—Get Off of the Streets!12/87DO 2385

—The No-More-Sudden–Discipleship Revolution!

1. Amen, Lord, give us wisdom, in Jesus' name, lead & guide us! Give us also patience, Lord, but give us firmness for what has to be done!

2. Things are really tightening up in many of our foreign fields today. Even in countries where they supposedly haven't had much bad publicity or serious persecution, but are perhaps only beginning to have a little trouble on the streets, I suggest that they get off the streets & go strictly into inside witnessing where they can get away with it.—Door-to-door, office-to-office, store-to-store, restaurant-to–restaurant—in all of which cases their children can still busk, but not quite so publicly.

3. If the children sing & can sing well in the local language‚ fine, they can sing in those homes, offices, stores, restaurants, all those places‚ where they can get the attention of the people & they have a captive audience!—Not standing out on the street yelling their heads off to a bunch of people who aren't even listening & wouldn't even let you know if they did listen‚ who are busy & in a hurry & just passing by! Out on the streets you're not only wasting your time, but risking detection & trouble!

4. This is an emergency notice to go out to our entire Family right now: Get off the streets! Get out of the parks! Parks are too public also. And if you want to stay in your foreign field & litness, tapeness, witness, whatever, do it inside! In the cold North, now is a very good time to do this anyway, during the cold months of Winter. We've already found this out in the cold countries of Europe, that one of the best places in the World to go litnessing or witnessing or whatever is in an apartment house indoors where you can go from apartment to apartment. (Unless your streets are still warm & safe.)

5. I used to distribute literature in apartment houses on Miami Beach of all places, where you really had problems & trouble if they caught you!—And since the Manager's apartment was usually number one in front on the first floor, we would start on the top floor‚ in the back, & work our way down so that we left our lit—if we left it there at all—at the manager's apartment last. Usually we just skipped the manager's apartment entirely because we knew that he would almost always be in opposition or infuriated that we had canvassed his apartments! So start top floor, rear, & work your way down‚ & preferably skip the manager's apartment.

6. If you go to the manager's apartment first & ask for permission, probably 9 times out of 10 you won't get it, because he doesn't want his tenants bothered. A lot of them will have signs up: "No Peddlers!" Maybe you can go in the back entrance where they don't have a sign up & start up top in the back & work your way down. It's a good way to keep warm, out of sight & to have as little trouble as possible.

7. You can go as the Lord leads you to apartments or to homes. You can knock & be nice & sweet & present your literature & your tapes like any door-to-door salesman, ask if they would like to have a copy, or if they would like to listen to the tape, etc. Of course, you have got to know enough of the local language to do that. If you don't know the language yet, you could present a little card explaining what you're there for.

8. Frankly, the way things are tightening up all over the World, I would recommend this policy for almost everywhere! It was that bad in the U.S.A. when we left there almost 20 years ago! If you were going out on the streets passing out literature‚ nearly all the communities in the U.S. have laws against it unless you go & get a permit & they approve it & you pay for it. A lot of times they'd look at your lit & just say no‚ they wouldn't register you, they wouldn't give you a permit. It's strictly against the American Constitution for them to do that, but who's got the money to bring a case against it & fight it all the way to the Supreme Court?—Only the Jehovah's Witnesses & the Seventh-day Adventists!—They have, & won!

9. Besides, I am still convinced that street litnessing is the least effective & the least fruitful of all our methods of outreach! I have been convinced of that ever since I was in the Soul Clinic! Fred said it was the least effective & the least fruitful of any form of witnessing because all you're doing is standing there passing out a few tracts to you don't know who‚ or know what their reaction is or what! They usually don't even have time to give you any reaction.

10. You can't really do much witnessing, especially real soul-winning‚ standing on a busy street passing out tracts or Posters. And how many Tapes do you sell on street corners? I'd say virtually almost none, right? You've got to have someplace where you can stop in & have'm listen to the tape or they're not going to buy it! They'd be fools to do so! They must be just trying to get rid of you if they just grab it & look at it & pay for it.

