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George Verwer, Evangelist And Founder Of OM International, Dies At Age 84
George Verwer | Operation MobilisationGeorge Verwer, an author and evangelist who founded the group OM International and was known for his focus on global missions, has died at the age of 84.
OM International announced Verwer’s death on Facebook Saturday, explaining that their founder had died on April 14, and asked for prayers for his family.
“Through our tears, we give thanks for all George has meant to us and take comfort that he is with Jesus, whom he loved and served faithfully,” stated OM International.
“From the early days of leading college mission trips to Mexico, to dreaming of a ship to spread the Good News along the world’s coasts; through his passion for books, real relationships and holistic care for the least reached, George challenged and inspired those he met to share God’s love; truly practising what he preached with his own radical life.”
Archbishop Joseph D’Souza of the Anglican Good Shepherd Church of India gave his condolences in a piece published by The Christian Post on Saturday.
“George also always paid attention to where the winds of the spirit were blowing, and as a maturing church emerged in the Global South, he put his efforts into helping the church become sustainable,” wrote D’Souza.
“George was one of the first white missions leaders to fully empower nationals to lead the efforts he initiated in the majority world. George was not only incapable of racism but he never treated anyone less than him.”
D’Souza went on to state that Verwer’s mission work in India “was more extensive than all the rest of OM’s considerable work in the rest of the world combined.”
“From the very beginning, George’s spirit-led gut instincts led him to construct the Indian work in a different way than what was done in the West,” D’Souza added.
“From the very inception, the leadership was handed over to the Indians, and from the beginning, he gave complete freedom to develop the strategies and missiology at the local level.”
A native of New Jersey, Verwer was born in 1938 and became a born-again Christian in his teenage years after attending a rally led by the Rev. Billy Graham in New York City.
Verwer began to focus on international evangelism in 1957 while in college, according to OM International’s official biography, traveling that year to Mexico to hand out 20,000 Spanish-language Christian tracts, as well as 10,000 Gospel booklets.
In 1960, Verwer married Drena Knecht, who he had met while enrolled at Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, Illinois, with the couple eventually having three children.
While living in Europe, Verwer founded Operation Mobilisation, which later became OM International, which he would lead until 2003, when he stepped down to focus on other projects.
“Under George’s exuberant leadership and fuelled by the passion of believers from many nations to reach those who had never heard the Good News, OM expanded in the '60s, '70s and '80s,” noted OM International’s official biography.
“His authentic lifestyle and zeal for the spread of the Gospel has motivated countless individuals and churches into more intentional mission involvement.”
Verwer also authored multiple books, including Confessions of a Toxic Perfectionist, Messiology, Out of the Comfort Zone and Revolution of Love.
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OM International Founder George Verwer Dies: Spirit-led Gut Instinct Leadership
Courtesy of OM InternationalAs the founder of the missions organization OM International, George Verwer (July 3, 1938-April 14, 2023) was easily one of the most influential Christian leaders of the last century. He served OM with distinction, and he inspired countless other Christian leaders all over the world.
His leadership was marked by what I only know how to call: a spirit-led gut instinct. Whatever complex or global issue that confronted him, he always dared to act, and his actions were almost always right.
George also always paid attention to where the winds of the spirit were blowing, and as a maturing church emerged in the Global South, he put his efforts into helping the church become sustainable. George was one of the first white missions leaders to fully empower nationals to lead the efforts he initiated in the majority world. George was not only incapable of racism but he never treated anyone less than him.
Along the way, he trained, inspired, and knew — from the north, south, east and west — the majority of the most influential Christian leaders reaching the world with the Gospel during the explosion of Christians in the Global South. In many cases, their lifelong ministries were initiated at the personal invitation of George to join him on a short trip to reach some part of the world with the Good News. He personally touched the lives of more than 100,000 mission leaders, impacting countless tens of millions of lives.
OM’s work in India would eventually become OM’s most significant work globally, both in personnel and scope. The work George initiated in India was more extensive than all the rest of OM’s considerable work in the rest of the world combined. From the very beginning, George’s spirit-led gut instincts led him to construct the Indian work in a different way than what was done in the West.
From the very inception, the leadership was handed over to the Indians, and from the beginning, he gave complete freedom to develop the strategies and missiology at the local level.
When the work in India developed into a full-fledged church movement built around a Kingdom of God paradigm, he supported it without reservation. George told me many times that the complete autonomy of the Indian work did not happen the way we would have imagined it. Still, it was only proper for the Indians to forge their future in a complex nation in partnership with OM and non-OM groups.
His humility also displayed his strength. He never hid his flaws. George was fallible, and he made sure everyone knew it. This is why his sermons, books and generous conversations over tea were always seasoned with wisdom and blessed with knowledge.
George was young when he founded his work.
In his 20s, in the late 1950s and 1960s, he responded to cultural upheaval in North America and Europe by offering a radical faith in Jesus Christ to those young people searching desperately for meaning in their lives. His Christian message was filled with grace and full of radical discipleship.
This is why his message resonated with a whole generation of young Christians who followed him in reaching the world for Christ, whatever the risk and whatever the cost. Those disciples also learned to overcome their fears, flaws and failures.
As much as any Christian in history, George Verwer led his generation, and the generations around it, to “reach the world in their own generation.”
When the Western Church's enthusiasm for sending out Western missionaries was declining, George pioneered a significant, global short-term missions movement. The older missions organizations were skeptical of George’s approach but could not stop the wave of short-term missionaries who answered the Lord’s call through his vision. Those short-termers became their recruits.
