These decisions were not snap judgments, nor were they due to my special persuasive powers. They were the studied convictions of persons enrolled in one of our Bible correspondence schools but needing the personal touch to encourage them to take the stand they knew they ought to take.
Our radio programs and Bible correspondence schools are forcing us into a new type of evangelism. These new methods of proclaiming present truth have doubtless produced many thousands of potential Seventh-day Adventists throughout North America and elsewhere, and are in the process of bringing many more into sympathy with the three angels' messages. In a very special sense, these "are on the verge of the kingdom, waiting only to be gathered in." Because these new believers are so widely scattered, the standard method of localized public efforts cannot reach them. And because our city evangelists and district pasto'rs and Bible instructors usually carry as heavy a load as possible, they cannot visit them. As a result this growing army of new believers has been left to struggle against great odds without the benefit of fellowship with God's church.
The Ontario-Quebec Conference, recognizing this new field of evangelism, freed me from pastoral duties last year in order that we might more fully explore the possibilities latent in personal work among radio correspondence students. The results have been most gratifying, and we are happy to share our findings with the leaders Of THE MINISTRY.
I. To mention one important result, entire neighborhoods can be warned with little expense. To illustrate : After visiting with a student I inquired whether I might show one of the lessons from a picture film in her home that evening. Permission was readily granted. When I returned, the woman and her husband, together with a married daughter and family, were waiting to see the pictures. All showed good interest and agreed they would like to see another film the next evening. That night I found fifteen persons assembled. I found it possible to call on students in adjacent neighborhoods during the next three days, and I continued to return to this home each evening. The last night thirty people had crowded into the home and were seated on planks, and even on the floor, since there were not chairs enough. Most of those present enrolled in the Bible course that night, and are looking forward to my return in the fall, when a hall will be placed at my disposal at two dollars a night for as long as I want to use it.
Obviously, there will be little advertising expense. And many of those who attend will have already studied the message and will need only to be helped to make right decisions. Four rural communities have thus been opened up to promising efforts since we began experimenting in this direction three months ago.
2. As another result, our churches are being aroused. To illustrate: One of our Ontario churches with a membership of about twenty-five, secured six picture projectors, and began Bible studies in nineteen homes nearby, largely as a result of the interest stimulated by the radio and Bible school.
Our experience has shown that about two of every three who begin the Bible course will open their homes to these pictured lessons. No conference employs enough salaried workers to begin to enter all the opening doors that this follow-up work discovers. But this is a work that many of our church members can and will do when we seek their cooperation and show them the way.
3. For a third result, I would say this type of evangelism adds impetus to the counsel to move out of the cities. Although we cannot as yet furnish any concrete example of this, as our city members are only now becoming aware of what is going on in the rural areas where most of these interests are found, yet several have spoken to me about such a move, and will doubtless be found heeding this counsel later. As new churches and church schools are established in country places, many of our faithful city dwellers will see their way clear to move to these centers and help build them up.
4. It transforms the pastors and their members into more successful evangelists. I can do no better than testify what this type of work has done for me. It has made the past year one of my most successful in twenty years of ministry, both from the standpoint of baptism and in inspiration to our churches. Further, scores of people enrolled in our Bible correspondence schools are now being prepared for baptism through the efforts of members who caught their zeal from a recital of the interests I was finding and the need for their help. This is a greater reward than the immediate results of my own labors, gratifying though they have been.
I have made some regrettable mistakes in pioneering the harvest of this new field. In the next article I shall cite what they were, and the lessons learned from them.