11. So I'm suggesting, in fact I'm insisting, that you stop this wholesale street litnessing & witnessing!—You can't really witness anyway, you just litness & hope somebody will stop & buy it. So you should start going into much more private places for more discreet ways of distributing such as I've already said: Door-to-door, store–to–store, office-to-office, restaurant-to-restaurant‚ whatever, as long as you're off public property!—And preferably inside out of sight!

12. See‚ as long as you're on private property, that's the owner's business! But the cities & the authorities can get you on public property because that is their business. The cops cannot arrest you on private property unless the owner complains.—And for God's sake, certainly none of our people would be foolish enough to insist on witnessing on private property at the owner's objection! "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him!"—Mat.5:25. You first of all knock & ask if they're interested or want it, & if they slam the door in your face, well, they don't want the books!

13. I'll tell you, those Jews in Miami Beach were experts at it! They would open the door one little crack about one inch wide & find out who you were & what you wanted, & about nine times out of ten they slammed it & didn't want to hear anything! But thank God, worldwide it's not quite that bad. The Jews are just very hardened people whose natural instinct is not to buy! It's very hard to sell a Jew, he doesn't even like to be sold! His natural instinct is to resist being sold. But we have found that most people in the World, especially in the Third World, are much more hospitable, much more kind, polite & courteous‚ & will at least listen to what you've got to say before they say no.—And many times they'll say yes & even invite you in.

14. But stay off the streets!—And get in the doors!—Whatever kind of doors they are‚ indoors! Especially during the cold wintry months in the cold countries, it's a very good time to do your witnessing & litnessing & tapenessing indoors, & also to stay out of trouble! Because unless the owner complains, the police will not usually follow you inside. In fact, what reason do they have to follow you? They won't even have an interest in you if you're just passing by, they'll just notice you're foreigners, that's all.—Unless you give them some cause to be interested in you, such as standing on the corner litnessing!

15. If you're just passing by through the neighborhood & then you go into somebody's house, for all they know, even if they see you, they figure maybe you know the people. Unless you're doing it right in full sight of the police & they see you coming out of one house & going into the next one, they won't even know that you're going house-to-house. So just try to keep out of sight of any officials or police & they won't even know you're there‚ much less what you're up to!

16. Now that is my advice to our people everywhere in the World today: Stay off the streets! They will find that the much more personal method of approaching the house owner‚ the landlord or the proprietor or occupants of the house is much more effective & fruitful‚ far more than street litnessing.

THE DAYS OF STREET WITNESSING ARE OVER!

17. As far as I'm concerned, the day of street witnessing & litnessing is past!—Including busking on the streets & busking in the public parks! From now on my advice to you people worldwide is stay out of sight! Stay out of sight & do your witnessing indoors—in stores, in cafes, in offices, in apartment buildings, in houses‚ wherever, but inside as much as possible, & out of sight! Inside, out of sight! Maybe that would be a good title for this: "Inside, Out of Sight!"

18. I think we would have lasted a whole lot longer in a lot of countries we've already been in if you'd have followed that rule, & wouldn't have been so offensive to the public & the officials & the police! How much better to go individually, person-to-person, personally! That type of personal witnessing is by far the most effective!

19. Fred, who had years of experience at it, just practically pooh-poohed street witnessing completely!—Unless he could corner somebody & sit down on a park bench with them or some cozy semi-private place & have a chance to really talk to them & really witness to them & pray with them & lead them to the Lord, etc.! Street witnessing is just not where it's at! There was a day for it, perhaps in the days of the Hippies when the kids mobbed the squares in Amsterdam & mobbed the parks & they were just lolling around with nothing to do & you could put on a show‚ a skit or a song & dance show for them, & they'd gather around in Hyde Park by the hundreds & you did your mass evangelism. But even then we had problems.

20. So I would just say that this is not the day for public mass witnessing, public witnessing‚ or outdoor witnessing, street witnessing or park witnessing!—No matter whether it's selling tapes, Posters, music, busking, whatever! It's time to stay inside, out of sight! It's outta sight, Man! Amen? And that way‚ we can also even go back into a lot of countries where they've already kicked us out, working very discreetly underground‚ inside, out of sight, & can resume our ministries in many of those countries!

