Tension Between Being and Doing - Part 1 — George Verwer

Balancing Personal Spiritual Formation and Evangelistic Labor

I have been asked to speak on maintaining this whole balance between being and doing. And this is an ongoing tension in Operation Mobilization. You get these incredibly heavy challenges that are sort of make a lot of us look like a bunch of workaholics who couldn't possibly know God.

And then the next day you get some incredible message about evangelizing the entire world before the year 2000 and all kinds of other challenges that take a lot of work. If we don't want a lot more work in the next few years, I don't know what we're doing buying another old rusty ship.

So, truly, this is a subject that needs to be dealt with in Operation Mobilization where we find our idealism creates tension and idealism does create tension. Some of you probably will be disappointed in your situation on your team because you have higher goals than perhaps the team leader is able to come up with in terms of reality.

I'd like us to look into the book of Ephesians. Perhaps my favorite verses on the subject of balance, I have many because it's clearly written in the Word of God, even though the word balance isn't written.

Ephesians chapter 4. In dealing with this subject, I want to try to bring in many areas where we are going to struggle for balance. Not just this one area because it's very general. In any case, let's start at verse 7 so we have a good Bible reading.

In fact, let's start at the beginning of the chapter. I'm reading in the authorized version but you can follow in any good translation. Let's just pray. Lord, this is such an important subject and I don't know who decided this was the subject for this morning, but I want to believe that it was from you and pray now that there might be revelation from your word to our own hearts and obedience, the response of obedience.

In Jesus' name, amen. By the way, it is so good to be able to just speak without an interrupter. I don't know what I'm going to do with these pauses. I'll probably get confused. Ephesians chapter 4. For I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation to which you are called, with all loneliness and meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another in love.

Isn't that powerful? Endeavoring, that means we do something, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, one spirit, even as you are called, in one hope of your calling.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore, he said, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men.

Now that he ascended, what is it? But he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth. He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things.

And he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth or from now on be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine.

So true today, isn't it? For the sly of men, the cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive, Satan wants to deceive believers. But speaking the truth in love, speaking the truth in love may grow up unto him in all things who is the head even Christ, from whom the whole body is fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth.

According to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. Just jump down to verse 30, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God by whom ye are sealed under the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away, put away from you with all malice and be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Being, Knowing God, and Doing the Word

I think it's very clear in the word of God that the first emphasis in the Bible is on.

Being, on being.

Tozer was right, Andrew Murray was right, Charles Kalman and his wife were right, Wesley was right, Whitfield was right. A long list of names we could give of people who as you look at their Bible teaching or their books, you will see their emphasis was on being.

Even more than that, their emphasis was on knowing God. Knowing God. There are powerful books written on this subject. Two or three new ones have come out. Some of them are almost extreme because it does seem that oftentimes when people bring out a strong book about knowing God, about being and all that that involves, they often leave out completely the other side of the coin.

That we are to be doers of the word. Now many people would interpret being doer of the word as an emphasis on being. Being a doer of the word I don't think is firstly an emphasis on evangelism, on doing, on going out into ministry or going out into the streets.

Certainly a broader interpretation would include that. Because being a doer of the word means you need to obey the verses concerning evangelism. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

We also have a picture of the life of Paul. Mr. Pollack has written a new book on the Apostle Paul. Let me just say a word about the book table. That if I were responsible for this literature display and we were in Great Britain instead of the Netherlands, we would have ten times as many books.

Because this represents maybe one-tenth of the great books that are available right now. But it is a huge task bringing them across here. There is also some battle about how much money we invest in books off the warehouse shelves over here.

It's all money sitting over there. But I just mention that because the range of Christian literature we have available in England is staggering to the imagination. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

We can't challenge people to be creative and not get a wide range of books. I hear people make generalizations, oh, most of these books are superficial. I say, well, how many of them have you read? Well, no, I don't like the covers.

I thank God for a wide range of books. I thank God that there is an increase of creativity among God's people. I thank God that people are writing on specialized subjects. We have a huge range of books now on abortion.

We need them. We have books on AIDS by Christian authors. We need the Christian perspective on everything. Dr. Schaefer drove this message home to us at one of our OM conferences like this where he spoke three days straight, mid -60s, before he was famous.

