PART I
Our Calling
He call to the ministry is sacred, and not just another vocation. In Gospel Workers we read:
"The minister who is a co-worker with Christ will have a deep sense of the sacredness of his work, and of the toil and sacrifice required to perform it successfully. . . . The true minister will do nothing that would belittle his sacred office. He will be circumspect in deportment, and wise in his course of action. He will work as Christ worked; he will do as Christ did." Pages 16, 17.
Everyone on the conference pay roll has a sacred responsibility to live right and work as unto God. Woodrow Wilson said:
"You do not have to be anything in particular to be a lawyer. I have been a lawyer, and I know. You do not have to be anything in particular, except a kind-hearted man, perhaps, to be a physician; you do not have to be anything, nor undergo any strong spiritual change, to be a merchant. The only profession which consists in being something is the ministry of our Lord and Saviour . . . and it does not consist of anything else. It is manifest in other things, but it does not consist of anything else." Once we have experienced the call, we should not hesitate to lay claim on being God's emissaries. We should not be uncertain or timid about feeling that God has called us. Nor must we neglect to give good evidence of it in our lives. Neither does this feeling that we are called give us permission to parade boastfully. This would be evidence that we are not called. We can be confident yet modest. As someone said, "One walks then with a firm tread, lifted carriage, and steady eye, showing the ministry to be a delight no matter what comes or does not come."
Our Work
As we look ahead we should do so purpose fully. We have a task to perform. We must plan and work to finish the task. Every church, every conference, to be successful, must have a forward look. Plans must be not only laid but executed. We must not only hope to do but do!
Every pastor should have a going program. No man who takes his calling seriously can be satisfied to have a status quo program. It does not matter so much the method followed, so long as we have a program that is productive. Every worker should have definite objectives. The cause of God is never glorified by those who have only a desire to run but who care not in which direction. Ahimaaz didn't care whether his activity was purposeful he was concerned only to have activity. Our conferences should offer little hope for the tribe of Ahimaaz.
The pastor is the most important link in the chain of denominational workers. Reduced to its simplest terms, the program for the pas tor consists of two great objectives. These are stated by Christ. The first one is mentioned in John 17:12: "Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled."
Here we find a program of evangelism concentrating on the sheep within the fold. It is a program of indoctrination of building up the spiritual health of the sheep. Every department of the church should have a feeding pro gram, building up the spiritual life of the members. The pastor stands at the head of this entire program of evangelism within the church.
The second type of evangelism is mentioned by Jesus in John 10:16: "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." To find the sheep outside we must have the help of the sheep inside. The sheep inside should be healthy, or else they will be of little or no help in finding those who are outside.
In every church there should be a program of vigorous missionary work. The work will never be finished until we can get the members to work for the nonmembers. Every effort of the sheep will strengthen the work of the shepherd. Public evangelism, even though difficult, will take on new life if only the members help in the program. There must always be a pro gram of evangelism for the sheep not of this fold, even though it may not be public evangelism.
Our Preaching
Every now and then telephone calls come asking, "Why don't we hear the message any more?" Many times these calls come from per sons who believe that preaching the message consists of giving a double-barreled blast at the Papacy, or a broadside at some offshoot. Com plaints coming from persons with such attitudes never give me much concern. Nevertheless it is important that we ask ourselves, "Do I give the distinctive truths for this hour to my congregation?" I think we fail at times in the kind of sermons we preach. We should always have our sermons built upon the sure Word of God. This should be our only text. We should study it more thoroughly and more deeply. Sermons are more than compilations of news paper clippings, more than columns of statistics, more than articles we read in some religious journals, and more than Spirit of prophecy quotations.
Sermons are born out of deep conviction. They grow in the heart of the preacher through consecrated study, righteous living, prayer and meditation, and actual contact with life situations. I doubt whether our congregations want many dissertations on social problems or essays on aspects of the religious situations in the world. I doubt whether they are interested too much in the views of men of learning, reputation, and standing. I doubt whether they believe that we or anyone else knows much about the political situation of the world. I do believe, however, that our people, and the people not of our faith, want to know what God thinks. They want to be told, and emphatically told, what God says in His Word. There is no durable satisfaction in anything else. Dr. Ralph Sockman, Methodist minister of Christ Church, New York, stated: "The teaching function of the ministry must be .recaptured and re-emphasized if we are to leaven the sodden ignorance of our time. This effort will mean more use of our Bible. Many young ministers seem afraid to use the Bible in the pulpit. . . . "Overdue is a revival of expository preaching. . . . The doctrinal preacher who takes the lasting teachings and brings them down to the present in living form is like the incandescent current that comes from a source far behind the light." Best Sermons, 1946 ed., pp. xiv, xv. AUGUST, 1954.