21. You're going to find out that it's far more effective & fruitful, particularly when it comes to follow-up! Once they have received you inside, usually they will invite you back again. So you have a real good friendly relationship, open heart, where you can go back again & sell another Poster, another Tape, sing another song, take another offering & win another soul or two‚ & feed & teach & win a few disciples for a change instead of just trying to up your Tape & Poster stats! You can do what really counts, the kind of stats that really count with the Lord, & that's witnessing & soul-winning! I want this notice to get out around the World just as fast as we can!

22. No more outside public witnessing! That's what always gets us in trouble! That's what put our folks in jail more times than once! I can hardly think of a single time that they were ever jailed for private witnessing‚ it almost invariably was where they did it outside publicly, either on the street or in the park or on the school ground or they just had a big crowd of their own. That's when they threw several of them in jail in Argentina, including Faithy, when they were having a Family convention, & there were so many of them it couldn't help but be public & be noticed‚ so they threw some of the leaders in jail.

23. I suggest you don't have public meetings like that at all any more!—Meetings where any Tom, Dick & Harry might happen to be not only Tom, Dick & Harry‚ but KGB, FBI & a few others!—As well as the local plainclothesman! At least you could spot them easily in Spain because they all wore dark glasses, night & day, & even in the dark clubs, it was really funny! We used to call them "dark eyes," that was our nickname for them!

24. So let's remedy what is already bothering us, & is going to bother us a whole lot more in the future! They don't go out public witnessing in Russia, do they? They don't go out peddling Posters on the public street corners amongst the crowds of thousands‚ do they? What do they do? (Peter: They witness one-on-one. They do distribute Posters & Tapes‚ but not en masse. They talk to people first, & if they're interested, they offer it to them.) They pretty much do it privately & as inconspicuously as possible.

25. Well, in spite of all I have said, I don't think that I have ever sold our people on going house-to-house. There are not too many of them that really appreciate that ministry. A lot of them like to go office–to-office & store-to-store—especially store to store since it helps them provision food & things—& a lot of them like to go witnessing in cafes where the owner may invite them to eat, where they get ready returns on their witness or an offering or something. But for some reason or other, I don't think too many people have ever been really sold on going door-to-door such as house-to–house, apartment-to-apartment.

26. I would say that most of our people have depended more in the past on straight street witnessing & selling on the busy corners where thousands of people pass by, & just by the law of averages they would manage to maybe sell a few more Posters or pieces of lit. But I would say at the same time, their actual personal witnessing & personal soul-winning in those circumstances is virtually nil, that it's very rarely that passers–by on the street are going to stand there & pray with you & receive the Lord or even know what you're talking about!

27. In the good old days of the Hippies when the Hippies were hanging around Dam Square & a good many other places with nothing better to do than stand there & listen to you—poor‚ lonely, heart–broken, fed-up, disgusted Hippies who were willing to listen to almost anything‚ anywhere from anybody—we got some results! But I think that day is past. It would be a rare case where you'd be able to catch somebody in public, & you would have to draw them aside at that to some private quiet spot where you could talk & be heard where it would sink in & you could have prayer & really win'm to the Lord!

28. Because we've had so much trouble along this line, I think we ought to actually outright forbid street corner witnessing, tapenessing, whatever! It's just causing us too much trouble! Even in countries where we've had long years of freedom it's beginning to tighten up & close down, & I think we just simply ought to quit it, period! I personally do not approve of it any more! It had its day, but its day is not now! We're too well-known, too badly bad-mouthed, & if we stay out in sight in public & keep putting out our stuff, which is very familiar & well-known, we're going to have more trouble all the time!—Unless it's your country & permitted!

29. I think if we would really go inside & out of sight, that we could go back into many countries where we've been forced out.—I think we could even go back into Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan, the Philippines & work inside … & still have a very fruitful ministry! At least I would certainly like to see you try it, & I believe it will work!

30. Maybe the Lord Himself is putting us off the streets, knowing that our personal witnessing is much more effective!—Which is what Fred always said. He used to say that street witnessing is almost like mass evangelism, & just about as meager in its results!—As fruitless as the church's mass evangelism! He's even listed in Who's Who as one of the foremost advocates of personal witnessing‚ or witnessing by the Clinical Method‚ as they used to say.

