George Burnside (Auckland, New Zealand) : I have been very much interested in this discussion. Altar calls and aftermeetings are methods that had never been tried in New Zealand, but I tried them. I did not know anything about it, but was amazed at the results. The first time I made an altar call I got an excellent response. This was in the capital city of Wellington. It was on a Sunday night, and about two thirds of the audience participated. I came over here with one thing in mind, to learn how to make altar calls and hold aftermeetings.
QUESTION: Do you ever make altar calls on Sunday night? Do you make an altar call on the first Friday night?
J. L. SHULER : I do not believe in making altar calls on Sunday night. In large evangelistic meetings I have altar calls at the Sabbath afternoon meetings, for the people who attend these meetings are interested, and you can do things on Sabbath afternoon that you cannot do at other times. An altar call gets people down to the front, and after you get them down to the front they are glad to stay for twelve minutes in the aftermeeting.
On the second Friday night the sermon is merged into a general altar call, with the people standing, and while a hymn is being sung they are invited down to the front. They come down to the front on this general altar call. Then the altar call is followed by the first aftermeeting of the series.
W. A. FAGAL (New York City) : I have been using the aftermeeting for the last year in a little different way from the method described by Elder Shuler. I have found it to be a great success. I am working in a very conservative place. I was really surprised to find that people in New York City are so conservative. Altar calls in that city have a stigma attached to them. If I make altar calls and try to get people to come up and form a prayer circle, I find it does not work. But I rather appeal to them to have a little prayer service after the meeting. There is nothing like an altar call involved in it, but we have hundreds stay after the meetings for a season of prayer.
J. L. SHULER : I use the altar call only one time. That feeling against altar calls is rather widespread, and is not confined to New York City alone.
A. C. FEARING (Trenton, New Jersey): I operate much as Elder Fagal does; however, I do have special altar prayer calls, but wait at least a month before beginning them. Of course, almost from the start I have had the people raising their hands progressively from night to night, and then in the special prayer call I try to fit the appeal to every experience of their lives. Among the texts I use in these appeals is Matthew 18:19, inviting them to join with me in a special way as we stand together around the altar to fulfill this covenant in prayer. Each one standing is one, and I am one, making the two of the covenant in this text.
I believe in aftermeetings and have used them with satisfaction. In New Jersey, however, I have utilized this method only occasionally, but plan to use it more in my next series. The aftermeeting group becomes a serious, consecrated nucleus for future baptismal classwork.
In this matter of public calls and decisions, I am still old-fashioned enough to stand in front of the people on Sabbath afternoons, on a level with them, and invite those who are willing to take their stand and keep the Sabbath, to come to the front. I can do this, because on Sabbath afternoons we have a special interested group. I feel that those who take their stand publicly at these Sabbath afternoon meetings know what they are doing, and they are stronger for their public stand.
DAN DIRKSEN (San Diego, California): I have worked with men who were rather afraid to make calls, but I started on my own and tried it. Every time I made a call, there were those who would come. Seeing these coming forward gave others courage to come also:
A man who had been preaching twenty years once said to me, "I feel afraid that people will never come." But you may be pretty sure that when you make the call, someone is going to come. I held a meeting last year, and when I made a call on the Sabbath, sixty came forward. Keep the interest rolling, and you will have people coming in.
F. A. DETAMORE (Southwestern Union): Once in a while we hit an icy spot with an altar call. It shocks us not to be able to thaw it out immediately. There is one thing that helped us in a campaign in Kansas City, and we have used the plan in other conservative places. When I would see that people were not responding to the call, I would say, "Perhaps you did not understand the call. I want all to come forward who believe in God at all." Usually those who are still sitting do not wish to be classed in the infidel group, and they will come forward.
Topic: Sabbath Afternoon Meetings
CHAIRMAN: When do you start the Sabbath afternoon meeting? How do you get people to come? Does this grow out of the aftermeeting?
J. L. SHULER: I start my Saturday afternoon meeting the second week. I use my question-andanswer service overflow, for this gives me the basis on which to start with the question box. In one of our campaigns we had 300 non-Adventists out to hear the questions and answers. After three of these services we have five Sabbath afternoons of preaching. If you can get people out three times to hear questions on Sabbath afternoon, you have established a congregation who simply graduate from questions to the sermon. The after-meeting gives opportunity to stress the Sabbath afternoon service, and you will find that a large percentage of your Sabbath afternoon attendants come from the aftermeeting you have just held on Friday night.
W. A. FAGAL: I have used the Sabbath afternoon service to conduct a Bible class in a study of the book of Revelation. I use it as a means of getting people into the habit of coming to the church after the presentation of the Sabbath question.
E. F. KOCH: Up to the present time I have been conducting Sabbath afternoon services, beginning the first Sabbath following the presentation of the Sabbath question. I include those who desire to keep the Sabbath and members of the local church.
Every Sabbath afternoon I make a definite call at the close of the sermon, which is a definitely spiritual sermon, asking those to stand who wish to make a decision for Christ and His Sabbath.
LEON ROBBINS (St. Louis, Missouri) : I have tried various methods. I like to wait until I preach on the subject of the Sabbath before I begin my Sabbath afternoon meetings. I like to preach on the Sabbath in a comprehensive way—on the foundation of the law, explaining the moral conditions in the world and their relation to God's law. During the war, when many people thought Hitler was antichrist, I used to furnish proof that antichrist had already appeared in Europe. After a Sunday night sermon on antichrist, I follow with Sabbath afternoon meetings on the mark of the beat, etc. People come out to these meetings, and eventually join the baptismal class.
A. C. FEARING: I start my Sabbath afternoon meetings on the second Sabbath. I get an interesting title, and build up the interest in as fascinating a way as I can. Sometimes you can get people out who cannot come on week nights, but are free on Saturday afternoons. I like to have good spiritual meetings for four or five Saturday afternoons before I make a call.
D. S. OSGOOD (Indianapolis, Indiana) : I hold Sabbath afternoon meetings to disarm the people. I just want them to get used to the idea of going to a religious service on the Sabbath. We have the service for several Sabbath afternoons in the meeting hall, and gradually I get them accustomed to the idea of moving to the church. This helps them to become acquainted with our church and our members. Here we study together. They bring their Bibles and look up all the references. It is most interesting and new to them to study together. They will even buy Bibles so that they can be there and follow the studies intelligently.
F. A. DETAMORE: I think one of our troubles is that we are afraid to make calls. You will find men who go around and preach great sermons at camp meetings, and then they sit down without making any calls. I attended meetings by Charles Lloyd Taylor with tiva thousand people in attendance. He made a call for surrender, and for those who wanted to join the church, and only four responded. I told myself that if he got only that result from two thousand people, why should I be afraid of a small Sabbath meeting? That afternoon I got seven names from the calls I made. I start the Sabbath afternoon meetings a week after
I have presented the Sabbath, and try to prepare the people for the trials they may have to face