George also remained the chief patron of the Good Shepherd Church Movement, which today has a global presence. All that mattered to George was that the church was focused on Jesus and that the local community was responsible for it.
Almost as quickly as he learned any lesson, George also wrote a book about it and then sent his books to leaders worldwide. One of those books, written as a young man, was entitled A Revolution of Love and Balance. In it, he crafted early ideas which would prove seminal in the history of the global church across the 20th and 21st centuries. Before OM fully embraced the need for a holistic approach to mission, George wrote that if we did not practice love in action for the poor, we could not claim we loved the world as God loved the world. He taught passionately that our Christian life and testimony would ring hollow without love for one another in the Church.
Those words were prophetic for the context of a bitterly divided Christian world today! The fact that Jesus said the world would know we were His disciples when we loved each other is lost among just too many Christians in this age of hate-filled social media posts.
George supported individual churches developing their particular emphasis on thought and practice. He opposed Christians becoming adamant and dogmatic about their interpretation or practices when it led to divisions and limited the churches’ ability to work with other Christians to touch the world.
According to George, many of the world’s significant issues could not be addressed by one organization or church. Our world needed the global Church always holding truth in balance to work together.
Issues such as social care, hunger, injustice, discrimination, poverty and sharing the Good News of the Kingdom of God needed the loving and united effort of the global Church in all its diversity. George’s ability to relate to leaders across the denominational spectrum was as phenomenal as it was groundbreaking.
In his later years, an older and wiser George Verwer began to speak at every opportunity about how God works in and through a Church filled with human mistakes and sin.
Out of his vast experience with imperfect and broken leaders and their churches, came two books: Messiology and Confessions of a Toxic Perfectionist.
The message of these books is also his legacy in a world where younger and older Christians are confronted by the fall of prominent Christian leaders and the mess it leaves all around. George always saw God’s grace and second chances, especially in our biggest messes. He was quick to repent and never without a personal word about his inadequacy.
Losing George is losing my life’s mentor and my closest personal friend in the ministry. It is also an inspiration of a life lived well and a legacy now made complete with the words we all long to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
I can’t wait to see him again. In the meantime, with God’s help, let’s commit to living our lives more like he lived his own.
Archbishop Joseph D’Souza is an internationally renowned human and civil rights activist. He is the founder of Dignity Freedom Network, an organization that advocates for and delivers humanitarian aid to the marginalized and outcastes of South Asia. He is archbishop of the Anglican Good Shepherd Church of India and serves as the president of the All India Christian Council.
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George Verwer, Founder Of Operation Mobilization, Passes Away At 84
ATLANTA — The death has been announced of George Verwer, who founded the global Christian mission agency, Operation Mobilization, and directed it for 45 years.
He passed away peacefully with his family by his side at his home near London, England, the evening of April 14. He was 84 years old.
Verwer was born in New Jersey, USA, and committed his life to Christ at a Billy Graham meeting in New York City in 1955. Driven by the cause of world evangelism from then on, the teenage maverick went on to have immeasurable global impact. He has been described as “the most outstanding North American missionary statesman of the last 60 years.”
“George changed the face of missions in his generation,” said Andrew Scott, president of OM USA. “When the mission agencies of the late fifties were looking for highly trained individuals with seminary degrees who would commit to going for a lifetime, George invited young people who simply loved Jesus to come for a summer. This was new. This was different. Thousands came.”
Operation Mobilization began with three students in a worn-out van distributing Christian literature in Mexico, then branching into Europe and across the globe. Today, more than 5,000 OM workers are active in almost 150 countries, in a huge range of ministries.
Verwer’s daring vision in the 1960s led to ships being used to transport and train international volunteers while carrying a cargo of literature and aid supplies. Fifty million people have climbed the gangways of OM’s four ships, and at least double that number have come into contact with the “good news” through outreaches and projects in port cities worldwide.
Movements like OM and its close contemporary, Youth With A Mission (YWAM), led the way in developing same- and near-culture workers to serve globally alongside those from established mission-sending nations and backgrounds.
OM International Director Lawrence Tong, said, “George was passionate about Jesus, passionate for God’s word, and passionate for the lost. I believe he was God’s man for the 20th century, who changed the course of modern missions.”
“We should have thought he was a ‘nutcase,’ but because of the Holy Spirit, we just knew this was a man you could follow to the ends of the earth, and we had real confidence he was getting the mind of the Lord,” recalls Greg Livingstone, the founder of missions group Frontiers.
Known for his world map jackets and for handing out more than a million free books, in the 20 years since he stepped down from leading OM, Verwer managed special projects, spoke at church events with characteristic vigor and wrote more than a dozen books. A key theme was admitting his own imperfections and honoring God who graciously forgives and works through people, despite their mistakes. He called it “messiology.”
George is survived by his wife, Drena, their three children, plus grandchildren and great grandchildren. The Verwer family thanks partners all over the world for their prayers and asks for privacy at this time. Details of thanksgiving services will be released later.
Speaking in 2015, George summed up what drove him, long past retirement age:
“I’m still mega-motivated to see everyone in the world being given the gospel at least once… [to] have the opportunity to hear about saving grace through our Lord Jesus Christ, and I hope I can, right to my last breath, continue to share that message.”
Those in the United States who would like to give to OM in memory of George Verwer can visit omusa.Org/george – or contact OM USA at 770-631-0432.
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About Operation Mobilization:
Notes to Editors:
You are receiving, along with this press release:
Interviews with OM leaders in the US and other countries can be arranged. Please direct inquiries to:
Elizabeth FlowersPhone: 770-380-5773E-mail: [email protected]
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Religion News Service or Religion News Foundation.
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