Evangelism and the Holy Spirit — George Verwer

Again, Lord, just continue to speak to us and enable us to absorb what we are hearing and put it into practice. Many this day may be willing to make the sacrifice that brings action into reality. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Let's review quickly in our own minds. Some of you have been taking notes, which is very good, because we're not here just to give you a little challenge, but some basic teaching from the Word and from experience.

The Holy Spirit Produces Boldness, Unselfishness, and Unity

But let us just review in our minds what we've said in the last two lectures. Last evening we especially showed from the book of Acts and other related passages that the Holy Spirit, working in the life of a believer, will produce boldness.

That is without question. We see it again and again in the book of Acts. We especially saw Acts 4 .31. When they prayed, the place was shaken and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God with boldness.

We also saw how the Holy Spirit produced unselfishness in the believers. This, of course, is one of the greatest needs in all of our lives, to see the barriers of selfishness broken down. The easiest thing in the world is to be self-centered and selfish, especially with our own time.

We saw also that the Holy Spirit brings unity, without which it is very difficult to engage in real effective evangelism. And we, of course, tried to stress the importance of that and a number of other things.

Then, flowing in this morning, we tried to see just some of the very basic, basic hindrances, basic false ideas that keep people from evangelism, as well as some of the basic principles, especially this area of accepting ourself, understanding God's mercy and sovereignty, and also what it is to really think positively and have a positive view on life and a positive view on yourself, a positive view on evangelism.

Sacrifice, Marriage, and the Cost of Christian Service

Now, I want to get very, very practical at this point, because the words that I read this morning are ringing in my ear, that not many are willing to make the sacrifice to bring things into action. Let me read exactly what that commentator said.

So much of our pity and compassion remains untranslated into action, because so often we are not prepared to make the sacrifice which action involves. Action for God generally involves sacrifice. It costs something, not just in evangelism.

Why are so many of our homes breaking in two? So many Christian separations in Christian homes now. It's just incredible really, and oftentimes it's because the husband is unwilling for the sacrifice that will cause the marriage to go, or the wife is unwilling for the sacrifice.

Somehow it didn't enter their heads when they got married, it meant sacrifice, or if it did enter, it didn't stay. Marriage is not a matter of just having your own emotional needs met. Marriage is a matter of giving and giving and giving, sometimes until it hurts.

David Wilkerson in his latest book, the more realistic of all the books, it's unfortunate it didn't come before the others, explained all the struggles he went through as his wife was operated on again and again and again, and he discovered what it takes to be married to a woman who is ill, and the sacrifice that's involved.

And the same is true as we start to give ourselves to others. Sacrifice is involved. I know that I would not be in God's work today if it wasn't for my wife willing to make the sacrifices of her own time again and again.

She has had to deny herself in terms of the amount of time she has with me so that I can give myself to others. An area where of course I must constantly remind myself not to overstep. And I think of especially when we were on the ship and I got involved with a very difficult case.

A young man who was in a very difficult state emotionally, and I determined that I had to spend an hour with this fellow every other day, in counseling, prayer, fellowship, trying to minister to him. And it seemed the only hour was about 10 o 'clock at night, between 10 and 11.

And yet this is often an hour that I would have speaking with my own wife, sharing with her, or sometimes just going to sleep. And we saw the pain of that experience as it did tend to perplex my wife for a while, and then it began to perplex me.

And I thought, well, how can you fulfill all the obligations, family, children, people who need counseling, plus all the other things you're supposed to be doing. This is why of course, as we mentioned already this morning, if you don't begin to learn the discipline life, you're not going anywhere.

And you'd be amazed of how few people do know discipline life. Even in terms of their own quiet time. I discovered even in operation mobilization, where basically it is easier to have your quiet time, than working in a secular job.

And yet we discover probably 30 of the people in our work do not have, especially in their first year when they're young, a really good systematic quiet time. They may be having a group study program at 8 .30, and so they'll use that to justify not having their own time with God.

But to me, as I see it in the Word of God, no amount of group time can take the place of private quiet time with God. And yet, without discipline, in the area of getting to bed on time, which is very hard for some people, they just can't seem to get to bed on time, therefore they can't get up on time, therefore they don't have a quiet time, and therefore they develop the accompanying guilt that comes with not having a quiet time, and all the other things that so often can take place.

