Warned by prophecy-fulfilling developments about us that we are in the very closing days of the long-foreseen and eagerly-awaited "time of the end," burdened with a sense of urgent personal need, yearning for an adequate preparation to meet the requirements of these solemn times, realizing that our fitness for the supreme task of finishing God's work on earth must come from Him, and believing that the time is fully here when all the resources of this movement, including the time, the energy, the means, the talents, both natural and acquired, of our laity as well as of our ministry, should be utterly devoted to the proclamation of "this gospel of the kingdom," so that earth's perishing millions may learn the way of salvation, and hear the closing message of the gospel; and,
Seeking to put into effect the call of God to His ministering servants to put first things first, not hovering over the churches, nor consuming upon the saints our strength and time that belong to the work of saving sinners, and to lay upon others such responsibilities and burdens of local church activities as have been absorbing our energies, taking our time, and preventing us from carrying forward the work of our great commission in a larger evangelism, many of which can be acceptably carried by trained laymen; and.
Determining to follow more closely the divine pattern for planting, fostering, and maintaining Christian churches, as set before us in the Bible and the Spirit of prophecy;
We pledge ourselves and will endeavor to lead our churches to certain definite objectives in a great, all-inclusive, denomination-wide program of soul-winning evangelism, with the purpose of enlisting every church, every activity, every organization, every group, every department, every person, every talent, every gift, and every resource of this entire movement in one great evangelistic advance, praying God to use this to bring to a triumphant end His saving work among men.
Among these objectives which we will ask our churches to join us in making effective, we are placing first the apostolic plan of training churches to care for their own interests, carrying forward their own work to a much larger degree than heretofore, supplying their own needs, officering and supervising their own activities, thus releasing the minister for ever-advancing evangelistic endeavor in new and unentered fields, while themselves becoming evangelistic agencies in their own surrounding territory.
We recognize, however, that the pastoral gift is equally a gift of the Spirit with that of the evangelist. While all churches should remain under the general supervision of the divinely-appointed ministry, and some of our churches will require the continued shepherding of a minister definitely assigned to such a post, every effort should be made in such a case so to arrange the work and distribute responsibility that the pastor shall have time and opportunity to lead his congregation in a year-round evangelistic program, the church being encouraged to recognize that its chief purposes are those of soul winning, and the building up of its membership in the faith.
We believe it unwise to make the contemplated change, and shift all possible responsibilities to lay shoulders, without careful preparation and without applying every precautionary measure to ensure that no present approved activity, campaign, or program shall suffer or be impaired or injured in the transfer, but that again the apostolic methods shall be -followed Of preparing the churchto stand alone, and training leadership in each church to enable it to carry forward its work strongly and efficiently, and that ministerial supervision, shepherding, and visitation continue after the apostolic example, even while the minister is laboring in other fields. "The care of all the churches" never was lifted from the apostle Paul, even though he never permitted any church to keep him from going on to raise up other churches.
While we pledge ourselves to continue to contribute to the success of all the yearly campaigns which God has made such blessings to this movement, not diminishing our personal efforts, we will more earnestly seek to enlist the cooperation of our church members and officers to take over the responsibility of the management, leadership, and organization of these campaigns so we may not be unduly drawn away from our important work of evangelism, "the ministry of the word and prayer," thus approximating more closely the original purpose of these activities.
We believe one of our most important contributions to the success of this program will be the searching out of leaders in our churches, the training of these leaders to carry responsibility, and the definite placing of responsibility upon them when trained, and then encouraging them to obtain in actual experience and service the benefit of constantly enlarging efficiency. We will adopt the other apostolic policy of making ourselves largely unnecessary to the churches while training them to do without us, instead of encouraging them to depend upon us.
Further, we believe this plan of shifting responsibility and of laying more and more management and leadership of local church activities upon the laity, is of such vital importance to the advancement of our soul-winning work that it should be brought to our people in the most solemn and emphatic way through the proper channels. Therefore, we, as a body of evangelists and leaders, request the General Conference Committee to take this matter under advisement, with the view to taking such action as may be necessary to lead our people into a real advance move to carry out the plan herewith set forth.
General Conference Committee Approval
Voted, That we approve of the statement on evangelism which has been submitted by the St. Louis and Philadelphia Evangelistic Councils; and,
"We recommend, That union and local conferences lay definite plans to hold church officers' meetings for the thorough training of local church officers, Sabbath school, home missionary, and Missionary Volunteer officers, and other church workers, to the end that the lay leadership of our churches may be greatly strengthened, and prepared to carry more responsibility in the detailed administration of local church work, thereby rendering far greater assistance to ministers and pastors, and thus, without weakening any of our campaigns or other church activities, making it possible for the ministers and pastors, while giving general supervision to the work of the church, to carry on aggressive public evangelistic effort throughout the year.
"Voted, That we ask the officers of the General Conference under the chairmanship of the vice-president for North America, to develop and promote plans for carrying the above recommendation into effect."—Minutes of General Conference Committee, Jan. 24, 1935.
