The question-and-answer service is of marked value in creating interest and teaching truth in a series of evangelistic meetings. Some of its definite advantages may be listed as follows:
1. It lends interest to a series of meetings. People enjoy a wide-awake, right-to-the-point question-and-answer service. They enjoy the question corners in their newspapers and magazines, and listen with interest to the "Professor Quiz" hour over the radio. Our evangelists can, by proper use of the questionand-answer service, materially further the interests of their evangelistic meetings.
2. It enables people to secure help on the very point on which they need assistance. When a person writes out a religious question, he makes known wherein he is puzzled or troubled. This enables the evangelist to give information from the Bible that will meet the precise need. One question rightly answered may help an individual more than three or four sermons the evangelist might preach. And by having the name signed to the question, the evangelist can give further help to the questioner by mailing him literature, or by giving further information over the telephone, or by sending one of the workers to his home to elucidate further the point in question.
3. It aids the speaker in gaining the confidence of his audience. When you satisfactorily answer people's questions about religion, they unconsciously begin to have confidence in you. They recognize that you have worthwhile information to convey, and this helps prepare the way to lead them into the truth. People will keep on coming to the meetings through all kinds of weather when they are convinced that the speaker has worth-while information to impart.
4. It affords opportunity to clear up points the hearers may have failed to understand in the sermons. When Jesus preached to the multitudes, questions about certain points of truth arose in the minds of His disciples. Later they came to Him privately, asking to have these points explained. Likewise, when we preach on the great truths of God's last message, questions arise in the minds of our hearers on certain points that baffle them. Ofttimes when we are trying to teach them a special line of truth, they are thinking of a certain scripture which they believe teaches the opposite view. The answer service affords a golden opportunity to clear away these difficulties.
5. It gives opportunity to repeat the truth with increasing effect. Experience has proved that in order to fasten great truths in the minds of the people, the evangelist must repeat these truths over and over again from different angles. This is the way God teaches us truth in the Bible. In answering the question: "Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine?" the answer is: "Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line." Isa. 28:9, 10. The question-and-answer service affords an appropriate opportunity of repeating the truth. After you have preached on the Sabbath truth, for example, questions will keep coming in night after night about the Sabbath. This gives the evangelist opportunity again to drive home the Sabbath truth.
In the same way, after you have spoken on the subject of health reform, people who perhaps were not present that night will pass in questions concerning whether it is really wrong to eat pork, for instance. This gives the evangelist opportunity to cite again the scriptures on the matter of pork eating, and to drive home the point in an even stronger way.
In answering the questions that come in on subjects the evangelist has already presented, opportunity is afforded to bring in additional points on that subject, or to make the necessity for obedience to it stand out more clearly. Jesus told His disciples: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." When we first present certain truths that call for radical changes in one's mode of living, it is not wise to bear down too strongly. But when the truth is brought up again by certain questions which are sure to come in, the evangelist can press a little 'stronger on the point, and this carries the people closer to obedience on that point.
6. It leads people to be on time for the sermon. Some find it difficult to get the audience to come on time. An effective question-andanswer service preceding the sermon solves that problem. I believe personally that the question-and-answer service should always precede the sermon. Nothing should come in at the close to detract from the appeal that marks the climax of the sermon. I like the plan of using from ten to fifteen minutes for this answer service each night throughout the effort. We tell the people on the opening night that we shall appear on the platform every night thereafter at exactly a certain minute to take up their questions. And experience has proved that when that minute arrives, 95 per cent of the audience will be in their seats ready for the sermon to begin.
7. It furnishes a time for the ushers to go through the audience from night to night. They distribute program cards, address cards, offering envelopes, and offer books for sale on the subjects being presented. Each Friday night I follow the plan of passing out special offering envelopes to work up a large offering for the following Sunday night. I often call upon the ushers to distribute address cards to secure the names of the interested. And on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights they go through the audience to sell certain books that we recommend from the desk. While the ushers go forward with this, the evangelist is carrying on the service. If nothing were going on during this distribution, it would be very dull and tiresome for the audience, and thus the answer period affords an appropriate time for this.
8. It arouses interest in forthcoming subjects. Questions are sure to be handed in on subjects on which you will later preach. This gives opportunity to say just enough about those subjects to put the audience on tiptoe to hear them. For example, questions will come in concerning the mark of the beast long before you preach on it in the series. Of course you cannot tell them just exactly what the mark of the beast is, but you can quote Revelation 14 :9-41, and emphasize that God has pronounced the worst punishment He ever brings against any people on those who receive the mark of the beast. Every soul ought to determine that he is going to find out what the mark of the beast is, so that he may escape that most dreadful punishment. As other questions come in, touching future subjects, you can use them to arouse the greatest possible interest in forthcoming presentations.
9. It can be used to clear up the many objections that arise after the testing truths are presented. It is a good plan, as soon as the Sabbath is presented, to clear away the common objections that are always raised against keeping it. These can be handled at the rate of two or three leading objections each night, tactfully sandwiched in between questions dealing with other subjects, thus enabling the evangelist to keep on emphasizing aspects of key truths after he has passed on to other subj ects.
10. It makes an easy and effective approach to the introduction of the Sabbath question. I have found it helpful to prepare about ten questions calculated to arouse interest in the Sabbath question. We bring these on at the rate of one or two a night for about a week before we present the first sermon on the Sabbath question. The first of these are of a nature that can be answered without telling the people which day is the Lord's day. Then as other questions come in, we announce that we will devote the entire question period on a certain night sometime soon to these questions regarding which day is the true Sabbath. This arouses deep interest in the meeting for that night and has never failed to greatly in-cease the audience.
The night appointed is the one on which we present the first sermon on the Sabbath question. We have found it helpful to advertise the Sabbath question on the appointed night under some disguised title. Naturally all the Sabbath queries that have been brought up from night to night will bring out everybody who is directly interested in the Sabbath question. Then, the disguised title for the sermon will also attract another class of people who may not especially care to know about the Sabbath. This gives that particular meeting pulling power with both classes.
11. It gets people out to meetings on Sabbath before we ever preach on the Sabbath truth. We find that when we open a questionand-answer service at the beginning of a series of meetings, more questions come in than we are able to answer in the allotted time. Then, we announce to the people that inasmuch as so many questions have been passed in, we are going to devote an entire hour on Saturday afternoon, from three-thirty to four-thirty, to answer their questions. We do this two weeks before we ever preach on the Sabbath question. This leads a large number of people who are attending the meetings to come out on Sabbath afternoon, and gives them a start in attending Sabbath meetings.
Naturally, when the Sabbath truth is presented later, the fact that these interested people have been coming to the tabernacle for the two previous Saturday afternoons makes it easier for them to come out to hear the first sermon to be preached on Sabbath afternoon. In connection with this, we have found it a good plan on Friday night to read the questions that are going to be answered the next afternoon.
12. By means of planted questions, the evangelist can touch on any point that needs attention, such as dancing, novel reading, movies, the ordinance of foot washing, the matter of rebaptism, or any other point that needs attention, without having to preach a whole sermon on that question.
