Our ministers fall into two main types. One is the evangelistic type; the other, the pastor-evangelist, or pastor-teacher, type. Says the apostle, "He gave . . . some evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers." Eph. 4:11.
There is a crying need for more dynamic evangelists, free from too many burdens. There is an equal need for a new day in the work of the pastor-evangelist. This is the man who in many instances has no song leader and no Bible instructor. He has his faithful wife, his two hands and feet, his mind and heart, his Bible, and his automobile—all to be fully consecrated to God in wise leadership. And too he has the laymen. Thank God for the laymen! "The work of God in this earth can never be finished until the men and women comprising our church-membership rally to the work."— Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 117.
Rallies are wonderful. We all love them. We need them. They are highly important. But they should foster and forward the work of the locality. Friday night, Sabbath morning and afternoon, and Sunday night are key hours in the work of soul winning. If a rally is held somewhere every Sabbath afternoon in a given area, drawing church members away from their own territory and tasks, the work of the pastor- evangelist is rent asunder.
It is in the churches and in the territory as signed to them that the work must be done. The task of the pastor-evangelist is to lead the laymen in the work. Upon him falls the glorious and joyous privilege of putting his forces into the field. It is my considered opinion that a minister of average talent who will find a way to harness his laymen will accomplish as much as a man of greatly superior ability who passes the laymen by.
MINIMUM PROGRAM.—We as ministers are ordained to preach the gospel. Every pastor- evangelist in reasonably good health ought to hold a minimum of one six-month effort a year or two shorter efforts. If we do this, it will be much easier to direct the laymen into active service. They are to "unite their efforts with those of ministers." One reason why we preach no better than we do is that we preach so little. The great golfer plays golf, talks golf, practices golf, "eats" golf. He is never satisfied with his score. Perhaps if most of us preached twice as many sermons as we do, we might become twice as proficient.
Suggestive Long-Range Plan
You can shoot straighter with a good rifle than with a good pistol. Why? The rifle has a longer barrel to sight over. The leader who has long-range plans, other things being equal, is a better shot than one who lives from day to day. Let us here consider a five-year plan for a preacher who feels that the Sunday night public effort is his type of program, though the plan is not limited to the Sunday night idea. First, for three months in the fall:
1. Plan fifteen Sunday night topics beginning early in September. Use a church or a hall.
2. Plan from ten to fifteen weeks of community Bible clubs. I prefer twelve weeks with a fifteen-week Sunday night program. Organize your church territory and members along the lines laid down in the book The Minister-Lay man Movement (Review and Herald, 1049). In the main, make the topics for the Bible clubs different from those for Sunday night. Tuesday night is a good time for these clubs. If you are short on lay leadership, you may operate several groups yourself by arranging them on different nights.
Use of Bible lessons with test papers to be filled out by students is invaluable in keeping up interest. For instance, you could use 20th Century Bible Course A of ten lessons. Then add two other topics to make twelve. Better yet, use the first two lessons of 20th Century Course 2 (another ten-lesson course) for the last two nights of the group meetings. This opens the way to transfer the interest to a central class to finish the other eight lessons of Course 2, which is a binding-off course.
3. Drop out the Wednesday night church prayer meeting. The groups replace this during the effort.
4. Plan fourteen or fifteen Friday night topics for a youth-rally series. Dovetail these subjects right into the series. If possible, let the youth lead out. Filmstrips help.
5. Plan fifteen special Sabbath morning topics, definitely soul winning in nature, and fitted into the complete series. Assign topics to workers and invite them to speak on Sabbath. Let campaign days and all services be conducted with visitors in mind. Our people like to bring visitors, but they fear it unwise. Let all speakers beware of boasting about our own good works and of making unfavorable comparisons with other churches. Let the Baptists and the Methodists say the good things about us, and let us say some good things about them too.
Consider what we now have: fifteen Sunday night sermons, twelve Bible club topics, fifteen Friday night topics, and fifteen Sabbath morning sermons.
This makes fifty-seven topics arranged in a three-month series. If you wished to add Saturday night, it would make more than seventy topics. In many places our people are all dressed up on Saturday night and no place to go.
What next? Probably Christmas caroling, with Ingathering- finished by mid- February. What then? Another three- or four-month series with different topics, in the main, for Sunday nights; different lessons for the Bible clubs; another line for Friday nights and also for Sabbath. Shifting the topics about, we have a fresh approach for our people and for the public. How different from the regular and sometimes drab Sunday night series! And yet it is a program which our people can find time to keep working.
After a period of two years of this minister- layman-young-people program, a full-scale, intensive evangelistic effort is needed. Then back to two years of the steady plan again. That makes five years. Laymen and young people trained in this type of cooperative work may develop into good lay preachers.
In connection with all this work house-to- house visitation by laymen, literature distribution, Dorcas work, which reaches the homes of the people, personal Bible studies, and Bible school enrollments should be carried on, and will thrive. People brought into the truth under this program maintain a high respect for lay leaders, and laymen keep steady watch over them through the years.
To intensify this program, you may wish to hold meetings every night for the first eight nights and for the last eight nights. This will give you more topics, and will allow you to build up the enrollments to the Bible clubs during the first week of public work. Start the club meetings Tuesday night after the second Sunday night.
For men operating districts it is possible to run three meetings' at once if your churches are not too far apart. Preach once a week in each place, say on Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday nights. Use the same sermon. Organize the Bible clubs in each place to operate on some night other than the meeting.
(Next Installment. "How to Conduct Bible Clubs.")
