Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Doctor Gary Severs helps provide training resources for churches around
the globe. Not long ago, he was working to train
church leaders in an Asian city, a place where our
Christian brothers and sisters face intense persecution. Enemies of the
Gospel rioted. They burned down three churches and destroyed five
(00:20):
thousand Christian books.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
The response of the pastor whose church was burned is said,
will you send us more books? They looked at the
persecution as an accelerator, not as an inhibitor or something
to hold them back. They said, if that's what they're
gonna do, We're just gonna plant more churches.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Jesus never promised his followers an easy path. In fact,
he told his disciples that the world would hate them.
He sent them out as sheep among wolves. Jesus's words
came true in the life of the Apostles, and they're
still coming true today in the lives of his followers
on the world. Join host Todd nettletons we hear their
inspiring stories and learn how we can help right now
(01:06):
on the Voice of the Martyrs Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Welcome again to the Voice of the Martys Radio My
name is Todd Nettleton. We are in our studio today
in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, with doctor Gary Severs. He is the
president of Global University, and we will talk about what
that is. Doctor Severs, Welcome to the Voice of the
Martis Radio.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
It is a pleasure and a privilege to be with
you and with your audience.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Well, we are excited to have you. I think for
many of our listeners they are not familiar with Global University.
Give us an introduction, what is it, what do you do,
where are you? And just kind of explain the ministry
of Global University.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Sure. Global University is a comprehensive ministry and pastoral training
university that starts at the evangelism level, goes through discipleship
volunteer training, training for pastoral or ministry degree level, training
at the undergrad graduate levels up to the Doctor of
(02:06):
Ministry level. We have a worldwide student body that comprises
at more than three million people wow, who studied with
Global University in one hundred and forty languages of the world.
We're part of the assemblies of God. However, our student
(02:27):
body goes far beyond the assemblies of God. In fact,
the majority of our students at the we call the
Christian Life and Christian service level, do not attend Assembly
of God because there's not an Assembly of God church
in that whole nation. And so comprehensive focused on equipping
(02:48):
people for service, ministry, leadership training to expand the Kingdom
of God and reach our generation for Jesus.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Amen. You know, I hear you talk about hundred and
fifty countries, and obviously you're here at Voice of the Martyrs.
We work in hostile areas, restricted nations, places where Christians
are persecuted, absolutely those people. And you can't necessarily set
up an office and say, hey, we have a theological
training school here, we are come and get training. How
does it work in places where it's illegal, or it's closed,
(03:21):
or it's just very difficult to be a Christian, let
alone to evangelize or to train up evangelists and pastors.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
In those sensitive nations. There's a country in the Middle East,
of course, would not be named. There are groups of believers.
It's called the Upper Room Institute, and they meet very
small groups, four to eight people. It doesn't grow larger
(03:50):
than they multiply. But the leader has studied with Global University,
been equipped by Global University, distributed learning, distance learning, materials
and they ministered to people in those groups. It is
growing unbelievably in this country. There are more than sixty
(04:13):
five thousand underground upper room house churches. Wow, because of
God's blessing. There's a story of a woman who was
a member of one and she was in her kitchen
reading Christian material with her son. Her husband, who was
(04:35):
not a believer, came home, was enraged, you know, beat
up the sun and actually cut her throat, trying to
kill her. She ended up in the hospital and the
police came. They did arrest her, and the other ladies
in her movement in her upper room determined they were
(04:58):
going to witness to him. He was a bar a
hair person, and so they went with his sharp scissors
to have their hair taken care of. They told him,
your wife loves you, your son loves you. They forgive you.
And then one night, in a dream, a man came
to his bedroom and he stood at the foot of
(05:20):
his bed is says, I want you to know that
your wife loves you, your son loves you, and I
love you. It was Jesus today that man is a believer.
The miraculous is commonplace because of the need.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
We're talking this week on Voice of the Martyrs Radio
with doctor Gary Severs. He's the president of Global University.
Doctor Severs. I hear university and I think of, you know,
a college education, a bachelor's degree, a master's, a doctorate.