We were the first people ever to make films of Dr. Francis Schaefer and the first people to distribute his books because we sensed this man was saying something important concerning Christians being involved on every level.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that because we don't have a message on a particular subject at this little mini-conference that we are not interested in that subject. We are interested in arms control.

We are interested in justice. We are interested in abortion. We are interested in AIDS. We are interested in the problem of famine. We are interested in a whole range of problems. Now, to get agreement on some of these things in a movement like OM is another story.

We have to decide somehow to narrow our aim a little bit, though we do not control. We do not control in a heavy-handed way what goes into our conferences. And I'm sure there are things said that are controversial and that we wouldn't necessarily agree.

We don't tell Brother Andrew what he has to speak on tonight. He might drop a spiritual atomic bomb on us as he has in other years, and we still invite him back. We do not have a regimented, regulated way of expressing truth.

We don't have a lot of charts and graphs and little stereotyped charts that tell you how you, as an OMer, must go out and share anything. I think some of the ways we tell people to share the gospel of Christ, you know, for me that's great, but I'm not going to use that method.

Go hang it on your nose. I'm going to use what the Holy Spirit directs me to use as I speak to an individual about Jesus Christ under the control of the Holy Spirit. I'm not against little methods and little charts and graphs if we keep it all in balance.

Anyway, that's another subject. It's exciting to have such a big Bible, and I'm still learning so much. It's exciting to see God thrusting Christians into the political arena, thrusting Christians into the business arena, into the sports arena.

I remember Sheila Walsh was sitting at a meeting I had at London Bible College. I'm still on a tangent, but I'm enjoying it. It's early in the morning. Sitting in one of my meetings in London Bible College, in which I was speaking partly about India and she was praying about going to India.

But in that meeting, I said something about, you know, the Lord is not sending everybody out to India just because that's one of the greatest needs. There's also a great need in Britain. God may use you.

God may use someone here to penetrate secular humanism in the British Isles, and that became a reality in her life as she decided to stay in Britain, launched into the world of contemporary music and became one of the persons who, through television, was able to share the gospel of Christ to millions and millions of people in Great Britain.

The need is everywhere. So I do get a little concerned if I find people only reading Watchman Nee, only reading Andrew Murray, only reading A. W. Tozer. I've seen people freak out on Tozer, spiritually speaking.

And it's all a question of balance. With so many of these things, it's not either or, but it's both. And that's difficult. And that's the problem. Sometimes we don't like it when it's difficult. We like a simple little black and white answer.

We like to read a chapter in the Bible and come out with a nice little black and white answer. My problem is when I read some of these chapters in the Bible, I come out with more questions than when I went in.

Forgive me. Maybe you've never heard a doubting Thomas give a message. Isn't it wonderful there's room in the kingdom for doubters? It's interesting how Christians often are afraid to talk about doubt.

I guess we're afraid we'll propagate unbelief. I believe our silence propagates unbelief. It creates a Christianity that's less than credible among a lot of thinking people today. It often creates a Christianity that has certain political overtones or certain cultural overtones or that is too narrow.

Now, I know the Bible says narrow is the way and few there be that find it. We don't have to sort of be happy about that. Only a few of us can ever find this. Who the hell are the rest of them? Just us.

Somehow that doesn't appeal to me. Praise the Lord. As narrow as the road is, there's scope. There's scope for a few million more to get on this narrow road. We have five billion in the planet. So I don't think our big fear, too many people are going to be saved.

If this is your big fear in your evangelistic ministry, I'd love to get a little note about it. My great fear of too many people being saved through my ministry. That would be an all-time first in Operation Mobilization.

Holiness, Temperament, and the Crucified Life

Yes, we are called to live holy, righteous, godly lives. And if you're a character like me who tends to be a doer, I was a doer from age four. I think I had my first romance when I was four. That's not the kind of doing that we're talking about here.

But, you know, I can remember organizing my little gang in my neighborhood when I was about seven and attacking the other gang and I opened a little carnival in my back garden when I was about nine or ten and I was selling lemonade over diluted to sweaty carpenters who didn't know what they were drinking.

And then I got to selling things door to door. I think I started selling door to door when I was about ten with the Cub Scouts. I remember we sold flowers and then the Boy Scouts, we sold chocolate. And when I was in high school, I got the entire student body mobilized selling magazines so we could buy a new football field.

