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.
Now we're 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.
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 facts in somebody's pocket asking
them if they're sane.
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 with
giving out the facts, 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 that are 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, 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, Cs and Ds.
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 a whole stack of 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 key 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 where it's 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 Billy, to see Billy when he's coming
to Chicago.
None of them had.
Then I asked them if they'd go that
afternoon because 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 at 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 it.
Keep a notebook.
It's the key to follow up.
And evangelism without follow-up is like a
fruit tree without any fruit.
B.
Keep a notebook or an e-notebook of
streets covered.
Some record of what streets are 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 percent
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.
And 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, etc.
etc.
The next thing I have is use a
good map and mark off the streets you
cover.
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
the northerners.
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.
But 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 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 thing.
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 of the man who worked on a
railroad bridge in New Jersey.
And this is a true story.
The train was coming and 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 he just, the bridge was up,
he realized there was a train coming.
So he began to lower the bridge with
one of these cranks type of mechanisms.
Yet this 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 life at 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.
Others overemphasize it.
One of the keen young men at London
Bible College not too long ago, a young
man I knew very well, 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 a 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.
We have a spirit.
And all of them need to be functioning
and need to be moving.
But we do really need to remember that
study is important.
It's a danger we go to extremes.
One hand I need a man of God.
I need a 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 shelving
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 that 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.
We 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.
That's the other three things that are all
in the same sentence followed by a period.
But you know in Colossians it hardly ever
mentions the Holy Spirit.
In Colossians it says let the word of
Christ flow in you richly and you shall
speak in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs
making melody in your heart and to 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 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, probably 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 it's 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 us.
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 he said you know you're not
interested in me all you want 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.
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 or 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 percent 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 say I can 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 in 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 him
a little critique sheet blasts you right through
the moon when you thought you were doing
great.
What I ask many of my friends to
do when I speak is 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.
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 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 anointing.
Oh the Lord's blessed.
And look Billy Graham learned his preaching standing
on a stump in Florida preaching to the
trees.
Sure the Lord anointed him but he also
learned.
He also got into books.
He also got out in the slums and
practiced.
And Billy Graham was an abrupt 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.
Be surprised how much you can learn through
practice.
The last thing under study and memorize is
study the various approaches in your literature manual.
We 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 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 Tarnes 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 scholarship money to experiment in
language study.
He is now taking over the study phase
of operational organizations 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.
Some say only scriptures, some say only Bibles,
some say only tracts, some say use only
chants, some say use decisions.
Well we use it all.
All things to 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 sixty some years old, nor will it
perhaps make an impact on a child of
ten.
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.
After choosing a tool, dependency on the Holy
Spirit.
As I have written down Acts 4.31,
good to read it in context however, I
find a lot of people like Acts 4
.31 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 casteth out fear and if we love
fear is going to be cast out as
we go forth to witness for Jesus Christ.
If 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.
All right the next item I have listed
after dependency on the Holy Spirit is the
decision to persevere.
That's about 90 percent of the balance.
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 convert.
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 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.
Almost had to laugh.
We expect things to happen so quickly like
the young man in one day and over
at our office a young fellow from Holland
he prayed for a thousand pounds just out
of the blue boom prayed for a thousand
pounds and he went out just rejoicing thought
God was going to bring in a thousand
pounds.
Well a thousand pounds didn't come in but
he was so expecting it he thought it
did come in.
He rationalized this and that and you heard
this story here.
Mixed six or stories together and he told
me that a thousand pounds had come in.
I said that's interesting.
I didn't know it came in yet but
he had thought it had come in and
it had.
It's easy to presume.
We had a one girl one our crusades
in Mexico she believed God in prayer.
I bet she did for a thousand souls
that week and well 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 and 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 word.
The Holy Spirit must lead us.
I'm convinced that at least 50 percent 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 weren't
at least fairly properly dressed 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 crew cut.
You know that's one of those things they
take an anti-aircraft gun and shoot all
the hair off your head.
And just like a brush.
And I always found that I hated to
comb hair.
I despised combs and hated hair tonic.
And so I always had a crew cut.
You know how it's in Spain.
The only people in all of Spain with
a crew 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 crew 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
the 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 is it.
But my the back of some fellow's necks
can really get pretty shattering.
And don't get it all inferiority complex all
day.
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 it's worth it.
Clean.
Be clean.
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.
Now the next lecture too as we listen
is at the door.
