the We Frees. And some of them are freezing, but they are some beautiful people. I don't want to get caught up in Scotland because we're not that far yet.

Then we have the Holiness Movement, which comes out in different denominations. But if you read Bill Hymer's book, Love Covers, you're reading a book by a man from a holiness background. The Nazarene Church would be one of the holiness churches.

The Free Methodist Church. There was a movement called the Primitive Methodist Church, have a lot of similarities in their birth, actually to the early days of Operation Mobilization, shortly after Wesley died.

People who strongly take John Wesley's position about sanctification often moved into, were described as part of the Holiness Movement. We have very good fellowship with many people in this movement, and I'm often asked to speak at one of the biggest holiness conventions in this country.

Some of your churches have a holiness background. They emphasize holiness. They would emphasize the baptism of the Holy Spirit for holiness. This predates the modern Pentecostal Movement, which is around 1900.

And their emphasis of the baptism of the Holy Spirit was for holiness, and for spiritual power. And even at Moody Bible Institute, they had quite a shake-up when Torrey started to preach a baptism of the Holy Spirit for holiness and for power.

And a number of the holiness movements were split in two because in the 1900s, a strong group came along and emphasized the baptism of the Holy Spirit for gifts. And the emphasis came on tongues. That completely split the Christian Missionary Alliance in two.

A .B. Simpson preached a holiness message. He preached a healing message. He had healing. But he was not into tongues, and when tongues hit out of Azusa Street, 1904 in California, it split the CMA right in two.

And this is why it's very important to understand this. The holiness people are the closest to the Pentecostal people in many ways, and some would be both. They'd both be Pentecostal and holiness, and yet have had the greatest fights.

And if you understand what Bill Heimer is trying to say in his book, as a holiness man who was trying to understand the New Charismatic Movement, then that book is a lot more meaningful. Though it goes into the roots of this problem by talking about Wesley and talking about Whitefield because the roots of this controversy go back to Wesley and Whitefield, and they can go back even further than that.

The holiness movement in general in Britain has not been growing much lately. And even the Southport Convention I just mentioned, attendance is dropping, young people are not there. A very high percentage of the young people have opted out for the more modern, contemporary, charismatic movement with its terrific emphasis on worship, freedom and worship, and things we'll mention in just a minute.

So that's the holiness movement. Right next to the holiness movement we need to just mention the Salvation Army. They, to some degree, almost came out of the Methodist Church. As the Methodist Church almost by force came out of the Anglican Church, the Salvation Army, though many other additions, especially people just saved right out of the streets, to some degree came out of the Methodist Church.

The Salvation Army is generally a holiness movement. Most holiness churches would teach that you can lose your salvation. If you do not persevere, you will fall from grace. That is still one of the hottest issues in contemporary church controversy.

And R .T. Kendall, the great leader of Westminster Chapel, has just written a new book on eternal security. And that sometimes is a hot issue within OM. We've had a fair number of heavy arguments with people on OM on that issue.

But that's the direction the holiness people live in, or go in. The other side of the spectrum would be the Reformed movement. Very, very strong in the British Isles, going back a long way, especially to Whitefield.

Whitefield and Wesley disagreed, especially on the subject of predestination. And Reformed theology moved one way with Whitefield, and Wesley moved the other way. There's some of the letters in that book, Love Covers, also in the biography of Whitefield and Wesley.

Keep in mind that in Wales, Whitefield's influence, and people that worked with him like Howells, is far, far greater than Wesley's. In fact, in Wales, the Methodist churches who around the world are traditionally Arminian, in Wales they are Calvinistic Methodists.

The Calvinistic Methodists have 1 ,500 churches in Wales. Most of them today are completely dead. The Presbyterians have 1 ,500 churches in Wales. Many of them yesterday morning would have less than 25 people.

They are two major groups in Wales, all of those churches, absolutely Calvinistic. You say, what in the world is that about? If you're relatively new, I cannot give you a lesson on Calvinism right now.

And of course, there are moderate Calvinists, and some of your churches, many of your churches, would be moderately Calvinistic. They would believe in eternal security, that once a person is truly saved by God's grace, he will persevere and go to heaven.

But they may not believe in total concepts of predestination and election. And they may not believe some of the other Calvinistic doctrines, which are often summed up in the initials of TULIP. And there was a movement out of Wales actually called the TULIP movement.

I don't think it ever grew. Just absolutely hardline, die Calvinists. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones is the most popular, well-known Reformed man of our day. And his influence is enormous. Though he was very respectful of Arminian people and people of other doctrinal persuasions.

And his followers often have carried things much, much further than he ever did. But to go in a Reformed church, for example, as I was in yesterday morning, and not know anything about Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, not understand anything about their roots, and things that are very, very sacred and important to them, and just start saying things that may be very, very acceptable in the Pentecostal church down the road, or the Brethren Assembly up the road, could at times lead to serious repercussions.

And it is important to try to understand people. On my way to a church, even if I know what that church is, on my way I get all the information I can from the pastor about what that church is and what they stand for.

The church I was in yesterday morning left the Presbyterian denomination in the 70s. One of the reasons for this is Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. When the major denominations joined the World Council of Churches, Dr. Lloyd-Jones, a very influential man, stood up and called people to leave those churches.

This was the largest shake-up in the 60s and the 70s this nation has ever had. And they broke from the Anglicans. The Anglicans, because of their system, are all linked with the World Council of Churches to some degree.

The average local Anglican church might not know anything about it, but the hierarchy is linked in with that. And people who teach separation, and without understanding the doctrine of separation, you can't understand any of this.

But those who believed in a degree of separation, they pulled out. This particular church I was in yesterday, they pulled out. They had to even negotiate to buy their building, though their pull-out was 100%.