I'm a natural pragmatist, a doer, high energy, choleric. Let's get the job done. And according to the books, characters like me, we just step on people as we go. We're also natural backsliders. We go for several years and we grab some woman and run off into a hay barn.

And, you know, that's the end of our ministry. That's my temperament. It's pleasant to read all these books about temperaments, isn't it? Especially all the weak points. But somehow in God's mercy, I sat under men who emphasize being.

I sat under Alan Redpath. I sat under old Dr. Culbertson when he came back from the Keswick Convention. Somehow in God's providence, I got a hold of not just go, go, go, go, do, do, do, do books like Oswald J. Smith, who's similar temperament to me, but I got hold of Roy Hessian's book, Calvary Road.

Emphasis on being. Emphasis on the crucified life. Somehow in God's providence, I lived in Chicago where they had the Chicago Keswick Convention. In God's providence, one day I came across the writings of A .W. Tozer, which was destined to change my entire life.

And then Watchman Nee and Andrew Murray and other men who put their emphasis on being. Not exclusively, but that was their strong point. That was their strong point. Now as you launch out with this emphasis in your own life, and you're wrestling to find the balance, you're going to discover that the road is not so easy.

Charismatic Renewal, Spiritual Gifts, and Unity

And I wanted to share with you just some very practical, I hope practical, points that will help you to maintain the balance. I want to just say something, however, about the charismatic movement before I get into that.

Because this is still one of the great controversies in OM, and it's an area where we need to find balance. And I guess only characters like me maybe have the authority or can risk speaking about it. One of the great miracles of OM is that God has brought us together from different churches and different backgrounds.

Billy Graham believes that one of the reasons the evangelism of the world, evangelization of the world is going forward so quickly is what God has done through the charismatic renewal and the Pentecostal movement.

God first linked me with those dear people when I first went to Mexico. I got in some of these old-fashioned Pentecostal churches. This was before the modern charismatic movement. And though I don't understand everything or agree with everything, it wasn't exactly my theology, I knew these people were God's people.

And it is so sad that Pentecostal people have been in the past so heavily persecuted. We hope now that as they become the bigger numbers in some countries, they will not persecute the non-Pentecostals.

Because that wouldn't be the best either. And that, of course, has sometimes happened. And I have seen that the Holy Spirit is not limited or not held back by our human theology, by our human errors. You may feel in your heart there is certain error in this theological camp.

You may feel in your heart there is certain error in this other theological camp. Error is everywhere. We're all growing. We're all learning. I think we're continually dealing with error. I don't think dealing with error in the church is one black-and-white finish.

That's it. From now on, we have totally orthodox theology. It's more subtle than that. And OM has seen an amalgamation almost down the middle in terms of people's backgrounds coming into OM, especially now in the 80s, of people from the so-called non-charismatic side with the charismatic side.

We believe in OM, that in a sense, in the biblical sense, not in the technical description of a movement or a denomination sense, but in the biblical sense, we are all charismatic. We believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

We believe in the graces of the Holy Spirit. We believe in miracles. We believe in healings. We believe in all that God is doing. We want all that the Holy Spirit is doing, especially as He ordains it for our particular movement and the task He has given us.

We have decided, after much discussion, to continue in asking some degree of self-control on the more controversial gifts, like tongues and aesthetic prophecy, and urge people who feel exercised to manifest these gifts, to do it in churches where it can be accepted more easily, understood, and will not bring confusion and division, as it has done for so many years and continues to do.

You may say, that's a compromise. Yes, brothers and sisters, that is a compromise. And you don't live on this planet. You don't work with God's people with some compromise. We're not asking people to compromise their major doctrines.

Godly men on both sides of this camp have been debating this subject for 100 years. They have come out divided. They have come out fighting. Churches have split by the tens of thousands. Do you think OM, with its very tiny spiritual muscle, in terms of the whole worldwide church, is going to just somehow resolve all this by making a pronouncement at our General Council?

Contrary, we could set work that we have tried to do in some countries, starting from zero, we could set that work back 20 years. We would take the focus from the Lord Jesus Christ, from world evangelism, from godliness, from all the things that we can agree on, and there are hundreds of things, and we would allow it to be diverted by focusing it on something that is absolutely a point of controversy.

