Where Are the Preachers?
R. E. FINNEY, JR., Editor, "These Times"
For quite a few years I was about the only preacher I heard preach. Then I was called into a different type of work, and for about seven years now I have done considerable listening to sermons. It has been an interesting experience and not altogether a heartening one. It seems to me that one of the greatest needs of the cause today is good preaching.
That is not to say that there are no good preachers among us, for there are. A few may even be called great preachers. But there is a great deal of mediocre, dull, and uninspiring preaching being done in Adventist pulpits. When some who know me read this they may wonder by what right I have set myself up as a judge of preaching. They may wonder whether I esteem myself skillful enough in the art of preaching to set myself up as a critic. The answer to that question is that one does not need to be an accomplished chef to enjoy good cooking. And it is not for the preachers that we preach, but for the people, many of whom know nothing of homiletics.
It seems to me that altogether too little emphasis is placed on the Sabbath sermons in our churches. Let us, as workers, put ourselves in the place of the layman, and I think we can appreciate that this is so. If he goes to prayer meeting and to church on Sabbath morning, he will hear two sermons in a week. (By rights the prayer meeting should not be the occasion of a sermon, but it is the time for the saints to speak to God and to one another.) If circumstances prevent him from going to prayer meeting, he may hear only one. Aside from his private devotions often sketchy and hurried this is his major, and possibly his only, worship service for the week. It may be a big task for him to get to the church service. If he lives on a farm and has a fair-sized family of children, getting the family to Sabbath school and church is a major undertaking. Many of our people do this regularly, rising on Sabbath morning earlier than the average minister rises any day of the week, and doing several hours of preparing be fore they leave for church.
Now the Sabbath school is over. In the church service the layman should be ministered to in worship with his God. This is the climax of his week's activities. Perhaps the daily grind has brought discouragement to him. Maybe he has sinned. He knows it, and is downcast. Possibly he is perplexed about the future. He may be in poor health and in physical distress. Whatever his condition, we should be able to presume he has come to this service because he is hungry for spiritual food. And he should be fed.
The minister who looks out upon his congregation with a realization of the time and planning and effort that have brought these people together in the house of God should stand before them with fear and trembling. This sermon, this very Sabbath, may make the difference between eternal life and death for some struggling soul. It may bring courage, fortitude, cheer, and inspiration but not if it is the weak, dishwatery, rambling thing that too often merely occupies the hour.
Lack of Study Betrays Itself
Why is there poor preaching? That is a question that each must answer for him self if the answer is to be really accurate. I suspect, though, that much poor preaching comes from lack of study. By that I mean study. Not the desultory thumbing through a file of sermon illustrations and texts that many of us flatter ourselves into thinking is study, but solid, prayerful, thoughtful searching of the Word of God and the Spirit of prophecy that will arm us with vital messages.
Sound study grows out of constant preparation. As a conference administrator I was shocked by the extremely small amount of reading done by many ministers with whom I came in contact. Every minister should be a steady and omnivorous reader. It requires an immense amount of reading to fill one's reservoir of material for good preaching. Not all the reading should be theological in nature either, though most of us know pitifully little of the main currents of thought in this field. But wide reading will help us to avoid the pitfall of the banal and obvious, especially in our illustrations, and good illustrations crop up in the most unexpected places. One of the finest illustrations of Paul's great pronouncement on love I found in a volume on archeology.
Preaching Makes Preachers
A preacher ought to preach. Preaching will not dry up a preacher, if he is in touch with God, and is willing to maintain a consistent study life. We would be better preachers if we did more preaching. I have a feeling that too many of us preachers today especially in our beginning years do not do enough preaching.
There is nothing like evangelism to mold preachers. It is not hard to win a few Amens from the good church members on Sabbath morning. Probably no sermon is so poor that some charitable member will not compliment us afterward. But the public is different. The minister who goes into a community where there are no Seventh-day Adventists or very few and launches a campaign knows what I am talking about. There you have to preach! The public is bound by no demands of courtesy to return to hear platitudes. People may, through in difference or prejudice, fail to return even if your preaching is good; they certainly will not return if it is poor.
That is not all. Evangelism demands much preaching. The man who is engaged in a seven-nights-a-week campaign has better prospects of developing into a real preacher than one who preaches but once or twice a week. For some preachers ten sermons a week are not an unusual program. The young preacher who falls into a pastor ate that demands only two or three sermons; weekly is most unfortunate, for it is preaching that makes preachers. An aggressive program of evangelism would improve the preaching of most of us.