What to do at the door.
The first thing I have listed in big
bold print is a repetition of what's been
said before.
Take an interest in people and make friends.
This is very important.
Take an interest in people.
Here are three ways to take an interest
in people.
A is ask questions.
This is a key thing.
Ask questions.
Ask them how long they've lived there.
Ask them if they have any children.
If you're in a foreign country ask them
if they speak English.
Don't do that here in Glasgow it might
be an insult.
Ask them if they find much time to
read the Bible.
Ask them if they ever take time to
read Christian books.
Or refer to something about the climate.
Ask them about the climate.
That's always an easy one to begin off
with.
So this usually isn't the first thing you
present at the door.
The first thing you would usually do is
introduce yourself and we'll be presenting that a
little later on how to present yourself.
These are ways that you can promote interest
in people.
When people can answer a question for you
there's already a unity built up.
And you'd be surprised how important this can
be.
This question message.
B, pay a sincere compliment.
Now be sincere.
But if you can possibly say something about
their garden.
If you can say something about their children.
If you can say something about their home.
If you can say something about some church
in the neighborhood.
Or something about the neighborhood in general.
Some compliments.
Right away you're going to move in.
And you're going to capture the mind and
the heart of the person.
Maybe you'll smell something very nice coming from
the kitchen.
And you can pay a compliment.
Perhaps this is an older woman and you're
able to ask her a question about her
children.
She said oh my children are all grown
up.
And maybe you can pay a compliment about
well that must have worked for many years
and had a hard job or something along
that line.
Rearing your children.
But try to pay some kind of a
compliment if you can.
C, this is the easiest one.
Be a good listener.
A lot of people as soon as you
knock on the door boom.
Off they go and they're going to tell
you about their grandson.
They're going to tell you about their husband
or something.
And of course this is an opportunity to
win their confidence.
Learn from them.
Don't do all the talking.
Show interest in what they say.
As they talk to you don't be looking
off here and giggling with your books or
something.
Listen to the person.
And it's very important to show that you're
interested in them.
All right that's the first thing.
Taking interest in people.
The second thing is break down prejudices.
Now we can say a lot about all
of these things.
There isn't time.
But this is one of the most important
things in personal evangelism.
Now many times these things I'm talking about
here will take place after you present books.
Sometimes however it'll be before.
Depends on how open the person is and
what approach you want to use.
But in any case you must break down
prejudices.
People don't go against your gospel because necessarily
it's the gospel.
But because many times they have prejudices.
Tell them who you are.
I would say you would have circled it
because I find this the most important thing
when I go out house to house or
wherever I go.
It's to tell them who I am.
I usually say I'm with a group of
students international students and that we're going from
house to house trying to get people to
read good literature.
We've finally produced our good literature card and
if you want one your good literature crusade
membership card you can write into our office
and give us your name and we'll send
you a good literature crusade membership card which
does amazing things especially in some foreign countries
the police wonder what you're doing and you
show them this little membership card which we
signed and rubber stamp and gets you all
kinds of open doors.
So if you want one of those cards
you can write it.
We'll be glad to send one to you
to help you in your work.
Tell who you are.
If you have one of those cards you
can show it to them at that time.
Right away you'd be amazed how much doubt
that'll knock out of their mind.
I tell them right away who we are.
As soon as I tell them who we
are I mention to them I want you
to know from the beginning that I say
something like I'm not here to proselytize I'm
not a Jehovah Witness or a Mormon or
some little sect.
Right away you liquidate tremendous questions in their
mind.
The JWs and Mormons are so much on
the move today that you almost have to
say in your presentation that you're not a
Jehovah Witness or a Mormon or that you're
not from some sect and not trying to
proselytize.
That's another thing that I emphasize here.
Emphasize that you're not trying to proselytize and
use non-proselytizing terminology and non-proselytizing approaches.
Now there's certain terminology that is good but
it's no good any longer because it's overused.
Such terms as are you saved is a
great term 50 to 100 years ago but
I'd say today it's pretty well washed out.
Some people still use it but I find
it almost gets a laugh from an awful
lot of people.
How much easier it is to say I
wonder if you've really found reality in Jesus
Christ.
I wonder if you've found Jesus Christ as
the answer to your emotional and psychological needs.
I wonder if you've found that Jesus Christ
is a real and living person.