But it sounds like you also are doing sort of
basic discipleship training at a a very kind of I
(06:01):
would say entry level to faith, entry level as a
new Christian. Talk a little bit about that part of
the ministry, and then how it leads into Okay, now
you've done the basics, maybe you are called to go deeper.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Absolutely, we are firm believers in basic evangelism. We have
written testimonies four million people who have made a decision
for Jesus. Wow. And so principle I learned when I
was at a church outside Washington, d C. And in
(06:37):
walked a man named Fred. Now Fred had two master's degrees,
he worked at government. I won't go further there, and
great man of faith I was. I thought, oh, no,
he's going to get bored, He's going to leave the church.
Great man of faith that I was. After that first class,
it was less than two of the evangelism course. Highlights
(06:58):
in the life of Christ and God uses experience to
and I've applied it the rest of my life. Fred
came up and said, this is wonderful. I never knew it. Lesson, too,
is on the virgin birth. He did not know the
truth of the virgin birth. Time goes on. He became
(07:19):
a deacon, he became an elder. He studied with Global
years later at the degree levels, but he had to
start where he was spiritually.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
We're talking with doctor Gary Severs. He's the president of
Global University. Gary your PhD. I was looking at your
bio on the website, which, by the way, Globaluniversity dot edu,
Global University dot edu. You have a PhD in Educational
research and evaluation. And I think it's an interesting topic
(07:51):
when it comes to training up church leaders, because you
want to give them booksmarts. You want them to understand
the concepts and understand the Bible. But then there's sort
of the practical, Okay, how do you live this out?
How do you lead a church? How do you lead
someone to Christ? How do you evangelize? How do you
at Global University kind of balance those two of the
(08:13):
book smarts and the okay, this is how you actually
do it?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
On a day to day basis, Every global university course
at the pastoral training the degree level undergraduate graduate doctor
ministry has what we call a service learning requirement where
a student is required to take a principle a concept
from the course apply it in their community to grow
(08:41):
the church. Now, we don't grade the work of the
Holy Spirit. What we do is say you do it,
you reflect on it, evaluate, see how you can approve.
You pray before you do it, and then if it
is acceptable, you pass. If you don't do it, fail
the whole course. Were that serious, it's pass failed for
(09:03):
the whole course.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
So you don't pass the course until we see you
actually putting this teaching into practice exact in your community.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
One quick story. It goes back to country in Africa
where a fellow who had been educated at a military
Air force academy in Europe and came back to his
nation was an advisor to the president of the nation
and then there was a coup and he ends up
(09:33):
in prison and a lady from a local church came
shared the gospel. He got saved, finally released, began attending church.
God called him to ministry and then he was studying
with us at the undergraduate level, and he came across
that service learning requirement. He wrote in the French language,
(09:53):
do I really have to do this, to which our
dean I loved, our Ardine, who's very absolutely, you have
to do it. And so he prayed. Amazing things happen
when you pray. And he said, you know, there's a
kiosk just beside outside the border of the wall to
(10:15):
my compound. And he went to the proprietor and said,
if I buy everyone breakfast, can I talk to him tomorrow? Wow?
And owner said sure, if you're buying, no problem. As
he said, I started talking and I was scared. Then
I realized I paid for their breakfast. He we're eating
and I got the boldness and so he began preaching.
(10:39):
Eight people got saved. Wow. He was a fellow who
was a military officer, a noteworthy advisor to the president
of a nation, who because of that service learning requirement,
he prayed because he was scared. So don't mind. You
know what used to say to shake he needs If
(11:01):
you knew where it's taking you, you shake even harder. Pray,
Let God feel you that you're doing God's calling and
move forward.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
How do they report back on the service requirements like
is it a well I talked to five people and
none of them got saved and so and is there
kind of a back and forth? Well, well, how did
you talk to them? What story did you tell? Or
is it more of a kind of how do you
evaluate that part of the coursework.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
They write up what they're going to do and send
it in and we have a faculty of person review
that says, yes, that looks like it will be appropriate.
It's fine. We encourage them to have a friend, a colleague,
a spouse. Often the spouses are far harder graters than
(11:50):
we ever could be. And one spouse wrote in can
I tell him that he needs to wear different clothes?