The hour calls for great preaching. The objectives set before us call for it. Our people are hungry for it some are dying for want of it. Let us fall upon our knees before the Lord and refuse to be satisfied until God pours upon us His power, so that, with our dedicated efforts united to His endowment, we can preach Christ and Him crucified in the demonstration and power of the Spirit.
The Minister's Example
FREDERICK LEE Associate Editor, "Review and Herald"
Let no one slight you be cause you are a youth, but set the believers an example of speech, behaviour, love, faith, and purity" (1 Tim. 4:11, 12, Moffatt*).
Above all else, a minister should be an example in Christian experience. He may be eloquent, he may be learned, and he may have the personality to win many to himself; yet if he is not a pattern of good works, his efforts as a minister of the gospel will be worse than useless. The more he may excel in personal talent without carefulness in man ner of life, the greater the harm that he will do. Hence, how much more careful scrutiny should be given to the daily life of a man who desires to enter the ministry than to his diplomas or his flow of language! In the ministry, more than in any other field of activity, it is absolutely necessary that a man's life be right. The very fact that one is willing to accept the sacred work of a minister declares that he expects ever to be an influence for good and that he in tends to live up to the high standards of the church. This is what people naturally expect of him. If he comes short of this ideal, many will be disappointed, and the truth he represents will fall into disrepute.
How wise it was of Paul to call the attention of the young minister Timothy to the supreme necessity of his being an example to the believers! Only thus could he be respected as a minister of the oracles of God. It is well for all, both young and old, to take to heart the urgent admonition, "Let no one despise your youth" (R.S.V.). Yes, let no man see in your life manifestations of inexperience in faith, of indifference to con sequences, of lighthearted action, of immature thought in conversation, of shallow consideration of problems, and thus be led to despise or to look lightly upon your endeavors.
A minister should demonstrate the latent possibilities of his message. He should make known in his own life the vitality and depth of his religion. He is to be an example, not only in one thing, but "in speech and con duct, in love, in faith, in purity" (R.S.V.). No wonder Paul once exclaimed, "Who is sufficient for these things?"
A minister must reveal constant growth in experience and knowledge. "Till I come," continues Paul, "pay attention to public reading, exhortation, and teaching. Do not neglect the gifts with which you are endowed, which were conferred on you by prophetic indication when the hands of the elders were placed upon you. Practise these duties and be absorbed in them; so that your progress in them may be evident to all" (verses 13-15, Weymouth). The minister should be a student of the Bible.
He should learn how to deal with people skillfully. It was said of Jesus that He "in creased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." Very early in life He demonstrated a remarkable maturity, when at the age of twelve He astonished the doctors of the law with the tact and the wisdom in which He continued to excel in afterlife. This is the way it ought to be with every youthful minister. He should know he has entered a calling that must demonstrate growth in well-rounded measure. Whether he does or not will be known by those to whom he ministers.
The Most Powerful Argument
The minister's life is the most powerful argument in behalf of his message. The apostle continues his counsel: "Take pains with yourself and your teaching" (verse 16, Weymouth). Study your own life in the light of the message you have to give, is what he means. How important is this ad monition! The minister should give daily attention to his motives and actions. He should never forget that it is the pure, unselfish motive that meets God's approval and helps him to win souls. Of this we read:
"The desire to honor God should be to us the most powerful of all motives. It should lead us to make every exertion to improve the privileges and opportunities provided for us, that we may understand how to use wisely the Lord's goods. It should lead us to keep brain, bone, muscle, and nerve in the most healthful condition, that our physical strength and mental clearness may make us faithful stewards." MRS. E. G. WHITE in Youth's Instructor, Aug. 20, 1903. "The approval of the Master is not given because of the greatness of the work performed, but because of fidelity in all that has been done. It is not the results we attain, but the motives from which we act, that weigh with God." Gospel Workers, p. 267.
He must also study his methods of work, for his motives may be right, yet a tactless, ill-advised approach to men in delivering his message may result in repelling rather than winning them. A minister may teach the straight truth and hold high the standard for himself, but by the use of a dictatorial, intolerant, unsympathetic attitude turn the people away from the truth.
Paul closes his words of counsel by speaking of the great objective of the Christian minister. "Persevere in these things," he says, "for by doing this you will secure your own and your hearers' salvation" (verse 16, Weymouth). The fruit of the consistent life of the faithful minister will be twofold. By bringing his own life into harmony with God he will be able to lead others into the same saving experience.
