Effective Answer Service—No. 2

I prefer a printed card for questions, similar in phrasing to the one which ap­pears on page 44. The standard filing sizes 3 x 5, or 4 x 6, are preferable. This uniform question card lends dignity to the answer serv­ice, bringing it into keeping with the high type of evangelism that is really representative of our message. A group of these cards is easier for the evangelist to handle than a miscellane­ous assortment of various kinds and sizes of paper that people will use if something is not provided. The blank lines for the name, tele­phone, and street number enable us to get further information into the hands of the people. And ofttimes from these cards we se­cure names of the interested as we could not in any other way. We have also found that urging that the name be signed to the question, cuts off anonymous, caustic critics. The lim­ited blank space on the card automatically eliminates long, involved questions, and pre­vents people from trying to preach you a ser­mon through the question.

The card also serves four other useful pur­poses. Many people use the cards to write out their requests for (1) special prayer, (2) conversion of loved ones, (3) healing of the sick, and (4) additional Biblical instruction in the home.

We provide neat wooden or metal contain­ers on the posts of the tabernacle, and keep them filled with these cards. On the opening night, we call the attention of the audience to these containers, and announce that we are going to devote twelve minutes each night just before the sermon to answering Biblical questions, beginning with the next night. We tell them that there are three ways by which they can pass in their questions. We suggest (1) that they drop them in the collection basket if they desire, (2) leave them at the bookstand, or (3) hand them to the usher to bring to the speaker during the answer service.

On the second night I have four questions already prepared. At the precise moment an­nounced I step forward and remark that we are now taking up the questions. I have one of these four prepared questions with me in the desk, and the other three are in the hands of three ushers, with instructions to bring them for­ward to the speaker when he begins with the first question. By the time I have read the first question, the first usher has walked up in sight of the assembled audience and handed me the second question. Then before the an­swer to this question is finished, the other two ushers have walked up with two more questions. This readily starts the people with their part of the program. They immediately begin to take the question cards from the con­tainers and send up their questions.

General Suggestions and Cautions

1. All the answers should be right to the point, concise, and clean cut. Long, rambling answers will kill any question-and-answer service.

2. The most effective way to answer a ques­tion is ofttimes to turn and read the answer from the Scriptures, without any comment by the evangelist. For example, we often get the question: "Why don't you take a text like other preachers in place of skipping all around the Bible, taking here a little and there a little?" The most effective answer to that question is simply to read Isaiah 28: 9, 10, without any comment of our own, giving particular emphasis to the phrase "here a little, and there a little." In the same way when the question, "Is the soul something that never dies?" comes in, the best answer is simply to read Ezekiel 18 :4, placing emphasis on the clause, "the soul that sinneth, it shall die."

3. Answers should always be kind and cour­teous. I like to tell the people that religion is the last thing in the world to fall out about, and that if our answer to their ques­tion is directly opposite to what they think it ought to be, we are still friends just the same.

4. Answers should always be given in as ear­nest, serious, and dignified a manner as is the sermon. The answer service has been brought into disrepute by some, who make it an occasion for wisecracks, jokes, and levity. This is all wrong. We believe the answer service should be conducted in the same dignified manner as the sermon itself.

5. When a question touches a future sub­ject, do not disclose your position on that subject, but plan to say something that will arouse further interest in the subject.

6. When a question comes in that you prom­ise to answer fully in some succeeding sermon, always be sure when you come to that sermon to take up the question at that point, and say, "Now here is the answer to that question somebody asked some time ago." We have found it helpful to prepare certain questions for certain nights that will arouse great inter­est in forthcoming subjects.

7. I answer only two or three short ques­tions on Sunday night, as that is a heavy night in the effort.

8. I believe it helpful to preserve good questions on file. We ought to be on the lookout for interest-arousing questions. Through care­ful study and planning, the question-and­answer service can be made to play a most important and worth-while part in an evan­gelistic series.