By and large we as Adventist ministers have yet to find the way of taking our great prophetic and doctrinal truths and making them living, dynamic, and soul-saving. The mere theory, the mere skeleton of prophetic truth will never draw thirsty souls to the fountain of living waters. The preacher who feeds his mind and his soul on the message of the Bible need never have anxious moments during the week wondering what will turn up in the way of a theme for his Sabbath sermon. The minister must be continually improving his mental capacity.
"Never think that you have learned enough, and that you may now relax your efforts. The cultivated mind is the measure of the man. Your education should continue during your lifetime; every day you should be learning, and putting to practical use the knowledge gained." The Ministry of Healing, p. 499. We cannot all attend the Seminary. However, we can all study. The degree means little unless the mind keeps on advancing. There is danger that we neglect our study in favor of committee and board meetings. The pastor cannot afford to do this. If it is one or the other it should be study. Sermons seldom grow in committee meetings.
Our Finances
In 1 Timothy 3 we read that the life of a bishop should be "blameless, . . . not greedy of filthy lucre; . . . have a good report of them which are without." A minister must have a good reputation. There are altogether too many who have brought reproach upon the ministry by their negligence in financial matters. Al though it is best not to have any debts, there is no reason why, in our present economy, a man cannot have a debt. If we do buying on the installment plan, let's be sure we keep the buying under control so that our credit will never be called into question. It would be better to get along without some things rather than buy so much that we cannot pay for it. Through installment buying we can either build a good credit or completely ruin the credit that we might have. There may be times when a minister has to borrow money. It would be best not to go to his brethren for a loan. Owe no church member anything except the obligation of preaching the Word, rebuking and exhorting. A member who lends you money will, in most cases, believe he has done you a great favor. If it is necessary to borrow money, go to the bank, which is in business to make loans.
All conference workers should be honest and faithful in tithes and offerings. I have known -of cases where ministers neglected their tithes over a long period of time. How can we be exemplary if such neglect is practiced? A man who fails to be prompt in meeting his obligations to the Lord will sooner or later find himself out of the cause of God.
In the handling of conference funds the minister should exercise great care. Funds must be sacredly kept. For every dollar received strict account must be given. For every expenditure there should be a voucher. This is required for your protection and the auditor's sweet disposition. No worker should dip into evangelistic funds and use them for his own needs. Reasoning that we should pay ourselves a bit for overtime is fallacious reasoning. We all work overtime and we are not paid for it. Our con science should be sharp on these matters. There are times when inexperienced workers demand of the church treasurer that certain church funds be transferred. The treasurer of the church is under no obligation to transfer any funds without church board action. In fact, if he does so he disqualifies himself for the office. Only the unethical worker would bring the church treasurer into such an embarrassing situation.
Side Lines
Every now and then in the denomination we hear of some workers who find it profitable financially to engage in side lines. The ministry has been accused of selling everything from cars, real estate, and razor blades to honey and vitamin pills. Many of these accusations are entirely false. A few, however, have transgressed and by their indiscretion they have given people a chance to put all of us into the samecate gory. One misdemeanor on the part of a minister can throw a great deal of suspicion upon the rest of us. We should guard jealously the reputation of the ministry.
"Ministers cannot carry the burden of the work while at the same time they are carrying the bur den of farms or other business enterprises, having their hearts on their earthly treasure. Their spiritual discernment is dimmed." Gospel Workers, p. 340. "Ministers should have no separate interest aside from the great work of leading souls to the truth. Their energies are all needed here. They should not engage in merchandise, in peddling, or in any business aside from this one great work." Testimonies, vol. 1, p. 470. Along with these statements is another one the conference committee should think about:
"They should not engage in worldly enterprises, for this disqualifies them for giving their best powers to spiritual things. But they are to receive wages enough to support themselves and their families."— Ibid., vol. 7, p. 250. (Italics supplied.)
I believe that in most instances our conference workers are well cared for. When we take into consideration the subsidies we receive, our salaries become quite sizable. If there are those, however, who face financial difficulties they should seek counsel from the conference administration.
Accepting Gifts
I do not suppose any of us would have any compunctions of conscience about receiving a gift as long as we felt it was given with no ulterior motive. Gifts can be real blessings to both the giver and the receiver if given from a heart that wishes to express sincere appreciation. Such a one expects no favors in return. Paul received a gift from the Philippians: "For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity. Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account" (Phil. 4:16, 17).
