Urbana 96 Webcast
George VerwerDecember 27, p.m.
Words from a Fellow Ragamuffin
by Tom Hanson
listen to the audio: 27 min.
AUDIO
Appearing on the Urbana
stage toting a giant inflated globe, and sporting his
trademark Amazing Technicolor Globecoat, the
super-charged Verwer immediately posed his central
question: "Who is a witness?" His answer?
"We are! Everyone of us! Praise be to God!" After a
brief discussion of the propriety of wearing hats and of
screaming on stage —"I love hats!! I love
people who scream!!! … Why can't Christians scream
for Jesus?!!"—Verwer turned to an
explanation of his "5 Dynamic Mega Life-Changing
Words" that describe being a witness for God. First,
he said, witnesses must be "Jesus-Focused": God
must be supreme and receive all the glory. Also, he
insisted that, contrary to popular opinion, the life of
mission that God calls us to is not boring but rather a
"mind-bending, exhilarating, overwhelming
experience." "Missions," he said "is GREAT!"
Passionate.
Hyper-kinetic. Uproarious. Shocking. These are words that
aptly describe Mission's favorite "rebel with a
cause" and this evening's featured speaker, George Verwer. Tonight, Verwer
provided Urbana delegates with a new term for himself, as
well as for all of those seeking to be God's witnesses:
Ragamuffin. The image, which Verwer borrowed from Brennan
Manning's book, The Ragamuffin Gospel, calls
to mind the lost, downcast, weak, and pitiful; for
Verwer, it sums up God's preference for using ordinary
people to build His kingdom. Verwer noted how God had
used him, a "struggling, doubting, needy
character," someone whom "no mission agency
would have taken," to form Operation
Mobilization, an organization that would
go on to bring the gospel to 900 million people across
the globe. And, he added, "God wants to use everyone
of us ragamuffins!"
Secondly, witnesses must be "Grace-Awakened." Verwer pleaded with everyone to save $$ ("eat 99 cent cheeseburgers") in order to run out and buy Charles Swindoll's incredible book, Grace Awakening. Learning the transforming power and freedom of grace is especially important, he said, in the context of the legalism that often characterizes American Christianity.
After outlining his third key word, Ragamuffins, so crucial to his recurring theme of God's desire to work through weak, truly human people, Verwer jumped to his fourth dynamic term: Visionary. "There is no excuse for not being excited," he shouted; "God's chosen people" should not be "frozen people." We must "stop being boring—this cannot be!" According to Verwer, it's time for Christians to pray for "Operation Defrost." There is no reason, he claimed, why Urbana cannot reach the goal (stated earlier in evening the by Urbana Director, Dan Harrison) of sending out 1000 teams of students to mission to unreached people groups.
Lastly, God's witnesses must be "spirit-filled." Returning again to his ragamuffin motif, Verwer quoted the great 19th century evangelist, D.L. Moody; when asked by a woman why he spoke so often of being filled by the spirit, Moody replied "Because I leak!" "I can relate to that," said Verwer: "All my life I've been a bit weak, and a bit leaky." "But," he added as a final comment , "I know where the free refills are … and they're here for you tonight!!"
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