We don't touch it. Also have on site evaluation together
those coming it's only a one page document that they
fell out, But we also look like what went well,
(12:12):
what could I improve on? How can I grow in
my service and ministry? And we look closely at that
because again we don't rate the work of the Holy Spirit.
We are looking for faithfulness and fulfilling God's call on
their life.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, and it's not just how did you do this project,
it's what did you learn? For the next conversation and
the next ministry and the next thing. One of the
challenges that I hear from Christians in hostile and restricted
nations often is the challenge of leadership development. You know,
the church is growing, we have more house churches. Now
(12:52):
we need more leaders because we have more house churches,
and we're gonna have more house churches tomorrow, so we're
gonna need more leaders then too. It seems like what
Global University is doing is really speaking directly to that need.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
In another Asian country, we have a movement that where
the leader of the National Church and I were eating
over a breakfast. He shared a need, I shared an idea,
and from that involved what a leadership training for house churches,
(13:26):
particularly in rural areas where if the people come to
the bigger city, they might never go back and reach
their own people. So at the discipleship level, because admittedly
the education level might be a little low, we translated
(13:48):
our materials into eight of the twenty four official languages
of this nation and then had nationals begin to teach
it in churches and their members develop house churches. That
started in really twenty fifteen. Now ten years later, there
(14:09):
have been sixty three thousand plus who have gone through
the program. There have been more than twenty five thousand
graduates who have started more than twenty four thousand house churches,
some of our which are underground. We worked with central
(14:31):
churches just a month ago where our material, our books
were stold. There were riots in that region. They burned
three churches, one where the books for five thousand students
were stored, and they burned them all down, burned it up.
(14:53):
The response of the pastor whose church was burned is
they burned it. That means we're we're going to have
seven hundred and fifty new pastors. Now, will you send
us more books? Well, we are in a position yet
to send more books, but we will with God's help.
They looked at the persecution as an accelerator to do
(15:16):
what God wanted to do, not as an inhibitor or
something to hold them back. They said, if that's what
they're gonna do, we're just going to plant more churches.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
We must be on the right track because Satan's attacking us.
We must be doing something right. I hear you talk
about people gathering together in these places. What is in
person and what is online or on a cell phone
or how does it all kind of work together.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
A great question. Our baseline principle is we don't want
to export from the West, only what works here that
they can't maintain. So what do people have access to
where they are and how can we work that out.
(16:04):
Several years ago we had a project in the nation
of Cuba, it's now known so I could speak more freely,
taking kindles into Cuba because they didn't have enough paper
to print all the study guides and so the youth,
the churches raise funds for six thousand kindles. Now it
(16:29):
was a process to get them in. I bet it was.
It was, and we did it legally. It was a process,
and appreciate the government officials who were gracious at allowing
them to come in and go through the customs and
proper procedures. We paid proper taxes on them. But today
(16:50):
still across Cuba they're using kindles. In fact, they're amazing.
When their screens go out, they don't pinch them, they
can't send it back to Amazon. They found a way
to brighten the screens up. Again. Wow, I can't do that,
but what they've done is amazing. Other places will use
(17:12):
tablets because they can be locally sourced locally available to
equip people, and really they're very secure. Years ago there
would be people who would have hard copy books, and
in one Asian nation, we had no printing on the outside,
so people didn't know what it was, just monochrome color
(17:36):
color coded. But that became risky. It was done in
the Middle East and in the upper rooms. They would
meet in mosque because inside the mosque was more secure
the meeting in the home. There were accustomed to groups
study together. But when you have a book with a
(17:57):
title on the cover or even the page is that
can be seen by others. They love the tablets because
when an outsider come, they just flip to a different screen.
It just is a framing of the second and so
that is another means. Delivery by mobile phone by cell
(18:19):
phone is another means we're using because I believe it's
accurate to say there may be more cell phones in
the world than there are people, and some of the
least developed or what we might say, some of the
more economically challenged nations their cell phones everywhere they purchase.
(18:42):
Use the cell phones to get a coke out of
the Vendi machine. I don't do that. I'm not smart enough.
