Personal Evangelism — George Verwer

This recording was made in 1965 on a rather poor domestic-type recorder, but because the material is so helpful, we have retained it in the hope that it will be a source of encouragement to you. Here now is George Verwer.

I'm going to be covering three orientation sessions in one. In our member conferences, we present this material over a period of three sessions. I just finished doing it in Spanish in Mexico City in the earlier part of this week, and a few days before that in Chicago at our USA Canadian conference.

In three hours. Now I want to try to do it all in about 45 minutes. So you'll just be able to get an outline of it. And the first session is called Preparing to Do Door-to-Door Work. And we want to realize and be realistic that it's going to take something to do this work effectively.

Preparing for Door-to-Door Evangelism

Some of the people who have done the most evangelism have done more harm than good. This is why other people go to the extreme and wouldn't do anything. All of you perhaps have come across at least one time in your life a little old man running down the street with his ragged clothes jamming sacks in somebody's pockets asking them if they're saved.

It almost gives you a stomach ulcer. When I went to Moody Bible Institute, there used to be a little man hanging around the school all the time and he was never dressed properly. He always looked tired and he would sometimes be so nervous giving out the sacks he'd give you five instead of one.

And he seemed to usually give it out to the students. Anyway, we've all met these kind of people and they've hindered the work of evangelism because they haven't been prepared. I believe that the Holy Spirit generally works in two ways.

Works vertically and works horizontally. Comes down from above convicting people of this, comes down from above to empower and to do great things but also works through us, making us a little bit logical, teaching us, breaking us, preparing us.

Now we're looking as we go forth this afternoon to some vertical working in the Spirit of God, trusting that the Holy Spirit will convict some hearts. But we trust that this morning there'll be some horizontal working to convict our hearts and to work through us.

As we prepare to go forth, the first thing we need to do is to pray and to make a definite plan. To me these work together. To pray and to make a definite plan. Many times you'll receive your plans as you pray.

Not a day and not too long ago we were praying over many problems we had in Europe, our various leaders, and after four hours of discussion we got relatively nowhere. We went to prayer, it was about 1 .30 in the morning, and it was in prayer that God gave us the answer to several of our most difficult problems.

And so as we go to prayer, God will give us a plan. A definite plan. Now here are some things I list under this plan. I have this outline. I have them listed A, B, C, D, like your good little teachers do sometimes at Bible school.

And they tell you to memorize all the A, B, C's and D's. And you do for at least a few weeks anyway. But anyway, the first thing I have down is keep a notebook on your contact. Keep a notebook on your contact.

How important this is. You meet a man who's concerned, you write him a list of his papers and he knows where it went by the time you look for it a day later. Keep a good notebook. And I'm convinced that we should go nowhere without our notebook.

To get down these two contacts that we meet. Just about a week ago I was going, a week and a half ago I was going house to house in the African part of Chicago with completely all colored people. And what a tremendous opportunity I had to witness for Christ.

I was using what I call a Billy Graham survey approach. Asked these various people if they had been to see Billy when he'd come to Chicago. None of them had. Then I asked them if they'd go that afternoon if he was in Chicago for one afternoon.

None of them even knew he was there. And then finally asked if they were interested and would like to know a little bit about what Billy said. They all said yes and then I took out a Billy Graham book and sold it.

And as I went from house to house I made some interesting contacts. I met a man who was converted last October and has never talked to a believer since. Never had fellowship with a Christian since last October.

He's converted in his own home. And there's so many false cults down in that part of Chicago. He didn't know which church to go to. It all seemed a mass of confusion. And so he stays away from all of them.

And of course I had a tremendous contact with him and his doorstep. Spoke with him for close to an hour. And now of course I have his name and address in my notebook so that I can write him. Keep a notebook.

It's the key to follow up. And evangelism without follow up is like a fruit tree without any fruit. Keep a notebook or an e-notebook of streets covered. Some record of what streets you covered. Now on a one day crusade like this sometimes it's not so important.

But anything other than a one day crusade is very important. Everybody ends up going back to the streets already covered. You don't know how many thousands of hours can be wasted in a crusade because we don't do this.

Two simple things. You say, oh you didn't need to tell me that. Well I'll tell you only about 10 of the people who do evangelism practice this. The Jehovah Witnesses practice this. They print up special cards.

