What is the divine pattern for evangelism?
"Are we following it? These questions can now be answered from the Spirit of prophecy volume just coming from the press. This book, Evangelism, contains inspired counsel which the whole world field will welcome. It is needed and is long overdue.
No work is so important as that of winning men to Christ. But to accomplish this work in God's way, men must understand His method. This volume contains instruction on the technique of evangelism. It is a book for study and prayer.
As we all know, evangelism has always held a paramount place in the advent movement. The very message we bear requires that it be proclaimed to every people in every land. We came into being to preach the everlasting gospel. We exist to herald the truth of the judgment. We must evangelize or die.
It was under the fire and passion of the great nineteenth-century awakening that we began. Great indeed were those days when fearless heralds of the gospel, interpreting the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, went forth in faith to proclaim God's message. Every available method was employed to aid them in their declaration that the hour of God's judgment had come. We stand aghast as we realize what was accomplished in so short a time.
Since those early days much has happened. That small and apparently insignificant people that emerged from the disappointment has now grown and developed until today we are a world-wide movement, preaching the message in hundreds of languages. What we are today, however, we owe to those men and women of courage and confidence who under the definite guidance of God laid the foundations of this mighty movement.
Those early pioneers had vision. They built better than they, knew. But they are no longer with us. Indeed, the second generation has well-nigh passed from us. In their loss we face a possible peril, concerning which we have been warned. It is possible for us to forget the way the Lord has led us. Shall we? If we do we will be without excuse, for no other people has been so signally blessed with divine instruction as this advent people. Messages concerning every conceivable feature necessary for the building of a strong work have come to us through the Spirit of prophecy.
How much we owe to the prophetic gift ! Policies have been made and patterns developed under the direct guidance of God. And these have shaped the movement which today belts the globe. No feature of our work, however, has received as much clear counsel in such minute detail as that of evangelism. Through the years we have profited greatly from the counsels on education, medical work, and other phases. These have been compiled in books covering specific fields of study. But until recently few realized the immense amount of instruction that has come to us from the inspired pen of the messenger of the Lord concerning the technique of personal and public evangelism. Most of this counsel has not hitherto been available to our workers generally.
In the early decades of our history a great deal of instruction came to us through the columns of the Review and Herald. Few today, however, have access to these early issues. Articles also appeared in journals which years ago were discontinued. But by far the larger body of counsel is contained in letters and communications to individuals and institutions. These are all on file in the vaults of the Ellen G. White Estate, now at the General Conference headquarters in Washington, D.C. Comparatively few have had access to this rich source material, and consequently, little use has been made of it in a direct way.
Realizing the great help and inspiration this would be if made available to the field, the Ministerial Association Advisory Council took action about two years ago, asking the White Estate for the release of such manuscripts as would be of help and guidance in the work of evangelism. This request granted, a committee on compilation was. authorized. A good deal of preliminary work had been done by individuals, but now a diligent and systematic study of all the published and unpublished files began, with gratifying results.
A marvelous body of counsel has been gathered which is now in process of publication. This special instruction on evangelistic methods will contain more than five hundred pages, of which not more than about fifteen per cent has hitherto appeared in book form. Printed on thin paper, this new volume will be about the size of Testimonies to Ministers, and just a little larger than Gospel Workers. It will be a companion volume to these excellent ministerial helps of the past.
The compilation of this book has been a major task. Thousands upon thousands of pages have been read and reread. Those who engaged in this work were conscious of their responsibility and prayed much for God's guidance. As we studied the instruction which came to preachers, churches, conference committees, and institutions, we found a wealth of material from which to draw, and again and again we were overawed in the realization that the God of Israel had surely anticipated our needs and had given us the very help for this important hour.
The classification of these materials has been almost as large a task as their selection, and they have been arranged under headings and subheadings to aid the reader in finding the detailed instruction he may desire. Publicity, preaching, harvesting the interest, the challenge of the great metropolitan centers of the world, our relation to the flood of new cults and philosophies which are sweeping the cities today, rural evangelism, institutional evangelism, personal evangelism, medical evangelism, and problems of the pastor are some of the few features dealt with. This volume is truly a rich source of counsel, and we know that it will prove a great inspiration to the whole field. Sometimes the instruction deals with the minute details of technique, leaving the reader amazed at the grasp that Mrs. White had of the whole program of soul-winning work. As God's messenger, she was remarkably qualified, both by experience and revelation, to give this instruction to the church. Principles of consecration and sound common sense are emphasized so clearly that although one may not be actually engaged in either public or personal evangelism, the counsel will, nevertheless, prove inspirational and opportune.
All our workers should study this book. It will be one of the volumes in the 1946 Ministerial Reading Course. Administrators and field leaders will find in it a challenge to larger planning. Evangelists and Bible teachers will discover in it both inspiration and correction.
In our eagerness to impress the truth we as evangelists have sometimes wandered unconsciously far from the divine pattern. No one must be blamed for this, because until now the amount of instruction in the field of evangelistic methods has been meager. The complete divine pattern has not been available ; consequently, our workers have too frequently been studying the patterns of men, patterns which have in instances been far from God's ideal for this people. But now a book is placed in our hands which covers the whole field of soul-winning work.
Evangelisrn--according to God's plan—comes to us at a time when it is most urgently needed. With the declaration of peace comes the challenge for a larger, more aggressive, and more spiritual program of world evangelism. This movement should be in the vanguard of all sound, soul-winning endeavor. It can be, it must be, and it will be, if our evangelism is according to God's pattern. As this volume is sent by the Ministerial Association to our evangelists and workers in all the world, we pray that it will bring to us all inspiration, redirection, and renewed consecration to our God-given task.