But they are so technology has proven to be a
God said. Yes, the enemy has a dark side, we
all know that, but technology is being used to advance
(19:03):
God's kingdom.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Amen. And we are doing some of that Voice of
the Martyrs as well, using that technology to get God's
word into places where they may not want it, but
the people want it. The government may not want it,
but the people do want it. We're talking this week
on Voice of the Martyrs Radio with doctor Gary Severs.
He's the president of Global University. Again their website Global
(19:24):
University dot edu. Gary, if I'm hearing this and maybe
I'm in America, but maybe I'm in Kenya, maybe I'm
in India and I'm listening to the VOM Radio podcast
and I hear Oh Global University they train leaders. Oh,
they can help me study the Bible. What's the next
step for me? How do I learn more? How do
(19:46):
I get involved? Or what's kind of the entry point
to kind of enter into this process?
Speaker 2 (19:51):
And as I shared, there are several entry points, depending
on God's calling on a person's life, what they want
to do with their education and training. We have more
than two hundred network offices around the world, and we'd
encourage you to contact us via our website, via our
(20:16):
email inquire if there's a network office near you, and
that is the easiest way, the most cost effective way
to gain access to the level of training you want,
whether discipleship training, degree level. That's the easiest way in
(20:36):
the US and in Canada Europe. Visit our website, as
you said, Global University dot edu. Look to get started
and tested. See you know, is this what God's calling
me to do to become better prepared. Maybe God's not
(20:56):
calling you to be the lead pastor, but to be
a member that is growing your local church, that's reaching
your community, better equipped to do that, so you could
respond to people's questions, perhaps a children's worker or a
leader of the church, a staff member.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
I think every believer benefits when they study God's word
and go deeper and learn more and just get more
into that. Doctor Gary severs the last question I have,
and we always try to leave our listeners with a
way to pray, because we want to equip prayer warriors,
and I want to know how we can pray for
Global University. But I also want to know how can
(21:40):
we pray, especially for your students in hostile areas and
restricted nations, the places where they could face persecution. How
do we pray for them and how do we pray
for the ministry of Global University.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
And our students are in housital areas in one nation.
Since twenty sixteen, there have been six seven martyrs who
are Global University students. So praying that God will increase
their boldness, that's what they're asking for. They're not asking
(22:14):
for an easy path necessarily, They're wanting to be used
of God so that they're family, so that their friends
in their community can come to the same faith that
they have. So for godly boldness and then open doors,
open doors to their community are new opportunities to demonstrate
(22:41):
the love of Jesus. For the students and sensitive areas,
that's even more critical because that's their heart's desire. They
want to glorify God and to demonstrate the love of
Jesus so that others will come to faith. And that
works for our students here in the US as well.
(23:05):
It's pretty universal. Biblical principles are indeed universal, so we
appreciate that. And for Global University as a whole, we're
looking for new opportunities, new ways to reach more people,
to advance God's Kingdom. Our decade goal by to Reach
(23:27):
by twenty thirty is to impact thirty million people for Jesus.
We're on target to not only meet that, to exceed it.
But why don't it be wonderful to see that doubled
or even tripled. And I know that's God's heart's desire
as well. Amen.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
We've been talking this week on Voice of the Martyrs
Radio with doctor Gary Severs. He is the president of
Global University. Their website, Globaluniversity dot edu will also give
you a link when you come to our website Vomradio
dot net. Doctor Severs, thank you for being our guest
this week on Voice of the Martyrs Radio.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Thank you for inviting me. It's truly been a privilege.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Well, it is our privilege to have you here, and
we thank you for that. If you are just now
joining us, you're gonna want to go online Vomradio dot
net and listen to this entire conversation. You're also gonna
want to go to the Global University website check out
what they can do to serve you, to deepen your faith,
to deepen your understanding of God's word. And I hope
(24:32):
you'll be back with us next week. Author John Weaver
loves Afghanistan. He's an expert on the country, he lived
there for a number of years, and he's going to
be with us next week to give us an update
on what's going on now that the Taliban has taken
over the country again and what that means for the
spread of the gospel. Please be back for that conversation
(24:54):
next week right here on the Voice of the Martyrs
Radio Network.
