With many people the instinctive reaction to anything new is a negative one. Only that which has emerged from the crucible of time and experience is by them accorded immediate approval. Because public relations as such is a relatively new innovation within the church, eyebrows have been raised and the prospects of change have been by some viewed with alarm.
It is well to review the role of public relations in the work and mission of the church. This new organizational development is more than a symptom of these changing times. It highlights the vital importance of the church's community relationships with the public. There need be no horrified alarm at the admission that great changes are taking place even within the church. Change of itself is not morally wicked. One must inquire as to the nature of the change. Public relations as such, to this observer, do not constitute a change in substance so much as they do in form or method. There is no departure from the basic tenets of theological doctrine.
The product is the same; the packaging is being modified in keeping with the times. The irrefutable evidence of arithmetic represented by the statistical growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church inevitably calls for change. The transition from a mere handful to hundreds of thousands of believers, from an insignificant, scoffed-at sect to a respected and recognized religious denomination, from a misunderstood, much-maligned people to a worldwide organization admired and accepted for its magnificent contribution to mankind cannot but bring in its wake the pains and stiffness of growth.
The recognition by Adventists of the role of public relations in the accomplishment of the mission and message of the church is noteworthy. It deserves our attention because it is a reflection of our advancing denominational maturity. With maturity comes responsibility. Where before our very insignificance tended toward narrow parochialism and uninhibited evangelistic techniques, our development and universal recognition now cry out for responsible, mature, and seasoned reaction to the needs of the world. Where before the couriers of the Advent message could carry the tidings by foot, on horseback, or by "smoke signal," the present demands that the selfsame basic gospel must now be adapted to transmission by television, and transportation by jet- or missile-motivated vehicles.
Relevancy to the World Commission of the Church
It is at this point that public relations bears some relevancy to the continuing task of the church. It is the connecting link between the historic message and the new times and needs of the world. It is the bridge between outmoded and archaic evangelism and the new "total evangelism" concept of the twentieth century. It can serve as the effective interpreter of the eternal certainties of the gospel to a present world society that is totally ignorant of the alien language of the gospel.
This writer, who grew up in a Seventh-day Adventist environment during the past quarter of a century, has sensed both in the mission field and to a lesser degree in North America what appears to him to be an almost "ghetto" complex afflicting the denominational mind. Anybody outside the immediate church family was an "outsider." To think of earning one's livelihood outside of the denominational payroll was formerly viewed by some as perilously close to apostasy! In some instances the work of the church was conducted almost in the furtive atmosphere that one would expect of an underground movement. An obscurity complex crippled evangelism.
Aware of the prophetic outline of eschatological developments, we have been so blinded by the martyr's halo that we have failed to see the solid accomplishments that it takes to deserve or merit the accolade of martyrdom. Perhaps we have been so enamored of the heroic future that we have failed to recognize what it takes to achieve the heroism of witnessing effectively for present truth. It must not be forgotten that there are no short cuts to glory.
Summing up the total witness of the church in world evangelism, we suggest that responsible evangelism is the consecrated product of enlightened and Spirit-motivated public relations. The basic mission of the church is that of proclaiming the gospel, of informing men and women of the timeliness and aptness of the gospel. It is in essence a job of communications. The saving of souls results from the ministry of the Spirit working jointly with the public-relations witness of the church.
Effective communication is the primary objective of the denomination's public-relations program. While there are certain inescapable responsibilities devolving upon the offices of public-relations activity, basically public relations is the task of every member. It is safe to say that successful communication of the church's message succeeds or fails on the congregational or district level. It is a case of every communicant being an effective communicator.
Public Relations on the Front Line of Community Evangelism
It is right here that we perceive the vital role of the pastor and his flock. Any indifference or unawareness of the basic elements in effective communications is immediately revealed. It is at this point, and on this point, that the success or failure of the church hinges—at least in so far as the community is involved. For all the excellence of conference administrators and their bustling staffs cannot fully compensate for the breakdown on the front line of community evangelism.
However, there are certain basic principles that apply with equal validity on the congregational level as well as on the administrative plane of church endeavor. While the scope of application might vary in certain instances, the fundamental and operative principles will be found to be identical. For the purpose of this article we shall confine our consideration to the province of the local church and its relationship to its immediate community.
While the 'commendable missionary spirit of the Seventh-day Adventist Church has resulted in a well-informed membership in terms of overseas conditions and needs, it has been easy to neglect the "home front" by taking it for granted. This is no call to downgrade our vision of missions; if anything, it will be sharpened by our efforts to clarify our insights as to the needs of our "other" mission fields. This very matter-of-fact indifference to the immediate environment of the "home base" can seriously weaken our mission effort, because more funds and time, as well as talents, will be required to overcome the inertia and friction of the church's continuing task at home.
In fact, every gain at home also strengthens every overseas effort. Every legitimate economy in terms of the currency of time, talent, and means frees that much more for the great unfinished task of our missionary challenge in the lands afar. Therefore, it is vital to every phase of church endeavor that the "head office operations"—if we might borrow a term from industry —be as efficient and progressive and strong as it is possible to be in order that the "branch factories" and salesmen in the distant sales markets will be successful.
If we must suggest a purely mundane or pecuniary motivation that will satisfy some for the modest expenditure of means and mind in good public relations, it could be stated in monetary terms like this: For every dollar of tithe and offerings given to the church treasury there should be the maximum return in value received. Church officers and members alike, as corporation directors and shareholders, expect —indeed, should expect—a reasonable and profitable return for their investment.
