This article completes the report of evangelistic methods presented to and unanimously accepted by the executive committee of the Australasian field. Elder Anderson's visit to that field resulted in a broadening of ministerial Plans, some of .which are emphasized in this report.
These Plans are far reaching. They call attention to the various types of evangelists, and should be studied with particular interest by our conference leaders and evangelists throughout the field.—Editor.
The rural evangelist is usually a district leader, having the supervision of a number of scattered country churches. He pastors these churches and uses them as evangelistic centers, leading the members into action. With right planning he should be able to conduct at least one evangelistic effort a year, using either a tent or a hall. While his work will necessarily be diversified in interest, it is nevertheless concerned with one objective, namely, the adding of new members to the already existing churches, or the raising up of new churches in the territory committed to his care. This service calls for specially trained pastor-evangelists, and must not be permitted to degenerate into a mere house-to-house-visitation program. Just as every member of the church should seek to win others to Christ, so every church should covet the honor of fostering some new church. In some fields we have churches that have as many as a dozen other churches of which they are the spiritual mothers. This wonderful accomplishment has been possible because pastor-evangelists have led their congregations into aggressive evangelistic endeavor.
A city evangelist is a man who works in smaller cities, where the population might range from 12, 000 to 100,000. He has associated with him at least three workers and more if possible. These workers should be specialists in their fields. The evangelist, the singing evangelist, and the Bible instructor would comprise the nucleus of the team. In conducting his evangelistic program the city evangelist should hold at least four or five public meetings a week in some central hall, or tent, or tabernacle. Like that of the rural evangelist, his work would be to add new members to the church or churches, or raise up new churches in new centers. It surely should give us great concern that there are so many towns and cities where either we have no church at all, or its influence is so weak that the town is hardly aware of its existence.
The metropolitan evangelist is one who can go into a city the size of Sydney or Melbourne and outline for his team a three-year program of public evangelism, taking perhaps a central hall or theater for one or two nights a week, and from this center working out through the different suburban areas in a simultaneous program. He would conduct meetings six nights a week in different places over a large area, but combine those meetings in a co-ordinated plan, allowing the central Sunday night meetings to become the inspiration to all the smaller meetings. The smaller meetings in turn would become feeders to the large central meeting.
A metropolitan program requires a large team, but in turn it provides a wonderful opportunity for the development of younger workers. Schools of evangelism can be conducted under this program. The smaller efforts going on simultaneously, while all part of the central campaign, could be supervised by these younger workers, the superintending evangelist and the singing evangelist each giving valuable counsel concerning publicity, finance, and conduct of the meetings ,generally. Likewise the less-experienced Bible instructors could be guided and counseled by the supervising Bible instructor. The counsel of the Lord is clear concerning the importance of a large well-organized co-ordinated program for our cities.
"No less than seven men should be chosen to carry the large responsibilities of the work of God in the great cities. . . They must be men of prayer, who realize the peril of their own souls. What should be the work of these seven men?—They should investigate the needs of the cities and put forth earnest, decided efforts to advance the work."—Evangelism, pp. 37, 38.
"All have not the same talents or the same disposition. The workers differ in plans and ideas. . . . Let us remember that some can fill certain positions more successfully than others."—Ibid., pp. 103.
"One worker may be a ready speaker; another a ready writer; another may have the gift of sincere, earnest, fervent prayer ; another the gift of singing; another may have special power to explain the Word of God with clearness. And each gift is to become a power for God. because He works with the laborer."—/bid.. P. 99.
Notice the di fferent types of workers listed here. And these "workers in the large cities must act their several parts, making every effort to bring about the best results."—Ibid., p. too. Those results will be the fruit of blended service.
Seven men will not be too many, provided there is in the group sufficient variety of talents and that those talents are recognized. For big cities we need big plans.
"O, that we might see the needs of these great cities as God sees them ! We must plan to place in these cities capable men who can present the third angel's message in a manner so forceful that it will strike home to the heart. Men who can do this, we cannot afford to gather into one place, to do a work that others might do."—p. 38.
"With intense interest God is looking on this world. He has noted the capacity of human beings for service.
. . Truth will be made so prominent that he who runs may read. Means will be devised to reach hearts. Some of the methods used in this work will be different from the methods used in the work in the past; but let no one, because of this, block the way of criticism."—Review and Herald, Sept. 30, 1902.
Planning a large metropolitan program requires vision and experience. In commencing such a program, the executive committee should study carefully with the evangelist the whole financial background of the effort, and generous, wise provision should be made that the work proceed along financially stable lines.
Sometimes workers and laymen, with little or no experience, compare unfavorably the larger expense involved in the conduct of a metropolitan effort with that in a rural district. All such comparisons are odious. Larger bodies always move slowly, and it requires a much longer time to win men in a large metropolitan effort than it does in a small country town. In order to win souls in the more difficult and expensive city surroundings, we must reconcile ourselves to the necessity of making greater financial investment, in order that souls may be won. On this the counsel of the Lord is clear.
"It almost seems as if scarcely anyone dares ask a worker to go into the cities, because of the means that would be required to carry on a strong, solid work. . . . God desires us to lift our voices and our influence in favor of using means wisely in this special line of effort."—Evangelism, p. 42.
We do. not need to be overconcerned about the finances, for God will reward our faith if we move forward obedient to His call. Note this promise: "As surely as honest souls will be converted, their means will be consecrated to the Lord's service, and we shall see an increase of our resources."Ibid., p. 89.