One of the great fathers of evangelism in our age is Oswald J. Smith. He's now 82 years of age. Some of his books, I think, are there on the book table. But he was sharing with us recently in one of our conferences, that the main source of spiritual power in his life has been his quiet time, daily time with the Lord.

And he has hardly missed his quiet time at all since he was a teenager, and he's 82. And to me, that's just such a wonderful and powerful testimony. So all along the line, there has to be discipline. There has to be sacrifice.

Obedience Beyond Emotional Religious Experience

Now, I've heard some people say, we don't like to use the word sacrifice, because compared to what Jesus did on the cross, we can make no sacrifice. Well, I agree with that. Compared. But if we use that as an excuse not to make any sacrifice, because we say, well, next to Jesus we can do nothing, therefore we do nothing, this is disobedience.

And the Lord Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. And to me, there in one sense is no substitute for obedience in the Christian life. Why do we see so many people go into a religious high, in which they seem so spiritual, they may even become preachers at that time, and then later on so many of them taper off into lukewarmness?

Why? Because they were living by feelings, and while their feelings were high, they were alright. But when their feelings tapered off due to some problems or some other quirk that takes place, they go downhill.

You know, one of the greatest quotations on feelings from one of Mr. Tozer's books, Root of the Righteous, he said, feeling is the play of emotion over the will, a kind of musical accompaniment to the business of living.

While it is indeed most enjoyable to have the band play as we march to Zion, it is by no means indispensable. We can work and walk without music, and if we have true faith, we can walk with God without feeling.

Choosing Evangelism by Faith Rather Than Feelings

Many people avoid OM training weekends, not that that's what this is, because it isn't, but many people avoid those because they hear that in the afternoons on Saturday, we actually go out in evangelism.

The very thought of it is enough to cause them to stay hundreds of miles away, because they're so frightened by that. And as we come to this time of going out, in which no one is going to be forced to go out, you can go home.

In fact, we're going to give some options for people that may want to do something else. But I think if it comes to this afternoon or any other afternoon where we say, all those who feel like going, go, we are going to get a very, very small army.

In fact, it won't include me, because I generally don't feel like going out in evangelism when I especially have many other things that I would like to do, and actually some of them are very justifiable.

Because if I don't make some long-distance phone calls today, I'm going to have some further problems on Monday, and that brings more problems on Tuesday, and I don't have enough problems next week without creating more through procrastination this weekend.

But I believe we have got to operate on the basis of will, so we pray about something, we seek the Lord about something, and then we determine, I will. Now, the feelings may come. God gives wonderful feelings, and as Mr. Tozer said, that's like the music playing.

The Holy Spirit Works Through Ordinary Believers

If it's playing, wonderful. But if it's not playing, you have to keep marching forward for Christ. I think one of the great mistakes we make in terms of the reality and the teaching of the Holy Spirit is to connect the Holy Spirit basically with the spectacle.

And we see a great preacher. Some of us are exposed to too many preachers. We need to meet more housewives. Go fellowship with some housewives. Fellowship with some dustbin collectors. Fellowship with, you know, ordinary Christians.

Because the fact of the matter is that we tend to think, well, if he's a great preacher or an evangelist, boy, he needs to be filled with the Spirit. And preachers tend to spend a lot of their life running around from one conference to the other trying to get the final dose so that their ministry can be altered, which is a very interesting thing to watch, especially over 20 years as I've watched it.

But I believe with all my heart that woman working in the kitchen, that man working out in the street or in the factory, he needs the fullness of the Holy Spirit as much as the preacher. The Holy Spirit wants to work in the ordinary as well as the extraordinary.

God exists in the routine. You know, one thing for me to come in. My life is very, very different from the life of most of you. This is a long stay in one place this weekend, Friday through maybe Monday morning.

I mean, I am on the move because this work has grown and my job involves coordinating this work worldwide. It involves about 50 different nations. Now, I am, I do stay put in one place for quite a long time.

That's where my family is. But that's not where we are right now. And there are many extraordinary things that happen in my ministry. I had to shift two weeks ago, I was dialing into a ferry in Istanbul.

One week of all kinds of problems trying to handle the legal side of that, which by the way probably takes three years to get untangled. But to me, it is just as important to realize that though God can be with someone like myself, all kinds of extraordinary and different situations, God is just as much in the ordinary, the routine.

The work of OM only goes on because of thousands of ordinary people who do the same thing every day. The same thing basically every day. They get up the same time, they get the same train, they go to the same office.

