I follow the plan of an extended workers' meeting each Monday morning to discuss the progress of the interest, to attend to the "paper work" involved in cataloging the names of the interested, and to study together the best plan and approaches to be followed in the homes for the week in view of the subjects being presented from the desk. Each worker is instructed as to typical objections and questions, also in the art of praying and studying with people. They are taught how to tactfully lead a soul and provide the necessary human support until that individual is not only baptized but built into the faith.
I request that each worker gather for a short counsel period and prayer session preceding each meeting, at six-thirty on week nights and six o'clock on Sunday nights. It is in this meeting that I give counsel on meeting the people and bettering the organization, and outline in detail what I expect to do that evening in the way of special offers or anything out of the ordinary procedure, as well as carefully instructing all the workers relative to planned appeals and aftermeetings. Under this plan no worker is caught unprepared. There are no embarrassments. Instructions do not need to be shouted from the platform, and the men and women attending are deeply impressed with the unity and ease with which the workers co-operate.
Such details as the way workers walk about, the value of sincere friendliness, the promptness with which the usherettes and workers respond at given moments without verbal announcement, all impress the thoughtful men or women. Such converts make backbone church leadership when finally won to the message. Many of them can trace their first impressions to the faithful, well-organized effort of a gospel worker.
It is a perversion of our holy calling in the training of young men to consider them as mere "flunkies." (Please excuse the expression, but it fits.) The conception of the young minister as to his work, the sacred and dignified nature of his calling, is either well established, or he is disillusioned in his first attempt in the organized work. Inspire a young man with well-placed confidence, wise counsel, and appreciation, and that young man will work and develop.
Sharing Question-and-Answer Period
I follow the plan of utilizing my associates in every possible public way. One plan that we have found to work well is that of sharing the questionand-answer period with them. I pass out the questions to the workers in sufficient time for them to assimilate the question mentally and prepare an answer. In our workers' meetings we urge the principles which make for success in answering these questions. Following are some of these suggestion:
1. A long, drawn-out period of questions and answers will kill any meeting.
2. There is a strong, concise, and interesting way of answering a question; and there is a weak, verbose way of doing it.
3. Cultivate the ability to concentrate the answer in a few short, crisp sentences which make the answer very, very plain.
4. To be clear is also to be convincing.
5. While we recognize that the power of rhetoric is dangerous, unless it is a vehicle for the truth, yet, since we can be certain that we do have the truth, we should study to use wisely this talent in the fear of the Lord.
6. I refer to Napoleon's instruction to his secretaries who relayed his messages, "Be Clear—Be Clear—Be Clear." Clarity and simplicity in answering a question, no matter how involved, should take precedence over every other homiletic device.
7. Genuine sincerity is demanded. Wholesome humor is legitimate, but not for the sake of humor alone, only that it might put the audience at ease and make Them one with you. We point out the grave danger in giving in to the inclination to say a thing merely to create a laugh. This caution, however, should not deter the young worker from being friendly, and developing the art of winning his audience by a sympathetic understanding of human nature.
I might go on discussing other principles and procedures, and how we try to build future evangelists. By participation in various features they develop confidence, and gather much of the same benefits in facing a large audience under supervision, as when an entire meeting is turned over to them. I find that the people of the community are pleased when they see a worker they know stand before the audience. Such a program strengthens any effort. We need not work on the principle that the evangelist must do everything, especially in these field schools. True, there should be a driving continuity to the message of the lecture hour. Other features, however, such as the question-and-answer period, afford an excellent opportunity in training men to do the very work that they will have to carry on when the evangelist leaves.
We decided to try using the Bible quiz idea described in the February MINISTRY. Ten short, simple questions on the Sunday night sermon topic were arranged in either true or false, multiple choice, or completion form. They were printed as a Bible quiz tally card, and passed to each person in the audience on the Tuesday night following the Sunday sermon. I allowed my young men to conduct this quiz. Never had I seen an idea take with such wholehearted enthusiasm on the part of the audience and the workers as did this. It afforded an opportunity for the young men to relax and get acquainted with the large group of people. Incidentally, we offered a booklet from the Pocket Companion Series to all who had correct cards. I made one question quite difficult, but yet not enough so to prohibit faithful listeners from occasionally receiving a gift.
I also utilize my associates in offering the evening prayer. It is a service to them to teach them how to pray an evangelistic prayer. I find that those who know how to pray an evangelistic prayer are better prepared for their Sabbath worship prayers as well. A long, tiresome, wordy prayer, abounding in overworked Biblical expressions and phrasing, falls on deaf ears in the evangelistic audience. Sport, simple, heartfelt petitions —remembering individual needs, the audience in front of the petitioner, the local city, the local ministry, and so on, as well as referring to the truth being presented—make up the acceptable evangelistic prayer.
One grave danger in a series of fifty to seventy meetings is that the prayers offered will, take on a sameness and repetition of thought. For instance, it is so easy to take as a theme for the opening prayer the thought in the theme song or prayer song which immediately precedes it ; and since this theme song is the same every night, the audience will soon wonder at the sameness of our prayers. Great thought, tact, and special wisdom should be called into play in the preparation of such a prayer. Young people, especially, should not be asked at the last minute to offer the evening prayer. Another point to be remembered here is to train our young men to speak so they can be heard, and to pray as though it were intended that all should hear.
(To be continued in November)
