25 Recruiting the Right Way and the Wrong Way

25

Recruiting the Right Way and the Wrong Way

(An Interview in 1982 with Evangelical Missions Quarterly)

The interview was conducted at Keswick, N.J., after the IFMA meeting. What follows is an edited version of the transcript. My replies, cover a lot of territory and include some provocative thoughts. After discussing OM’s methods, I went on to share insights about youth today, American culture, and what churches, families, and mission agencies can do to recruit and train more young people for overseas ministries.

What is your basic recruiting pitch?

Verwer: “A very strong message from the New Testament. Jesus said, ‘Go.’ Therefore, all should search their hearts about where they should go as witnesses. For some, it could be in their towns, but everybody should go and be a witness. Acts 1:8 is very important in our thinking. We bring out the challenge of training, whether or not you are planning to be a missionary. Maybe you are thinking about being a pastor, or about working for IBM. That doesn’t matter. What is important for young people is to get some training overseas. They should get to know people of other culture, and gain an understanding of the world of people in a biblical context. They should serve the Lord and help the church.

“We try to show young people, there’s a job they can do. They are not supposed to just sit for another five years and somehow arrive where we are. Many young people do not feel that their faith is real. It’s just in their head. But if the right challenge is given to them, the right opportunity, they respond to trust God for somethings. We teach them about seeing definite answers to prayer. Many young Christians have never seen specific answers to prayer. When they start seeing this, you get more response and more growth.”

Why have you been so successful in recruiting?

Verwer: “We don’t think of ourselves as being so successful. We feel that we should have had a lot more people. It’s been a lot harder than we thought, in the sense of trying to train people for some countries, that are specially on our hearts, like the Muslim world. We have had some success. We have 700 people now committed to working in the Muslim countries and among Muslims. That, to us, is a great answer to prayer. That is where the secret lies—prayer. The Word clearly says that if we pray to the Lord of the harvest, he will send forth laborers. Our success is usually not because of any one thing. Together, it is the mercy of God, prayer, the individual’s response, and spending time with young people. This is very important in our fellowship. We place high emphasis on relationships. If we do not get our relationships sorted out—learning how to live together and understand one another, being loyal to the leader, and the leader learning how to relate and love and minister to people—when we get out to these countries we will come apart. There will be disunity and confusion. Spiritual revolution and world evangelism will grow out of right relationships, first with God and then with our coworkers.”

Are you saying that you do not have a specific recruiting method?

Verwer: “I don’t think we do. We have structure, of course. People come with us for a summer and if they are happy we are happy, and they move on with us for a year. If they seem to be growing and if they want to stay another year, they can. Others, however, come in through the back door. They may go right to the ship. They may be recruited in some port, though they have to get their church background. They have to get references. They have to go through our books and tapes. Some of these back door recruits go to the ship rather quickly, to be an engineer or a captain. This has revolutionized their lives. I think of a missionary with Overseas Missionary Fellowship. He started as a second officer on our ship. He met his wife on our ship and now they are out as missionaries with OMF. The man who used to be our plumber is now a missionary in Nepal. Working-class people have been neglected by missions. We have tended to recruit from the intelligentsia and from the universities. We have neglected a great mass of practical people, yet they are needed in mission work. Often, after they have used their practical skills, they develop other ministries.

“We found that if you give people step one, steps two, three, and four will follow. So many young people and even older people are not getting step one. The obstacles are too big. We put up all the scholastic and other requirements before they can take step one, so they do not get to step two and step three. Then we sit back and wonder what is happening.”

Speaking of requirements, what minimal requirements do you have?