I wonder if you've been delivered from worry
fear and temptation rather than the old line
have you been saved because oh so many
people have heard this so many times and
a good percentage of the people that you
visit have already quote unquote been saved way
back when they've been saved.
I would say somewhere around at least 25
percent of all the people in British Isles
have made some kind of a decision for
Christ.
Maybe when they were a little boy Sunday
school but we're dealing with an evangelized population.
Oh it's true you'll meet especially in some
of these back areas people who know nothing
in the gospel.
That's very true.
You'll also meet an awful lot who are
soured on our terminology.
Break down prejudices.
Use non-sophisticating approaches.
Instead of coming say I've got some good
gospel literature say I've got some good literature
and then as you the way opens then
you can explain it as Christian literature.
Generally the word Christian is more acceptable today
than the word gospel.
You say oh that's compromised.
No it's not compromised it's communicated.
We need to communicate to the people and
if we study the life of Christ we'll
see that's the way he evangelized.
Jesus did have one little set pattern.
Saw Zacchaeus in the tree he said ABC.
Saw Mary said ABC.
The woman at the well said ABC.
You know he used different terminology with each
of these people communicating to their hearts and
to their personalities.
Use quotations from famous men.
Some of you have Ailey's handbook.
I would take the front of that book
and get some of those quotations by famous
men.
The fact that Alfred Tennyson said Bible reading
is an education in itself and many other
quotations are amazing things that can be used
to break down prejudices.
Many times when I go forth I use
that book.
We don't have any copies now.
We have thousands of them coming on the
boat.
Sermons by great preachers.
If I hit a Methodist I talk about
Wesley.
If I hit a Baptist I talk about
Spurgeon.
If I hit a Jehovah Witness I talk
about Jesus.
But anyway you can talk about famous men
that these people are conscious of.
Breaking down prejudices one of the key things
is a smile.
If you can get a something that'll make
a person smile you've got it.
It's nothing like getting someone to laugh and
loosen up their frozenness to break down some
of the ice.
If you can possibly smile, if you can
just get that much dedication up and possibly
believe God and be so filled with the
Spirit and have such a tremendous experience with
God that you might crack a smile would
be tremendous.
Next thing I have listed is start on
common ground.
You don't go to a Roman Catholic and
begin to argue about the Virgin Mary or
talk about purgatory or go to a Methodist
and begin to slam the deadness that you
think might be in certain Methodist churches or
go to someone in the Church of Scotland
and tell them that they're engaged in formalism.
But you start on common ground.
Start on common ground.
Such things as the fact that there needs
to be more love one toward another.
We were preaching last Saturday in Central Park,
Mexico City.
No one ever preaches there.
Police don't seem to appreciate it.
But we had a very good meeting and
no one stopped us for about two hours.
One of the other fellows was preaching and
hardly anyone was listening.
You thought he was giving him what he
felt was the good old straight gospel A,
B, C, D.
And no one could much understand him.
He was going from one verse to the
other, flipping his Bible, giving him verse after
verse.
And people just were inconsistent.
And I don't think they could follow what
he was saying.
And then the next person who got up
began to speak about love.
Began to talk about something that everyone had
in common.
The need to love one another.
The need to overcome the racial problem.
The need to overcome the poverty problem.
These are things that people are thinking about.
And pretty soon there were 100 people listening.
And then pretty soon he was telling about
how to have that love.
To bring forth again through Jesus Christ.
How we can liquidate our social and racial
problems through an experience of the loving Lord
Jesus Christ who changes lives and breaks down
barriers, including the racial barriers.
And there were 100 people I held there
in the middle of that park listening.
Two weeks before that we had the same
situation in Hyde Park.
We spoke on the subject of love and
that one person practically in the audience would
disagree that love wasn't the answer.
Then when we happened to agree that love
was the answer, then we brought in the
more controversial part that it came through Jesus
Christ.
Start on common ground and then move toward
perhaps what isn't so common.
Talk about good literature.
The need for good literature.
Everybody agreed.
And then move from good literature into Christian
literature, you think.
Instead of starting right off you need to
read gospel literature and be born again, etc.,
etc.
Something along the line of hasn't God blessed
this country?
Hasn't God blessed Scotland?
Start off something that everyone can agree with.
Some of course won't agree with that, but
I think most people will.
The one thing you think is very important
is that we respect everyone's religion.
Some people will throw at you right away
in this evangelism work, oh well, everybody's going
to heaven.
All the roads go to heaven.