They have a file card system on practically every city in the British Isles. They know who lives where. They know whether they're soft, hard, or indifferent. They know whether they're coming or going.

And whether they've accepted books or not. Et cetera, et cetera. The next thing I have is use a good map and mark off the streets you covered. I don't know if you'll be having that today in this one day effort.

But it's certainly an important thing to use a good map. The next thing I have is set aside a definite time for visitation. Now the purpose of these weekends isn't to evangelize Glasgow in an afternoon.

The purpose of them is to get a beginning. To start. To receive training. That's why we spend the morning in prayer and in training. That you might take these things and teach them to others. As you go back to your church.

As you go back to your faithful men. That you can teach them to others. So that you can do this work effectively. That it means setting aside time. We've already mentioned that the Mormons expect that it's going to take 500 hours per convert.

We can do a lot better than that. I'm sure with the power of the Holy Spirit and with a much more potent message. And I trust that some of you know a little bit about the Mormons. A new book we will have available in about a month.

It explains all about the Book of Mormon. Some of you might be interested in getting a hold of that. Let's remember as we go forth. It's going to take a definite time. And the second thing I have listed under that.

Setting aside a definite time is that we must lay aside good things to do the best things. You're never going to get anywhere with the Lord until you learn how to lay aside the good things. Get 101 good things to do every day.

Some of you have heard me tell the story. There was a man who worked on a railroad bridge in New Jersey. And this is a true story. The train was coming and he didn't know it. But a boat was coming down the river.

It was a railroad bridge over a river. And he lifted this huge bridge to let the boat go through. This is a true story. But as just the bridge was up, he realized there was a train coming. So he began to lower the bridge.

One of these crank type of mechanisms. Yet the same day he had brought his little boy with him to work. And as he began to lower the bridge, his little boy fell in the river. Now he had a tremendous choice.

He knew that the boat would be able to stop, so that was no problem. He had the choice of lowering the bridge or saving his son who had fell into the river. Of course he chose the best thing. He chose to lower the bridge and save hundreds of passengers from plunging to their deaths.

But he never saw his son again. It's true. It's very true in life that many times very, very good and important things must be laid aside in the light of the best. And if you're going to do any sort of door work, you've got to lay aside very, very good things.

I always had something good to do each week. When I was in Mexico five days ago, I had 101 good things I could do. But I esteemed going out from house to house as the best thing, and so I went out. If I didn't esteem it as the best thing, I'd never get out.

And therefore soon I would dry up spiritually and throw away. Two, first thing, prayer, and plan. Two, study and memorize. Because some people among the Christians today think that studying is unspiritual.

Balancing Study, Memorization, and Evangelistic Service

Others overemphasize it. One of the keen young men at London Bible College not too long ago, a young man I knew very well who seemingly overemphasized, as far as I'm concerned, the intellectual end of things.

He didn't want to go from house to house. He felt that he needed to study more and study more. He had to get a degree, and he had to persevere at Bible College. And today he's a Mormon. Let us beware of intellectualism.

This young man accepted Mormonism and shook that school. And it's the danger of today. Unless we're busy in God's work, moving out in the Spirit, we can be trapped into all the cults which prey upon minds that are busy doing a lot of thinking and little reality in terms of Christian service and moving out for Jesus Christ.

The greatest danger I've seen in America is intellectualism among evangelicals. We all think we're going to be bright. We all think we're going to gain up with a man in a secular university. And instead of getting anywhere, we go backwards because we're four.

We have a soul, we have a mind, we have a body, and we have a spirit. And all of them need to be functioning and need to be moving. But we do need to remember that study is important. It's danger we go to extremes.

One hand I meet a man, he says, I don't need to study. All I need is the power of the Holy Ghost. Another fellow, he says, no, I can't go do any witnessing until I get my degree or until I finish school.

From one extreme to the other, we go bouncing back and forth. Certainly there's a happy medium of study mixed with evangelism and personal work. Study is important. We've just put out a supplement to our discipleship manual, which some of you might be interested in.

You can get this free of charge. If you purchase at any time or receive free a discipleship manual, you can write to our office and get a free supplement of five more chapters, including what I'm preaching the word and mentioning personal work.