100 of the members agreed to leave. Now, when that pastor started in that church, he had 50 members, hardly any of them saved, 20 years ago. Now, here's a pastor who comes on the ship. He may have a few questions.

They're not cooperating with Billy Graham. We think, what's wrong with these people? You see, we don't understand their historical roots. And when they pulled out of the Presbyterian church, some of these men attacked them.

They had to buy their own church building, though Lloyd-Jones urged them to be very respectful and loving. And so they negotiated carefully, and it went very well. Now, there are hundreds of people in that church.

They are having a week of prayer this week, and they are seeing people saved, and the pastor has given 20 years of his life for that one church. Every church has a unique history. Every church has roots.

Every church has been through struggles and trials and divisions. And we must not naively go into these churches making little generalizations like, Oh, this place is dead. Just because they're not clapping, or have their hands in the air, or standing on the chairs on their heads, does not mean they're a dead church.

There is a difference, young people, between noise and life. There are noisy churches that have no real spiritual life. And there are quiet churches that have a lot of spiritual life. Noise is like emotion.

If the noise is in line with the Word of God, and with what you're experiencing in the Lord, there's no great problem. But it isn't the end all. It isn't the measuring rod, whether people are alive. There's so much good music today, and so many good praise meetings, that the unsaved are enjoying these meetings more than the saved.

I mean, it's fantastic. Some of these meetings can make a disco seem like a slow motion contest. And so, as young people, you know, as young people, we also, together with a little bit of enthusiasm, we need a little bit of discernment.

A .W. Tozer said, the greatest gift needed in the church today was discernment. So we have this giant Reformed movement, which tends to, of course, also be divided. The biggest division is between what they call pedo-baptism, they baptize children, and those who don't baptize children.

That has divided the Reformed movement in two. Dr. Lloyd-Jones, congregational, children baptism. Earl Hulse, a man in the Baptist-Separatist movement. Or Masters, the present pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, very strong Baptist-Separatist.

O .M. can't even rent a room in that church anymore because of their strong mainline position, which even many, many Baptist-Reformed people do not agree with. So there are, and this is something you need to understand, there are always very large churches that just plow their own way completely.

They don't want to be labeled. Be careful of labeling people. We need to understand names, denominations, labels, but be careful of just labeling people. Because some people, it's an offense to them. And they may be plowing their own way.

Now, I'm not afraid of labels in one sense, because if you don't have any name, and I'm glad we got that simple, little, hard-to-explain, semi-vague name, Operation Mobilization, because otherwise we would be called Verwerites, or Mileyites, or Dietzites, or Shipites, or Termites, or whatever.

So, you know. But we must play down, even in O .M., where, of course, we're obviously not a denomination, and have proved for 29 years that there's no way O .M. is becoming a denomination. There are no O .M. churches.

Any church that we have started is linked with an existing denomination, as a church, or as a local indigenous body. It has no reference, no reference back to me whatsoever. I have no authority in any local church, or any other main O .M. leader, except maybe someone who has been a church planter.

Of course, he would surely be an advisor to any church that he helped to plant. Another major movement in Britain, of course, is the Brethren. The Brethren, in the early days, divided in two. And you have the Open Brethren, and you have the Exclusive Brethren.

The Exclusive Brethren divided into about 50 segments. Glanton Brethren, Taylorite Brethren, Kelly Brethren. You know, we could give you the Brethren lecture at this point. The amazing thing is to find people in O .M. from such a range of backgrounds.

It is staggering. It's really staggering. But we have more contact with the Open Brethren, who were aligned up with George Mueller. But you have different kinds of Open Brethren. And you have Open Brethren who are very tight.

And when you go in one of those assemblies, you better make sure, ladies, you have your head covered. And you better not jump up and just share a little word from Scripture, and realize you're in a man's world, and somehow play it a little bit carefully.

More Open, Open Brethren, and some are now so open, they don't want to be called Brethren. And they would be just seen as a local fellowship. When they have Brethren roots, they might even have a pastor.

Brethren were very strong. No one-man ministry. So some of them ended up with no-man ministry. Nobody could minister the Word. But in good assemblies, there were usually several men who could minister the Word of God.

And they have been one of the strongest groups in emphasizing Bible study and knowledge of the Bible. Then, of course, we have the Pentecostal and Charismatic Movement. That each one of these groups, I need at least five hours to cover the material.

Each group. So we're rushing toward finishing, and we're going to continue tomorrow morning. But you must understand that before the modern Charismatic Movement, we have the old-line Pentecostal Movement dating back to the turn of the century.

Dating back to Azusa Street. Dating back a little bit to the Welsh Revival in 1904. Dating back to a lot of great men. And there's a new book just published about all this British Pentecostal history.

Somewhat unique from Pentecostal growth in America, or Pentecostal growth in Sweden. Sweden became rapidly one of the strongest Pentecostal forces in Europe and sent missionaries out all over the world.

One or two here from the huge Philadelphia church in Stockholm where I preach. That had sent missionaries out to the end of the earth. And churches in Mexico City were started by those great Swedish Pentecostal missionaries.

So it's important to understand that you have the old-line Pentecostal starting around the turn of the century. Within the last 30 years, you have the modern Charismatic Movement. And the book Love Covers talks about the differences.

Differences especially in teaching about what is worldliness. The old-line Pentecostals understand this were very influenced by holiness. No lipstick, no dancing, no films. They had a lot of negatives.

Even certain kinds of dress in some cases. Their Bible schools, old-line Pentecostal Bible schools in America, very strict, many rules. They were also influenced by American fundamentalism. American fundamentalism does not have an influence on Britain as much as it would even in places like Brazil.