Spiritual Revolution: The Story of OM

by Ian Randall

Spiritual Revolution tells the story of 50 years of Operation Mobilisation (OM). Beginning with an account of George Verwer's conversion and OM's early outreach in Mexico, God's faithfulness is seen... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1850787662
• ISBN13: 9781850787662
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Authentic
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Highly Recommended for Global Mission Leaders

(review also published at http://shawblog.wordpress.com) ABOUT THE BOOK As a history of the first 50 years of Operation Mobilization (OM) Spiritual Revolution is the story of a movement. First, the book is the story of the conception and development of what is now one of the largest mission agencies on earth, OM. Second, this is a story of a genuine spiritual movement. The passion in the hearts of several college boys in Illinois and their subsequent radical, authentic discipleship coupled with their visionary and empowering leadership has led to the births of hundreds, if not thousands of new ministries. The book lists 3 full single spaced pages of new ministries started by former OMer's, among those are organizations such as Frontiers, Gospel for Asia, SAT-7, and so on. Currently, OM has 5,400 missionaries from 91 nationalities working in 110 countries and on board 2 ocean going ships. 37 million people in more than 140 nations have been on one of OM's ships (p. 219). The ships have welcomed 38 million people in nearly 500 cities and distributed 50 million Scripture portions (OMUSA website) More than 125,000 young people have been drawn to the mission training of OM (OMUSA website). Overall, over 100 million people have been touched by OM's gospel ministry. They have impacted presidents, global influencers as well as the poorest of poor. Wow. Read those numbers again. Amazing! WHY I READ THIS BOOK I read this book to help me dream. I need help dreaming of what could be. To that end, this book was extremely satisfying, even exhilarating at points. But I also was challenged in my dreaming about what makes a "great" movement. Here are a few of my personal take aways. Please note that I am in every way an outside observer of OM having acquired almost all of my knowledge of OM from this book. PERSONAL TAKE AWAYS - The most profound aspect of OM, especially when observed in retrospect, is its humble origins. The following is, for me, the most stirring passage in the book: "But there was no great scheme for the future when the three would-be missionaries and an old Dodge truck loaded with Gospels left Chicago, virtually unnoticed, fifty years ago. There was no thought of building a global mission agency, no idea of ships, and no strategy to mobilise tens of thousands into global missions. But clearly God had a wider design from the start and it is his sovereign purpose which has become OM's ongoing story." (p. 221). Oh how refreshing is the story of the origin of OM. The grand agenda in the hearts and minds of George Verwer, Dale Rhoton, and Walter Borchard was simply authentic discipleship of Jesus. This really challenges me. I have big dreams. But do I dream of simple obedience? Do I despise the small things? - I am most personally challenged by the culture of OM and Send the Light (the first organization founded by Verwer which is now one of the largest literature distribution companies in the world): radical, simple, risky, sometimes awkwar