THE CLINICAL METHOD!

31. "Clinical" means you've got a doctor & you've got an intern watching him, dealing with what?—A whole ward of patients or one at a time? (Peter: One at a time.) How far would they get if they just stood there & blew their knowledge to the whole ward & said, "Well now in case you feel this way, you should do this, in case you feel that way you should do that," & just started preaching, prescribing, analysing or diagnosing a whole ward of people at once!—You'd say they were fools! But the most accurate way & the most effective way is, of course, to go to individuals personally, two-by–two, the doctor & the intern. The doctor already knows what he's doing & how to do it, the intern is watching him & learning.—Which was our method at the Soul Clinic.

32. We sent out an already well-trained old witness with a new witness—we called them old & new ones—so that he or she could just watch what the experienced witness did & how they did it, & they learned by watching. Then the old-timer would push the new one forward & say, "Now you knock at this next door & you lead the conversation," & they would learn. It was a very effective method!

33. I went through it, & many other preachers‚ pastors & experienced missionaries even went through it, & found out that they could be lots more fruitful in their ministries if they would do it that way. And Fred was just absolutely adamant about it. He had very little faith in the fruitfulness of public ministries, mass evangelism, & if you ask me, that's what you've got if you're standing on a street corner trying to witness to thousands of people all at once as they pass by! It's mass evangelism & you'll catch very few fish like that!

INDIVIDUAL FISHING!

34. Whereas, if you corner a fish in his own den somewhere‚ you've got a lot better chance of catching him than out on the open sea where there are millions! I did that once that I can remember with a big channel fish. He got caught by the tide in some shallow water down there in the Florida Keys. I didn't even have a hook & line, I hadn't the faintest idea how to catch him‚ I wouldn't have known what bait to use‚ nothing! But I just took the bow & arrow & tried to shoot him. Well, because of the funny way water bends light rays—if you ever stick a stick in the water you'll notice it looks like it's broken—I missed him every time!

35. So I sent one of the kids home for the gaff, it's like a spear‚ & he brought that back, & we followed this big fish—he was over a meter long, a big fat fellow too—all over that little lagoon, & I finally got to figuring exactly where the gaff went when it hit the water. I saw the fish here, but the gaff when it hit the water went there. So I figured, "If I jab this thing down this side of where the fish appears to be, it's actually going to go that way & hit him!" And I got him the first 2 or 3 tries after I figured that out. But I had him cornered, alone, he couldn't get away & I got him!

36. That was about the best smoked fish I ever ate! We gave it to a friend of ours who had a fish place, a little restaurant down from us, because we knew he knew how to fix it. We said, "We'll split it with you if you'll take this & smoke it for us, & you keep half & we'll take half," & he was very happy to do it. He really knew how to smoke fish! It was so delicious it makes me hungry to think about it!

37. You'll never ever catch as many fish out there in a whole school of fish as you will if you can corner one in a little place somewhere where you can really sock it to him! I even caught a fish once by the stomach when I was a kid. I had my little hook & line, I was lying down on the edge of the pier, & you could see those fish down there as clear as anything. All they did was keep nibbling at my bait. They knew good & well what that hook was & they avoided it like the plague, or they'd come up & eat the worm off the hook & were very careful to avoid grabbing the whole worm, which meant the whole hook! I finally got so disgusted that I just waited until one of them swam a little too close‚ just above the hook, & I jerked the line real quick & got him right in the stomach! The hook got him in the stomach. He wasn't even nibbling at the bait right then‚ he was just swimming around my hook!

38. That's what you call individual fish catching, catching him even when he wouldn't nibble! Sometimes you can catch them that way if you really apply the personal touch & the personal technique! You can even catch them when they don't want to be caught, if you can corner them & deal with them personally, individually & get them alone & quiet & where you can get at'm!—Like FFing & DFing!

39. I don't know about this office-to-office witnessing, I never did it. I preferred house-to-house witnessing, it was far more effective, & I could go back again. Once they'd received me & received the Lord, you could go back almost any time they weren't busy to see the housewife, or you go in the evening & get the man & the wife & maybe some of the kids too. In the daytime when the man's out working, it's mostly the women. But in the evening, you get the men & the children out of school. It all depends on what time of day you go & what you want to fish for.

