The question of identifying the sponsors of our evangelistic endeavor is a very real one for any Adventist preacher who goes into the field to hold a series of meetings. For a number of years I worked on the plan of not disclosing my identity, but this created several embarrassing sit uations both for our evangelistic company and for our church members.
In the past we evolved plans as to what to say should anyone ask us who was sponsoring our meetings. The answer was veiled, of course, and yet we tried to avoid making any false statements. At best such a plan leaves much to be desired. Ministers who knew of our plan would almost surely attack us on the ground that we were delib erately working on a basis of deception. This charge was exceedingly difficult to refute.
For some years we worked on this basis, thinking it to be a satisfactory application of the ad monition to be "wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." Our enemies took advantage of it by tell ing their people that it was an approach "wicked as serpents, and harmful as devils." Once the idea obtains with the public that our program is not "on the level," and that some hidden purpose lies behind our meetings, we have an obstacle that is indeed hard to overcome. And sometimes we sim ply cannot overcome it.
A few years ago we had an experience which led to the adoption of an entirely new approach in our advertising. A very fine family were attend ing our meetings, and someone told them we were Seventh-day Adventists. When they asked us about it, we gave them the usual veiled answer, and they went on not knowing for sure just who we were. Later, after the Sabbath question was pre sented, they did not come back to the services. We made personal contact, and they told us they felt they had been deceived, and while it would have surprised them to know we were Seventh-day Ad ventists, they still would have come. But now they felt they had been deceived, and had lost con fidence in us. To lose this dear family and to be thus severely rebuked drove me to my knees. I asked God for help in working out a system of ad vertising that would not work in such a way, but would still keep up our crowds and give us many souls for our hire.
When we began evangelistic work in Florida, the conference president gave us his wholehearted support in working out this method. This gave us courage to proceed, though cautiously at first. To our surprise it worked out even better than we had hoped for. Consequently, I resolved never to go back again to the old system of veiling our identity.
In order to do this, we have not devised an elaborate system, but use a simple plan, trying to make it as tactful as possible. This plan has worked in large city efforts as well as in smaller places, and the results are most heartening. The effect upon our own people is most wholesome, and they enter into an effort with a new zeal when they find they are not encouraged to veil their identity.
On all our advertising we make a statement concerning the sponsors of our program. We attempt to build it up with a full picture of the great pro gram of which we are one unit, and give the impression that it assumes the proportions of the biggest thing in the world. And so it is! The following statement is placed in a small "box" at the bottom of each of our printed announcements, and is the sign-off announcement for our radio programs, in abridged form:
It is the united opinion that it was this approach here in Minneapolis that made the opposition of E, B. Jones ineffective and made it impossible for him to counteract our work successfully. One of his strongest arguments against the church is the veiling of our identity. This approach demolished his objection. All that he could say was that We "put it in small type at the bottom." But that objection carried no weight.
Advantages of This Approach
It might be well to list a few of the advantages gained by this approach. I grant that there might be those who will not come to the meeting knowing that it is Seventh-day Adventist, but on the other hand there are many more who will come since they know it is not Jehovah's Witnesses or some other such sect. I would much rather have people know we are Seventh-day Adventists than have them confuse us with Jehovah's Witnesses or some Pentecostal group, or have the preachers at tack us with the charge of deception.
The effect. upon our churches is electrifying. Over and over again experience has shown that they will give more, work harder, and be more successful in inviting their friends to the services if they can feel free to invite them to their meetings. It provides a source of encouragement to our own people, and to the conference workers who have been assigned to the effort.
Furthermore, by working on this basis we need not withhold our advertising until the day before the meeting opens, lest other preachers be fore warned. Even one day before the meeting opens is sufficient time for opposition to break out if we seek to hide our identity. By beginning our preparatory advertising at least two weeks beforehand we have time to meet opposition squarely by appropriate advertising of our own. It also affords more time for the people to prepare to attend.
Another benefit from this plan is that it causes people to want to find out for themselves-whether we are really as bad as we are supposed to be. Thus the attendance is actually increased. After our opening night service, statements can be heard on every hand: "Wasn't that fine? It wasn't at all like I thought it would be."
To identify ourselves does not necessarily give the speaker a denominational twist, any more than it does popular evangelists of other churches who tour the country under the auspices of various churches. Although it is true that we should avoid placing our message within the confines of narrow "denominationalism," it need not follow that we are so doing when we announce with care that our program is presented through the co-operation of the local Seventh-day Adventist church. In many areas the term "interdenominational" has been so abused by free-lance tabernacle men, that it has a stabilizing influence upon our work to identify our program as presented by an established local church.
The people who attend our meetings because of such advertising, are waiting for us to discuss sonic of our peculiar tenets. By carefully arranging an order of subjects, we have never lost our crowd after the Sabbath question is presented. These things do not come to the people as a shock, but rather as a beautiful unfolding of a precious truth. Decisions come easier, and people are more apt to stick to a decision which they have made in full realization of its import.
It is a proved fact that many of those in attendance at the meetings actually begin attending our churches on Sabbath morning before we speak on the Sabbath subject, because they have been impressed with our meeting. These are ready then to receive the Sabbath truth when it is presented.
Advertising our meetings openly leads many former Adventists to attend. They make themselves known to us, and in this way we are able to re claim many. It also aids in our getting in touch with people who tell us that such and such relative is an Adventist, or that their mother, or aunt, or some other relative was an Adventist before her death. The potential fruitage in this group is very apparent. We can recount scores of in stances in which souls were reclaimed that we might never have had except for the fact that these people were encouraged to come by knowing the meetings were Seventh-day Adventist.
We sincerely trust that these few words may prove suggestive to our fellow workers in encouraging them to labor in a more open way, and thus realize increased benefits that might otherwise be lost. To my mind the benefits of this approach far outweigh the comparatively light losses of those who will not attend because they know it is an Adventist meeting.