But in that supplement, we list almost 50 books on the subject of how to win souls for Christ. Pretty soon there'll be more books on how to win souls than there'll be soul winners. But anyway, these books are available, and you need to take some of them and study.

We are soon putting out a new manual on the subject of soul winning, written by the sponsor of our group at Wheaton College, the director of missions. And he's written a tremendous book on soul winning, and we'll be putting it out very shortly.

But there are other books. This one already is in print in a hardbound edition. We're just going to put it into one of our more economical two or three-shelling editions. Read, study books on soul winning.

Review these notes. Another idea. V, this is the main thing. Take your New Testament. Memorize key verses. Learn key chapters. Know where to find verses. You know, you can have a friend on the other side of Glasgow, but if you don't know his feet and you don't know his house number, you're going to have a rough time finding him.

You might know his name. You might know a lot about him. But if you don't know the feet and house number, you're in for a rough time. So learn the references. Learn that Romans 3 .23 is, All men have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Learn where it is. Every verse has its house number and its street. You need to know where they are. The key to this thing of memorizing is review, review, and review. I feel that probably one of the greatest tools in soul winning is memorizing the Word of God.

Dale Rothschild in Turkey has been so mightily used of God. Has about one-third of the New Testament in his memory. Oh, that some of us would take memorizing seriously. Anyone with perseverance and a love for God's Word can memorize chapters, can memorize verses.

And I believe that this is a thing that not only gives us power in soul winning, but cleanses our unconscious mind and makes us clean vessels ready for the Master's use. You know, it's amazing. In Ephesians it says, Be filled with the Spirit, and then you shall speak in songs and hymns and spiritual songs making melody in your heart.

You'll end up giving thanks always, and you'll be subject to one another. It's all in one sentence. Most people just like the first part of being filled with the Spirit. The other three things are all in the same sentence, followed by a period.

You know, in Colossians it hardly ever mentions the Holy Spirit. In Colossians it says, Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, and you shall speak in songs and hymns and spiritual songs making melody in your heart unto the Lord.

Dale says in his little book, Christian Strategy, that it's as we allow the Word of Christ to dwell in us, as we allow the Word of God through memorizing, through meditating, to dwell in us as we see in the book of Joshua that the Holy Spirit can begin to take control.

We realize that as we go into the Word of God. The next thing under this thing of studying and memorizing is learn from every experience in life. Life is a tool, a testing platform, a proving ground in how much we can learn here from every experience.

Some of the most bitter experiences are the most precious lessons. From the most sad situations, you can learn the most valuable teachings that you in turn can use to teach others. There's a definite verse on this, a lot of verses on it, I haven't got them listed.

Learn from every experience of life. This afternoon as we go forward, let's think of it as a learning experience. Not how much you can jam down the throat of the man behind the door, but perhaps how much you might learn from him.

Could be you know he's a lot better Christian than you are. Could be that he knows a lot more than you are. Could be, but most likely you will. And so as you go forth, be ready to learn. Be ready to listen.

Listening is a very important thing in winning souls to Jesus Christ. Be ready to learn. The next thing I've written down is very important. Study and take an interest in people. Immediately upon dealing with a person about their soul, I put them in some kind of a category.

I'll be listing some of these categories later on, like people who are indifferent, people who are agnostic, people who are hungry and seeking. And depending on the category that the person is in, should bring about a very different type of witness.

You deal with an indifferent man in a very different way than you deal with a man who's hungry for the gospel. You deal with an agnostic in a different way than you deal with a man who's caught up in a false cult.

And so we need to know people. We need to be able to analyze them upon speaking with them. Know what their situation is. In other words, we need to be interested in people. I pray to God that none of us will go forth this afternoon just because we've come on an OM training weekend or just because we're going forth to win someone's soul.

It was said to a young student at Moody Bible Institute down on Skid Row, which is similar to your Soho, or London Soho. The poor drunkard said to him, he said, You know, you're not interested in me. All you want is my soul.

And it really shook this young student because it was true. He was out telling souls. He was out seeing if he could win someone to Christ. And really had no interest in people as they were. Human beings, personalities with needs, problems, struggles, difficulties, trials.

