LAKE FOREST, CA (ANS) -- “Finish strong!” That’s the goal of Norm Nelson, President of Compassion Radio, a unique evangelical radio ministry that broadcasts 1,000 program releases daily across the United States and sponsors compassion projects in 31 of the toughest countries on earth.

Norm Nelson with personal bodyguard in Afghanistan

“It’s the globally-focused projects that give Compassion Radio its uniqueness,” Norm told me. “Jesus asked a very challenging question: ‘Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and do not do the things I say.’ We evangelicals are big on talk, but we often come up short on the doing. Talk is easy. Deeds are costly. That’s the disparity we are seeking to address.”

Norm, who turned 74 in mid-August, refuses to slow down where his activist approach to ministry is concerned. That also holds true where his commitment to learning is concerned.

He has just completed his first residency in the newly-launched Doctor of Ministry program at top rated Duke University Divinity School on its beautiful gothic campus in Durham, North Carolina.

Duke Chapel at Duke University Divinity School

According to Norm, “This is a demanding academic challenge, but it is no ivory tower experience. It focuses on leadership in ministry and it will help make me more competent on the job. The research component will enable me to be more effective in understanding and improving our performance at Compassion Radio, particularly in regard to engagement with Muslims around the world.”

The ministry of Compassion Radio is, by design, difficult. It is not the simple recycling of sermons for a radio audience, a very popular format in Christian broadcasting. Nor does it follow the talk show format which attracts high ratings with its emphasis on controversy in politics and theology.

Norm explains: “Compassion Radio is about participation in the mission of God in a suffering and fallen world. We’re not primarily concerned about attracting an audience of listeners. That orientation would lead us to talk about what people want to hear – that entertains them or makes them comfortable. Our concern – and we feel it passionately -- is to enlist agents of transformation committed to the power of the gospel and energized by the Holy Spirit. That’s a ‘tougher sell’ than attracting listeners a truth that the New Testament narratives about Jesus earthly ministry demonstrate.”

Given this call to costly sacrificial service on the program, Norm is encouraged by the recent growth of Compassion Radio. “Think about it,” he says; “Here’s an evangelical radio ministry that’s loving and serving Muslims in territory claimed by al-Qaeda in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Donations from our ministry partners are enabling us to work with refugees in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine, to teach church planters in Myanmar and carry out relief work in Bangladesh, Sudan (Khartoum and Darfur), Nigeria and North Korea. Lots of people see these places as enemies. We don’t. We see them through the eyes of Jesus. We embrace the love that the living Christ has for them. That’s a strategy that has transformative power.”

One added component to Compassion Radio the past few years has been interviews with notable authors, scholars and church leaders. Among those on a long list of guests are Jack Hayford, Stanley Hauerwas, Philip Jenkins, Tim Keller, Erwin Lutzer, Richard Mouw, Mark Noll, Lloyd Ogilvie, Eugene Peterson, Leonard Sweet, William Willimon and Philip Yancey.

Eugene Peterson, translator of “The Message,” and author of dozens of best sellers, described his conversation with Norm as “the best interview I’ve ever experienced!”

So, what connection does all this have to “finishing strong?” In Norm’s view, “Ministry is not my career. I don’t work for perks. Retirement is not a reward. Serving the cause of Christ actively is itself the reward. I love the adventure of following Jesus. What wears me out is timidity at the threshold of opportunity. There’s too much ‘spectatorism’ in American Christianity. Christ is building His Church in the world’s most difficult places. I want to be part of that. Let’s get in shape! Update our learning. Cross some borders! Let’s go. Let’s finish strong!”

Those words are not a delusional pep talk. Norm knows he has limits that are rooted in aging. In 2005 he had a heart attack in Northern Ireland. It took him almost two years to recuperate from complications associated with that attack. For months, he could not walk. Then in October of 2011 he had a mild stoke for which he was hospitalized.

As Norm acknowledges, those setbacks sent him a message. What was it? It was an “eschatological” (or, as they say in theology, an “end times”) message.

Norm Nelson with Dr. Wil Willimon, for 20 years Dean of the Duke University Chapel, Methodist Bishop and faculty member at the Divinity School

Norm comments, “I’ve learned that my time is short and that I was healed and restored to ratchet up the rate of ministry. I have more energy now than ever. My thanks to God for that physical restoration is to fulfill my calling with a greater sense of urgency, and a bigger vision of what God is prompting us to do.”

For Norm, that has involved traveling to Bangladesh, China, Cuba, Denmark, Egypt, Haiti, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Syria, Taiwan and Thailand.

This fall Norm and his wife, Cher, will be returning to Pakistan. All of this traveling is on Compassion Radio business. Or, better yet, on “Kingdom business.”

“We have to recover the adventure of serving Christ,” Norm concludes. “Christ was peripatetic here on earth, a man on the move. He challenged people, especially religious people. He overturned entrenched interests, smashed stereotypes, lavished compassion on outsiders and sufferers, forgave the unforgiveable and rose from the dead to give abundant life and hope to those who trust in Him.

“That’s the vision that motivates me. I’ve been an imperfect disciple. But I intend to ‘finish strong’!”

To interview Norm Nelson, call 1.800.868.2478 or email Info@CompassionRadio.com. Further information on Compassion Radio can be found at www.compassionradio.com 

Dan Wooding, 71, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 49 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS) and he hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on the KWVE Radio Network in Southern California and which is also carried throughout the United States and around the world. Besides this, Wooding is a host for His Channel Live, which is carried via the Internet to some 192 countries. Dan recently received two top media awards -- the “Passion for the Persecuted” award from Open Doors US, and as one of the top “Newsmakers of 2011” from Plain Truth magazine. He is the author of some 45 books, the latest of which is “Caped Crusader: Rick Wakeman in the 1970s.” To order a copy, go to: http://www.amazon.com/CAPED-CRUSADER-Rick-Wakeman-1970s/dp/1908728302/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335474883&sr=1-1 .