February 01, 1986 by Ralph D. Winter

Student Mobilization Teams: Low Cost Recruitment for the Front Lines

In the last three months of 1985, representatives from Frontiers, Inc., TEAM (The Evangelical Alliance Mission), and Caleb Project were able to meet with 8.500 students, 550 of them in one on one contexts, in order to demonstrate to them the viability of going to the mission field.This Spring the three agencies hope to meet with 7,0(K) students in smallgroup audiences of 30 to 40, and 400 students in one on one settings.

"I may be wrong," said Bob Sjogren, associate U.S. director of Frontiers, "but I don't believe any agency can match the cost effectiveness of our cooperative student mobilization teams (SMT's)?'

For the entire calendar year 1985, he figures the agencies spent an average of less than 84 cents per student, total, to get their message out. "Understand what that means," he said, "We meet one on one with between 7 and 9 percent of all the students we ever talk And 15 to l7percent of all those students end upon our mailing list."

Sjogien indicated these names and addresses are valuable on two counts. First, because these students are prime candidates for mission service, and, second, because, even when students do not end up on the field, those agencies with whom they have the longest standing relationships are the ones that are likely to receive their support when they begin to earn money.

The three agencies are praying that by next fall six SMT'a will be on the road at a time. Brent Preston, a member of TEAM and leader of one of the SMT's, said, "we want to spilt the country up into six regions. Each team will have one region in the fall and a different region in the spring. Each region will be covered twice each school year, but different people will speak at the meetings"

Preston said they are trying to get more agencies to devote personnel to the SMT plan. 'Because the SMT's shift regions between fall and spring, an agency could devote three people to this project and by the end of the school year, one of their representatives would have spoken to students in every region of the country. Furthermore, they would have information concerning hundreds of students who had met one on one not only with their own SW representative, but with representatives from other agencies who were working alongside them in the SMT plan"

The cooperative nature of the SMT plan means that Sjogren's 84 cent figure may be misleading. In 1985, two sending agencies, Frontiers and TEAM, sponsored the SMT's. Together they bore the cost of the SMT's, and together they shared in the information gathered by the SMT's. They were both represented at every SMT presentation. That means the actual cost per agency to speak to one student was only  41 cents.

In the fall of 1984 if the SMT leaders' plans are realized, an agency would have to spend only 7 cents a student to get its message out.

"There are two things students lack,' said Sjogren. "It's virtually a universal problem. They lack knowledge, and they tack examples."

Said Preston, "What we're doing is presenting ourselves to the students as real, live people like themselves single, having questions, not wanting to leave (Sods and family yet going. We're not saying, merely, 'Go!' We're saying, 'Come with us as we go to plant churches among different Unreached Peoples."

Sjogren added, "We've found that staying in their dorm rooms is a very effective way to communicate with students. We stay up tI midnight, talk with them, eat pizza with them, sleep on their floors, get up in the morning, take a shower, get dressed ,,.,and we're missionaries! The students see that we are real and they can relate to us and they begin to think that maybe God really can use them, too."

Modeling is only one feature of the SMT approach. The matter of conveying knowledge and, perhaps, even hope itself, is another indispensable pelt of the SMT plan.

"When I meet with students one on one," said Sjogren, "I try to map out for them a plan that will take them from where they are today to the field. I map out where they have to be at what times,"He gave an example of a sophomore. "I'll help him look at his junior year. Maybe he needs to emphasize evangelism and discipleship. In his senior year, maybe he needs to go overseas. After he graduates, maybe he'll take the Perspectives course, sign up with a mission and go on their candidate training. If he's in debt be needs to work out a plan for paying back his loans. Whatever it takes, we figure it in.

"Most students don't think this way. They don't chink in concrete terms. But we've found this is valuable for giving them a vision of what God may want to do through them]'

Following the group meetings and one on one interviews, students who show an interest in what the SMT Warms; have to say are sent personal notes by SMT team members. A little later, they receive a printed letter that challenges them to a one year commitment to monthly accountability and follow up. The commitment comes' in the form of the "Caleb Declaration":

Compelled by love for Jesus Christ, / will obey the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18 20 for the rest of my life. In doing so, I will accept the priority of Paul to see the Gospel preached among those peoples where Christ is not yet named.

Once a student signs this statement and returns it to the Caleb Project officebe or she receives Caleb Project newsletters once a month throughout the school year. Each newsletter includes a monthly report form for the student to fill out and return, Dorothy White, coordinator of Caleb Project's follow up program, says these monthly reports are used by Caleb Project staff members to pray for the students and to encourage others. "We print challenging, encouraging quotes from these reports in our monthly newsletter. It's part of our supportive, 'come with us' attitude."

Marcia Blornberg, a nurse in Pasadena, California, wrote Dorothy, 'lire monthly reports have opened up my eyes to how quickly good intentions can be neglected if not pursued. I'm thankful for your commitment to seeing people develop a heart for the world that will take them beyond good intentions."

The Frontiers/TEAM/Caleb Project SMT's are on the road right now in the Midwest and northeastern United States.

For further information about the SMT plan itself or concerning the current teams' itineraries, write or call: Student Mobilization Teams, do Caleb Project, 1605 Elizabeth Street, Pasadena, CA 91104. (818) 794 1532.

Khomeini a Great Blessing

On a recent trip through Iran, a leader in a ministry to Muslims was stunned by the comments of Christians in that country.

