Om's 5 Fold Vision and 5 Fold Strategy — George Verwer

I want to share with you a message this evening that I've been putting on film in a number of different languages. And will be available to send out to any of your prayer partners who can get a hold of a Super 8 projector, sound projector, which are very common these days.

These films are only about 24 minutes, so I'll be giving another message at the end of that one. But tonight we aren't having two main speakers, we will tomorrow night, because we're going to be showing a film.

The film is just optional for those who want to see it. It's in English and it's entitled, Through Gates of Splendor, The Story of the Martyrs to the Alk Indians. This is a message that you can share in prayer letters or you can even share when you have an opportunity sometime to speak in some kind of group.

The Fivefold Vision for World Missions

I think there are many ways to explain the strategy and the vision that God has given us. But especially in wanting to communicate on this film, I felt I needed to help people understand better what we are really aiming at in this work.

So I expressed this as the five-fold vision. The first aspect of this vision, this burden, this strategy that God has given us, is the Muslim world. A Muslim world. One out of every seven people in the world is a Muslim.

And less than two percent of the missionaries in the world are working among Muslims. Less than two percent. And when we look at a map of the world, and most of you can visualize that, right across North Africa, right through the Middle East, right on out to Indonesia and even the Philippines, the Muslim world.

We feel the burden to share this vision with God's people all over the world. We want to produce audiovisual material, film strips. We want to do everything through books like Operation World, other materials, to spread this vision.

This is the first phase of seeing this fulfilled. Think of lands like Turkey with 38 million people. And among the Turks, maybe a hundred believers, maybe a few more, maybe a few less. Think of other countries like Mauritania, where there's not even a known, one single known living believer.

Whether we go to these countries or not, we can all be involved in seeing this vision, this burden, become a reality. A gifted secretary, even a non-gifted secretary, working in Manchester, can help fulfill this vision as much as someone who actually goes out to Jordan or to Egypt or to Afghanistan.

We don't want to just see anyone rush out into the Muslim world. We feel people need even a degree of maturity before they even go out into the training. Now, of course, with teams among Turks in Germany, among Arabs in London, there's opportunity for people to get some experience before launching out into the heart of some of these incredibly satanic controlled lands.

The actual strategy, getting down to the details, will vary from one country to the next. The strategy in Jordan is totally different from the strategy in Bangladesh, though they're both Muslim countries.

The Subcontinent as a Priority Mission Field

And it's up to the men leading the work in these individual fields, in consultation with others, to get God's will for their difficult area of the world. The second aspect of the vision is a word you may not be familiar with, the subcontinent.

This usually we think of as India, but also Pakistan on one side, Bangladesh on the other side, Nepal to the north, and Ceylon to the south. Here we have a population of over 800 million people, almost getting near the population of China.

This we feel is a priority, and it is our biggest land field of operation. Almost 300 people are laboring around the clock, or year round, in India alone. If we add the total subcontinent together, it is the largest field within Operation Mobilization.

Pakistan being the newest full-time OM field. We've had teams in there before, but now it's an official main OM target field. One of the reasons for that is that so many of these people with us there are nationals who are in this thing, some of them, for the rest of their lives.

It's not a short term program for many of them. And the doors are wide open for mass evangelism. And yet the church is very very small in comparison to the church in Africa and Latin America. Especially if we think of North India.

Because the door is open, in India alone we've distributed up to now 150 million pieces of Christian literature. And I personally believe that what has happened in India, year after year, is in direct proportion to what God has done in these conferences here during this month, year after year.

So we want people to have the vision for India and the subcontinent. One of the main tasks they have in the Zaventem Mechanics Base is to repair and send vehicles to India. We feel that our first calling on our international coordinating team is to serve the work in India, though of course we feel called to serve the whole work.

Europe as an Unreached Mission Field

The third aspect of the vision is Europe. Europe is a mission field. The whole world is a mission field. But especially we feel burdened for the more unreached countries of Europe. Without question, God and his providence made this, at least up to now, a work base here in Europe.

Of course the number of Asian people moving into OM, we'll soon have to say that the work is based in Asia and Europe. It's a very unusual way, and somewhat unprecedented in history, how God led some of the early people, namely who were Americans, to be transplanted to Europe.

And to see Europe, many of them, as their home base. I don't see England as a mission field. England is my home country. And I have no plans of ever returning long term to the North American continent.

My children are quite happy in the British system. My son just got nine O-Levels. And three A's, and he hopes to go on to a good British university. It's good he's got a lot more upstairs than his old man.

