The Great Commission is given in Mark 16:15 (NKJV): Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” and in the other 3 Gospels:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, … teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you …” Matthew 28:19-20 NKJV
“… repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” Luke 24:47 NKJV
“So Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.'” John 20:21 NKJV
From the pulpit of our Bible believing church, pastors trained at Moody Bible Institute preached Scripture-saturated messages from the time I was two weeks old through my senior year in high school.
Scripture Press publications – “The whole Word for the whole world” – provided consistent challenges to pray and respond to “The Great Commission.”
Learning about the Christian Airmen’s Missionary Fellowship through an article in Sunday magazine by Charles Mellis Jr., I was intrigued. Because only pilots and official student pilots could join, I took my first official flight instruction on my 15th birthday to qualify to join CAMF, soloing at 16.
February 1948, my Mother attended Moody Founders Week and brought me a copy of Youth for Christ magazine.
That fall, pastor Charles Pedersen contacted other Bible believing pastors to prayerfully consider helping establish Mt. Carmel Youth for Christ. Each chose two teenagers from his congregation for the steering committee. Don Brown and I represented Grace Memorial; First Baptist Pastor J.C. Greer recruited his daughter Mary and a deacon’s daughter. Other cooperating churches included First Methodist, Free Methodist, Church of God, Assembly of God, and Evangelical United Brethren. The first rally was December 4, 1948 at the Masonic Hall.
Dr. Elmer Towns wrote: “A church is an assembly of born-again believers in whom Christ dwells by the Holy Spirit, an assembly that exists for the glory of God, under the discipline of the Word of God, and spiritually prepared to carry out the Great Commission.”
Just before ascending into Heaven, Jesus said to His disciples: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8 NKJV
My senior year, my pastor invited Charles Mellis to conduct a Sunday night service at Grace Memorial to share the story of missionary aviation. By then Mary Greer and I were dating, and her pastor father allowed her to attend with me.
Mary and I married June 18, 1950, moving to Greenville, South Carolina where I enrolled in the mission aviation and practical Christian training program at Bob Jones University.
Soon I was serving as associate director each weekend of Hendersonland (North Carolina) Youth for Christ. We hosted two graduating seniors: Kenny Joseph, going to Japan; and Virgil Zapata, launching The Evangelical Schools of Central America in Guatemala.
Mary and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary in 1951 at Mission Aviation Fellowship headquarters in Los Angeles, meeting with Charles and Claire Mellis.
Graduating from BJU in 1954, I continued serving the Lord, placing roadside missionaries along busy highways with the message: “Believe on Christ.”
In 1961, I became advertising/circulation director for Youth for Christ magazine, creating the concept “Teens Are Most Important,” introducing the challenge “Christ through you can change the world!”
Later, joining Word in Waco, Texas, we launched a campaign with Youth for Christ directors to distribute the album “Teen to Teen Around the World,” featuring music by the Youth for Christ International Teen Teams.
The key song was “So Send I You” by John W. Peterson and Margaret Clarkson: “So send I you to take to souls in bondage the Word of Truth that sets the captive free, to break the bonds of sin … So send I you to bring the lost to Me. As the Father has sent Me, so send I you.”
The backliner states: “Teams have been in Europe, the Near East, Asia, South America, the Mediterranean, New Zealand, India, and Africa. No doors have been closed to the teams and entire countries have felt their impact.”
Teenagers trained through TTT Christian Youth Ministries have taken the Gospel to all populated continents.
TTT alumni and others are implementing “God’s global go.” Every aspect of TTT exists to help accomplish the Great Commission.
When you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you can pray and respond to God’s global go. “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” John 14:13-14 NKJV