It is dangerous not only to the minister but also to the truth he proclaims when the minister steps down from this high standard that Paul set for the ministry. The sin of David had terrible consequences in breaking down the high standard of purity God had held up before His people. The king was told, "By this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme" (2 Sam. 12:14).
On the other hand, consider the testimony of Daniel's enemies while he was acting as minister of state as well as minister of God in the midst of licentious Babylon. The record states, "They could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him" (Dan. 6:4).
The influence of one's life may have widespread results for good or evil. By an inadvertent look, a careless act, a thought less word, not only will our own influence be nullified, but the work with which we are identified will be injured.
The minister, by the very act of standing before the public or by accepting the license to preach, takes upon himself the responsibility of being an example of the principles he teaches. How else could he expect his hearers to believe his word? The following counsel that was directed to the whole church in general applies in a very special sense to the minister:
"It is not only by preaching the truth, not only by distributing literature, that we are to witness for God. Let us remember that a Christlike life is the most powerful argument that can be advanced in favor of Christianity, and that a cheap Christian character works more harm in the world than the character of a worldling. Not all the books written can serve the purpose of a holy life. Men will believe, not what the minister preaches, but what the church lives. Too often the influence of the sermon preached from the pulpit is counteracted by the sermon preached in the lives of those who claim to be advocates of truth. . . . "There must be no pretense in the lives of those who have so sacred and solemn a message as we have been called to bear. The world is watching Seventh-day Adventists because it knows something of their profession of faith and of their high standard, and when it sees those who do not live up to their profession, it points at them with scorn." Testimonies, vol. 9, pp. 21-23.
In the light of the words Paul wrote so long ago to Timothy and these words from the Spirit of prophecy today, how solemn then the task to which a minister has been called! Surely no one can take such a responsibility lightly. Daily must he call upon the One who has commissioned him for the faith and wisdom that he needs in order to fulfill his mission.
The Tragedy of Preaching in Human Strength
CARLYLE B. HAYNES Secretary, North American War Service Commission
You will search in vain in the book of Acts for any formal organization in the early church, or any labored planning of campaigns of advertising and evangelism. Nevertheless, the early church accomplished infinitely more than we see done today, by just allowing the Spirit to lead out in plans and to convict hearts. Should that teach us anything? Was it meant to teach us anything?
It is not my purpose to decry organization, plans, and campaigns, or the use of every helpful modern agency and invention. What I do have in mind is to emphasize that if God's workers today will truly wait before the Spirit, there will be less and less reliance on our human plans and arrangements and more and more reliance upon God. Then what organization there is, instead of being the conspicuous thing, will, like the useful skeleton of the body, be out of sight and unobtrusive. As a matter of fact, the more robust a body is, the less we see its bones.
We, however, are living in days of urgency and speed. Everything moves with haste. Today it is difficult to wait; it is outmoded. Moreover, it seems wrong to wait. Men are dying by thousands, going into Christless graves. Will they not be lost while we are waiting? The devil is very busy must we not match speed with speed, and cunning with cunning? If the devil has glamorized his program, must we not glamorize ours? So we are told that we are living in different days, which require different methods, and we must use up-to-date techniques.
I ask you: Has the Word of God lost its effectiveness? Has the Spirit of God lost His power? In this day of highly developed techniques has anything been discovered, or devised, or invented that exceeds what God can do if He is allowed to control and direct? Does not the Holy Spirit know the needs of this age? Are His methods likely to be antiquated? Has He ever recognized a difference in time periods? Are the tools He supplied to the church within the first century inadequate to accomplish His purposes in the twentieth century?
The Executive of the Godhead
Keep this in mind, however: We cannot work the Holy Spirit's plans. He must do that. Only He can do it. If we ask, "How are we going to carry out His plans?" the answer is, of course, We cannot. But we can wait before Him, and put ourselves at His disposal, so that He will have a body, an instrument, through which and with which He can do His work. Though we cannot spark the movement, we can yield ourselves as instruments.
The disciples waited, and the Holy Spirit worked. Today we are endeavoring to do the work while the Holy Spirit waits. Shall we not go back to the apostolic arrangement and order, and recognize that the Spirit is the executive of the Godhead, the One who alone can actuate and direct the church in the accomplishment and finishing of all its work?
To the impotent man at the Temple gate Peter said, "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee." Peter had no means, he had no budget. I doubt whether he had any elaborate plan of procedure. But he did have the power. He did have the Spirit. And that was all that was needed.