Verwer: “You have to know Jesus Christ. You need to be born again and really know it. You have to have a reference from your church, that you are a person who is growing and who is willing to learn. Once you are in, that doesn’t mean that you will go where you think you want to go. If you are only a year old in Christ, and you are just beginning to learn, you are probably not going to go to India, or Sudan. If you are interested in Turkey, you may go to Berlin and work among Turks. Most likely, you may end up in the packing department at the literature base in London. There, the job you are doing with your hands isn’t the main thing, though that is important. The main things are the nights of prayer, the Bible study program, building relationships, learning, reading books, seeing films, the total exposure to a committed community. Next year, if you are ready, you may go to India.”

Have you modified your recruiting methods in any significant way over the last 25 years?

Verwer: “In the first years in Europe we recruited too many. We try to be more careful now. We do a lot of interviewing right along the line, two or three or four interviews, before people go to the country that they sense they should be going to. Also, our ship is now a training base for people praying for other countries and other mission societies. We felt from the very beginning that we must be totally international. We must live on an equal level with the people of any country where we are working; the Mexicans, the Spaniards, and now Malaysians and Indians—they can come into the work, they can go to other countries, and can be involved in decision- making processes of the fellowship.

“This is one of the reasons why we are having an enormous response. Full-time workers backed by their churches, trusting God for finances, from Argentina, Mexico, Korea, Singapore and Malaysia. We are not talking about a few dozen, we are talking about a couple of hundred people, who make up a major force within OM. This is providing new life to the whole body.

“Another significant change is our very large force from continental Europe, which in the 1950s was not a major sending area. Today Germany is our largest growing sending field. Amazing things are happening also in Sweden and Finland. Norway is growing. Now Australia is getting involved. There is tremendous potential in Australia for India and that part of the world.”

To get more specific: How and where do you find these people? Through radio, television spots, literature? Do you have a couple of hundred recruiters living out of suitcases? Do you send musical groups?

Verwer: “The greatest publicity, we believe, is a holy life. When a young person has this training, and has come into an understanding of the lordship of Christ and a walk with Christ—we hope in a very down-to-earth way, not in a super-spiritual way—he is our best recruiter. We have only a few men in full-time recruiting anywhere in the world. Most people have a number of ministries. I have been recruiting, but it’s not really my primary ministry. My main ministry is the overseeing of the whole work worldwide, which mainly means relationships with all the leaders, who really are doing the work. Yet all of us are available part time for people whom the Lord is touching about joining and getting involved in missions, whether it be with OM or any other.

We also use literature, filmstrips, and public meetings. Throughout the world we have thousands and thousands of meetings every couple of months. I take 500 meetings a year which includes teaching– meetings among our own people. We try very much to work as a team and not emphasize personalities.”

I am just projecting here, but I think one possible factor in your success in recruiting is what OM itself has to offer. Do you agree?

Verwer: “That is probably true. In fact, now that I think of it, a lot of young people have told me, that is why they came. They heard though that it was a bit tough—the discipline, prayer, and doing evangelism.

We have scared some away, I can assure you, but the ones who come generally mean business. They are challenged by the toughness of the task, the size of the obstacles. The key word in OM is the title of my book, Hunger for Reality. Most of them have come because they have seen this reality in people’s lives, and it’s attractive to them and they stay on.”

What do you look for in your screening process that would disqualify a person?

Verwer: “There are not many people who are disqualified. As long as they know that they are coming for basic training and are willing to learn, not many are disqualified. But we watch out for religious extremists—people who are very extreme in their doctrinal positions. Such we feel are not able to relate to young people, even in the training period, so they have to read a book called, Revolution of Love and Balance. One of the chapters in it is called, “Extremism.” After they go through our tapes and books, a lot of people back out. If they have got a reasonable amount of emotional stability, if they are ready to be learners, if they know Christ personally, and if their church or some group of Christians is standing with them, usually they get a green signal. On top of that, they all have to see the Lord provide some finance, and that is a big obstacle, even though our figure for the summer is quite low.”

Every mission has so many jobs that they are looking for people to fill. Does OM say we need so many engineers, so many book packers, so many street evangelists, for example, and then go out to find people to fill those slots, or do you just assign people after you recruit them?