He's got a lot more in the head. When we think of lands like Austria, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and other lands, basically in Southern Europe, we realize they are more unreached than most places in Latin America, Africa, and even many areas of the Far East.

A Whole-World Vision Through Ships and Catalytic Ministry

This summer crusade that we have been involved in is a basic and vital part of the total vision and strategy that God has given us. The fourth aspect of the vision is the whole world. You say, well, this is a bit crazy.

Why didn't we start there in the first place? Maybe I should explain this. We don't believe that OM should work permanently and long term in every country. We feel that would be very foolish. We are only part of the body of Christ.

We want to work together with all those who really love Jesus Christ. Even in India, there was such strong Christian work in Andhra Pradesh. The Lord has never given us the go ahead to work in Andhra Pradesh.

But at the same time, we believe Christ's vision is the vision of the whole world. And we have seen with the man power that God has given us, which always includes the women power as well. And I don't just say women power all the time because I don't want to feel the men, I don't want to hurt them and make them feel left out.

And I remember my first team in Italy. It was mainly women. My wife, she was carrying Daniel on the inside. We were in the back of an old truck. I was the main driver. And we gave those women the scares of their life.

But I saw that summer that in literature distribution and all on evangelism, many times the women could outrun the men two to one. In other words, every time there was one woman out, there was two men after her.

Every time there was one woman in evangelism, there were two men chasing after her. But we've seen the vision of the whole world. And we want to help wherever we can. And so this is actually, I refer to it as the vision of the ship.

We've seen that with the ships, we can literally reach out far beyond to the entire world where before this was impossible. This is why the ship has been in Latin America. This is why Lagos, after nine years, is making a sweep of the Pacific islands and areas where before we had two ships, we just felt we could not give the time.

This is why Lagos, after nine years, is making a sweep of the Pacific islands and areas where before we had two ships, we just felt we could not give the time. One of the main purposes of this work is to be a catalyst.

Many of these countries, we will not begin OM full-time work. But fires will be lit. They'll be lit within churches. Because many of these countries already have enough churches to do the job if the revival fires and the evangelistic passion came into the church.

People say, why should we just go to a country for a couple of weeks with the ship? Because we can see fires lit in those few weeks that will burn until Jesus Christ comes back. There is validity to the permanent ministry where we go and we dig in and we stay.

There is just as much validity in the ministry that sets the church afire. They're already there and they're not planning to move. And tremendous things can take place in that kind of ministry. I've seen this in my own ministry.

I live in England. I have many permanent friendships in England. I can go back to the same places, the same churches, the same conferences, year after year. I'm happy for that. I like to have long-term relationships.

But if I'm honest, sometimes I have accomplished more when I've gone to a country for one week and saw God light fires in those meetings that burned on years and years after I left. And so God is giving us a privilege through the ship, through some of us who take meetings, and through people who also go back after training, to touch the world with this burden, this vision, this message.

There are now OM-trained people working in almost every nation in the entire world. And the vision is spreading. And I just believe that it's so exciting to be in this kind of thing that's moving, that's lighting fires and spreading.

Literature, Film, and Media for World Evangelism

Then the fifth aspect of the vision is not geographical. I call it the vision for literature and the media, films, all that kind of things, films, video, cassettes. Even many leaders within OM do not seem to understand how much we are into this.

I produced a memo on film and Super 8. I didn't get too much feedback from within OM. I got a little. That doesn't discourage me. I know that many are interested in this and using it. But today I was just given a letter written from one of the leading men in Christian films in the world, he's been it almost his whole life, to someone within OM.

And he said he felt, as he had just seen that memo, that this was a classic piece of literature in connection with Christian film ministry and he wants to use it in his meetings as he challenges people about film.

And if some of you want to see copies of that memo, we have a few available, you can see all around. We'll put them on the free literature desk. The vision for literature, of course, is still the primary.

This is where ministries like STL come in. As they are now distributing books into more than a hundred nations. Many of you saw the STL film script in the last conference. And it's amazing, the open doors and the flooding out of literature that's going on through that ministry.

France, India, Belgium, Arab world. Most of our fields have an aggressive and progressing literature ministry that's touching millions for Christ. Tens of thousands of cassettes have gone out in many, many languages all over the world presenting the word.

In fact, I would say our total distribution on cassettes has bypassed probably the 50 ,000 mark. I need to come up with a statistic because that's probably too conservative. All kinds of people are needed to fulfill this vision.