We can't even get the definitions on prophecy and tongues yet. When they launched out of Azusa Street in 1904, the great birth of the New Tongues Movement, they actually thought they were speaking foreign languages.

They launched out in a great missionary effort, and many of those early Pentecostals came back to California completely discouraged because they couldn't find anybody who spoke those languages. And then they changed the interpretation, and they said, well, look, these are unknown tongues, and they changed and adjusted to what they were experiencing.

That particular phenomena, by the way, split the Christian Missionary Alliance Movement completely in half. The CMA has never recovered totally from that division. They later became very ingrown. Their missionary thrust, which is still one of the greatest in the world, I'm sure is nothing compared to what A .B. Simpson had in mind.

I guess he's adjusting to it up in the glory. I don't know if they're able to watch through some heavenly telescopes what's going on here or what. Let me read something from Bob Mumford, because I know there are some strong charismatic people in OM who feel we're not going far enough.

Seldom do they come to me and speak straight to my face. Usually, they don't even speak during this conference. They sort of wait till all the heavyweights leave town. I don't look like a heavyweight.

But then they start sort of mumbling. We get sort of the charismatic mumble. Well, what they don't realize, as they start the charismatic mumble, we get the increase of the non-charismatic mumble. And so we're still, through the year, mumbling against one another instead of going out and evangelizing the world.

I think it would be good if we all continued to study this subject carefully and prayerfully, not just books from one side. It's interesting how charismatic people read charismatic books and non-charismatic people tend to read non-charismatic books.

I think I read equally both. In fact, I probably read far more charismatic books, being a bit of, of course, a charismatic, at least in heart, mind, soul, and body. But not wanting a technical label of any kind particularly put on my head, including a discipleship label.

Let me read something from Bob Mumford. If you don't know Bob Mumford, you haven't obviously studied the charismatic movement. One of the most influential men in the movement, and considered by some the greatest speaker.

They have just taken apart the organization. They put into force out of Fort Lauderdale many years ago. Derrick Prince left them some years ago. He's got his own ministry, which is rapidly growing. Mumford and the Lauderdale men have all separated and gone their own way.

They were the group that the charismatics who remained in the church in America were really upset with. They came forward years ago with a very heavy pyramid type of leadership. They brought that into Britain and then they retreated back.

And we still have it in Britain, though it's definitely more moderate now. It never was what some of the opposition said it was. Things so easily get exaggerated. So things change. By the way, when that split took place in America, which was huge, the different parties got together.

And they did talk it out and they did come to some agreement. Back in 1983, already Bob Mumford was beginning to emphasize all the time balance. They had already seen thousands of burnout cases. They had already seen every kind of problem in the book.

This is what Bob Mumford wrote in Plum Line, May and June 1983. Listen. Unfortunately, many who seriously want to believe in the reality of the charismatic phenomena, and there are many non-charismatics so-called in that camp.

I'll read it again. I know some of you English, not your first language. Unfortunately, many who seriously want to believe in the reality of the charismatic phenomena are often unable. This isn't George Verret.

This is Bob Mumford. You got all that? I know it's early. Some of you haven't got your notebooks out. Are unable to do so because of our extremes and our silliness and confusion when we fail to keep the balance.

Mumford. We recognize that if the pendulum doesn't swing between both truths, allowing God to use both His Spirit and His Word in our lives, the clock doesn't run. Isn't that beautiful? I preach about the Spirit when spiritual life is dry, and about the Word when spiritual life is overly subjective, with a tendency toward immature prophecy and merely private revelation.

Maturity requires that we know the difference between superheated human imagination. Great. Let me read it again. Maturity requires that we know the difference between superheated human imagination, and we get plenty of it in the OM Year program, and the pure, plain meaning of God's Holy Word, which not only sets us free, but has that phenomenal ability to keep us free.

Right now, people in the charismatic movement are more open to Operation Mobilization than ever before in history.

Please turn the cassette over now. Do not fast wind it in either direction.

People in the charismatic movement are more open to Operation Mobilization than ever before in history. It is unfortunate that some of the negative things we said in the 60s trying to find our way were taken out of context and gave some people the idea that OM was anti-charismatic, which is absolutely false.

So you can write that in your notebook for your church. Your Good Assembly of God church, whatever church it may be. And it's so important to understand that the Holy Spirit is working in different ways in different people.