Verwer: “We have certain jobs open right now. I need an accountant for the literature operation in London. We might bring him in through the back door in a crash course to get him there, but that’s an exception. That would represent maybe 10 percent of the people who come on. Most people have to begin with the basics. Of course, we like to find out what their qualifications are. We are very people- oriented, but first we want to see them growing, to become Christ- like individuals. That is our priority. If we are going to reach the world for Christ, people need to be trained in evangelism. They are going to go out into the streets; to sell Christian books; to do personal work; to learn how to deal with people. Everything must be secondary to the basic spiritual training in prayer and evangelism.”

You seem to be very much in touch with the youth culture and the way kids feel today. They want to find a mission that will take them with their talent, their training, their skill. You seem to be saying that OM encourages the youth tide at this point.

Verwer: “You have touched on one of the greatest problems in missions. Young people are under this pressure, often by parents, by our whole system, by the fear of never having a job and all other kinds of things. Most of the young people from the United States settle back in their own country. In the United States, the religious situation is so huge, there is so much money that almost anybody can get a job and still be serving the Lord. That is not true overseas. Overseas, many things that are done by professional Christian workers have to be done by a layman who holds down a job.

“It is a different world from what they are used to in the USA. That’s why we want people who are flexible, adaptable and who can develop. We are making a serious mistake, giving these young people all these trainings. Then, they get a wife and children before they ever get to the field and then they cannot adjust. Because the missionaries have all knowledge, the nationals feel inferior. Often, we send to India people who are not that superior intellectually. They get on very well with the Indians and the Indians are asking us for more people like that. We have never met a “go home” spirit in the history of our work. We are making a mistake by overeducating the people who go to the field. We need to get them to the field sooner, so they can develop flexibility, adaptability, and of course, spiritual life. Some of them may need more education later on, to fit special situations, but by then they should have a little humility.”

You said that mission recruiters turn off more young people than they recruit. What, are they doing wrong?

Verwer: “The best Christian in the world is going to turn off some people; I have turned off people. When we turn off young people—it is because we lack enthusiasm. How can a person talk about the greatest thing Christ has ever given us to do without a little enthusiasm? Maybe I am extreme, because I am too excited. In England, I try to keep a low profile, but even the British respond to somebody who has an enthusiastic and exciting approach about mission work. It is one of the most exciting things a young person can ever do.

“Another reason is that we overemphasize qualifications: How dedicated you have to be! you’ve got to have your prayer life together; you’ve got to have this and you’ve got to have that. We fail to communicate that these are our goals, and that as we start growing we take steps of faith and launch out into the deep. We seem to give the idea that the missionary is somebody special with something extra. It is a mistake to give the idea that the missionary is somebody extra-disciplined and extra-spiritual. The average person can’t relate to that and young people are turned off to missions.”

Do you see any trend in culture that makes it hard to recruit people for missions?

Verwer: “I see tremendous materialism. People are used to living an easy life. Young people have everything they want, except of course, the things they can’t buy: emotional peace and joy. But look at the soft life of materialism. Bible schools are giving better food; they have less rules; they have better accommodations: telephones in the rooms, television sets down the hall. It’s tough to go and recruit people out of this and convert them into a spiritual guerilla force, ready to live on the barest essentials, ready to suffer for Christ, ready to spend hours in the streets of tropical countries, in evangelism, willing to live with people of different nationalities, and eating foods they don’t like. I mean, you are talking about a whole new world. That’s why it takes years to wean people off this culture.”

Looking back over 25 years, do you see anything that if you had it to do over again, you would do differently?

Verwer: “Yes, I would have listened to people more and tried to find out more of their background and culture. I would have developed a broader lifestyle. I maintain my convictions with love and patience, but I can’t push them on other people. Spiritual balance has enabled OM to move into places and win people. God doesn’t lead the French Church the same way he leads the American Church. God works within the context of a person’s culture. The Christian life is so big that no one person, and certainly no one group, has all of it. We are all learning and we are all growing.”

