The large number of apostasies which take place in our ranks each year should cause all of us to seek some method of reducing such losses. In 1943 the apostasies numbered 4,707 in North America alone. In 1944 the number amounted to 4,378, in 1945 there were 3,999 apostasies, and in 1946 another 3,795 left the ranks of the remnant church. It would cause quite a stir throughout the denomination if we suddenly awakened some morning to find that three large conferences had apostatized and left our ranks during the past year. Yet the equivalent of this has happened, and will happen again if we do not individually take this problem to heart.
I do not claim that we can eliminate apostasies altogether, but I do maintain that we can check some apostasies. Assuming that the evangelist has thoroughly instructed the individual 'before baptism in all privileges and responsibilities pertaining to a successful Christian experience (for the following suggestions are meaningless if that has not been done), it appears to me that the following three factors will go a long way in holding the individual in the church. They are : 1. The minister. 2. The Sabbath services. 3. A working church. A brief consideration of each factor follows in outline form.
I. The Minister Should
the message he preaches.
a. Members have confidence in him.
b. A man of prayer and quiet piety.
c. Studies and knows the Scriptures.
d. His ministry as passion, not a profession.
e. His ministry on a full-time basis, not divided with real estate, insurance, or automobile agency.
f. His conduct, both private and public, always be a credit to his Lord and cause he represents.
2. Know people in their homes.
a. Sincere interest in their problems.
b. Has a case history of each family (card index). (Includes father, mother, children, whether baptized, attending Sabbath school, children in church school, and whether there is a family altar. Reading Review, Spirit of prophecy, union conference paper. If nonmember, degree of interest, etc.)
3. Be a, pastor to all.
a. Rich and poor, talented and otherwise.
b.To faithful, lukewarm, and backslidden.
c. To sick, aged, and shut-ins.
d.To youth, both good and wayward.
e. To newcomers.
f. Whether in discipline or admonition, pastor's actions and counsel always motivated by member's spiritual need; and accompanied by sincere kindness.
4. Have a visiting plan.
a. Study membership list with church board periodically.
b.Organize church officers to assist in visiting.
c. Save time and money by grouping addresses in a given territory.
d.Make it a point to visit members whenever in vicinity of their homes.
e. Save time by limiting most visits to fifteen minutes.
f. Give visiting priority to sick, sorrowing, backslidden, and aged. .9. Always close visit with prayer.
II. THE SABBATH SERVICES
I. Sabbath School.
a. Increases Biblical knowledge and strengthens denominational loyalty. Sabbath school executive committee responsible for reaching this ideal.
b. Minister's personal interest, enthusiasm, and attendance at Sabbath school will spur committee in its responsibility.
c. Urge that committee institute a course to prepare competent teachers.
d. If programs are to be varied, stimulating, and interesting, minister must keep agitating and educating to that end.
e. Minister's baptismal class and the church will be fed constantly if he labors to enroll all, beginning with cradle roll and ending with extension division.
2. Preaching Service.
a. Sermon central feature of Sabbath service.
b.Other items in service should contribute rather than detract from sermon.
c. Sermon should deepen devotion and piety.
d.Should be carefully prepared, with spiritual need of members kept in mind.
e. Should compel men to return the following Sabbath ; it should woo and win sinners; it should encourage disheartened; it should alarm and instruct the conscience.
f. After hearing sermon, people should be better prepared for the untried week before them.
g.Sermon must be doctrinally rooted, yet intensely practical.
h.Illustrations may be from other sources, but doctrines must be Seventh-day Adventist.
i. Sermons should prepare and anticipate related services, such as Lord's supper, campaigns, Week of Prayer, etc.
Sermons should be planned so as to provide varied spiritual diet throughout the entire year. Such themes as Christian home, Christian education, Christian benevolence, second coming, new earth, Christ's priesthood, Ten Commandments, sanctification, etc., along with biographical sermons on Biblical characters, expository sermons, and textual sermons, must be kept before people in diversified, interesting form. When members begin missing preaching service, it would be well for minister to carefully analyze himself and his preaching.
Ordinances do much to remove causes of apostasy.
a. Both phases of service should be intensely religious.
b.The ordinance of humility prepares for the sacramental service.
"Whenever this ordinance is rightly celebrated, the children of God are brought into a holy relationship, to help and bless each other."—Desire of Ages, p. 651.
c. Communion service awakens sacred emotions in hearts and inspires with living hope.
d. Best insurance for good attendance is a carefully planned service. Length, personnel, music, hymns, and order of service so related that no bungling or hesitancy on part of those involved will rob participants of the blessing God has promised.
e. To be effective, program must be practiced beforehand.
Personnel officiating drilled in every part.
Music and hymns correlated to service.
Towels, basins, and water prepared well in advance. Communion table prepared before people arrive in church. Diligent preparation stimulates a reverent expectancy.
a. Objectives and related remarks in this service are clearly described in pages 642-661 of The Desire of Ages. They bear reading and rereading.
b. Attendance at this service should be encouraged in pastoral call and by special invitation if member is delinquent. Special effort made to bring aged and infirm.
III. A WORKING CHURCH.
I. A working church is a growing church. Members too busy winning others to church to think of leaving it. Minister the key individual in seeing that this ideal is realized.
2. Pastoral call and pulpit used to teach people that their participation in some form of Christian service Will bring them a blessed experience. Matt. 24:46.
3. Therefore, minister should have plan to include every member in some line of service.
4. Members will never realize blessedness of service until minister has blueprint of plan in his own mind, and is able to sell it to church board and church. (Study carefully book Christian Service.)
5. Varied bands to includes
a. Branch Sabbath schools and Sunday schools
b. Correspondence work for shut-ins
c. Voice of Prophecy study groups.
d. Home-foreign bands.
e. 20th Century Bible or other course.
f. Literature bands.
g. Sunshine bands to visit sick.
h. Young people's bands. 1. Dorcas work. j. Lay Bible instructor band.
Conclusion: This task of conserving our evangelistic gains calls for hard and time-consuming labor on the part of all. We cannot and must not allow our hard-won gains to be nullified by any carelessness on the part of the ministry. We cannot allow the fruit of labor, which has cost the cause thousands of dollars, to slip away from us because the Sabbath service and sermon are void of study, planning, and adaptation to the spiritual needs of the people. Neither must we allow spiritual atrophy to take root among us because we lack a plan of service which includes all members of the church.
Although many may be able to plead not guilty to the various causes related to apostasies, yet no one can be excused from identifying himself with the best solution to this grave problem. Indifference in this matter would be tantamount to creating apostasies. Individually and collectively the hour has come to heed the summons, "Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare Thy people, 0 Lord." All other solutions to the problem of apostasies are simply the outgrowth of this consecration on the part of the ministry. Let us arise and check the apostasies!