Well, I mean, get ready to club them
down with their unorthodox statements.
But say, well, you know, I sort of
agree with that.
I feel that one of the most important
things is that we respect one another's religion.
You see, you're not compromising with the truth.
You're giving them the truth.
We should respect religion.
One of the biggest problems with Christians in
years gone by is we haven't respected other
people's religion.
We've cursed Jews.
We've condemned Catholics and thrown Hindus in the
Ganges.
Instead of respecting, realizing that these people are
impolite, realizing these people need to be loved
out of their religion.
And this is an important thing.
We need to respect one another's religion.
Never be rude.
If someone is really offensive and you're going
to find those people.
Last time I was here in Glasgow giving
that talk, the people going to the football
game and selling magazines in the streets, some
of those people are really quite offensive.
And it was really a rather interesting crowd.
Almost 95% of them had the sunburned
fingertips.
I mean, nicotine-burned fingertips.
And some of them were very rude and
just threw the literature down, etc.
Don't let this get you all irritated.
Just as they do, say, Lord, slap them.
Slap them, Lord.
You know, that's the real test.
When you go to somebody's door and they
slam it in your face and you can
say, you know, Lord, just slap them.
I have a friend who lives over in
London, has a Jehovah Witness living across the
street who's a bit off.
And this Jehovah Witness sends him cursing letters
called in the front of the pit.
And every possible assorted name you can think
of.
I've seen some of those letters.
You know, whenever you get attacked like that,
you just need to ask the Lord to
bless them.
Bless those that hate you.
Pray for those that despitefully use you to
divert from the mouth of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
When people are rude, smile, even apologize.
I think we should apologize if we bother
someone at the door.
Somebody's very busy and they come to the
door and say, oh, well, I'm busy, etc.
And they go inside and say, you know,
I'm very sorry.
I really didn't mean to bother you.
I just felt that you really would be
interested.
Of course, if you're not, I'm very sorry
and I'll go right away.
You'd be surprised.
I've had people, after I've apologized, break down
and ask me to come back and go
right into hell.
And it's amazing what you can do through
humbling yourself and apologizing to people for something
you might have done wrong.
Even if you say something offensive in your
speech, be willing to apologize.
Be willing to even say something like, oh,
you know, this work is really new to
me.
I'm with a group of young people.
We're just learning how to do this kind
of work.
So if I said something that really was
wrong or offensive, you just, please excuse me
or pardon me and I hope that I
can learn from these experiences.
It's amazing the opportunities you'll have along that
line.
Three, start conversation to gain entrance.
One was taking interest in people.
Two was break down prejudice.
Now the big woman who will pray, I
ask, start conversation to gain entrance.
Very important to get a conversation going.
Some people go to this work almost ridiculously.
As soon as they get to the door,
they push some books and the people say,
I said, would you like to buy some
Christian books?
This is insanity.
You know, they're not interested in buying Christian
books, but if you can get a conversation
going, if your heart can be linked with
theirs, so buy a book every time.
Many times I don't even take the books
out until after a little while of talking
to the person.
So I would suggest aiming at getting a
conversation going.
Of course, some of you say, well, I'm
not a very good conversationalist.
Well, I see you.
I would say, well, then learn those phrases.
Learn some of the things we give this
morning and you'll find that as you begin
little by little, you'll develop the ability to
talk.
Some people think I'm a natural talker and
I'll tell you the first time I get
up to speak in public, I almost fell
off the platform and I cried like a
baby.
Public speakers are not made, not born, they're
made.
Some of the most miserable, nervous men have
become some of the greatest public speakers in
the world.
It's practice, perseverance and believing God that's going
to enable you to speak and especially I'm
convinced that this thing of practice, the reason
that I believe, one of the reasons that
I can go so easily from house to
house at times, even though it's always in
battle, because even at the age of eight,
I began selling door to door.
First with a Cub Scout, first thing I
ever sold house to house, as far as
I can remember, was pansies and I sold
more pansies than all the Cub Scouts and
the whole little group.
Then I went to the Boy Scouts and
we sold Easter chocolates and of course that
was a rather good thing to sell.
I enjoyed the whole thing.
I started to finish especially the samples and
then I was selling something else and so
you can develop this ability to convert if
you want to.
Don't go into this funk about being shy
or you haven't got the gift of speech.
You can get the most shy woman in
all the world that hasn't got the gift
of speech, get her on her favorite subject,
she'll talk your ear off.
