OCI NAD Convention 2022: Mission Revival

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Outpost Centers International

James Hartley

The History and Role of Outpost Ministries

And so we went out to that outpost and that really worked really well with us.

The cities are to be worked from outposts, said the messenger of God.

Yes, but not by God's people living in them, but by their visiting them to warn them of what is coming upon the earth.

And so if we're going to be successful evangelizing the city from an outpost, we probably just don't want to be too far away.

Because if we're far, far away, the further you are, the less likely you are to come down to the city.

I visited some outposts that were really out.

So it took hours to get there down roads and, you know, GPS isn't working, can't find it, you know, and it's getting lost down gravel roads.

And I thought, no one's gonna find this place.

Well, you can think, well, I wanna be protected in the last days and I want safety and I want this and I want that.

And, but isn't that kind of self-focused?

So we're here for a mission, so we shouldn't be too far away, otherwise we'll lose our influence.

Did you have a- Yeah, it wasn't necessarily the case in that 1.

But it could, yeah, if there's a community there, yeah, sure.

Yeah, that's right, So maybe there's different kinds of outposts.

As long as there's a mission focus and there's a population around there to work, really important.

And so health, family, Morality, character development, all of this.

Just 1 last aspect before we move on is the warning of the impending destruction on the cities, okay?

Which is something that is taking place even right now, right?

I mean, examples of the main cities living on the coast there's a warning for that so Tampa right on the coast there hit really hard you know and so I mean that's the city just shuts down you know it's this this kind of thing is going to be more prevalent out of the cities out of the cities is the message the Lord has been giving me.

Earthquakes will come, floods will come, and we are not to establish ourselves in the wicked cities where the enemy is served in every way and where God is so often forgotten." So this is another reason, right?

There's just more, yeah, disasters bring a lot of confusion and panic, and cities can be very dangerous in those environments.

We even saw where cities can be shut off, okay, where you're kind of trapped in there and there's food shortages and it's just concrete everywhere and there's no food.

The grocery stores are empty to food within, you know, a few like hours, you know, the supplies are not there.

It's just not a safe environment, especially in the last days.

The Lord desires that we shall have clear spiritual eyesight.

We must be quick to discern the peril that would attend the establishment of institutions in these wicked cities.

We must make wise plans to warn these cities and at the same time live where we can shield our children and ourselves from the contaminating and demoralizing influences so prevalent in these places.

The time is near when large cities will be swept away and all should be warned of these coming judgments.

Oh that God's people had a sense of the impending destruction of thousands of cities now almost given to idolatry.

So the country place is a more safe place too, especially in this day and age, and the closer we get to Jesus coming, the more pestilence, the more natural disasters, the more trouble and economic trouble and so forth to the cities, it's just gonna just not be places to be at.

So you think, well I want to get as far away as possible, but So we need to be out, but we need to be still reaching them.

And a little distance, a few miles of distance, or 10, 20 miles, maybe 30 miles or so of distance, we can look at that distance later, but it can make a big difference.

Yeah, the spiritual growth, just another point on that.

Do not consider it a great deprivation that you must go into the hills and mountains.

She's saying, well, a lot of people from the country, I mean, in the US in the 19th century, before the Industrial Revolution, most people were living in the country.

And they wanted to go into the city for all the luxuries.

But now the mess was coming come out and people were complaining while they're saying I don't want it.

It's hard out there How am I gonna go back to the country and you know live there?

She said don't consider that a doubt like you're being deprived Okay, it is a blessing for you to get out of the city and back into the country even though it's not oh, it's not easy and especially, you know back then they didn't have all of the same kind of tools and machinery and things that we have today.

But there was an urging to not see it as a curse by God that we have to go back out to the country to the farm, but it's a real blessing, it's exactly what we need.

I urge our people to make their life work, to seek spirituality.

This is why I say to our people, do not consider it a privation when you are called to leave the cities and move out to the country places.

Here there await rich blessings for those who will grasp them by beholding the scenes of nature, the works of the Creator, by studying God's handiwork imperceptibly, you will be changed into the same image.

God's character is impressed in the nature all around us, and when you're just living that, I mean you don't have to do anything else but be there, your character gets molded and changed.

Yeah I even noticed, I think God was even working on my heart before I ever you know knew him or met Seventh-day Adventist.

I always felt like when I was in nature, it was just so much more calming.

And it was very attractive to me just to be out in nature.

And when I'd come back, sometimes I'd go on long backpacking trips.

And when we'd come back to the city, it was like a real, it took a mental adjustment.

It's like, wow, you know, things are a lot different.

The more you're in the country, you realize, you don't always see it.

But when you come out from the country and you're back into the city, you look around, you're like, wow, I'm having, It's almost like a culture shock.

That's that imperceptible change that God is making.

Another observation, just from my backpacking days, meeting people on the trail.

I've met people from all over the world on trails.

Hanging out in Chicago, downtown, I mean, even asking someone for the time back then, they would just walk right by you.

And it actually, it softens their character, and it makes us more like Jesus.

So just being there, you know, that's like the first step, you know, you don't have to do much.

Just have your kids there, the children, their characters.

God will develop their characters and ours just by being there.

Now we're going to be talking about the importance of being, We've already talked about the importance of being out.

So there's like this kind of tension of being out, but also close.

So there's like this balance of trying to know like how far out we should be.

So let's just look a little counsel on that.

From 1909, a period of time, but we're going to be looking at this from 1900 to 1909.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church was starting outpost centers all over the United States.

And it was the denomination leading out most of it.

And then you saw this emergent of supporting ministries coming out of this decade as well.

So there was a lot of counsel around this time period.

Let men of sound judgment be appointed, not to publish abroad their intentions but to search for such properties in the rural districts in easy access to the cities, suitable for the small training schools for workers and where facilities may be provided for treating the sick and weary souls who know not the truth.

Look for such places, notice, just out from the large cities, where suitable buildings may be secured.

So there's 2 phrases there we need to notice.

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The History and Role of Outpost Ministries

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