I've had a terrific experience talking to some of these people. They are in a totally different world. People get on the train every morning at 7 .35, Bromley South. Sometimes I'm on that train too. And they've done the same thing for 15 years.

They know every tree, every bush, every station between Bromley South and London. And it's been a thrill to me, and I read this somewhere recently, that God can be in the ordinary. God can be in the routine.

Now, even in the most routine life of a believer, there'll be some extraordinary things. You can be sure. The person is witnessing. Because people are the most exciting thing that we can get involved with.

But if a man is working eight hours a day, he can't be witnessing all that time. He doesn't say excuse me to his boss and pop out on the street corner giving out tracks. Actually, when I was a young believer, I tried that once in a job I had in Chicago.

I was delivering buttons for a farrier. Very expensive buttons. And he told me to go down to this particular street corner and pick up a big pile of money. Somebody was going to come along in a car. It was a bit of a funny thing.

Come along in a car and give me this big brown envelope with money. And I was always thinking of when I could give out more literature. So I went down. I didn't exactly hear all the details of what he said.

But I thought I knew what I was doing. So I went down. And here I was on the corner giving out tracks. And I thought, boy, this man is late. And pretty soon, somebody came down for me. The boss wanted me.

And I got told off. Because I was on the wrong corner. This man with the money was driving around looking for this contact man. And here I was praising the Lord, giving out my leaflets on the other corner.

Well, this is not the right way. Not the right way. And I just feel it's important to break down this dichotomy between the secular and the sacred. When I'm giving out tracks, spiritual work. Or when I'm leading someone to Christ.

Or when I'm singing a hymn, spiritual work. But when I'm doing the dishes or when I'm cleaning the floor or when I'm working in my secular job, this is unspiritual. This is secular. This is a deadly dichotomy.

We therefore think, for this I need the Holy Spirit to guide me and lead me on Saturday morning evangelism. But the other six days in the week, I don't need the Holy Spirit. I use my own ingenuity. This dichotomy puts witnessing and relegates witnessing to something we do on alternate leap years or during special times when Billy Graham happens to arrive or something else along this line.

So, I think that's very important to keep in mind. Let me now get into some of these practical ideas. This is a list of ways that you can be involved in evangelism. There's no sense this weekend just giving all theory, all nice thoughts that may or may not impress you or warm your heart.

Initiative and Sanctified Imagination in Evangelism

We want to get down to practical instruction. I feel that we always need this balance. I also feel that Christians tend to lack initiative. There are so many things Christians can do. So many things. Some of them are little things.

One lady just came to me after the morning message with a little box. I thought, well, what's this? Very heavy. She's donated some cutlery. Some cutlery that she perhaps get used. I believe she's moving house or something.

And this cutlery will be greatly used on some OMT. Now, most people wouldn't even think of that. It doesn't enter their head. And I'm not looking for a ton of cutlery. You can be sure. But it's an example.

One time I was just recently. Even in OM I hadn't seen this before. It was in Bangladesh a year ago. We were having a conference. There were only 20 of us. Not even that many. I think there were 17 of us or something like that.

And the leader had decided we had to eat in two shifts. Two different groups. And this was wasting a lot of time. And I finally went to him after about the second day. I said, why are we eating in two shifts?

And he explained that they didn't have enough glasses and enough cups and enough plates. I don't think we were using plates. We usually used banana leaves. So the first shift, only seven or eight people.

They ate. Then they washed up everything. And then the second shift. And, of course, it took us twice the time. But maybe they could use this cutlery. Though Indians and Asians eat with their fingers, they've adapted.

And when they have soup, they usually need a spoon. But it's quite funny. Initiative. You know, A .W. Tozer said if any secular institution needed as much raw material to get so little finished product as the Christian church, it would go bankrupt in six months.

And it's true, really. It's true. When I think of all the challenges we have, gospel films, slides, challenges, Bible studies, home studies, prayer meetings, conferences, conventions, Pyley, Keswick, all of this challenge was a little less produced in our life.

People being helped. Work, you know, W-O-R-K. It's a very dirty word in the Christian world. Actually being done. You know, you bring into any city a great guitarist, bring in Johnny Cash, who now knows the Lord, bring in some great Christian film, and you'll just fill whatever church you want.

One of the latest gospel beat groups, whatever else. But you make an announcement in that meeting that the next week on Saturday morning we're going to gather together in a work party. You're going to clean the church basement.