Need tor Specialists in Evangelism
We are living in a generation in which specialists in every field are being developed. For our evangelistic program workers are required who have had specialized training in various fields. The Preaching Evangelist should be a specialist in methods of presentation of the truth. He should keep abreast of the times. If he is well informed, if he has the ability to make his messages clear, if he knows how to preach Christ and Him crucified, if his audience can feel the warmth of the love of God in his presentation, he is bound to have success. And if in addition to these essentials he has a thoroughly up-to-date equipment that will give dignity and strength to his work, then his success will be that much greater. He must keep abreast of the times in method as well as in information ; furthermore, he should have executive ability and be qualified to train and inspire his associate workers. Are we developing men with these qualities?The Singing Evangelist should be a specialist as a musician, choir organizer, and leader of congregational singing. In addition to his musical gifts he should be qualified in at least one other field of service. Publicity and newspaper reporting, youth leadership, secretarial and business management—these and other duties might rightfully come within the scope of his responsibilities.
The Supervising Bible Instructor should be a specialist in the psychology of counsel and personal approach. She should be qualified both by temperament and by experience to lead her associate Bible instructors into successful soul-winning endeavor. As the interest develops and takes shape, she should know how to tabulate and organize it, working very closely with the evangelist and watching that no interest be permitted to go uncared for. If she has had some office training, it will be greatly to her advantage. In our larger teams in some fields this supervising Bible instructor is given the responsibility of organizing the baptismal class. She gives the preliminary Bible instruction in the Pictured Truth series of studies, which has proved such an outstanding success in some places.
All enlarging programs of evangelism require frequent counsels between the workers. Such meetings of the team need not be long, but they should be frequent, in order to co-ordinate the work. And every plan must be bathed in prayer, for only that which is accomplished by much prayer will be fruitful in eternity.
As captain of the team the supervising evangelist will be constantly studying both his men and his methods to discover ways to strengthen the work of the group. And when, under the blessing of God, success crowns the efforts of the group, the team rejoices together. All true evangelism -is co-operative and not competitive.
THE PASTOR-EVANGELIST.--One of the most fruitful fields of soul-winning evangelism is that carried on by the pastor-evangelist. His work naturally differs widely from the regular evangelist, but it is of equal importance, and furthermore he must be a specialist. When God gave gifts to the church, the work of the pastor was set down on an equality with that of the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, and the teacher. Too often we have overlooked this and committed the sacred work of the pastor into the hands of workers who, although able to do good work in other fields, are nevertheless wholly unqualified either by training or by experience for this delicate business. Maybe an unsuccessful administrator or a broken-down evangelist or a returned foreign missionary is called to this delicate service and all too frequently some sustentation worker is called to fill this responsible office. Any of these workers might ultimately develop the necessary qualifications for pastoral work, but the fact that they have served the cause well in some other field in no way qualifies them for the most delicate work of all in the ministry. A pastor-evangelist is usually attached to a large central church, and, like the rural evangelist, he leads the members into evangelistic endeavor, using his church as the center.
Pastoring a church is a specialty, and for that work a man needs particular training. He must be experienced in all the wide field of church government. He must be a tender shepherd who can detect the wandering sheep, and before they have drifted too far from the fold, he must know how to reclaim them.
As a shepherd he is a watchman, a guardian, a guide, a companion; he must be a physician who can diagnose the spiritual infirmities of the flock and know how to heal the wounded. Above all, he must love the sheep. Of course he will feed the flock, for in the parlance of the farm, only a well-fed flock will give a full yield. Sheep expect to be shorn, but a carefully tended and well-fed flock will be worthy of all the investment a shepherd can make in the improvement of his knowledge. The hireling is all the time concerned about what the sheep will do for him ; the true shepherd, on the other hand, is all the time thinking of what he can do for the sheep.
We need godly shepherds, men who are expert in the psychology of counsel. Dealing with the human mind is no task for a novice. It is delicate and difficult work. The appalling losses to our cause every year challenge the leadership of the movement to study ways and means by which we can not only win new members but hold those that we have. Before a sheep is a "lost sheep," he is first of all a "wandering sheep," and that is when he needs tender and wise counsel. Too often our congregations are left to the mercy of men who are unqualified to lead them beside the still waters. This results in discouragement to the church and disillusionment to the worker, who awakens at last to the realization that his former experience in no way has qualified him for the challenge of new tasks.
More careful nursing and more skilled physicians and surgeons, as well as a nation-wide effort to reduce infant mortality, have greatly lowered the death rate and increased the average length of life by nearly twenty years. This was not accomplished by wholesale methods, nor by some particular campaign. The results could not have been attained without loving care for each baby, without which many would have died.
As Adventist leaders and lay workers, we can greatly lower the spiritual death rate among us, and we can do it by demanding greater skill on the part of our spiritual physicians and more faithful and loving care on the part of our spiritual nurses. If all our churches were spiritual hospitals and dynamic centers of healing, where wounded and weary, broken and bruised souls could feel that here was health and restoration, how wonderful would be the result!
Now, as perhaps never before in the history of the world, this is the hour for true shepherds. The world is broken and bruised, wounded and weary, and men need to be guided back to the Father's house. To prevent our losses and to inspire a sounder program of successful evangelism is the major concern of the leadership of this movement. May God help us to apply ourselves to the task, and by prayerful study lead the church of God into larger thinking and sounder planning in preparation for the outpouring of the latter rain.