Doctor Gary Severs helps provide training resources for churches around
the globe. Not long ago, he was working to train
church leaders in an Asian city, a place where our
Christian brothers and sisters face intense persecution. Enemies of the
Gospel rioted. They burned down three churches and destroyed five
(00:20):
thousand Christian books.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
The response of the pastor whose church was burned is said,
will you send us more books? They looked at the
persecution as an accelerator, not as an inhibitor or something
to hold them back. They said, if that's what they're
gonna do, We're just gonna plant more churches.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Jesus never promised his followers an easy path. In fact,
he told his disciples that the world would hate them.
He sent them out as sheep among wolves. Jesus's words
came true in the life of the Apostles, and they're
still coming true today in the lives of his followers
on the world. Join host Todd nettletons we hear their
inspiring stories and learn how we can help right now
(01:06):
on the Voice of the Martyrs Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Welcome again to the Voice of the Martys Radio My
name is Todd Nettleton. We are in our studio today
in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, with doctor Gary Severs. He is the
president of Global University, and we will talk about what
that is. Doctor Severs, Welcome to the Voice of the
Martis Radio.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
It is a pleasure and a privilege to be with
you and with your audience.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Well, we are excited to have you. I think for
many of our listeners they are not familiar with Global University.
Give us an introduction, what is it, what do you do,
where are you? And just kind of explain the ministry
of Global University.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Sure. Global University is a comprehensive ministry and pastoral training
university that starts at the evangelism level, goes through discipleship
volunteer training, training for pastoral or ministry degree level, training
at the undergrad graduate levels up to the Doctor of
(02:06):
Ministry level. We have a worldwide student body that comprises
at more than three million people wow, who studied with
Global University in one hundred and forty languages of the world.
We're part of the assemblies of God. However, our student
(02:27):
body goes far beyond the assemblies of God. In fact,
the majority of our students at the we call the
Christian Life and Christian service level, do not attend Assembly
of God because there's not an Assembly of God church
in that whole nation. And so comprehensive focused on equipping
(02:48):
people for service, ministry, leadership training to expand the Kingdom
of God and reach our generation for Jesus.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Amen. You know, I hear you talk about hundred and
fifty countries, and obviously you're here at Voice of the Martyrs.
We work in hostile areas, restricted nations, places where Christians
are persecuted, absolutely those people. And you can't necessarily set
up an office and say, hey, we have a theological
training school here, we are come and get training. How
does it work in places where it's illegal, or it's closed,
(03:21):
or it's just very difficult to be a Christian, let
alone to evangelize or to train up evangelists and pastors.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
In those sensitive nations. There's a country in the Middle East,
of course, would not be named. There are groups of believers.
It's called the Upper Room Institute, and they meet very
small groups, four to eight people. It doesn't grow larger
(03:50):
than they multiply. But the leader has studied with Global University,
been equipped by Global University, distributed learning, distance learning, materials
and they ministered to people in those groups. It is
growing unbelievably in this country. There are more than sixty
(04:13):
five thousand underground upper room house churches. Wow, because of
God's blessing. There's a story of a woman who was
a member of one and she was in her kitchen
reading Christian material with her son. Her husband, who was
(04:35):
not a believer, came home, was enraged, you know, beat
up the sun and actually cut her throat, trying to
kill her. She ended up in the hospital and the
police came. They did arrest her, and the other ladies
in her movement in her upper room determined they were
(04:58):
going to witness to him. He was a bar a
hair person, and so they went with his sharp scissors
to have their hair taken care of. They told him,
your wife loves you, your son loves you. They forgive you.
And then one night, in a dream, a man came
to his bedroom and he stood at the foot of
(05:20):
his bed is says, I want you to know that
your wife loves you, your son loves you, and I
love you. It was Jesus today that man is a believer.
The miraculous is commonplace because of the need.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
We're talking this week on Voice of the Martyrs Radio
with doctor Gary Severs. He's the president of Global University.
Doctor Severs. I hear university and I think of, you know,
a college education, a bachelor's degree, a master's, a doctorate.
