It is not unusual for an evangelist to be located in a city where there is already a well-organized church. Here he is to conduct a strong campaign in order to increase the membership. Sometimes the evangelist, in his great desire to succeed, feels that he must take charge of the church as well, and it is not very long until the officers discover that their services are no longer required. Like good Christian people, they stand back, amazed at first, and rather stupefied. Because the evangelist has large crowds attending his meetings, they soon begin to think that this is the right thing for them to do, and for the time being they suffer from an inferiority complex.
This is a very shortsighted policy on the part of the evangelist, for although he may have no difficulty for a while, the time will surely come when the officers will rebel. Later in the campaign, when the attendance decreases and the time comes when the evangelist needs the help of the officers and church members to make his converts feel at home in their new church surroundings, he will find them wanting, and they are not to be blamed.
The evangelist would be well advised to take the entire church membership with him as far as possible in everything that he does to increase the membership. Otherwise the members will not receive his converts kindly, and when this is the case it will be found that the new members will not stay in the church long. Thus the work of the evangelist, although appearing to be successful, w ill prove in a very short space of time to have been more or less in vain.
Workers sometimes baptize and receive members into the church without the elder and the other officers knowing anything about them. This is a great mistake, and can only result in trouble as soon as the worker leaves the city. In the General Conference Church Manual, revised in 1942, we find this statement:
"The practice of baptizing converts at the close of an effort and passing a list of their names in to some church for admittance as members, is not in harmony with the approved usages of the church... Often when visited by the pastor or elders of the church, they are found to be uninstructed and entirely unprepared for church membership, and in some cases not in harmony with the principles of the church. . .
"The church should refuse to receive as new members any persons unknown to the church. . . . A minister should not ask a church to receive members on his personal recommendation alone. In preparing for the baptism of his converts, a minister should, if he expects a church to receive these people as members, invite the pastor or elders to become acquainted with his converts, and to visit his baptismal classes and take part in the examination of the candidates. Thus they will be able to certify to the church that the prospective members are ready to be received."—Pages 88, 89.
Let us build solidly, always maintaining the confidence of our old and experienced church officers and members. We need their help if the new members we bring into the church are to stand and withstand in the coming days.