Or you're going to do something. You see how many people show up. You can have your meeting in the vestry. And it is so pathetic to see in most churches that most of the work is done by a little remnant.

Most of the work is done by a little remnant. In America, it has got to the point in many churches where they hire people for everything. The organist is getting his salary. Of course, no, none of these big churches now have just one minister.

They have an assistant minister, a junior assistant. They're all making 5 ,000, 6 ,000 pounds a year. One church I went to, they had a paid man who ran the projector. He was a church projectionist. He also was getting his salary.

He clocked in how many hours a week he worked. He got his salary. These are evangelical churches. You see, this is the drift. I call it professionalism. The Christians don't want to work. They don't want to get off there where they're sitting and get going.

So, they hire an assistant minister and another assistant minister. And they hire somebody to run the projector. Also, the lady leading the choir, she's also getting a salary. The man in the organ, he's also getting a salary.

And so, Christianity becomes more and more, forms a dichotomy. Where you have those who are working, of course they work. They're being paid to work. I can hire unconverted people to do it. Eighty percent of the ministers in America in any way are unconverted, as far as I can see.

But, how deadly this is. Well, in most places in Britain, we haven't got that far. I don't know whether we don't have the money or what. But, it is basically true that in so many churches, it's the same little group carrying the burden.

Same group doing so much of the work. And, of course, sometimes when it comes to evangelism, this little group is already overworked. And some of them begin to neglect their families. When too much of a burden comes on too few, it creates problems.

They, in turn, get caught up in it. And pretty soon, you've got a church neurotic. And there may be people here this morning, your great need isn't to become more active. Your great need is maybe to figure out how you can be home with your family a little more.

Because I have known case after case of men who gave themselves almost neurotically to the church work and perhaps some evangelism thrown in and neglected their own family. Now, I have a family with me this weekend.

And I just don't feel free about taking my children, who already have been in more meetings than you'd ever want to count, come here and sit, you know, like little 19th century stoics as they have to listen to their father again go over the same thing they've heard too many times.

My children right now are in the swimming pool. It's been a long struggle for me to find the balance. Family, evangelism, work, rest, counseling, wife, all these different things. But, you know, we can find the balance.

Perfect. But we've got to work towards spiritual balance. But in so many cases, there's a lack of initiative and lack of what I feel and call sanctified imagination. There are so many things we can do.

So many people come to me and they say, Oh, if we're only young again. He's only 70. If we're only young again. All kinds of people are living to be 100 now. Winston Churchill only got going when he was about 65 or 70.

Then he really moved into orbit. Lindsay Glegg was still blowing all kinds of steam in every direction when he was 75, 80. He's only just been transferred. And I don't appreciate people coming and saying, Oh, if only I were young again.

Especially since I'm getting older. Because I have seen many older people so-called and in the light of eternity, we're all very young. We're all very young. You're going to have millions of years with the Lord Jesus.

You haven't even started on the first fraction of the first percent. But I've seen many people who are supposedly older having beautiful ministries for God. I think of a man in Switzerland. Maybe with the Lord by now because he's been carrying this on for so many years.

But he couldn't even get out of his bed. But from his bed, this man was sending Gospels of John through the posts all over the world. He would get somebody to bring in the newspapers. And he would go through the newspapers.

Anywhere there was an address. Anybody, anything, there was an address. He'd copy the address onto an envelope. He'd put a Gospel in the envelope. And he posted it on. He just started doing it in a very simple way.

And over the years it built up to a ministry. His life had so much more meaning. He had more joy and reality sitting in bed than most people have running around looking at the sites. We lack initiative.

We lack sanctified imagination. And then the sacrifice to take the idea and the imagination and bring it into reality. Here are some areas where we can get involved in evangelism. The first thing I put down was bedside evangelism.

Bedside and Telephone Evangelism

Don't give up when you finally get relegated to a bed. Actually, I wouldn't mind being relegated to a bed right now for a few months. When I was in hospital last July, I found out I could operate from the bedside as good as anywhere else.

Had a few arguments with the nurses. But bedside evangelism. This man sending out Gospels through the post. We live in the age of the telephone. And you can have a phone in your room and talk to people from your own bedside about Jesus Christ.

And in fact, I list it as the second point here in my little list. Telephone evangelism. Calling people up. Asking them how they are. And inviting them perhaps to a meeting. Sharing your testimony as the way opens.