When we get to the point where Jesus
Christ is our favorite subject, we're going to
be able to talk about it.
I don't believe in this line, you haven't
got the gift of speech.
That's the line Moses gave and you know
what the Lord did in the case of
Moses.
We've mentioned the question method.
The question method is a good way to
get a conversation going.
We mentioned paying a compliment.
Another method is the object method.
Refer to some object.
Now a lot of fellows use our books
as a basis of conversation, referring to the
book.
Others refer to the Bible or some particular
Bible verse.
You know you can find a Bible verse
to match almost any circumstance.
I think in particular of a situation when
I think it was someone was getting a
haircut or he was in a barber shop
and he refers to the fact of I
asked the man if he had ever heard
of the person who got a haircut and
six pounds of hair was cut off him.
The barber of course was quite surprised and
then of course he referred in the Bible
to when Absalom had his hair cut and
it came to six pounds.
So I don't know that seems a bit
of a strange to try to get a
witness beginning but it's amazing the Bible verses
you can find to match any particular situation.
Of course you need to know the Bible
and that's a very very important thing.
Object method referring to something in the Bible.
Mention something in the garden or in the
sky or in the house and begin a
topic of conversation.
For instance the milk bottles on the porch
and now I could give them their milk
ask them if they ever read the verse
in the Bible that talks about milk.
Well they're going to say of course they
haven't and then you can show them the
verse about newborn babes desiring eating the sincere
milk of the word.
From there you can present something about being
born again.
There's many things I haven't got time to
even go into them now.
There's the vocation method.
Get talking about the person's vocation.
A big thing with men is their vocation.
I always ask him what he does.
From there I can usually work on by
asking more questions.
Taking a real interest.
I'm very interested in learning about what people
do because it always helps me later on
in talking to that same kind of a
person.
And if you know something about a man's
vocation you can really carry on a greater
conversation with him or with the same kind
of person or same career later on.
Another method is the miracles method.
Referring to something in nature or something about
your body.
The whole list of amazing facts you can
get about nature and about your body.
That really is an amazing way to present
people with the gospel outside.
E the survey method.
Survey our census method.
Now this is something you might want to
do this afternoon.
You might want to become an official part
of our survey program to find out how
many people read the bible.
You might ask them if they've ever read
the bible.
You might ask them if they have a
bible.
You might ask them if they read the
bible daily.
You might ask them if they read christian
literature.
Then you can lead from that into the
fact that you're on a christian literature survey
and a christian literature crusade to supply people
with christian literature.
I use very effectively Billy Graham's survey method.
You can use this in Glasgow and you'll
find interesting conversations because some people are either
against Billy Graham.
And so you'll always get some kind of
a conversation going but tell them you're taking
a survey for Billy Graham.
I'm sure he won't mind.
Ask him if they attended the Billy Graham
meeting when they were here some years ago.
You remember it better than I would.
Ask him if they would attend if he
came back again.
And then the third thing ask him if
they've ever had his book.
And then of course you can present his
book.
You can tell him that Billy Graham might
be coming back.
He might be in 76 or 86.
Someone who was here might get back to
Glasgow.
But you can tell him that he's coming
to London in 66 and you'll find an
amazing opening.
One of the reasons we use Billy Graham
books is because we connect the message with
a personality.
That means that when people read those books
if Billy does come back the possibility of
them going to the meetings is a hundred
percent better.
You know yourself when you read a man's
book you feel a contact with it and
there's a unity with it.
And so if he comes to lecture to
speak you want to go hear it.
That's a natural, just a natural thing.
This is why we like to distribute books
by people who eventually will come along and
do the follow-up and help do the
follow-up work.
We also have Decision Magazine which helps along
that line.
So you can use this survey approach.
You can develop your own survey.
Now a group of grammar school young people
in the United States and Wheaton developed a
survey approach and they saw hundreds of pounds
worth of books.
Just going around asking you survey questions, some
of them carrying little cards, and jotted down
a few things.
And there's another group that's really going strong
in the states now called the Sloan Bible
Polls and reaching both Jews and Gentiles.
They go around taking the Bible polls.
How many people have read the Bible etc.
and they're getting amazing open doors.
Now just the last comments on this section.
Do's and do nots.
Do not 1.
Argue or slam the religion.
2.
Lose your temper.
3.
Act superior.
4.
Pretend to know what you do not know.