There is, however, a different kind of gift acceptance that is highly unethical. Some ministers deliberately convey impressions to the brethren that they are underpaid their hands are always open, always extended for personal benefits. Such behavior on the part of the worker is not in harmony with good ethics and reveals a selfish heart. Because of the people's respect for his position, the minister can be a parasite preying upon the emotions of those who respect his office most. He can literally line his pockets with money. But remember, sooner or later the congregation will "have his number," and usually it is "thirteen." Talk will start, confidence will be shattered, and the conference will have to get the van ready for an other moving job.
Congregations at times even take up offerings for workers. Maybe they call it a "love offer ing." Such plans can be stopped by the workers if they desire to do so. However, should an offering be taken it is an easy matter for the worker to express his sincere appreciation of the congregation's thoughtfulness, and then turn the entire amount over to some worthy project. Evangelistic equipment might be a worthy project. One would need to carry the' confidence of the congregation, however; but in the long run they would think more highly of him because of the unselfish spirit shown.
"Selfish interest must be swallowed up in deep anxiety for the salvation of souls. Some ministers have labored, not because they dared not do other wise, not because the woe was upon them, but having in view the wages they were to receive. . . .
"It is entirely wrong to buy every errand that is done for the Lord. . . . If ministers give themselves wholly to the work of God, and devote all their energies to building up His cause, they will have no lack."—Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 344, 345. (Italics supplied.)
"Know-How" or "Know Whom"
W. EARLE HILGERT Instructor in Bible and Systematic Theology S.D.A. Theological Seminary
And Cain went out from the presence of the Z~i. Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. . . . And he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch." "And Enoch walked with God . . . three hundred years . . . : and he was not; for God took him" (Gen. 4:16, 17; 5:22-24). Cain stands as Exhibit A of a man who had what we in our day choose to call know-how. It is plain from his experience with Abel that he took great pride in his own accomplishments and bristled at the thought that the accomplishments of anyone else might be superior to his own.
Cain had know-how to cause the earth to bring forth more bountifully than anyone else, and after the terrible experience with Abel, when he went out from the presence of the Lord, when he turned his back upon God, he determined to show that he had a greater degree of know-how. He could organize, he could construct the first city of which we have . record in the history of mankind. Cain would doubtless have felt very much at home with his know-how in our world of 1954.
How frequently we hear this word, this so called word know-how! It isn't really a pretty word; it isn't even a precise word. It is a sort of hybrid mongrel that represents a vague superiority feeling that our generation feels over those who have gone before it, and I think that sometimes even we as Seventh-day Adventists who believe and look for a "city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God" even we sometimes tend to fall into a sort of mistake about the calendar, for we feel that because grandfather did not ride in an automobile and never saw one; because grand mother did her washing with a washboard and washtub, and neither had heard a radio or seen TV or thrilled at the sight of an airplane, they were somehow not quite as smart as we are; and a step further that somehow they were not quite as good as we are; that some how God has blessed us more than anyone else in history by giving us so many material things. We may forget that they never shuddered, either, at the thought of atomic bombs. But even there we have the know-how to build bigger bombs. And as long as we sit back and pay taxes, we will build up more than our neighbors and we will be all right we have the know-how. And with whatever is left we can surround ourselves with many gadgets of material life, and life can be beautiful with a little down and easy payments. It is the old, old story of confusing the means of production with the good that one hopes to do. And as we look back to Cain's time, we see that his descendants bore out the philosophy of life that he had championed. You re member there was that remarkable family, Jubal the musician, "father of all such as handle the harp and organ," and Tubalcain, the man who knew how to make bigger and better gadgets than anyone else. They were geniuses. They were men who were outstanding in the arts and crafts.
And then there was their father, Lamech, a man who is known for three things in the early history of this world. As far as we know he was the first man to break the family tie and introduce polygamy. He was the second man, so far as our record tells us, to commit murder. And then he was a man who could, after committing such a deed, compose a poem about it. That was Lamech, a man who exemplified this philosophy of life, a man who was a strong man, a man who was an artist, a man of letters, in the true sense of the word, a man who was willing to break with the social organization of his day; and yet not a good man, but a man who with his family exemplified the philosophy of life that their forefather Cain had started; a man who with his family represents the type of world of which God finally said it repented Him that He had made man, and He destroyed it. But they had know-how.