And you don't know what some of the people you're going to this afternoon have faced this very morning. Might we see people as people and might we take an interest in them. That means at times we're going to do some listening.

Next thing is we need to study salesmanship and public speaking. Salesmanship is just another word for convincing others. We need to learn various methods to convince people of what's on our hearts. If you don't sell yourself to someone, you won't sell your gospel.

Maybe you don't like the word sell. Well, use any synonym you like. But it's the truth. Until people have some confidence in you, they're not going to be interested in what you have to say. Most people reject the gospel not on the basis of the gospel.

They reject it on the basis of the person who presented it. Somebody came to the door one day who was ugly, who was impudent, who was egotistical or had some other virtue of the devil and tried to put across the wonderful gospel message and they couldn't see the gospel because of our own lack of humility.

I pray that we might go forth realizing that people need to be convinced about us. We are the vessels of the Holy Spirit. That's the word of God. And if we're vessels of the Holy Spirit, there needs to be some reality in it outwardly.

Public speaking. About 75 of all the testimonies I've ever heard in my life have been utterly miserable. Utterly miserable. I don't like to be too blunt, but I wish the person had never testified. One out of every five prayers I ever hear prayed, I wish I never heard it prayed because we know so little about communicating in public.

Now I love to hear a new convert ugly pray. Make miserable mistakes. Pray off theology. This doesn't bother me one bit. But when somebody's been in the church for 10 years and they're still praying so miserably and giving such miserable testimony, something's wrong.

Basically it's this. We're too proud to learn. We're too proud to get some criticism from others and to learn from criticism. I've learned more from my critics than I've ever learned from my friends. My friends don't tell me the truth.

They play hide-and-go-seek behind my back. Some of them are... I don't know why. But they don't tell you the truth. They love you too much, some of them. Others are just too busy. Who knows what. But your critics give you the truth.

Sometimes they give you a little more than the truth, but still you get the truth. And you can learn from them. Nothing like a good class at homiletics. We used to have those back at Moody. A class in public speaking.

Not for all that you learn, but for the miserable way that you feel when you finish your first sermon and everybody in the class hands them a little critique sheet and blasts you right through the moon when you thought you were doing great.

I ask many of my friends to do, what I speak of, to just jot down a few things that they think are a bit goofy in what I say, what I do, especially when I speak in Spanish and make an error every two lines.

And I was speaking in the biggest Methodist church in Mexico City last week. It's the most embarrassing thing to have to get up and speak in a grammar that is shocking, especially since I haven't lived in a Spanish country in four years.

So I asked our Mexican director if he'd take notes. Of course, he couldn't keep up with the errors, but at least he could jot down some of the grammatical mistakes. Now I can review those mistakes and perhaps next time I get up to speak, I will say, la problema instead of el problema.

So be willing to learn a little bit about public speaking. There are some tremendous books on public speaking. We offer one to people who want it. A book by Dale Carnegie on the subject of public speaking.

A secular book that has tremendous information, and I believe that there's things there to learn. Above everything else, practice it. Some people think, oh, Billy Graham, he got the anointings, oh, the Lord has blessed him.

Look, Billy Graham learned his preaching standing on a stump and flying up, preaching to the trees. Sure, the Lord anointed him, but he also learned. He also got into books. He also got out in the swamps and practiced.

And Billy Graham was a brush salesman from house to house in his early life. And you can ask him, and he'll tell you that was one of the ways that he learned to communicate to people. You'd be surprised how much you can learn through practice.

The last thing you want to study and memorize is study the various approaches in your literature manual. We've put out this little literature manual that contains definite approaches, definite phrases you can memorize.

You know, the Jehovah Witnesses use this method. They memorize definite phrases to repeat to you at the door. When the JWs come to your door, one of them doesn't say anything usually. The other one does all the talking.

One's the learner and the other's the talker. They all are in the process of memorizing various things. Well, they start off with memory, and then as they mature, then they can talk on anything. The same way I believe that we should as we go forth, get a few basic phrases.

Memorize them from the literature manual. Memorize them from what I've given you today. Then as you go forth, you'll be able to build on that. But at least you'll have always something you can say at the door.

And have a few phrases and a few memory verses to build on. This is why young people have learned to speak the language through going on our crusades. Because they started off with 25 phrases. That was the foundation.

