In the series of recommendations on evangelism voted at the recent Autumn Council, one suggestion is made which is new to a large part of the field, and reads as follows:
"We recommend, That study be given to the establishment of evangelistic centers in the large cities of our various unions of North America in which a strong program of continuous evangelism could be maintained."
In our evangelistic work in North America up to the present time we have used tents, tabernacles, churches, halls, and theaters. At present it is very difficult, and in some cases impossible, to secure permission for the erection of a tent or tabernacle in cities of even moderate size. The Autumn Council action suggests that it would be wise to erect permanent buildings in the central part of our larger cities where one effort after another could be held. -This would free us from the present uncertainty of securing a proper hall or theater at the time when one is needed. Although the expense of an evangelistic center in a city would undoubtedly be large, it might in the end be no more costly than our present plan.
Just recently an effort was held in a city where the hall rent cost $18,000. This was not an unusually large effort, nor was it held in one of our largest cities. The effort was successful in winning many souls, and the money was by no means considered wasted. However, all that the conference officials had to show for the expenses, in addition to the souls won, were rent receipts. If this $18,000 could have been part of a larger sum invested in the erection of an evangelistic center, the hall would still be there under our control and ready for continuous evangelistic efforts throughout future years.
It is customary for an evangelist in estimating the net expense of his effort to plan to take care of all costs, except hall rent and salaries, from his donations. In other words, if a conference will supply a hall and'helpers, an evangelist will usually undertake to hold an effort and care for all other expenses. A conference that has an evangelistic center in each of its large cities would then be able to conduct a continuous program of evangelism without any cost except the upkeep of the buildings and salaries of the workers. It is quite possible that over a period of a few years a conference would find the evangelistic center plan more inexpensive than our present method of evangelism.
It is possible that a church building could be used as an evangelistic center. It might be well for conferences and city churches to consider the sale of some of our present church buildings which are not well located, and the purchase or erection of a church building in a section of the city where it could profitably serve as both an evangelistic center and as a church building.
In the city of Chicago the Moody Bible Institute has a continuous evangelistic program in progress, not only every day of the week, but also nearly every hour of the day. Seventh-day Adventists should conduct a similar year-round program in the major cities of America.
