If we had a list of all the lines of work and activity to which men today are devoting themselves, it would be of almost endless length. If you were handed such a list and were asked to place at the top of the list the two most important matters in the world to which a person should devote himself, what two would you write? Surely we would all agree, in the light of the prophecies of God's Word, that the two most important matters in the world to which any man can devote himself are, first, being ready himself to meet the Lord, and, second, helping others to get ready.
As workers and leaders in the advent cause we need an "understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do." How can we have a true realization of these times? These last days are like the days of Noah before the Flood. Among all the multitudinous matters that engaged men's attention and effort in Noah's day, there were two things that were more important than everything else in the world. What were they? Being ready for the flood, and helping others to get ready. Nothing else at that time really counted for anything in the end.
These two objectives naturally go together. If a man is ready to meet Jesus he will be doing all he can to help others to get ready. He cannot do otherwise and deliver his own soul. If, as a faithful watchman, he warns those around him of the coming of the Lord and does what he can to help men to get ready, God says that he has delivered his own soul. But if an Adventist fails to warn men of what is coming, and makes no effort to help them to be ready, they will be unprepared and lost. God will require their blood at our hands. How sad it is that so many Adventists, and even some of our ministers, are doing little or nothing to help anybody to get ready!
The Lord Jesus makes it plain in Matthew 24 that the wise servant, who is ready for His appearing, is the one who will be found giving the people meat in due season, or the truth for the times. If Adventists ever had a call to a greater evangelism, they have such a call now. The nearer we come to the close of probation, the more important evangelism becomes. The world-shaking events of the last few years proclaim in thunderous tones that man's day is about over and the great day of God is about to begin. Men's chance of being saved is being narrowed down with every passing day.
We have been told in Gospel Workers, page 29, that "hundreds are waiting for the warning to escape for their lives." What a pity that we are so slow in getting the warning to them ! A leading clergyman on the Pacific Coast, in speaking of the swift-moving events of our day, said, "We are desperately in need of a new perspective. We need an interpreter and an interpretation. If men will not think now, they will never think again."
God has given us a message which contains the only true interpretation of the present unprecedented situation. That message alone explains the destiny toward which our world is so swiftly moving. It shows the only way out. There has neyer been an hour, since the rise of the third angel's message, when that message was so perfectly suited and adapted to current conditions as it is now.
In a time like this we ought to have, in the North American Division, five hundred strong evangelists holding large city efforts—men who would mightily stir the multitudes with God's warning message and win thousands to the Lord every year. The question comes, Why do we not have five hundred or more? Or as our General Conference president once asked, "Where are the Pauls today ?" Why is there such a scarcity of men who can put on strong, successful efforts in our larger cities?
We could have had, and would now have, hundreds of strong city evangelists, if we had been training men for evangelism, but too often our young men with ministerial training have come out of our colleges, to be placed under the burden of the promotion program in the churches. Often their internship period has provided little or no opportunity to prove their calling as soul winners. Should we not be asking ourselves, "Is our method of ministerial training making 'fishers of men' ? Or have we swung away from God's primary purpose for the ministry in utilizing the time and energy of the majority of our ministers in pastoring churches ? Have we forgotten our commission to 'go and make disciples'?"
One Reason for Lack of Progress
The Spirit of prophecy has definitely pointed out that it is not God's plan to have our ministers burdened with the cares of the church, spending their time looking after the details of church business, to the neglect of taking the truth to those who know it not. This is surely why we have not made the progress we should have made in finishing our work of witnessing to all the world. We read in Volume VII of the Testimonies: "If nine tenths of the effort that has been put forth for those who know the truth had been put forth for those who have never heard the truth, how much greater would have been the advancement made !"Page 18.
Our work might have been nine tenths nearer completion today if nine tenths of the effort that has been put forth for those who know the message had been bestowed upon souls who have never heard the truth. And if at the same time the churches had been actively enlisted in communicating the truth to those in darkness, the churches themselves, even without constant ministerial help, would have been ten times as strong as those companies which have depended entirely on the minister to impart to them constantly and instruct them.
This is not some uncertain evaluation of mine, but rather the authoritative voice of the Spirit of prophecy. In a chapter entitled "Hovering Over the Churches," in Testimonies to Ministers, we read, "The time you devote to imparting constantly to those who understand the message of warning, will not give one tithe of the strength which they would receive in taking hold of the work to communicate life to save perishing souls." —Page 232.
What, then, shall the church do to meet the compelling evangelistic challenge of this closing hour ? The following eleven points are suggested :
How to Meet the Compelling Challenge
- The enlisting of our ministers and other workers, the laity, old and young, and our colporteurs, in a world-wide, concerted, co-ordinated evangelistic advance, to quickly gather out every sincere soul who will receive the truth.
- The training of churches to care for their own interests, carrying forward their own work to a large degree, supplying their own needs, officering and supervising their own activities, thus releasing the ministers for ever-advancing evangelistic endeavor, while the churches themselves become evangelistic agencies in their own surrounding territories.
- Plans for the immediate holding of every possible public effort.
- The setting apart of more ministers exclusively for the task of year-round aggressive evangelistic efforts.
- Instead of demobilizing young ministers from aggressive evangelism by making- them pastors of large churches or by putting them over districts, let us take the young men who have successfully conducted public efforts in the smaller cities and begin to step them up into larger efforts.
- Revamping the use of ministerial interns, so that each ministerial intern will be connected with four public efforts during the two years of his internship, two of which will be headed by him.
- Enlarging the scope of instruction in evangelism at the Theological Seminary, so that courses would be offered in public evangelism, pastoral evangelism, and advanced city evangelistic methods.
- Supporting the course at the Seminary for the training of Bible instructors.
- Arranging for certain of our evangelists to visit our colleges to lecture on the importance of evangelism, that more of the keenest minds among our young men and women may be attracted to the ministry and the Bible work.
- The enlisting of ministers who are not engaged in public evangelism, in holding several neighborhood Bible schools a week with groups of interested persons. Effective work can be done by organizing the lay members to cover certain residential sections with literature from week to week, for the purpose of gathering out interested persons for Bible schools.
- The training of hundreds of lay ,preachers and other qualified laymen and young people to utilize the Bible school plan of evangelism, consisting of the systematic distribution of literature, and following up the interest with weekly Bible schools for the interested.