'Khomeini has been the greatest blessing the church has ever had here in Iran," they said. 'He has shown the world what Islam is really like."

it seems that Muslims are turning to Christ in unprecedented numbers. Iranian church leaders report that, currently, 70 percent of all baptisms are of Muslim converts! Several churches reported that their number included between 50 and 70 percent converted Muslim. —J.A.H.

Guatemala Revisited

I did not know very precisely what] was getting into when I landed in Guatemala. But all my highest hopes were realized. No higher than highest! Arriving at 8:30 p.m., I was informed that a large group of youth leaders were waiting for me to speak to them at a conference center an hour's drive away, a big help in brushing up my Spanish. What powerful singing! I'm not suit I've heard it that way before.

Then the next day to an equally vigorous, packed auditorium of women in a different city. Then the same day a group of about 60 professional men in a mountain retreat, returning there Mr a second talk a day later, Finally the three day "National leaderships" group (mainly pastas now), in still a different place.

But all of this was the same overall conference: the First Missionary Consultation of the Evangelical Church of Guatemala ('Primera Consulta Misionera de la Iglesia Evangeilca en Guatemala").

Two points:

This had never happened before. Oh, it was not the first time Guatemalan believers of many different kinds had met together more turned out for Luis Palau than for the Pope. But this was the first time the precise subject was missions and not evangelism. That is, missions means going beyond your own people, classically to a people who have never heard, Evangelism is what happens after the church has been planted and reaches out to its own people, U was very clear that they now know the difference!

Secondly, this was only one of many regional and national tevel conferences leading toward the big one in November of next year in Braid for all Spanish and Portigese speaking countries in the world! A $2 million budget. Twenty books are being published in advance, etc. Nothing like this has ever swept Latin America.

Three years ago Latin America was dead on its feet in regard to Missions Latin American led Missions. Not now. Shortly Latin America may have taken a leap and a bound and passed both Africa and Asia. Latin Americans have great advantages, being so close in cultural tradition to the Western resources. This was my first six day chance to see Guatemala since 1975.

"The Nations" and Christ's Return

Monday 2110 USCWM

Don Richardson today presented some of his latest thinking on the biblical basis for frontier mission outreach. "Does Matthew 24:14 ('and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end shall come') have any significance for current mission outreach?" he asked. He raised the question as a result of dialogue he has had with Dispensational theologians.

He referred his audience to five passages in which similar contingencies (the gospel being preached to all peoples) resulted in similar outcomes (the coming of the end) to those found in Matthew 24. For example. Romans 11:25 26 speaks of "the full number of the gentiles (nations, ethne)" coming in "so all Israel shall be saved." Revelation 5:9 suggests that men from all tongues, tribes, peoples and nations must be saved before the seven seals of judgment can be broken.

Richardson said that II Peter 3:10 12; Matthew 23:19 20; and Acts 1:6 8 all have similar significance: all nations must be discipled before Christ returns."It seems clear to me," said Richardson. 'We cannot ignore Matthew 24:14 anymore than we can ignore these other portions of Scripture. The Scriptures clearly teach that all nations, all ethne¬ethnic groups must receive the Gospel before Christ returns."

But what about the doctrine of the imminence of Christ's return?

Richardson said, "We do not know, how God is measuring 'the nations'; we do not know whether He considers a nation discipled once and for all when the first convert appears, or whether a nation needs to be re discipled as is the case in many parts of the Middle East,

where nations have been discipled at one time, but have then pursued other gods (Islam). Jesus might return today. We do not know."

And the mission of the 144,000 in Revelation 7?

Richardson referred to Jeremiah 2:3 where Old Testament believers are referred to as first fruits. "After the first fruits comes the harvest," said Richardson. "The harvest is the nations¬and the harvesters are the Church. The 144,0 of Revelation 7 seem to have the role of gleaning. The Lord wants the whole harvest brought in. To get the whole harvest, gleaners must come after harvesters."

Former Cannibals Send 65 Missionaries

Thursday 2/27 USCWM

John Dekker spoke this evening about his work in the early '60s and '70s among the Dani people of Irian laya. Dekker, currently working with the Global Mapping Project under Christian Nationals Evangelization Committee, was addressing the regular Frontier Fellowship meeting held on the campus of the U.S. Center for World Mission.

Said Dekker, "When I first began teaching the Scriptures to Dani believers, I would say, "Have you learned what I have taught you?" And when they said they had, I would say, "All right. Then I want you to pass these things on to others. Until you have shared what you have, I cannot give you more."

By God's grace, Dekker said, as a result of this approach, within 10 years of the first converts among the Dams, the Dam church was supporting 65 to 70 missionaries who were going to over 20 other tribes. —J.A.H.

Texas "Perspectives" Mushrooms

Friday 212S USCWM

Wesley mIlls, national coordinator of the Perspectives study program, reported that there are two classes in Texas each with 90 students. Right now, said Tutlis, there are two coordinators "trained and ready to begin classes this fail" in Dallas, and others in San Antonio and Houston who want to start classes "in the near future."

The interest in perspectives is so great throughout Texas that the leaders of these courses will be hosting a Regional Coordinators Conference.

Tullis quoted one of the Dallas coordinators as saying, "My ultimate purpose is to start a Center for World Mission here," —J.A.H.