Former LU missions director speaks on obedience

In keeping with Mission Emphasis Week’s theme, “Rescue,” former Liberty University Director of Missions and current CrossWorld minister-at-large Jim O’Neill encouraged the student body to embrace “Operation Obey” in Wednesday’s convocation.

O’Neill emphasized that the way for believers to be a simultaneous witness to the local community as well as those abroad is to swim against the American ideology of individualism, and to call one another into obedience in what he calls as the “community of the not-have-it-together.” O’Neill spoke against discipleship as merely the passing of information, and called the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18 a community project, a “grand project of the ages,” fulfilled through the means of obeying and mobilizing together.

“We are the community of the lost and the found, we are the community of not-have-it-together, we are mobilizing together on our knees, calling people, the peoples of the flag of the nations to become followers of Jesus through the means of obeying the very commands of the Bible.”

Liberty partners with about 50 missions agencies and offers internships for students in all majors. Students are encouraged to meet with mission representatives during Missions Emphasis Week, which concluded Wednesday. At the end of convocation, Pastor Johnnie Moore introduced local mission representatives and mentors who work on campus and are available to meet with students throughout the school year — Paul Halsey (CrossWorld) (434) 380-5916, Glen Kurka (CrossWorld) (434) 509-3988, and Richard Schweinsberg (New Tribes) (434) 238-4636.

Jim O’Neill and his family served as church planting missionaries in the Philippines for 13 years before returning to the United States in 1995. For more information about CrossWorld, visit www.crossworld.org.