Especially if you call after one o 'clock in the afternoon. It doesn't cost much. And if you call after six o 'clock, it's quite an inexpensive way to share the Lord Jesus Christ. I have heard of very effective ministries in both of these areas.

Have you ever had anyone call you and they had the wrong number and they feel a little bad about it? They thought you may have disturbed you? You can say, well, I'm sure that you should have called me because I've just wanted to tell someone about the love of God.

Do you know the love of God? Well, at that point, boom, he may slam. He may slam the phone down. But on the other hand, you might find yourself having a beautiful opportunity to share the Lord Jesus Christ.

Literature Evangelism and the “Losing” Ministry

The third point I put down here was the losing ministry. Some of us in certain situations, if we're honest, we really are afraid to give out a piece of your heart. Why not, if you're battling that fear, of course claim God's grace, but try for at least a while to just leave literature in various convenient places.

I say this because some people are not very approachable. And when you try to approach them with a tract, their backs go up. They're not interested. That same person finds a tract on the train table. No one's looking.

He takes it, goes home and reads it. Muslims, for example, within their group and cultural context are very strong against the gospel. But they are known for taking Christian literature and privately reading it.

And I could give you a list of 30 places where you could lose a piece of literature and just beautiful examples of how people have been converted. One man went into the, I don't know what they're calling it these days, WC, went into the WC and there was a little tract on the washbasin.

And he was converted to Jesus Christ reading that tract. And an amazing story came to me just recently. A man was a deep sea diver and he was going down into the sea and as he was going down, a little piece of paper floated by him way down beneath the sea.

And he reached out with his funny claws the divers have and he got this paper and he pulled it up to his mask. He was reading it down underneath the ocean and it was a gospel tract and he was converted to Jesus Christ through that tract.

I'm not making stories up. My little book on literature evangelism has a number of stories like this. So, there's all kinds of places on the ship. As we went along the coast of China, we had these terrific modern Chinese gospels in bottles and plastic bags, just dumping them off by the hundreds to float on to the shore of China.

People say, what utter nonsense. Well, we had a man write us from the Philippines not too long ago. His son found one of these bottles and came running up to the beach, you know. He thought this was some kind of a miracle.

The bottle with a piece of paper in it, the whole family opened the bottle and they read the tract. And that man enrolled in a Bible correspondence course and came to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, it doesn't take the most courageous, bold, dynamic, fast-moving, hard-hitting zealot to just read literature.

And it's especially also easy to give literature to people who you, you have somewhat done them a favor. For instance, what shopkeeper who wants your business is going to refuse taking from you a tract?

Or say to you after you spent five pounds or one pound in his shop, we don't want any of your literature. Plus, if he's got any brains at all, and there are a few who don't have any, but if he's got any brains at all, he's going to want to keep you as a friend.

I find people are willing to take literature. I find when I leave literature around, people pick it up, read it, enroll in Bible correspondence courses, and some of them come to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Door-to-Door Evangelism Through Giveaways and Conversation

There's so much can be done with literature. So much. Then I put here door-to-door work. This is one of the hardest forms. Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons have in some ways spoiled it. And in some places it's almost impossible to effectively do it.

But in most cases, door-to-door work is still effective. One of the reasons Christians are so afraid of door-to-door work is they seem to be so unwilling to develop any kind of plan as to what they should say.

Well, naturally, if I didn't know what I was going to say, I might be a little frightened as well. But there are many ways that you can develop an approach in door-to-door work. One of them is using the Challenge newspaper, which we're going to have this afternoon.

If anybody lives in Worthing and doesn't use Challenge, you ought to be punished, because, of course, it's published right here. And it's one of the easiest approaches to use in a venue. I have used it all over Britain.

I go to someone's door. I don't say, I'm here to preach Jesus Christ, or I'm here representing the local Baptist church. No, that's another approach. In some cases that can work. I call that the church approach.

But I say, I'm here just to introduce you to a new newspaper that's published. I was saying this when Challenge first came out. It's not so new anymore. But it is new to the people, because most people haven't heard of it.

Or I may start at the door saying, have you ever heard of this newspaper? And just hold it out in front. Eighty percent of the people are not going to, at that moment, suddenly react against you. They're going to be curious.

A very important thing in evangelism is curiosity. Now, some people will be too busy, and, in fact, one of the approaches I use at the door is to say, look, I realize you're probably very busy this morning, but I'd like to just give you something.