And it's a lie of the devil that he sows out among the churches that so many kinds of people cannot be used in missionary work. That they don't have enough training. Or they don't have enough education.

Or they're not dedicated enough. And Satan has sowed so many misunderstandings about missionary work. And part of this vision is to flood out literature that presents the truth about world missions. It's been an exciting year for me.

One of the things that excites me is to finally see some people in OM really increasing in their vision for literature. Now, I know many are slow and my need is for much patience. And it used to grieve me to see even a leader going out to take a meeting with a little box of about 50 books.

You know, going out to take a meeting. Seems to me that that's about enough books to visit your grandmother. On our team, we take more books to a women's meeting of 10 or 15 than many teams take to a meeting of 100 or 200 people.

And it's been encouraging. When I visited Lagos in Singapore to see some proper church book displays. We had a meeting in one church. They brought about 7 ,000 books. Good. It's encouraging. And we saw a lot of them go out.

Of course, carrying these suitcases, it can hurt your back. So pack them in smaller boxes. There are many, many ways that you can do it. I pray that in this conference we may get a vision of saturating the world with the word of God.

As far as I can see in terms of volume, because of the addition of Doulas to OM, more literature went out last year than any other year in the history of Ireland. And it's very exciting to see. We now have these magazine books.

This is unbelievable. To print a book for a penny or two pennies. To sell seven books for the price of one, as we have in that power pack. And they're as easy to sell as anything you can ever try to sell to Christians.

On the Doulas, they had a similar package for the unconverted. Billy Graham's book, several books, all in Spanish. And we had them on the Christmas crusade. They just go. So this is the five-fold vision.

Do you have it? Will you spread it? Will you pray and believe God that this will become a reality? Satan, of course, will attack this. He will do everything possible to hinder us. How are we going to see this become a reality?

Prayer and Praise as the First Strategy

I want to make this brief, because you're going to be hearing about this for the next three weeks, because there's a lot. But I listed the five-fold strategy. Though, of course, there are many other things.

I don't think I'll write this down. But you can write it down. First of all, prayer and praise. We've already emphasized that. But we feel, despite all this work that must be done, our first task is worship, prayer, praise.

We see this in the Word of God. Waiting upon God. Number two, building together. God is building. Relationships. Linking hearts together. If we are going to be one of God's people, God's invasion armies, we must be united together.

Building Together Through Relationships and Teamwork

The basic strategy of OM, as it has been expressed there over the years, is on the orientation tapes that many of you have listened to. That is still absolutely valid. This is just a shorter and different way to present basically the same thing.

A way that you may be able to use when you're sharing the vision to others. Because we give this teaching to you, not just for you, but for you to share with others. Prayer letters, personal letters, as the Lord opens doors.

When we give this teaching, it doesn't take you further to forget it, but to pass it on to others. Again, this is why these conferences are so important. This is why the discussion groups are so important.

The family and the fellowship groups that they have on the ship, where people are broken into groups, where they can relate and grow together. I was tracing through the book of Acts, just marking the places where we see that Paul worked together on a team.

And again and again we see this. Teamwork is basic to the fulfilling of this strategy. In no way, in OM, do we want to encourage people to work off on their own in some little isolated situation, separate from other members of the body of Christ.

Mass Evangelism Through Every Available Medium

Unless they have proven that they are very special and apostolically anointed people. The third aspect of the strategy, mass evangelism. Every possible means to make known His message. One of the miracles of the ship ministry, is how this has led the gospel to be presented on television, radio, in the newspapers, generally free of charge to millions and tens of people.

We want the preaching of the gospel to be once again news in the towns and the cities where we have been called to work. Some of you may find mass evangelism hard. And we don't expect everyone to have the same strength and gift in this area.

But we can all do something. And I want to pay tribute to a group of people in OM, who have made it what it is today. Perhaps more than any other group in some ways. And that's the secretaries and the people in those offices.

Without committed people, with this gift, this type of movement is absolutely, totally impossible. Do you know how many people it takes to keep this kind of literature vision moving and functioning? Sometimes it's taken up to two years to get one manuscript from tape form to production form, because we didn't have a gifted person who could type.

Two years! Other times it's been done in two months, because we had the right people behind the typewriter. I've seldom known of a movement that put more emphasis on letter writing, communication, and all of this leads to recruiting and a whole forward thrust in the work.

Also through this, many hundreds through the years, even thousands, have found fulfillment in seeing their own talents and gifts being used in a main stream of evangelism and blessing that has touched millions for Christ.