40. But office-to-office‚ they always look to me like they're so busy, how do they have time to stop? Of course, some places they do—I think some workers are so lazy they're happy for an excuse to stop! So they're happy to have you come in & stop them from working, & some places even the bosses don't seem to mind!—Like the Philippines!

41. So as far as I'm concerned‚ from now on it's off the streets!—Inside, out of sight! I think we could go back into almost any country, including closed countries, Arab countries, East Bloc countries, Russia & a lot of places if you stay out of sight & just tackle people one-by-one! You first of all have got to kind of try them out & test them out to see if they're interested at all & if they're going to be friendly at all‚ if they're going to be goats or sheep. If you tackle them individually‚ quietly, by themselves, you can tell almost by their first reaction whether they're going to be receptive or not‚ whether they're interested or not. If they brush you off, then you can make your getaway to the next person out of sight before they've got time to call the cops!

THE INEFFICIENCY & DANGERS OF MASS EVANGELISM!

42. I am against any more street witnessing! I'm against mass evangelism & always have been!—Except when I was young‚ before I knew better. But the mass evangelism we did, in its day, when people came to church & when people would come to tent meetings, etc., we got a few. But the ratio, the percentage, the proportion of how many you got compared to the mass of people who came to your meetings was very low!

43. I've used that Billy Graham campaign illustration so many times it's about worn out! He had 5,000 people come to his tent every night for about a month or two, with all kinds of good publicity from Randolph Hearst's newspapers, a friend of his, with 800 churches cooperating, & then he'd brag about how he had 1500 people saved in that campaign. Well‚ if you'll figure out the proportion, just off the bat‚ that was only about two people per church. If all those church people had gone out house-to-house personally witnessing the same amount of time that they spent sitting there doing nothing in his meetings, they'd have had hundreds more saved than that! 1500 people, that's only about two souls for every church that cooperated in the meeting, can you imagine?

44. When we were working in the Soul Clinic for Fred, if everybody who went out hadn't won at least one soul that day, they were really discouraged! Most of them had several! We'd go out all afternoon or even all day, & you can usually find somebody that's open & receptive & willing to pray, & win them to the Lord!

45. If only two people in each of those churches that backed Billy Graham's meetings had gone out that many nights for the 2 or 3 hours they'd spent in the meetings, they could have won multitudes more souls than sitting in Billy Graham's tent listening to him preach!—Besides, there were probably very few sinners there in his meetings, & the few that were there were mostly unsaved church members!

46. Mass evangelism is about the most inefficient way of preaching the Gospel that there is, & I would class street evangelism, public evangelism on the street right along with it! And I would also say it's just about the most dangerous, the most absolutely dangerous & risky! Public evangelism of any kind nowadays—whether it would be big public meetings or street litnessing—is dangerous, risky & is what has gotten us driven out of more countries than almost anything else outside of 10:36ers!

47. The day of street witnessing is past! There's not even that much freedom in the United States now. We got hauled in by the police off the sidewalks, off the campuses, all kinds of places‚ for public witnessing!—Even thrown in jail for it! If the police didn't do it one way‚ they did it another. They accused us of littering because some of the people threw the lit down on the sidewalk. They accused us of being vagrants if we didn't have $5 in our pockets!

48. Right out in front of the Light Club they accused two of our boys of molesting two minors, two girls, because they were just standing there talking to them about the Lord! The cops came along & hauled them off to jail & accused them of molesting! Well, every time we went to court we never got convicted because they were such ridiculous charges & the judges could clearly see it was nothing in the World but police harassment. But it still caused a lot of trouble & they still had to spend some time in jail!—So it was just not worth the trouble! The cops would say, "Out here on this sidewalk is public property, city property, & you either stop what you're doing or we're going to haul you off to jail!"

49. Well‚ if it's that bad in the U.S.A., good old so-called democracy, freedom of speech, press & religion, blah blah, then you can imagine how risky it is in some other countries!—Especially in the East where they're predominantly of different religions, they're just not going to put up with it for very long! Somebody's going to complain! And then they could have their laws against proselytising or blah blah, this, that & the other! It only takes one complainant to insist that the law be enforced, to go get a cop & say, "Stop'm!"—And you've had it!