Enoch—a Contrast
And then there was Enoch, the seventh from Adam. And you know, if we count the generations from Adam in Cain's and in Seth's descendants, it would appear that Enoch and Lamech were contemporaries. We are told that "Enoch walked with God . . . three hundred years, . . . and . . . God took him." But we are not told that Enoch was a great inventor. There is no indication that Enoch was a man of arts or letters. As far as we know Enoch was not outstanding for know-how, but Enoch had something much more important Enoch knew what; Enoch knew whom. The prophet Jude, many, many centuries after Enoch, tells us what it was that Enoch knew: "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him" (verses 14, 15). When we look at Lamech and his crew we see the record of the world in which Enoch was witnessing for God, and that daily walk of Enoch with God. For more than 100,000 days Enoch walked with God. Day by day, in spite of the fact that Enoch lived in the world in which he was, he learned and developed such a godly character that the Lord God finally took him out of this ungodly world directly into the courts of glory. Enoch knew what and whom.
Another man who knew what is Job. You remember how he sat on the ashheap, unspeak ably afflicted bodily, perhaps even more afflicted mentally, with his three friends arguing with him day after day, telling him, "Certainly you have done something terrible, that God would treat you as He has," and then his own wife came to him, saying, "Curse God, and die!" There was no one in the world who could understand his situation, no one to sympathize with him. His own body was racked with pain. And yet in the midst of that, Job knew whom. "I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet [and you can see a smile of confidence on Job's face] in my flesh shall I see God" (Job 19:25, 26). Another man, the apostle Paul, knew whom. As he sat in that old Roman dungeon after having already spent years as a prisoner, with his lifework behind him and with no prospect of the future except a martyr's death, he could write to his dearest friend, "I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day" (2 Tim. 1:12). The apostle Paul knew whom.
May we who live in a world that measures its standards by materialism, a world in which the measure of all things, it would almost seem, is know-how may we, like Enoch, who lived in a similar world, and Job, and the apostle Paul, know •whom we have believed, and that He is able to keep that which we have committed unto Him against that day.
Exercising Care
D. C. PRENIER Home Missionary, Radio, and Sabbath School Secretary Centred American Union Mission
Of the many resolutions acted upon during the 1953 Autumn Council, there is one, wisely stated and adopted, that should stand out from most others for its universal timeliness and application for the entire world field. I refer to the action bearing the title, "Exercising Care Not to Give Offense." It is as follows:
"WHEREAS, The Saviour always avoided giving needless offense to anyone; and, "WHEREAS, The sharp thrusts, spoken or written, are not in harmony with the spirit of religious tolerance that should characterize Seventh-day Adventists; and, "WHEREAS, Such practices 'will certainly do harm, and . . . will hedge up the way, and hinder us from doing the work that we should do in order to reach all classes,' "We recommend, That with renewed vigilance we carefully consider our written and spoken words so as to make certain that needless offense is not given." Actions of the Autumn Council of the General Conference Committee, 1953, p. 41.
Perhaps we have all been cognizant of some unfortunate instance in the past where some unhappy lessons had to be learned that could easily have been avoided; of experiences that originated with the careless or inaccurate utterance on the part of an unthinking brother or sister who realized only after it was too late . that the great adversary of souls is ever present and ready to use a little spark of indiscretion or enmity, which can so easily fall from an irresponsible lip or pen, and cause it to touch off an unexpected and unquenchable conflagration of opposition then hurl it back in our faces a thousandfold by hedging up the way for freely spreading the gospel of the kingdom in the field that had been ripe and waiting to receive the good news of salvation.
Some of this irreparable damage has even resulted in bloodshed or the threat of violence to the health and property of some of our dear workers in the more fanatical regions abroad, or in making it impossible for them to remain in the field because legal permission to inhabit that particular territory any longer was there with denied, and all work of a religious nature was strictly forbidden to those entitled to stay. We must all agree that it will pay to bring this important resolution, with an extra word of caution, to the attention of all of our churches and groups wherever we educate and encourage our members as we must to take
an active and aggressive part in presenting our sacred third angel's message. Though this holy warning to all the inhabitants of the earth can not be presented thoroughly without pointing the finger with specific finality at the true Babylon and the real Antichrist, there is always the mature manner, the correct place, and the appropriate occasion for presenting it without having to fear any calamitous reaction.
Let us as leaders, by our own example and instruction, seek to make Psalms 19:14 the con trolling principle in all of our relations with the great world audience and, at the same time, let us train our laity to cultivate the more winsome virtues of Christian character whereby our tact, our timely patience, our self-restraint in all of our expressions before the public will carry a hallowed ring of simplicity and conviction that will exalt our heaven-sent truth and will protect it from being trodden underfoot by our enemies.