I can't even explain to people the passion I have to write letters. I thought about my holiday and this special holiday I was going to have in August for many months. I thought about it and dreamed about it.

The holiday, the key is to do what you want, not what other people are making you do. That's the key. So I finally got there. Farmhouse in west country of England. People wondered what I was going to do.

I brought in three suitcases of files and spread them across their living room. Over a thousand pieces of correspondence. And I just had the most wonderful time. From that little room, on that little dictaphone, I talked to people all over the world, friends, enemies, all kinds.

Of course, the other great joy was to be with my children. They know me. And basically, it's wonderful they accept me as I am. We go out together. I get somebody else to drive. They sit. I dictate letters.

Now I have to keep that in balance. Because the Lord showed me on this trip that at least four or five hours every day, get rid of all the letters, everything else, just the children. A miracle. You say, you're an extremist.

Okay, I'll make a bargain. You write more letters, I'll write less. Some other meeting, I'll tell you how many I feel you should write each day. But God uses letters. People appreciate getting a letter.

And then you can put other literature, that's the key, with the little letter, which may mean not very much sometimes, you put that explosive material. I'm sure some have complained when they got my package, there was so much printed matter, it took them quite a long time to find the letter.

And recently I spoke to an old friend on the phone. He said, look, I got your printed matter, but your secretary forgot to enclose the letter. And I just believe that God is going to use the network of offices He's given us around the world to push the whole work of God forward in mass evangelism.

Man-to-Man Follow-Up and Church Planting

And we reach the masses by emphasizing the individual. It's God's method of multiplication. And then number four, fourth aspect of this strategy, man-to-man follow-up and church planting. We believe that men who come to Christ must be grounded in the word, built up in the faith, and become the member, active participant in the church.

We believe that men who come to Christ must be grounded in the word, built up in the faith, and become the member, active participant in the church. We don't care if we're doing the whole work. Just to help others do this.

And then around the world there are many baby churches. There are many struggling churches. And to send teams or individuals to build up those churches is a legitimate and important aspect of missions.

Over these many years, we have probably ministered in 20 ,000 churches. 20 ,000 churches at least. All over the world. Many of those meetings, people have recommitted their life to Christ. Many of those meetings sparks have been lit.

Only eternity will tell the full story. In other churches, in other countries, churches have been planted. Because some of the countries we're working in are the most difficult lands in the entire world.

There are areas where we've not yet seen major breakthroughs in this aspect. Of course, I just love to see even one individual coming into spiritual health. This has always been a great joy in my Christian life.

To see individuals here and there growing. And just to know of some of you who have written me this summer, that you're growing, that you're coming free from some of your spiritual struggles, is a great encouragement.

And we believe you are being trained to be active in the church, in local churches, in years to come. We believe some of you will be called into intensive church planting ministries. This will often involve learning a language.

But we believe God can give many that grace. And then the fifth aspect of this strategy, I call revival, renewal and growth. We've just reprinted the book in Britain, True Spirituality by Dr. Schaefer.

I want to really recommend that book. In many ways, we'd like to see it at the book of this conference. We need true spirituality. No one is going to be able to say, no one book has all the answers, except this one.

But the influence of books, great books upon OM, is probably one of the major factors for the spiritual vitality and health of this work. Literature fits into every other aspect of both the vision and the strategy.

If we give to him, we'll be such a help in his life. We believe God wants to revive his church. As you allow God to revive you, wherever you go, others will be touched. Fire spreads. And we are convinced that Christianity, first of all, is taught.

Seven Results of Believing in World Evangelism

And then it is taught. Or both together. We need men and women who are on fire for Jesus Christ. Well, this is just really some of the strategy, because I want to finish. What if we really believe this?

What if we really believed in world evangelism with all of our hearts? Not just in the head, but in our hearts. I listed seven things we do. Third message. You were doing so well, and since I'm leaving tomorrow, this is a bonus message.

Still only nine o 'clock. Very quickly. If you really believe this vision, world evangelism, number one, we would move out. Many more of us, we'd just move. We wouldn't care if we ever returned. I left the USA 20 years ago.

We've never been back. Few weeks to preaching churches. Go to the O .M. Conference. And I believe if we believe in world evangelism, many of us are going to start moving and we're never going to go back.

A Vision Makes Difficult Tasks Into Missions

Maybe for a year to bring some more back with us. Maybe for a year to bring some more back with us. Number two. Things that seem hard would become easy. You see a task without a vision becomes dreadful.