We thank God for the increased freedom in OM, even in our worship meetings, and there will at times be some experimentation. And after the experimentation, there are usually some interesting discussions.

We had more of it here last year than this year, because on some of these things we will never agree. I had someone come to me just the other day and ask me about, you know, do I believe there's a place for magic in evangelism?

I hadn't even hardly thought of the subject. Is OM going to launch a major magic movement for world evangelism with Joe Ridgely as our pioneer magician? OM at times is a bit broad-minded. I know some of you would like the road to be narrower.

And we engage in experimentation, and we don't hard-line on a lot of issues. Many years ago I saw a godly Christian musician, I think on a film, and I heard of what the Holy Spirit was doing in his life, and it seemed to me that God was using him.

I didn't like the idea. But a lot of times God seems to go past what I'm willing for. Then I heard on an OM team there was a gospel clown, and it was a woman. In Bromley we had a gospel clown running around with no authorization from the general council, field leaders, or international coordinator.

A gospel clown. Somebody later accused me of being a gospel clown. So what to do? I know that certainly OM is especially a little bit broad for some of you dear folk who come across from America. From some good old straight and narrow fightin' fundy double B, grabbin' by the collar Baptist churches.

And I really hope that as you write back home that you will be wise in what you write. You don't have to tell them everything all at once. You don't have to send photographs of me coming into the meeting dressed up in some way out way with my funny little reading glasses, which proved very useful on Sunday night.

I was in a dark car sitting next to my wife, didn't know what to say. I wanted to do some reading. So those glasses are not just some kind of little clown act. That's part of my attack hardware for damage to enemy territory through redeeming the time.

Personal Work and Mass Evangelism

What are some of the other areas where we're going to have to work for balance? Such an embarrassment. I can't even read my notes anymore now without my glasses. Horrendous handwriting. I should have taken handwriting lessons when I was a child.

How much time do we have left? Let me just share a few things in world missions where we have to find the balance between being and doing personal work versus mass evangelism. Sometimes personal work seems to be given the credit as being more linked with being because you have personal contact with people, right?

They see your life. We believe in that. We believe in that. That is where most of OM's work is at present. Very little mass evangelism is taking place in OM these days because there was such a counter win against mass evangelism.

Superficial, giving out tracks. This is what the enemy used to try to drag our work into a place of no credibility. We were attacked for a decade viciously by some places and some people. That's why we're not so willing to throw off the little credibility that we have because we battled so hard to get it.

And without that, you don't get into the churches. You don't get the young people. It's a big battle. But I believe we can continue to find that balance and emphasize both personal work as well as the mass media, radio cassettes, mass evangelism because we've seen the Holy Spirit using both.

There was a sad thing in Mission 2000, and I didn't get an opportunity to confront the person that someone so despairingly from the main pulpit spoke against literature evangelism. But I don't hold anything against that person because he's a beautiful person.

And in their ministry, literature is not playing a role. I dare to say I could prove that if they used some literature, it would help, especially in the follow-up. The interesting thing is the person who spoke that has written a book and wants all of us to distribute it around the world.

Amazing, amazing. Literature has been attacked again and again, but it is still proving to be a vital instrument in the hands of the Holy Spirit. When we had this very conference some years ago, I spoke on the subject of literature evangelism, how it can be used in almost any kind of team.

And that is actually on video cassette. Your team doesn't have to major in literature in order to see a lot of literature go out. It's interesting that a lot of the people who have got the message on being, on being, godliness, personal revival, holiness, where did they get it from?

A book. So if we don't have doers, we're not going to have beers. You get it? If we don't have some people selling books, if we don't have some people out there doing, publishing, writing, distributing, then people aren't going to read A .W. Tozer.

And 80 of the Christians have not read A .W. Tozer across the world. We're spiritual gluttons. Some of you feel, oh, I want more Bible study. You're not really sure you should be an O .M. this year.

You really need to get off to Bible college. Let me tell you. You know what our sin is, many of us? It's spiritual gluttony. We're not putting into practice. We're not putting into practice what God has given us.

Before Bible college, and some of you have been through Bible colleges, you're even more of a spiritual glutton. Because you know how little of that is being practiced in your life. Maybe that's why you joined Operation Mobilization.

O .M. believes in Bible colleges and have channeled more people into Bible colleges than any movement that I know of. But I believe God wants us to obey. To put these things we are learning into practice.