They always had something to say at the door. They could always wheel off their 20 phrases, or their 10 from someone who didn't get them all memorized. And then they could build on that. Young men like Maynard Turns today can speak Spanish, and he can speak French.

All basically on the fact that he learned it going from house to house. Of course, when you can get a little grammar study in on the side, it certainly does help. But there's nothing like practice and memorizing some phrases to start off.

A young man who's been with our work for a number of years off and on, who got his second master's degree in Madrid in language study, is now getting his doctor's degree. And the United States government gave him a few thousand pounds of scholarship money to experiment in language study.

He is now taking over the study phase of Operation Mobilization for the summer. He'll be at our conferences to handle all the language study, which will be far more intensive this year. But he's done it all with these little magic machines, these little transistor tape recorders.

But if you can get a tape, a language tape, we have them available, and listen and listen and listen. When I was studying Russian, I used to play it every morning, play it every night, play it as I walked down the street.

And when I got to the Soviet Union, I was able to at least communicate a few words and a few sentences from what I had memorized through tape recording and listening to these words over and over again.

Study. Learn some phrases from the literature manual and from what we give you today. The next thing I have, number three, after study and memorization is choose your tool. I'm not going to take much time on this, only to say that we believe in using all kinds of tools.

Choosing Evangelistic Tools for Different People

Some say only scriptures. Some say only Bibles. Some say only tracts. Some say use only challenge. Some say use decision. Well, we use it all. All things, all men to win some. People are different. The literature that makes an impact with a university student might not necessarily make an impact with Grandma over here in the other block who's 67 years old, nor will it perhaps make an impact on a child of 10.

So you need all kinds of literature to reach all kinds of people. There's thousands and millions of different personalities in this world today, and one thing that's good for one person will not be good for another.

So as we go forth, we want to choose tracts. We want to choose booklets. We want to use some magazines. We want to use some larger books. And, of course, an important thing is to try to know your literature.

Today, when we give out the literature, we're going to pass it out to you individually, and as you receive it, I'm going to talk about it. So you can have it in your hand, and we can say a few words about it before you go out to do distribution.

The fourth thing is dependency. Dependency. After choosing tools, dependency on the Holy Spirit. 431. It's good to read it in context, however. I find a lot of people like Acts 431 don't do anything about the five verses that come after it that are literally earth-shaking.

We need to defend on the Holy Spirit to lead us to prepare our hearts, to give us boldness, and to convict people of sin. All that we might especially go forth with boldness. Love casts out fear. And if we love, fear is going to be cast out as we go forth to witness for Jesus Christ.

There's any work that God had to do in my heart as a witness was to give me boldness. Still when I go forth, I'm in constant need of boldness to realize God is with me, and if God is with me, what more do I need?

Alright, the next item I have listed after dependency on the Holy Spirit is the decision to persevere. That's about 90 of the battle. Remember good old Galatians 6 -9. We need to make this decision that we're going to persevere.

Let's not forget the 500 hours that the Mormons put in for converts. More than that, let's not forget our Lord Jesus Christ who persevered all the way to the cross. We need to realize as we go forth in this work that we're learners.

You know, it takes eight years to become a doctor, eight or nine years to be a priest, several years to be a nurse, and yet some of us think three weeks we're going to be a small winner. One afternoon of visitation we're going to be an apostle.

It's amazing. We live in a dream world, and some of us wonder why we don't get results. One young man has been out in the villages and his village team, three or four visits, wondering why they haven't seen a great amount of fruit yet.

They almost had to laugh. We expect things to happen so quickly like the young man of one day. And over at our office, a young fellow from Holland, he prayed for a thousand pounds just out of the blue.

Boom. He prayed for a thousand pounds and he went out just rejoicing. He thought God was going to bring in a thousand pounds. Well, the thousand pounds didn't come in, but he was so expecting it he thought it did come in.

He rationalized this and that, and he heard this story here, mixed their stories together, and he told me a thousand pounds had come in. I said, that's interesting. I didn't know I'd come in yet. But he had thought it had come in, and it had.

It's easy to presume. We had one girl, one of our crusades in Mexico, she believed God in prayer, said she did, for a thousand souls that week. And brother, when she finished praying, I felt like the ant crawling underneath the bottom of the lava.