50. If you would just go inside, in places where the owner‚ proprietor or the home owner receives you & is friendly, & therefore shows that he likes what you're doing & accepts your products or accepts even the Lord, he's not apt to complain. And if they don't right away show a receptive attitude, then move on! But at least you're inside, out of sight, out of the cold‚ & much better protected. And there aren't near as many people seeing you or watching you—unless the cops are patrolling the hallways of the apartment building, which is not likely. You may get an occasional caretaker or somebody else who spots you—but you're still far safer than if you were outside!

51. I would say we can go back to those places where we've been officially kicked out, or driven out unofficially, & we can do a lot more & follow up a lot. We've got places where you have hundreds of contacts—names, addresses, all kinds of things, people who have supported us in the past‚ & we could once again be very fruitful there by just staying out of sight, off the streets with no big public meetings. Just go either house-to-house, office-to-office, store–to-store‚ door-to-door or whatever! Now I mean it!

52. I absolutely am against your going on the streets any more at all, anywhere, worldwide! Because number one, it's not as fruitful. Number two, it's not as safe. Don't we want safety? Don't we want to have a low-risk ministry? Or do we just want to get out there & cause trouble? OK! Then we want to stay inside, out of sight! And they'll be much more effective & fruitful & have better opportunities of follow-up. They can go back & sell'm another Tape, another Poster, or lead another soul to the Lord, whatever—inside‚ out of sight!—With the permission of the office manager or the store proprietor or the cafe owner or the home owner or whatever. Now let's do it! Let's stop this public witnessing which causes us so much trouble & has literally driven us out of countries!

NO MORE SUDDEN DISCIPLESHIP!

53. The other thing which has caused us the most trouble is 10:36ers!—And in most of those cases it could have been avoided if they had just been more wise & not so foolish, & … would wait until they're sure it's time! I am absolutely against this business of grabbing somebody out of the park or off the street & taking them straight home as "a new disciple!" They're not a disciple yet‚ you're not even sure of them at all!—And you're not at all sure what their relatives will be like!

54. We're going to have to be a whole lot more cautious about discipleship! I would say you're a lot safer to put'm on the Catacombs list for the first few weeks or months.—In some cases it's even been years! And by the time they were old enough to come home with us, even their parents had been won over by the kid's persistence & insistence & faithfulness & refusal to give up his faith! So the parents just finally threw up their hands & gave up & gave them written permission to come.

55. But in almost every case in some of those countries where parents raised a furor & went to the officials, it was due to the very ridiculous & foolish way that the Family handled the whole situation! Whereas even if they had gone to the parents & explained things, they might have gotten along better. But parents are afraid of the unknown, they're afraid of something new & strange. I must say, I think I'd almost agree with the parents at first if I hadn't known what my child was getting into!

56. So that's another very touchy area, & that is, "What to do with this new convert?"—Especially if they're … still in college or even have a good job, how soon should you bring them home? Well, I suggest you test'm awhile first. A lot of our problems have been caused by new converts that they took straight home & [who backslid] & went straight to their folks & told them wild tales, which they told to the police & the authorities & the Home got raided & the people got run out!

57. Most of those problems have been caused by a lack of wisdom, a lack of patience & a lack of time. They needed to give the thing more time, they needed to keep them on the dropped-in list, catacombers, for whatever length of time it took!—Even if it took years before they were ready & before their parents were ready. We've had a lot of people who lasted that long, many! Many‚ many, many of our people were catacombers for several years before their parents allowed them to join. At least that gives the parents a little more time to get used to the idea.

58. But grabbing this girl or this boy right off the street & taking them straight home as "a new convert, a new disciple, we upped our stats," blah blah, & … he doesn't even know what he's getting into himself!—Much less his parents!

59. So we are going to have to be much more cautious about new disciples. We used to have a rule that you could not bring them into the Home for at least two weeks or a month or two months. I think we need to enforce that again. No more of this business of leading them to the Lord on the street & then they follow you right straight home & supposedly join! That's caused us more trouble than good! It's fine if it happens to work out, but in this day & age it has caused lots of trouble & has usually not worked out!

