The present wholesome emphasis on evangelism and the greater availability of funds for its prosecution have frequently resulted in a tug of war between conferences. It has taken the form of attempting to secure, on the one hand—and of endeavoring to hold, on the other hand—available evangelists of experience qualified to conduct representative efforts in our cities.
In the scramble to secure such workers, sometimes as high as four or five calls, from different sections, have gone to one man within a short time. It is obvious that such is not good for any worker. And to make the competitive invitation enticing, bigger budgets and more favorable considerations have sometimes been proffered as bait. Neither is that a wholesome practice. Moreover, when a key evangelist is moved, a series of moves is often started that is not only costly in money, but, even more important, very costly in lost time and broken inferests.
Some conferences, therefore, facing a difficulty or an impossibility in securing men of desired experience, have been forced to turn to some of their own younger workers of promise and obviously latent powers, whose advancement to city evangelism would normally—and perhaps properly—have been more gradual. In this procedure lies the hope of building up the effective man power of our conferences.
In a number of such instances the results have been most gratifying. These younger men are showing real strength, and experience is being added rapidly. Feeling their limitations and keenly conscious of the missing rungs in the ladder of progressive responsibility, these younger workers have sought and obtained help from experienced counselors.
This is the way to break the vicious circle of costly and sometimes disappointing long-distance changes and to reduce the spirit of rivalry. The conference that develops its strong evangelists out of local talent has accomplished far more than if it had secured a strong evangelist from a distant field. This is the time to evaluate, develop, and advance men of promise. It is the time to take risks on likely prospects. Every man who has achieved has started somewhere, with someone's risk. All honor to those who provided that opportunity !
We are caught with our present dearth of sufficient workers of strength because our plans have largely been along the lines of looking for the already successful in other conferences to
fill our local needs and thus failing to keep a line of supply developing from year to year. This has led to a gap in our ranks between our most experienced soul winners and those laboring in places of lesser opportunity. And, incidentally, an increasing number of our stronger evangelists have already passed the peak of their service, and some have had to drop out because of the intensive pace.
This same principle applies, of course, to others, such as pastors and Bible instructors. It cannot be too strongly urged, though it might seem repetitious-, that he who develops one strong worker has done far more for this cause, so far as abiding worker values are concerned, than he whose budget enables him to draw in several good workers from other conferences.
Let the good work proceed.
L. E. F.