But it sounds like you also are doing sort of
basic discipleship training at a a very kind of I
(06:01):
would say entry level to faith, entry level as a
new Christian. Talk a little bit about that part of
the ministry, and then how it leads into Okay, now
you've done the basics, maybe you are called to go deeper.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Absolutely, we are firm believers in basic evangelism. We have
written testimonies four million people who have made a decision
for Jesus. Wow. And so principle I learned when I
was at a church outside Washington, d C. And in
(06:37):
walked a man named Fred. Now Fred had two master's degrees,
he worked at government. I won't go further there, and
great man of faith I was. I thought, oh, no,
he's going to get bored, He's going to leave the church.
Great man of faith that I was. After that first class,
it was less than two of the evangelism course. Highlights
(06:58):
in the life of Christ and God uses experience to
and I've applied it the rest of my life. Fred
came up and said, this is wonderful. I never knew it. Lesson, too,
is on the virgin birth. He did not know the
truth of the virgin birth. Time goes on. He became
(07:19):
a deacon, he became an elder. He studied with Global
years later at the degree levels, but he had to
start where he was spiritually.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
We're talking with doctor Gary Severs. He's the president of
Global University. Gary your PhD. I was looking at your
bio on the website, which, by the way, Globaluniversity dot edu,
Global University dot edu. You have a PhD in Educational
research and evaluation. And I think it's an interesting topic
(07:51):
when it comes to training up church leaders, because you
want to give them booksmarts. You want them to understand
the concepts and understand the Bible. But then there's sort
of the practical, Okay, how do you live this out?
How do you lead a church? How do you lead
someone to Christ? How do you evangelize? How do you
at Global University kind of balance those two of the
(08:13):
book smarts and the okay, this is how you actually
do it?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
On a day to day basis, Every global university course
at the pastoral training the degree level undergraduate graduate doctor
ministry has what we call a service learning requirement where
a student is required to take a principle a concept
from the course apply it in their community to grow
(08:41):
the church. Now, we don't grade the work of the
Holy Spirit. What we do is say you do it,
you reflect on it, evaluate, see how you can approve.
You pray before you do it, and then if it
is acceptable, you pass. If you don't do it, fail
the whole course. Were that serious, it's pass failed for
(09:03):
the whole course.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
So you don't pass the course until we see you
actually putting this teaching into practice exact in your community.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
One quick story. It goes back to country in Africa
where a fellow who had been educated at a military
Air force academy in Europe and came back to his
nation was an advisor to the president of the nation
and then there was a coup and he ends up
(09:33):
in prison and a lady from a local church came
shared the gospel. He got saved, finally released, began attending church.
God called him to ministry and then he was studying
with us at the undergraduate level, and he came across
that service learning requirement. He wrote in the French language,
(09:53):
do I really have to do this, to which our
dean I loved, our Ardine, who's very absolutely, you have
to do it. And so he prayed. Amazing things happen
when you pray. And he said, you know, there's a
kiosk just beside outside the border of the wall to
(10:15):
my compound. And he went to the proprietor and said,
if I buy everyone breakfast, can I talk to him tomorrow? Wow?
And owner said sure, if you're buying, no problem. As
he said, I started talking and I was scared. Then
I realized I paid for their breakfast. He we're eating
and I got the boldness and so he began preaching.
(10:39):
Eight people got saved. Wow. He was a fellow who
was a military officer, a noteworthy advisor to the president
of a nation, who because of that service learning requirement,
he prayed because he was scared. So don't mind. You
know what used to say to shake he needs If
(11:01):
you knew where it's taking you, you shake even harder. Pray,
Let God feel you that you're doing God's calling and
move forward.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
How do they report back on the service requirements like
is it a well I talked to five people and
none of them got saved and so and is there
kind of a back and forth? Well, well, how did
you talk to them? What story did you tell? Or
is it more of a kind of how do you
evaluate that part of the coursework.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
They write up what they're going to do and send
it in and we have a faculty of person review
that says, yes, that looks like it will be appropriate.
It's fine. We encourage them to have a friend, a colleague,
a spouse. Often the spouses are far harder graters than
(11:50):
we ever could be. And one spouse wrote in can
I tell him that he needs to wear different clothes?