60. We used to use that verse, of course‚ "They immediately forsook all & followed Him," & said that's the way it ought to be done. I have even said it myself. But I would say right now, in this day & age, the way things are today‚ they had better not forsake all, much less immediately, but wait & test them & try them out! If in spite of time & parental opposition & every other obstacle to test them & their faith‚ they still hang on as catacombers & they still come & visit & they're still participating in meetings, & you have time to really test them to see if they've got the real stuff, you're a whole lot safer in the long run!

61. So as far as I'm concerned, there should be no more of this sudden discipleship! They need to take time to be time-tested, to be Family-tested, with time for their parents to get acquainted & used to the idea, to see that their child is determined, is not going to give up, until the parents finally give in!

62. I'm absolutely persuaded that that's one of the most dangerous situations we get into—this sudden, on-the-spot discipleship! It causes us nothing but grief & problems‚ one case even getting hundreds of people kicked out of one country! So I want'm to stop it! I think I'm going to have to lay down some law or some rule that they've gotta be time-tested! I think maybe even a year would be safer!—Let'm be an outside Catacomber for a year! They can come to your meetings & hear all your doctrines & read all your teachings, but come from the outside! Good night, the churches do that‚ why can't we? They usually come to church for a long time before they walk the aisle & are trusted!—So why can't we?

63. (Peter: We can! But it seems like a year is a long time, I'm glad I didn't have to wait a whole year till I could join!) Well, that was a different day, Son, that was a different day! Now the days are much less safe. The days today are much more dangerous. A year might be stretching it, but I'd say they certainly ought to test them at least for a while, what would you suggest?

64. (Maria: Well, I agree that before they actually drop out, yes, they should be tested for quite awhile. But what about them coming to the Home & seeing the Family sample?) Oh, that they can do immediately! They can come that day when they get saved!—Visit the Home & see the Family & attend the meeting or have fellowship, but not instantly moving in! (Maria: Marianne's Home had a lot of cases like that, & she just kept them coming over for months & months until they finally wanted to join so much you could hardly keep them from it!)—Exactly, that's what I'm talking about!

65. I didn't mean they couldn't come home with you that very day & at least meet the Family & have a little fellowship if you feel led of the Lord to invite them! Perhaps you'll feel you need to have a few meetings elsewhere with them first to be sure you want them visiting your Home, that they are going to be serious about the Lord, & not just a trick of the Enemy to waste your time. I just mean, don't insist they immediately drop out & go home & grab their stuff & yell at their parents & join that day! They can come that day & every day as far as fellowshipping is concerned‚ but I just don't think it's wise to insist on immediate forsake-alls, immediate drop-outs! It's caused us too much trouble‚ & from now on I think we ought to give'm time & really test'm & try to see if they really mean business! Just let them come, fellowship, listen, learn & read, but don't insist they drop out right off the bat, till they almost beg to join.

66. Then you can say, "Well, what about your parents?—And what about your boss at the job? You're going to get a lot of persecution! How much trouble is it going to cause you & us? Sit down & count the cost to make sure you're able to finish the job before you try it!"—Luke 14:28-30. That would almost eliminate one of the greatest causes of troubles that we've had!

67. … It just isn't worth it!—Just because some smart aleck wants to show how smart & how spiritual he is by dragging some guy off the street by the hair of the head into the Home … to try to win him!—It just isn't worth it!

68. So let's insist on a time period, a testing period! Of course, the time period might vary with some, it depends on the individual case & the situation. But I would say we certainly should not allow anyone to actually move in & join until every facet of their case is studied, investigated & tested‚ to see if it is really time for them to join. I mean it! Some cases could be allowed to join sooner than others when you find out that they're really ready & really whole-hearted & really tested & tried & proven, & that their parents or their boss or somebody's not going to be a horrible goat or a real brute & come & beat you up or call on the law or whatever!