That's very important for us because as I
look out on this audience I'm not convinced
that we're probably the most intellectual group in
Glasgow and so I suggest we don't pretend
to know more than we do.
You meet a student.
You meet somebody who knows all the answers.
You say look I don't claim to know
all the answers.
I'm this young.
I'm learning.
You say that's why I'm doing this way.
I'm learning.
I find that contact with people is one
of the best ways to learn and it's
true.
No better way to learn a little bit
about sociology, psychology, and labor problems than to
go from house to house and to talk
with people.
You can learn amazing things.
So pretend you know.
Tell them that you know someone who does
know the answers.
You can always ask him to write to
the address on some of this literature.
You can tell them that we can send
a book that will answer any question we
believe they can ask and we'll be glad
to continue the service of sending books out
to any unconverted person answering any question that
they might have whether it's about God or
whether it's about science and its relation to
the Bible or anything along that line whether
it's Mormonism or Jehovah Witnessism and I had
a Jehovah Witness or a Mormon.
I said to him look I'm sure that
if I could talk with you long enough
I could really show some of these things
that I feel that you're just a little
bit confused upon but you know it can't
just take all day and I wonder if
you'd read a book that I send to
you.
I wonder if you'd read a book that
I send to you and if they say
yes of course send a nice little book
like 30 Years a Box Tile Slave or
something else that we can supply.
Don't pretend to know more than you do
know and the last thing don't push for
decisions just for the sake of getting a
decision.
Things to do.
Give your testimony.
This is a simple thing but it can
make a tremendous impact just a simple practical
word about what the Lord Jesus Christ means
to you and this can really make a
mighty impact for Christ.
Make it relevant, practical, realistic and can you
underline this one short.
Two, avoid theological terms under this thing of
giving your testimony.
Avoid theological terms.
You know there's an awful lot of people
that just aren't quite sure what rapture is
and not quite sure what sanctification is and
regeneration and being washed in the blood and
all of these other terms.
Try to aim and communicating to people using
a secular terminology.
Be speak clearly.
One of my dear Mexican brothers every time
he got up to pray last week no
one could understand him.
He was trying to pray in a sort
of law class school and no one could
understand.
Talk clearly.
Be friendly.
How important that is.
I find a key thing that really breaks
down barriers with some men is as soon
as I talk to them I say you
know my name is George and I shake
their hand.
You know that's a panic for some people
in England.
In Britain this country is so frozen that
some people don't shake hands from week in
and week out I don't think.
And down in Mexico and Spain and these
countries no they don't shake hands they give
you a good embarazo and down in Italy
they give you a good kiss.
And so we still just need to warm
up a little bit especially when we go
out to foreign countries.
Be friendly.
Let me show you.
Be enthusiastic.
Now if you forget everything else you miss
everything else and you go forth excited you're
going to do great things.
Henry Katsanowski is with us again this week.
He's only been converted a few months.
Last time he went out in Glasgow I
think he sold more books than anybody else.
I don't think he knows more than anybody
else but he's excited about it.
Something's happened to him.
And I tell you when you find someone
who's excited about something it gets you interested.
Curiosity strokes up and you want to find
out what the score is.
What's happened to this bird?
Why is he flying so high and singing
so loud?
And so enthusiasm is tapping.
It's contagious and how we lack it.
Oh my what I love to see these
days is people that are enthusiastic in the
spirit not in the flesh.
Ease.
Diagnose the person.
Is he a seeker?
Is he self-righteous?
Is he indifferent?
Is he caught up in a cult?
Is he an agnostic?
Does he have intellectual problems?
There's a difference between a sort of a
militant agnostic and someone who has intellectual problems.
After our meeting in the park in Mexico
City last week the young fellow came upon
the invitation to our bookshop.
In the back room we had a little
some food and conversation.
He was a militant atheist.
He's only 16 years old but he thought
he knew every answer in the book.
The reason he wasn't an atheist was because
he was reared among the Jesuits in a
monastery and he hates the whole kitten caboodle
as we say and thinks that we're all
part of the same thing.
Well this fellow has, having got intellectual problems,
he is an agnostic because of prejudice and
there's a difference in dealing with it.
Dealing with those kind of people.
In other lectures we, which you don't have
time for this morning, we present how to
deal with each of these kinds of people.
The last thing, this is the thing you
get to many times after you present the
book, after you win the person as a
friend and you really see that they're hungry,
you begin to present the plan of solving.