We have been instructed that when the minister has given the message to the people from the desk, his work has but just begun. The new members should be visited and established in the message before the evangelist leaves the community. It is essential for us to head this admonition. And I have been asked to present what appeals to me as an ideal way to help the new members become "rooted and grounded in the truth," so they will not fall by the wayside after the worker leaves.
Here in Olympia, Washington, where I recently closed an effort, God blessed with some ninety baptisms, most of the candidates being adults. On the first Sabbath that we invited all who were interested in the message to come out on the Sabbath, we were glad to welcome more than sixty. They had been urged to be at the church at 9:45 for the Sabbath school. We did not scatter these strangers by placing them in the various classes. Instead we organized them into a new large class, holding the group intact. I took this special class, and told them that we would not, at the first, study the regular Sabbath school lesson, but would thoroughly review with the open Bible the message that had been given in the effort. This class grew until we had as many as 150 in attendance.
One of the features on that first Sabbath was the learning of the books of the Bible. After spending a portion of the time for several weeks in drill, all could name the books without help. Thus they were prepared for real Bible study, with no time lost in finding the texts. So we took up the word of God and how to study it, the Sabbath question, the two laws, the Spirit of prophecy, the tithe, the state of the dead, the ministration of angels—in fact, all the essentials of the message.
The class had heard most of these subjects in the public meeting, but they got vastly more out of these Sabbath morning studies. They could ask questions and bring up queries and objections, and were led to see the truth in its beauty, to understand it, and to know the key texts bearing upon the subject. I feel safe in saying that these new members understand the message more clearly than a large percentage of the old members. Many of them can give a Bible study on almost any fundamental point of faith held by Seventh-day Adventists.
What has been gained by this class? Every new convert is a Sabbath school attendant, and I do not believe that ten of the group have been late to Sabbath school in the six months. They love the Sabbath school. They have learned that it is for every member of the church, and they have learned to give to missions. I believe they will not fall by the wayside as they might have done had they not been so thoroughly established in the truth. I am glad to write that we have lost but one out of approximately a hundred converts.
I have kept this large class intact now for nearly six months, but it will soon be divided into smaller classes, which will then study the regular Sabbath school lessons. There were but eighty church members when the effort started. We do not have teachers for all the new classes from among the older members, so we will have to draft some of the new converts who have a talent for teaching. They will make good officers and teachers, and are willing to work in the Sabbath school as well as in the church. I believe with all my heart that this special class for the new converts pays, and it is my purpose to conduct such a class wherever I hold an effort in days to come.
Olympia, Wash.