We don't touch it. Also have on site evaluation together
those coming it's only a one page document that they
fell out, But we also look like what went well,
(12:12):
what could I improve on? How can I grow in
my service and ministry? And we look closely at that
because again we don't rate the work of the Holy Spirit.
We are looking for faithfulness and fulfilling God's call on
their life.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, and it's not just how did you do this project,
it's what did you learn? For the next conversation and
the next ministry and the next thing. One of the
challenges that I hear from Christians in hostile and restricted
nations often is the challenge of leadership development. You know,
the church is growing, we have more house churches. Now
(12:52):
we need more leaders because we have more house churches,
and we're gonna have more house churches tomorrow, so we're
gonna need more leaders then too. It seems like what
Global University is doing is really speaking directly to that need.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
In another Asian country, we have a movement that where
the leader of the National Church and I were eating
over a breakfast. He shared a need, I shared an idea,
and from that involved what a leadership training for house churches,
(13:26):
particularly in rural areas where if the people come to
the bigger city, they might never go back and reach
their own people. So at the discipleship level, because admittedly
the education level might be a little low, we translated
(13:48):
our materials into eight of the twenty four official languages
of this nation and then had nationals begin to teach
it in churches and their members develop house churches. That
started in really twenty fifteen. Now ten years later, there
(14:09):
have been sixty three thousand plus who have gone through
the program. There have been more than twenty five thousand
graduates who have started more than twenty four thousand house churches,
some of our which are underground. We worked with central
(14:31):
churches just a month ago where our material, our books
were stold. There were riots in that region. They burned
three churches, one where the books for five thousand students
were stored, and they burned them all down, burned it up.
(14:53):
The response of the pastor whose church was burned is
they burned it. That means we're we're going to have
seven hundred and fifty new pastors. Now, will you send
us more books? Well, we are in a position yet
to send more books, but we will with God's help.
They looked at the persecution as an accelerator to do
(15:16):
what God wanted to do, not as an inhibitor or
something to hold them back. They said, if that's what
they're gonna do, we're just going to plant more churches.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
We must be on the right track because Satan's attacking us.
We must be doing something right. I hear you talk
about people gathering together in these places. What is in
person and what is online or on a cell phone
or how does it all kind of work together.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
A great question. Our baseline principle is we don't want
to export from the West, only what works here that
they can't maintain. So what do people have access to
where they are and how can we work that out.
(16:04):
Several years ago we had a project in the nation
of Cuba, it's now known so I could speak more freely,
taking kindles into Cuba because they didn't have enough paper
to print all the study guides and so the youth,
the churches raise funds for six thousand kindles. Now it
(16:29):
was a process to get them in. I bet it was.
It was, and we did it legally. It was a process,
and appreciate the government officials who were gracious at allowing
them to come in and go through the customs and
proper procedures. We paid proper taxes on them. But today
(16:50):
still across Cuba they're using kindles. In fact, they're amazing.
When their screens go out, they don't pinch them, they
can't send it back to Amazon. They found a way
to brighten the screens up. Again. Wow, I can't do that,
but what they've done is amazing. Other places will use
(17:12):
tablets because they can be locally sourced locally available to
equip people, and really they're very secure. Years ago there
would be people who would have hard copy books, and
in one Asian nation, we had no printing on the outside,
so people didn't know what it was, just monochrome color
(17:36):
color coded. But that became risky. It was done in
the Middle East and in the upper rooms. They would
meet in mosque because inside the mosque was more secure
the meeting in the home. There were accustomed to groups
study together. But when you have a book with a
(17:57):
title on the cover or even the page is that
can be seen by others. They love the tablets because
when an outsider come, they just flip to a different screen.
It just is a framing of the second and so
that is another means. Delivery by mobile phone by cell
(18:19):
phone is another means we're using because I believe it's
accurate to say there may be more cell phones in
the world than there are people, and some of the
least developed or what we might say, some of the
more economically challenged nations their cell phones everywhere they purchase.
(18:42):
Use the cell phones to get a coke out of
the Vendi machine. I don't do that. I'm not smart enough.