But a task with a vision makes a mission. When there's a reason for what we're doing, it becomes easy. Many of you probably don't like to sleep on the floor. And on the year program you'll be sleeping in bed.

But 500 of us have come together. And we know what accommodation costs in Europe. And just even to rent beds and all that would be involved in that just for two or three weeks. And the amount of money that's saved so that more people can receive the Word of God.

Because every dollar we spend here is a dollar or a pound we don't send to India or we don't send somewhere else. And when we get a vision of how God can use our funds, then living on the barest essentials and conserving money.

Deliverance From Petty Selfishness and Introspection

And giving, it becomes an incredible, hilarious joy. Oh, if we could only see that. Number three, we would be delivered from petty selfishness.

I think one of the things that's going to shock some of you new people is when you see petty selfishness among God's people. And I would beg you if you see it in my life. If you see it in my life, to come to me and share it with me immediately.

Because to me it's an ugly thing. And yet I want to be as patient as possible with people who are having any form of struggle in this area. And I know it needs balance because some people go into extremes and it's not from God.

Number four, we would be less introspective. We've got a vision. We're on the move. We know God is greater than our problems. We don't have time for so much.

Digging in and down into the old.

Cemeteries of the past life. We're involved with other people. And we see that the problems so many unsafe people have are so enormous they make our problems often, not always, but often look very small.

Avoiding Extremes by Keeping the Mission in View

Number five, I believe there would be less extremes and less tangents and extremism. Every year there are extremes and tangents that the devil tries to get some people into, even within OS. Some of them are even good things.

But the good can often be enemy of the best. And when we have this vision and we're moving in this direction, it will keep us from running down this daisy lane and this dead end street. Because the church is often so divided and majoring in minors that we can't move forward with the greatest job that Jesus Christ ever did.

Greater Personal Involvement in Evangelism

And then number six, we would be more involved in actual evangelism ourselves. I'm happy that after being here for over a week I can leave for a day off. I can go preach somewhere else. Maybe see someone converted to Christ.

Give out some tracts on the way. Talk to someone about Jesus. And I believe that as we get this vision and if we really believe it, we're going to be more involved in actual evangelism, even if we have an eight-hour-a-day job.

Joyfully Serving Behind the Scenes

And lastly, I believe also we'll be more excited about working even behind the scenes. It all fits together. I've already strongly emphasized that. You know what I've noticed in some of our headquarters?

When you walk in the door, the place is a mess. It's dirty, untidy, and sometimes I just can't believe it. How often that's not true. In fact, many of our headquarters are very neat and tidy. People have told me again and again, you know, we can't get people who are willing to do any domestic work.

This isn't spiritual. Evangelism is spiritual. But cleaning floors, well, it's just a job. Somebody who can't do anything else may be letting you sweep the floor. I believe I've probably swept as many floors as most of you.

And I always found it a joy to do it with you. For many years, this work was nothing. After the first year, there were only three of us. One year later, there was miraculous growth, there was five of us.

It was not a matter of delegating jobs out. When I opened those first bookshops in Mexico, I had the joy of all the different jobs. Many floors, many toilets. When I was at college, I took a job cleaning toilets for 20 cents an hour so I could give that money to world missions.

When we have a vision, when we believe in world evangelism, it puts a joy into everything we do as we keep our eyes on the Lord Jesus. Which is the key thing in maintaining all this reality. Then we want to follow in his steps.

Following Jesus in Humble Service

Jesus was a servant. Oh yes, he took us a cup and the wine, gave us the communion service, but the same day, the same meal, he took a towel and soap, and washed the disciples' faces. We have a vision, the vision of Jesus.

We're not just ready for the big task, getting your testimony in the meeting, or preaching, or going door to door, or working in a gospel coffee bar. But we've got the power. And the soap. Oh, if we could only see this.

You see, it's not what we're doing, it's what we are, who we are that really counts. One of the most godly men who ever lived. Mother Lawrence lived and worked in the kitchen for fourteen years. Many thousands of unknown saints.

God out ahead of us. They were never known down here. Their task was humble. Their ministry was quiet. They never made the gospel gazelle. But they had treasure in heaven. I believe that's God's work.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you've given us a vision. We thank you that you've given us a strategy and a program, a burden, a way of fulfilling that vision. And Lord, by your grace, we will obey and we will move in this direction to do your will, to accomplish your purpose.

Deliver us, God, from small-mindedness, from petty selfishness, from things that keep us from running the race. Lord, build us together. Give us the grace to keep moving forward. And we may do your will.

In Jesus' name.