A thousand souls. I was having trouble believing God for three. And I talked to her later. I said, you really believe God for a thousand souls? She said, I don't know. I prayed it. And of course, she didn't.

And so, and so, and so, how much better it is to pray for one soul, and have a realistic prayer, and really believe God. Because it's so easy to presume, and when we presume in prayer, all we get is a lot of frustration.

We need to know God's will. A good part of praying is knowing the will of God. It's worshiping Him. Some people, when they pray, it's like turning on a machine gun. They pull the trigger, and they let God have all 45 barrels.

And God doesn't get a chance to say anything. I always think of the word of the Lord. Be still, and know that I am God. We're not heard for our much babbling. We're not heard for our many amens and hallelujahs.

Be still, and know that I am God. Let me speak. Let me lead. Let me guide. The Bible says in Romans, we can't pray as we are. The Holy Spirit must give us the words. The Holy Spirit must lead us. I'm convinced that at least 50 of real prayer is worship and praise.

We worship and praise the Lord. Our hearts become linked with His. Then He can really give the command and really tell us what we need to do. How important this is. A decision to persevere, made in prayer, not presumption, but realistic.

The next thing I have, the sixth thing just before the last item on the first lecture, is personal appearance. Personal appearance. How important this is. We had a young fellow come to London very sorrowly several weeks ago, miserably dressed.

And when I said that people who aren't at least fairly properly dressed shouldn't go forth, very upset. He said, what do you mean? Jesus didn't say anything how we should dress. Hey, you can dress any way you want.

If you can convince me that Jesus Christ was a beatnik, you've got a long way to go. Because that one robe that he had, although it was only one robe, was a valuable possession. It was a nice robe. And it's obvious from the teachings of Christ and from the life of Paul who said all things to all men, who said, if eating meat would offend my brother I'd never eat meat again.

You know, all my life I had what's known as a coup cut. You know, that's one of those things they take an anti-aircraft gun and shoot all the air off your head and just like a brush. And I always found that I hated comb hair.

I despised combs and hated hair cutting. And so I always had a coup cut. You know how it's in Spain. The only people in all of Spain who had a coup cut were the idiotic American Air Force men. And I didn't exactly want to be identified with the United States Air Force in trying to witness for Christ.

They didn't have very much of a reputation in Madrid. And so I lost my precious coup cut. And I'm convinced that we need to be willing to adapt ourselves, even in dress, to reach people for Jesus Christ.

It's especially true when we go into foreign countries. It doesn't mean you have to wear things they call them kilts this afternoon, those that came up from Britain. But it does mean that we go forth neat and clean.

One girl came to me one time about some of the young men on her team. She said, I can't stand to go forth anymore and let some of these fellas clean, wash their necks. Simple thing as that. But my, the back of some fellas' necks can really get pretty shattering.

And don't get it all inferiority complex all night. But it is important to wash up. It's a simple thing. You know, I got here this morning, slept all night on a train. But you know, even the railroad stations have places that you can wash up in.

And this morning before I came here, I was able to wash up and comb my hair and brush my teeth and freshen up, even though I had no place to go in the city. You know, they charged me an outrageous price, almost four pennies.

But, uh, it's worth it. Clean, be clean, neat, conservative. Hair, shoes, ties, hands, etc. Last item on this little part of the lecture is motivation. Our driving force needs to be, needs to be love.

We go forth because of God's love constraining us. The Holy Spirit is above everything else and primarily a spirit of love. The fruit of the Spirit is love. More than that, God is love. You cannot separate Him.

The Word of God clearly says if you cannot love Him whom you have seen, you cannot love Him whom you have not seen. And I'm convinced as we go forth, it must be love that drives us. Don't get frustrated and nervous and bothered if you don't feel that all the time it's pure love that motivates you.

William McDonald, the author of True Discipleship, was telling someone not too long ago that he's given up just constantly seeking his motives because he found it's impossible to always work out of a pure motive.

You'll become the most introspective nervous person in all the world. But as God gives you the grace and as you consciously realize it, allow yourself to be motivated by His love. When you feel like you're doing something that's not motivated by love, simply stop and say, Lord, although I don't feel like I love, I believe that it is Your love that is sending me forth.