I don't know how I would have got through two years of Bible college if almost every day I could not be involved in evangelism. As I walk down the streets giving out tracts, working among drunkards, working among Puerto Ricans, ministering in the Filipino church, becoming the chaplain of the YMCA, reaching out down to Mexico during the winter holidays, during the summer holidays, plus starting a small revival movement at the institute at the same time.

Social Action, Relief Work, and Evangelism

Putting into practice what we learn, what we hear, enables us to be the kind of people that God wants us to be. Another area of struggle is the difference between putting a big emphasis on social work and evangelism.

Luis Palau answers that question in his article, which I would ask every one of you to pick up until they run out. He gave us official permission to redo that article. And it's brilliant. I would be on a plane today to Bangladesh if I thought that somehow I could help world evangelism more by being in Bangladesh right now and giving myself to feeding the poor.

We actually have our people in Bangladesh. Most of the work done in Bangladesh over the past 20 years has been relief work, caring for the poor, feeding the poor. Those relief people invited OM into Bangladesh.

And you know what they said to us? They said, look, we're not able to do that much in evangelism. We want OM to come in and do evangelism. Stick to what you can do best, evangelism. So it's not that we don't believe in feeding the poor, in doing relief work, and all those kind of related social works.

But we have a calling from God. We also believe that one of our callings is to train people, to recruit and to train people so that later they can go out and do this kind of work. I'm amazed at the number of nurses who come on Operation Mobilization.

How many of you are nurses or planning to go into nursing? Raise your hand. See if you can bring this into balance. Please put your hand up high. Quite a few. At the ExoEmbers reunion, I had a meeting of those in the 80s group.

In the 80s group. ExoEmbers reunion. One out of every three women in that meeting was in nursing. One out of three. I was praying for a few more to get into typing. Surely, nursing is linked with that whole side of the work.

Though we know it is possible to be even in social work and get even more pragmatic with less emphasis on being because the workload is so overwhelming. Some of you are going to feel in OM there's too much work.

We're behind in the work. We don't have enough people to do the job that needs to be done. I find this a struggle. But history shows that world missions has almost always been that way. Right now, in Bangladesh, they are lacking.

They are lacking money. They are lacking tools. They are lacking the right people. What tokenism the world is playing to Bangladesh right now? Saudi Arabia has given them two or three helicopters. I almost screamed as I heard that on the radio this morning.

All the military hardware. Somebody else gave Bangladesh two helicopters. We have more helicopters in Chicago just going around telling you about traffic. What an awful, sinful world we live in. So much of the righteousness expressed by our nations is tokenism.

It's tokenism. It's politics. The world needs Jesus Christ. We have proven in all of our worldly agencies our need for Jesus Christ. And we know that sometimes the amount that is done for a nation greatly increases.

We know also that the Christians, directly and indirectly, are often the ones on the cutting edge of what is happening in this area around the world. We do not any longer have to hang our heads as evangelical and charismatic and biblical Christians about the amount of social work that is being done.

For as a small, relatively small group of people with humanly limited resources, the Christian church has done some amazing work in this area. Yea, it needs to be much more. Many trained in operation mobilization with its emphasis on evangelism, its emphasis on disciple making, its emphasis on church planting and on spiritual revolution, holding us and being the kind of people we should be today are involved in social action and social work.

I think of one man who sat right here some years ago who is a major leader in Pakistan in a largely secular relief agency operation. Praise the Lord for that kind of thing. As we go along in our Christian life and as we wrestle with the subject of balance and the pressure between being and doing, there will be many other areas of difficulty.

Family Life, Misunderstanding, and Peace

When it comes to our family, there will be great tensions. How much time do we spend being the family we should be? Quality time together. Quality time with our children. Worshiping God. Reading the Word.

The wife wants more quality time. More time on holidays for reading, for being together. More time with the children. The husband has got a vision. He's got a particular job to do. He's got a particular leadership position with twice as much to do as he can handle.

He's carrying home at night his used briefcase full of letters and notes and phone calls to be made, and it can be used, Satan, to literally blow the family apart. Most of you this morning are single people.

One of the increasing tensions in OM is between the singles and the married people. It's not new. We've had it in the history of our work. Single people generally don't understand married people until ten years after they are married.