The watchword of the recent General Conference session was "the finishing of the work under the power of the Holy Spirit." It was a solemn session, and each speaker seemed to be weighed down With the conviction that there must be delay no longer ; that, regardless of the mounting obstacles, we must arise and complete our God-given task of world evangelization. This conviction was expressed in a resolution passed by the Conference, in the following meaningful language:
'The hour is late, far later than we realize. We are far advanced in 'the time of the end.' God is doing the last things of His closing message.' Everything about us. everything among us, gives clear and convincing evidence that 'the kingdom of God is at hand.'"
As an outgrowth of this conviction, and of the Evangelistic Council held just prior to the session, far-reaching plans were laid, looking toward a real advance in our efforts to reach the millions, who, as yet, have never heard the call to meet our returning Lord.
These plans included entering unworked cities, towns, and counties with evangelistic companies and colporteurs, and raising up believers in the message. They also included having all our church pastors and district leaders conduct one or more public efforts each year for those not of our faith; of administrators' finding time somewhere in their crowded program for an occasional series of evangelistic meetings; of holding interns primarily for direct evangelism, of developing scores of strong city evangelists, and of rallying the entire church membership in a great forward soul-winning movement. (The full series of actions appears on pages 6 and 7.) In the earnest introductory appeal that was addressed to our evangelistic agencies throughout the world, the delegates further stated:
"The hearts of the delegates from all the world assembled at this session of the General Conference in San Francisco have been sobered at the immensity of our task, startled by the momentous events taking place on earth, set ablaze by the staggering possibilities of this tremendous hour, and made newly aware that we are men of the most solemn responsibilities of all the long history of God's work on earth, charged as we are with the solemn, destiny-fixing mission of bringing to the attention of this generation of men the terms of God's last message to mankind before the close of human history. No former generation of men and no former servants of the living God have ever faced a crisis of such proportions as that which confronts us.
"Looking to God for guidance, we feel impelled to send forth to our workers and people everywhere a ringing call to rise and finish God's work, making no further delay, putting aside all lukewarmness, relying wholly on divine leadership, and marshaling all our forces and energies in a supreme endeavor to complete a work which should have ended years ago. Just as the nations are drafting every resource for the accomplishment of their purposes, so the time has come for this movement to assemble the united resources committed to us, calling upon both workers and people to enlist in a .great soul-winning evangelistic movement for the finishing of the work."
Some may say, "This plan includes nothing new, and that is true. It is just what we have been talking about and working toward for years. Over and over the General Conference in session and the Committee in Autumn Council have declared soul-winning evangelism to be "our most important work." Detailed plans have repeatedly been recommended to the respective fields; and some fields are putting forth tremendous efforts to carry the plans into effect. In this, some have been eminently successful, with the result that their membership has been greatly increased. But others have been slower to catch the vision of this larger work, and have been satisfied with mediocre results in soul winning. This calls for united endeavors and broader planning.
Perhaps the greatest difference in the program outlined at this session from those of former meetings consists in the fact that these actions call upon our executive committees throughout the world field to give evangelism first place in all their committee considerations. For instance, in planning the annual budget, the expense of public evangelistic efforts should be given "a preferred place." In many fields this has not been done in the past. Workers have been added to the payroll, and other seemingly necessary expenses have been provided for, to the extent that no budget provision for public-effort expense has been possible. Too often our ministers, instead of being encouraged to launch into large efforts, have been informed that there are no funds available for such meetings, and that if they undertake any aggressive work, they will have to find the money themselves.
If the recommendations of this General Conference session are followed, all this will be changed. Instead of treating the item of evangelistic expense as something unimportant, it would "be given a preferred place in the yearly budget." This item would then be placed in the "must" list, and would be well provided for, even though there might not be sufficient funds for all other apparently necessary items of expense.
Long ago we were urged by the Lord, through the Spirit of prophecy, to provide liberal support for our evangelists who go into the cities and towns and seek to interest the masses in the unpopular advent message. Theirs is a difficult task, and to accomplish it successfully, they must have means with which to make their work representative, and to advertise in such a way as to attract the attention of the people.
The time has passed for our tents to be pitched on the side streets and in the outskirts of towns and cities. We must get on Main Street. We must secure good halls, erect representative tabernacles, or provide other good places of meeting. But this requires money, and should therefore be planned for in the regular annual conference or mission field budget. The leader in one field recently said to me :
"We are very anxious for our men to do aggressive evangelistic work, but we just do not have the money for their expenses. When our budget was made up, we found that we had only $95 left for evangelistic expense. What can several men do with so little ?"
This is a good illustration of poor planning. That field had an estimated net income of some $45,000, and all this was available for use by the .committee. The difficulty was that every other conceivable expense was planned for first, before evangelistic expense was considered. Evangelism had to take what was left. How much better planning it would have been to have cut down somewhere else, or even to have laid off one worker, than to have practically nothing with which to carry on aggressive work in public evangelism. Said the Lord's messenger :
"Means must be invested in the work of saving men."—"Testimonies," Vol. V. p. 734.
"The work of saving souls is the highest and noblest ever entrusted to mortal man ; and you should allow nothing to come in between you and this sacred work to absorb your mind and confuse your judgment." "It is the worst kind of generalship to allow a conference to stand still, . . . and whenever it is done, God is displeased."—Id., pp. 371, 374.
Another outstanding feature of the recent recommendations made by the General Conference was "that each local field fix as an objective in soul-winning endeavor a definite annual goal of at least 10 per cent increase in membership." This looks toward real growth. Of course some fields can go far beyond the goal here suggested. Some can reach 15 percent or even 20 percent, in net membership gains. But each field is urged to make a to percent gain its minimum goal for the year, and this goal does not seem unreasonable. As a denomination, we have formed the habit of setting goals for almost everything. We have financial goals, attendance goals, lesson-study goals, etc.
Why, then, not a soul-winning and membership goal?
If every field throughout the world should reach even this minimum goal for the next four years, the reports at the next session of the General Conference would show a net world increase in membership of some 51,000, instead of 23,901, as was our record for 1940. At present, our gains are a little less than 5 per cent a year. Surely this is not sufficient, and we should immediately set ourselves to the task of much higher attainments in this all-important Matter of winning men and women for the kingdom of Christ. Our task and our responsibility are thus set forth:
"The vineyard includes the whole world, and every part of it is to be worked. . . . New territories are to be worked by men inspired by the Holy Spirit. New churches must be established, new congregations organized. At this time there should be representatives of present truth in every city, and in the remote Parts of the earth. The whole earth is to be illuminated with the glory of God's truth. The light is to shine to all lands and all peoples. And it is from those who have received the light that it is to shine forth....
"A crisis is right upon us. We must now by the Holy Spirit's power proclaim the great truths for these last days....
"It is the very essence of all right faith to do the right thing at the right time. God is the great master worker, and by His providence He prepares the way for His work to be accomplished. He provides opportunities, opens up lines of influence, and channels of working. If His people are watching the indications of His providence, and stand ready to co-operate with Him, they will see a great work accomplished. Their efforts, rightly directed, will produce a hundredfold greater results than can be accomplished with the same means and facilities in another channel where God is not so manifestly working."—Id., Vol. VI, p. 24.
Truly "the hour is late, far later than we realize." Let us arise and finish the work.