What contribution has OM made to the established, traditional mission agencies?

Verwer: “Believe me, from my earliest days, I have always had a great respect and appreciation for other missions. I have always felt it was due to miscommunication and partly my own fault, that certain missions felt threatened by OM. Whenever people got to know us, and realized our attitudes and our convictions, there was an immediate link up. We have been linked with many other missions on the field for 20 years. Sometimes people back home do not even know what is going on between the people who are on the front lines together. We cannot afford to have disunity between missions.

“I am not sure what our contribution to other missions should be. We are still a fellowship of learners and have a lot of weaknesses in our own movement. There is so much unreached ground, that we are not sure what our ministry to other fellowships should be. One thing, we do have a lot of contacts, a lot of literature, and a lot of films available in many languages. There are 500 literature projects right now. We want to plug in to any society that can be involved. We also want to be involved in revival of prayer. Perhaps we can help others by setting the pace in prayer—nights of prayer, prayer emphasis days, prayer for world missions, prayer for workers to go out to the new frontiers, prayer for older workers to be encouraged. Maybe the Lord wants to use us a little bit to call the whole church back to the basics: the lordship of Christ, the cross, love for one another, prayer, evangelism.”

I’m sure you are doing a lot of thinking about the future. Are you satisfied with the number of recruits you are getting? Would you like to increase the number?

Verwer: “Our leaders do not have total unity about this. Some feel that our numbers should go way up. We have tried to keep our growth at a slow steady pace, because we feel that our pastoral care is very important. If we get too many at one time, we are going to fail. We have had some serious failures, so we seem to be adding 50 or 100 more a year for the longer term, on the year program. We could absorb more in the summer.”

One of the hot debates in missions is the question of short term vs career service. Is short-term service really a cop-out for a life- time career commitment?

Verwer: “A lot of the people who went out in the past for a life-time career never went back for their second term, so in effect they were short term. Because of our overemphasis on life-time commitment, those people suffered for years from incredible guilt and other difficulties. About career, we like to talk about the successful ones, those great missionaries who stayed for 30 and 40 years. I feel inferior to such people and I am ready to tie their shoelaces, but they do not represent the whole picture.

“There are strengths and weaknesses in both approaches. Our ultimate goal is to see long-term career missionaries. There are several thousands who are on long-term Christian service, as a result of getting involved in OM’s short-term training program. That’s proof that two things can fit together. However, it is important that the short-term work be a priority. It can’t be a little second thought, just because everybody else is starting. Armies fight with a large percentage of short-term soldiers and a small percentage of career officers. In world missions we need a greater balance, so that we get an army of men and women, particularly single men and women, giving two, or three, or four years. Many of our people stay four years. Many postpone marriage in order to do it.”

One of your requirements is that a recruit has to bring support. How does this affect your recruiting?

Verwer: “Missions are not realistic enough. Many young people want to go, but their churches are not supporting them. Also, a lot of young people do not have what it takes to go around to 20 different churches, mainly Europeans. There have got to be different alternatives. We have chosen one road, but we don’t feel that’s the only road. We can learn from each other. Our short-term army of single men and women live on relatively little. They live in teams. There are all kinds of places to live if you are flexible. Families, of course, demand a lot more. So once a person in OM has a family, he’s got to see some breakthroughs in answer to prayer. He may have to spend some time with his home church. We emphasize building an in-depth relationship with a few churches, so they will feel a vital part of the ongoing thrust. We also have tentmakers, who support themselves by their own income. We have to be very flexible in raising support. At the same time, we have to teach young people how to pray. If God isn’t God, then everything we are doing is ridiculous. But if God is God, he will supply finance.”

As you talk to hundreds of young people, what are their chief problems?

