Thirty-Four counties in Minnesota with no church or company or Sabbath school within their borders, present a mighty challenge locally to those who have been given the marching orders, "Go ye . . . to every creature." There are scores of cities of prominence in the "entered" counties in which no Seventh-day Adventist evangelistic effort has ever been held. Moreover, there are churches among the sixty-five in our conference in which only gray-haired grandmothers remember an effort held in the long, long ago. How to meet this challenge to evangelism with a small group of workers, most of whom are centered in the Twin Cities, is our problem.
Most encouraging is the fact that our workers have a growing vision of evangelism. Instead of picturing our sixty-five churches as needy sheep which must be constantly shepherded, visited, and encouraged, we regard them as powerful allies in our search for souls. If our church members can be awakened to their responsibility for laymen's efforts, cottage meetings, and other aggressive efforts, the time and energy of our ministers will not be consumed upon the churches.
We have made a beginning. Last summer J. L. Tucker, pastor of the St. Paul church, held an open-air effort in Red Wing. A Sabbath school of thirty members was the result. We have moved a part-time worker into Red Wing. He is holding Sunday night meetings, and we expect a good strong church to be added to our number.
Already it is planned for Brother Tucker to enter Rochester, the city of Mayo fame, this summer. No effort has ever been held in this strategic center, and we expect a church to be raised up in Rochester.
Last summer two other new cities were entered with tent companies. Sabbath schools have been organized in both of them, and in one plans are already made for a church building.
At the same time our aim is to strengthen some of our weak churches. In one such in the north, A. S. Anderson held a summer effort. As a result, the membership was doubled, the church building was newly decorated, and new life and vitality have come to a dying church. This spring C. S. Wiest, with Brother and Sister L. S. Melendy, has gone into Owatonna, almost a childless church, and even the older pioneers are going one by one. We expect to see new life come into the Owatonna church.
In Minneapolis two new churches have been organized in the past year, one of them as a result of a laymen's effort; so we are not neglecting the cities while trying to extend our vision to the counties. In Minneapolis, L. S. Niermeyer for the English, C. Edwardson and N. R. Nelson for the Norwegian, and A. S. Anderson for the Swedish, are holding aggressive efforts; while in Duluth the conference president, assisted by Brother Anderson, is in the midst of a hall effort. Eighteen of our twenty-one ministers are now in active evangelism. -Besides this, several laymen are holding efforts.
To summarize our creed on evangelism, it is:
1. To strengthen our churches, not only by an occasional week-end visit by a minister, but by holding efforts for the winning of new members, and by urging our laity to hold cottage meetings or public efforts.
2. To have every conference worker engage in continuous evangelism in the proclamation of the message.
3. To use our conference president, department secretaries, and even our city pastors in these public efforts as far as their other responsibilities will permit.
4. To leave the "beaten track," and push into unentered territory, while strengthening the centers already established.
5. To preach! preach!! preach!!! and that preaching to be upon the basic troths of the threefold message.
St. Paul, Minn.