But they are so technology has proven to be a
God said. Yes, the enemy has a dark side, we
all know that, but technology is being used to advance
(19:03):
God's kingdom.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Amen. And we are doing some of that Voice of
the Martyrs as well, using that technology to get God's
word into places where they may not want it, but
the people want it. The government may not want it,
but the people do want it. We're talking this week
on Voice of the Martyrs Radio with doctor Gary Severs.
He's the president of Global University. Again their website Global
(19:24):
University dot edu. Gary, if I'm hearing this and maybe
I'm in America, but maybe I'm in Kenya, maybe I'm
in India and I'm listening to the VOM Radio podcast
and I hear Oh Global University they train leaders. Oh,
they can help me study the Bible. What's the next
step for me? How do I learn more? How do
(19:46):
I get involved? Or what's kind of the entry point
to kind of enter into this process?
Speaker 2 (19:51):
And as I shared, there are several entry points, depending
on God's calling on a person's life, what they want
to do with their education and training. We have more
than two hundred network offices around the world, and we'd
encourage you to contact us via our website, via our
(20:16):
email inquire if there's a network office near you, and
that is the easiest way, the most cost effective way
to gain access to the level of training you want,
whether discipleship training, degree level. That's the easiest way in
(20:36):
the US and in Canada Europe. Visit our website, as
you said, Global University dot edu. Look to get started
and tested. See you know, is this what God's calling
me to do to become better prepared. Maybe God's not
(20:56):
calling you to be the lead pastor, but to be
a member that is growing your local church, that's reaching
your community, better equipped to do that, so you could
respond to people's questions, perhaps a children's worker or a
leader of the church, a staff member.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
I think every believer benefits when they study God's word
and go deeper and learn more and just get more
into that. Doctor Gary severs the last question I have,
and we always try to leave our listeners with a
way to pray, because we want to equip prayer warriors,
and I want to know how we can pray for
Global University. But I also want to know how can
(21:40):
we pray, especially for your students in hostile areas and
restricted nations, the places where they could face persecution. How
do we pray for them and how do we pray
for the ministry of Global University.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
And our students are in housital areas in one nation.
Since twenty sixteen, there have been six seven martyrs who
are Global University students. So praying that God will increase
their boldness, that's what they're asking for. They're not asking
(22:14):
for an easy path necessarily, They're wanting to be used
of God so that they're family, so that their friends
in their community can come to the same faith that
they have. So for godly boldness and then open doors,
open doors to their community are new opportunities to demonstrate
(22:41):
the love of Jesus. For the students and sensitive areas,
that's even more critical because that's their heart's desire. They
want to glorify God and to demonstrate the love of
Jesus so that others will come to faith. And that
works for our students here in the US as well.
(23:05):
It's pretty universal. Biblical principles are indeed universal, so we
appreciate that. And for Global University as a whole, we're
looking for new opportunities, new ways to reach more people,
to advance God's Kingdom. Our decade goal by to Reach
(23:27):
by twenty thirty is to impact thirty million people for Jesus.
We're on target to not only meet that, to exceed it.
But why don't it be wonderful to see that doubled
or even tripled. And I know that's God's heart's desire
as well. Amen.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
We've been talking this week on Voice of the Martyrs
Radio with doctor Gary Severs. He is the president of
Global University. Their website, Globaluniversity dot edu will also give
you a link when you come to our website Vomradio
dot net. Doctor Severs, thank you for being our guest
this week on Voice of the Martyrs Radio.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Thank you for inviting me. It's truly been a privilege.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Well, it is our privilege to have you here, and
we thank you for that. If you are just now
joining us, you're gonna want to go online Vomradio dot
net and listen to this entire conversation. You're also gonna
want to go to the Global University website check out
what they can do to serve you, to deepen your faith,
to deepen your understanding of God's word. And I hope
(24:32):
you'll be back with us next week. Author John Weaver
loves Afghanistan. He's an expert on the country, he lived
there for a number of years, and he's going to
be with us next week to give us an update
on what's going on now that the Taliban has taken
over the country again and what that means for the
spread of the gospel. Please be back for that conversation
(24:54):
next week right here on the Voice of the Martyrs
Radio Network.
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