Verwer: “One of the biggest is low self-image. Their parents often have been very effective in reminding them of their failures, which isn’t the greatest way to encourage people. A large segment of youth are perfectionists and idealists. Strong Bible pulpits have painted an image of a Christian that’s near perfect.

“An increasing number is mixed up sexually. They have been in perversion. Every youth audience has some people who have been in perversion and who may still be in it. There are many, even in seminary and Bible college, living a double life—prostitutes, homosexuals, etc. We must deal with the problems of sex. Can you be a missionary if you lust and haven’t got 100 percent victory? Do missionaries ever have these problems? Why is it not talked about more? As we deal with the issue biblically, a lot of people are going to be set free. Some of our greatest workers are people who would not be in missions if someone had not helped them with the real issues in their lives. We missionaries are sinners; we have got our problems, and even on the mission field we sometimes fail.”

What is the role of the family and the church in recruiting? You have said that sometimes parents get in the way. How can the family and the church help to get more young people out to the field?

Verwer: “When it comes to the family and the church, there is a lot of ignorance about missions, the importance of missions, and a failure to see missions as part of the total counsel of God. This very important aspect of biblical truth, which must not be separated from other truths, is being left out. This is one of the greatest problems in America: Missions is considered an optional extra. It is considered important by a lot of Christians, but it is separate. Rather than incorporate a strong missionary thrust into the basic weekly teaching of the church, we have a missions conference. We should have both.

“Every believer should be interested in missions. Missions needs are to be brought into the mainstream of teaching and church life and right into our homes.

“We can bring missions into our family devotions by using missionary prayer letters and pictures of missionaries. We should entertain missionaries passing through. They have an enormous influence on our children. The devil has almost blinded us. There is a lack of sanctified imagination about how we can motivate our young people. Get them involved. You would think that parents would want to have their young people get involved in something like OM in Europe. Often, that is not the case. They are threatened by it. What if little Johnny doesn’t get his engineering degree? Parents are laying on this pressure to be somebody in our society. The thing really gets out of control.”

What about a missionary call?

Verwer: “There has been an overemphasis on the emotional type of call. There has been a lack of clarity about what a call really is. A lot of teaching about the will of God is extreme. I do not think the will of God is easy to find. There is an element of risk in life. Young people have to be taught to step out by faith. I have always had a nagging doubt about a lot of things I have done. We overemphasize the missionary call: ‘Make sure you have a call. If you go out there on your own steam, you are going to end up in a mess. If you sit back here and miss God’s plan for lack of initiative and vision and faith, you may get into a mess.’

“Guidance is a better word than call. Young people need guidance. They need teaching about guidance. God leads different people in different ways. Some are less emotional than others. The church should play a more vital role in this.”

What should mission agencies be doing to get more recruits?

Verwer: “We need to get more people involved in recruiting. All of us who are in recruiting, who are middle-aged or older, need to get a number of Timothys and train them. We must train them to multiply their faith, which is a term I prefer to recruiting. When I was only 17, I was taking youth meetings. I do not get asked to take those meetings today. Probably, they do not think I would be free. I take some, but OM has a second level of people in their twenties and even younger, spreading the vision: Telling people what it is like and directly challenging them to get involved in something within the next 12 months.

“Linked with this, we have got to release finance, so that some of these young people do not have to work in the summer to get back into our expensive schools, but instead can get into on-the-field training overseas, or in some cases cross-culturally within our own country. We should use literature more. We need a great wave of distribution of powerful missionary books and cassettes.

“To get more recruits will mean getting rid of some excess baggage. It will mean a lot more prayer. As God does a deeper work in us, it makes us more attractive for Christ. As we meet with young people, we are going to be able to relate to them, and the Holy Spirit is going to touch their lives. We do not have to worry about how old we are. We can touch people who are much younger than we are if we’re young at heart.”

NB–Please check OM websites in your country to see how to join in your country. www.om.org