We have the means, the budget, the plans, the program, the campaign, the organization. I am not recommending that we discard any of them. I am appealing that with them and through them we also have the power of the Spirit of God.
Frankly and analytically, where is all our superorganization getting us in our denominational work? At our present rate of progress how long will it take us- to get our great task finished? It takes an enormous degree of clatter, and clamor, and fussing, and sweating, and committee and board work to produce even an outward semblance of that which the Spirit could so easily produce from within without fuss, without clamor. But, thoughtfully, how long is it going to be before we learn our lesson?
Christ Waited Thirty Years
In quite a remarkable way the life of our Lord illustrates the life of the church. He waited for thirty years before He began His ministry. Then the Holy Spirit, like a dove, descended upon Him. Christ preached no sermon, performed no miracle, before the Spirit came upon Him (Matt. 3:16; 4:17; John 1:32; 2:11). Though He was the in finite Son of God from eternity to eternity, while He, was here as the Son of man Jesus set forth a pattern of procedure for the church.
While Christ was thus waiting through those thirty years souls were dying. But He waited. The world was then in great darkness. But He waited. If we had been there, no doubt we would have urged Him to do something about it. We would have pressed upon Him the urgency of the case. Some would have urged Him to do some thing about the deplorable social and economic problems of the time, about slavery, about child labor, about the status of women, about wage scales and oppression of the working classes. We might have urged Him to establish an effective school system, so that the ignorance of the world might be dispelled.
But Christ waited. Year after year He continued calmly without doing anything about these grave problems. Apparently He was little concerned. But that was only apparently. He did more about those problems in His day than all others together, but He did it in God's way, and in God's time. So He just waited.. But He waited on God.
We Must Learn to Wait
We need to learn that waiting on God is not wasted time. We waste our time only when we neglect to wait on God. Oh, the wasted time of the twentieth century! Oh, the inefficiency of what we call efficiency!
Let me repeat, The most profitable time any worker can spend is the time spent in waiting on the Holy Spirit in prayer. When I labored in New York City I learned much about the intelligence of waiting. On the main stations of the elevated and subway trains the local trains would appear to rush and jostle, but those who knew the situation and were in a hurry would look calmly after them, letting one after another of these locals go by. They were waiting for the express. And by that waiting they would soon catch up with arid pass all the bustling locals and reach their destination far sooner than if they had yielded to their impulse to hurry aboard the first train to leave, rather than to wait for the express.
We have much to do before we complete our great task, and little time in which to do it. Our impulse is to take the first local. It is the train of fleshly energy. Judging by the racket it makes and the much blowing of its whistle, it ought to get there in quick order, if noise and sound have anything to do with speed. In reality it is a very slow and lumbering vehicle. Just wait until the express train of the Spirit of God comes through. Here too the one who waits gets there first. So, my fellow worker, there is wisdom in waiting. There is no loss of time by waiting. The Holy Spirit is capable of making up quickly for all the time we seemed to lose in waiting for Him. Yes, He can make up in a day more than we could have done in a year.
Moses insisted on waiting for the Spirit. He had placed on him the enormous responsibility of taking the children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan, and he rightly judged himself incapable of taking on such a huge task. He refused to go alone. He said to the Lord, "If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence" (Ex. 33:15).
God pledged Himself to go with him, and He kept that promise. He went before His people and fought their battles.
Our blessed Lord is eager to do the same today. The Holy Spirit looks out over the church as Jesus looked out over Jerusalem, and He says in similar words: O my people, "how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" (Matt. 23:37).
"Would I . . . , and ye would not!" "I would bless you as I did the early church, but ye would not!" "I would give you great power, the power of the Holy Spirit, but ye would not!" "I would send great revival among you, but ye would not!"
The Lord did not say how long we are to wait. To the disciples He said they were to tarry "until ye be endued [clothed] with power from on high" (Luke 24:49). They waited about ten days. They waited for a certain day.
We need not wait for such a day, for we live subsequent to Pentecost. The Spirit is already in the church, so we need not pray for His coming, if we are Christians. He is in the heart of every believer. But not every believer recognizes His power. Whether you need to wait a short or a long time depends on circumstances in your own life. But, I beg you, do not go out in His work until you are clothed with His power.
We are faced today with enormous and seemingly insurmountable problems, with incalculable satanic power and temptations. Only as we are clothed with the power of the Omnipotent Spirit can we hope to have the victory and finish our work.
"Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord" (Ps. 27:14).