69. Make sure that the time period is appropriate for the case, & that it's not going to cause a lot of trouble, & result in not only having that one Home closed up & forced to flee, but the whole Family in that whole country! It's been terrible! Nearly every time that happened it's been over some fool's foolishness & lack of wisdom that's caused the trouble in just one case‚ which brought on the parents, who brought on the cops & brought on the officials & brought on the expulsion!

70. I just want to absolutely insist that these cases be time-tested, & that nobody just drops out immediately & comes home to move in the same day! Of course‚ there could always be exceptions if you find out that maybe he has no relatives, no mother & father, no boss, no school, nothing, he's an orphan & totally unconnected. But even then it could be dangerous because it may be such a shock for him to suddenly start living in our Family…!

71. I just don't believe in this sudden believism or sudden discipleship! It may have worked in Jesus' day‚ but it doesn't work today! This is not the same day at all, it's the day of the Antichrist…!—And we have got to watch our Ps & Qs & be very careful & very prayerful & play it safe, lest we lose the whole thing, whole countries over our haste with one little disciple due to our lack of wisdom!

LEARN THE LANGUAGE—OR ELSE!

72. Our people who have been in non-English-speaking countries for years now should certainly speak enough of the local languages to be able to witness! How else are they going to be able to explain to the people Who God is, Who Jesus is, or even show them that they're sinners! (Maria: They probably give them the lit‚ I suppose.) That still isn't speaking the local language!

73. I almost feel like sending everybody home who has been in these different fields for such a long time but still can't speak the local languages! But in order to give them all a little grace, I suggest we give them a one-year grace period in which they seriously study & learn the language at least enough to witness fairly well. If they can't or won't do that, then they should get out of those fields & go home, or go to some other country where they can witness in their mother tongue! We'll give them a year's grace from now, till one year from now, & if they haven't learned enough of the language to witness & win a soul to the Lord in this one-year period‚ then as far as I'm concerned, we want to clean them out of the field, they can go someplace else!

WANTED: PRODUCTIVE & FRUITFUL WORKERS!

74. Those who are losing their visas in some countries should consider staying in other countries. …

75. I don't really think that anybody ought to stay in some of those difficult foreign fields except the people who have learned the language & therefore are a valuable asset to the Work, because they know the language & can witness in it & win souls in it! Such people are pretty priceless & I think they ought to try to stick it out as much as possible! But the ones who don't need to be there, who are not really needed, who are apt to even become a burden, they should be weeded out!

76. We don't have to leave it entirely up to the individuals whether or not they should stay. The NOs could send out a questionnaire to get all the exact facts about their situation, of every single Family & every single Home in their area. The questionnaire could require all the basic information that the shepherds need to help them determine who is really needed in that particular field. Actually, most of the Reporting Offices probably already have all the vital stats & information on their personnel & know who are the pushers & the hard workers, & who are the people who are having a hard time making it.

77. But it might be helpful to have a list of all the high-performers who are really fruitful workers, just like they do in any factory or country.—What's their efficiency? What's their productivity record, their support record? Have they already gone through all their supply of literature without buying any more & gone through all their emergency funds too & are now on the brink of starvation?—Or are they fruitful servants? Or are they in such bad shape that either they or their talents are going to have to be buried?

78. It's just not a day for inefficient workers! So let's find out who the producers are, & those who are productive & fruitful & financially able, who know the language etc. & can do the job without being problem cases or basket cases!

79. PTL! TYL! In spite of everything, we're still surviving! It may look like we're sinking sometimes, but like John Paul Jones‚ we just haven't begun to fight yet! PTL! Mama, how about leading us in a closing prayer?

80. (Maria: Thank You for this good counsel, Lord, all this wonderful counsel that's going to help the Family so much! Thank You Lord! We know many of our precious Family are having problems along these lines‚ so we're sure that this is the answer to their desperate prayers so that they can find the solutions they need. TYL! We just ask You to help us to get the Word to them quickly so they can use it! Bless & keep & strengthen Dad, give us all a good day, & help us to carry all these things out, in Jesus' name!) Amen, PTL!

81. Well, like I've always said, I'd rather have a Gideon's band of 300 real fighters, than too many that are just a drag & a problem! Nothing's changed, we're just insisting that everybody apply what we have recommended all along, there's nothing new about it! PTL!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family