Give me something. Now, there are a lot of giveaway programs going on these days, so people, they're willing to wait at least another quarter of a minute. And then you say, well, I have this new newspaper, which we're just introducing here in the community.

I'd like to give you a sample copy. Then, if you like it, you can subscribe. Immediately you've relaxed them, because they know you're not trying to get something right then on the spot. You're just giving them a newspaper, and if they want, which makes them feel relaxed, they can.

Now, at that moment, when I've used this approach, I try to discern whether there's a further opening. Sometimes, that's all I can do is leave them with a paper. But other times, they start talking. What is it?

Oh, is this a, looks like the daily news. What is this? And then you can bring in something else. Maybe why you're doing this. Or you can say thousands of people all over Britain are now receiving this, and actually people have even received changed lives, just reading this paper.

Then you'll know when you say something like that, whether, you know, you can go much further. So, there are many, many ways to go about door-to-door work. I've used a calendar approach. I've got a hold of some Christian calendars.

Come to someone's door and said, I'm just giving away free calendars. And who's going to shout you down or yell at you for coming to the door and giving them a free calendar? Most people like calendars.

And in the process of their taking the calendar, you can get in a few more sentences, which will either open or close the way for the rest. We've also used a church approach. Saying we're from a local church, and we just would like you to know that we're having a special program this weekend, and we would like to invite you to come.

You, as you go to the door, and I, tend to be afraid of the people behind the door. But remember, they are afraid of you. In some cases now, people won't even open the door. Some homes now have little, you know, these little holes in the door.

They can look at and see you, you know. So, make sure you're smiling, you know. Don't be there sticking your tongue out until they open the door, because they may be peeking at you through one of their periscopes.

But people are nervous. The elderly are very nervous, because they read about this and that, and they're living alone. So, if you can introduce yourself as being from the local church, or living locally, I'm so-and-so, I just live over on the other street.

You've got to smile. Most of you here don't look like the average London gangster. They will eventually open the door. If they don't open the door, and there's a way to talk, you may be able to say a few sentences.

A lot of doors have these bolt and chain things, you know. The door opens a crack, and then there's a chain. Well, there's just enough room to talk through that, and to give literature, and to make an approach.

We learn as we go. Eighty percent of the people who have come on OM, and by the way, we've had 25 ,000 people through OM's training. A minimum of a month. 25 ,000 all over the world. Probably 80 of those people, when they came, were frightened about evangelism.

Most of them felt they'd never do it. Some of them came, a high percentage of them came, in order to learn how to do it. And yet, we have seen a very high percentage of these young people learn how to effectively witness.

I think of a girl who wrote me recently. The main thing that she was frightened about when she came on OM was the thought of going door-to-door. Everything else was alright. Prayer meetings, Bible studies, gospel meetings, film shows, coffee bar.

Fine. Door-to-door. Especially carrying any kind of books. Cold portage work. And yet, at the end of the summer, she could testify that she was actually enjoying that kind of work. We have young people who never dreamed of doing this in their life.

Now do it 300 days a year. That's what they do. That's their work. Going house-to-house. In France alone, as a fruit of this house-to-house work, and street work, and other forms which I'm going to talk about, we've seen 14 new churches planted.

Because after we go to the homes, we get literature in the home, we revisit, and then bring people in the Bible study groups, and then eventually a church grows out of that. Remember the secret of the Mormons, of the Jehovah Witnesses, and other groups who copy their ideas from the Bible.

Their secret is not great response. They get mainly negative feedback. They get much more negative feedback than you would get. They're used to getting 19 out of 20 people who don't even want to talk to them.

And abuse them. I don't think it's right the way Jehovah Witnesses or anyone else gets abused. I think that's a wrong thing for Christians. These are human beings. They need to be respected as human beings, created in the image of God.

And though they may be deceived, we need to at least, though we can't wish them God's speed, treat them as human beings. They know the law of averages. They know though 19 may reject, when they get one, possible punishment.

Back to that one. This is the secret of this kind of work in a local area. You're not in London where it's going to take you 25 years to get to all the houses. The secret is follow-up. The Jehovah Witnesses have an intricate card system.

And a very high percentage of the cities in the world, they now have on a card file. No doubt they'll be putting it on a computer one of these days. But anybody who responds in any way, and that for them means even taking one piece of literature, they get their name in it.