We must begin with the shareholders, for as in any successful industrial empire, much depends on the individual, for it is the investments of the many individuals that make the accomplishments of the corporation possible. Before we attempt to modify or cultivate good public relations on the part of the many "publics" of the church, there must be some internal education.
It is important that church members come to realize the absolute indispensability of good communications. Church members need to be educated. Indoctrination public-relations-wise is important to Christian community relationships even as proper doctrinal orientation and instruction in the social graces is important to personal belief and practice.
This is a more far-reaching undertaking than might be indicated by a superficial recital of this point. The manner in which new converts are brought to the church often—in fact, in most cases—determines their public-relations orientation. As good child training begins before the child is born, so good public-relations attitudes on the part of members must begin before they are full-fledged members!
If the doctrinal preparation for church membership has been essentially positive and constructive, rather than negative and critical of previous religious experience or of other religions, the proper attitudes are well on the way toward full development. If the new convert is prepared in harmony with the mind and will of our Lord when He prayed that His followers not be removed from this world but kept from its evils, then indeed the member will maintain the correct attitude toward those who have not yet joined the church family.
Pastoral Responsibility in Public Relations
A paraphrase of a well-worn adage might be pardoned because of its aptness in this context; "like preacher, like flock" is nonetheless true in this setting. The education of the membership of a particular congregation is largely in the hands of their pastor. This only serves to emphasize how vital it is that the ministry of the denomination be possessed of intelligent, refined, cultured and, above all, progressive public-relations concepts as the human supplement to a truly consecrated and Spirit-endued ministry.
As a concrete example of good internal awareness of public-relations principles applied on the congregational level let us consider one of the basic elements for a church in any given community. The "appearance factor" for sanctuary and worshiper needs attention, and usually, for a very modest investment in time and means, can be made attractive. Not only does true worship require that it should be so, but likewise the church's true witness requires it.
A neat, clean, and well-kept church is a must if the net effect of collective congregational witnessing is to achieve the maximum. It need not be an elaborate, cathedrallike edifice. But the humblest chapel must bear unmistakable evidence of "cathedrallike" care and devotion. In this respect "cleanliness is next to godliness," and no church can afford one iota of diminution of this type of godliness.
Friendliness and Warmth
The outside church bulletin board should bespeak the friendliness and warmth of the welcome that awaits the transient worshiper. There should be nothing that will, in terms of the external appearance of the church building, repel, annoy, or irritate the stranger or potential friend of the church. No inscription upon the edifice itself, or on the sometimes dubbed "wayside pulpit," the bulletin board, should be permitted that will "hammer home a point" that is offensive or that might be interpreted as taking unfair advantage of the unsuspecting passer-by, and in particular to "club" him with some controversial tenet of doctrine. Let these so-called testing truths be presented in the proper setting and environment.
Good manners, like good grooming, are really public relations expressed in more homespun terms. On the individual member level nothing is so important as cleanliness and neatness of personal bearing and appearance. Gaudy, flamboyant dress detracts as much as slovenly, filthy, or disheveled dress, but good taste, refinment, and certainly restraint in dress and deportment should attract people not to the wearer, but to the Supreme Object of the wearer's worship.
Even here good public relations is something more than a cosmetic effect. It must also reflect itself in the personality and demeanor of every member. Kindness, courtesy, and love in little deeds and great accomplishments are essentials for which no substitutes have yet been discovered. In this writer's opinion it is even more important to develop these traits of Christian character than it is to raise the per capita giving a few percentage points over the previous year's record, as important as that may be. Our mission is not merely to better the net accessions to the membership rolls of the church, but to see that the behavior pattern of the members does not retard the work of the church, and that their true conversion is manifested by their love toward their fellow men.
A group of doctors were once considering the very poor opinion their profession suffered in the minds of the people in a certain community. They recognized the heavy tribute that poor public relations inevitably exacted both in monetary terms and otherwise, and hoped to discover the solution to the problem. A seasoned and kindly old doctor whose only claim to fame resided in the less-than-specialist appellation "G.P." spoke out of the depth of a long life of personal devotion to the people he had served and not merely to symptoms or impersonal diagnostic case histories: "Gentlemen, in order to enjoy good public relations, you must do good." Here is the heart and soul of our problem!
Being Good and Doing Good
Being good is not a passive state of mind. It cries out for expression in the consistent well-ordered life of the dedicated communicant. How can we relate the principle of doing good to the mission of the church? It will be possible to consider only a few typical examples, but they should suggest many more avenues that await development. Here let us think of certain external aspects of the church's total evangelism mission.
The scriptural admonition that "it is more blessed to give than to receive" bears closer scrutiny. In its efforts the church must not leave the outward impression nor be impelled by an inner motivation that savors too much of the "receiving" factor. The stress has so often been on gains, on what "we have received," or on how many "we have won," that the denomination has been frequently cast in the role of a demanding entity content only with its own accomplishments.
There is a continual need for more of a service-oriented emphasis to denominational endeavor. In place of making certain demands on the public, the church has certain essential services to offer. Nowhere is there greater scope for the development of this theme than in the evangelistic efforts of this movement. By relating each topic to some contemporary need or condition of man, the otherwise little-appreciated subject becomes both interesting and personally significant. Obviously, the gospel cannot be legislated and accepted by people simply as the result of some ecclesiastical fiat. Some self-styled pulpit giants may fancy themselves in the role of a demigog summoning mankind to heed the personal ultimatum of salvation, but the true representative of Jesus Christ is the loving ambassador of the One who went about "doing good." Evangelistic sermons can be powerful in their appeal when their timeliness, logic, and relevancy are apparent in their applications to people's current needs and problems.
Interest in the Community's Welfare
Let the pastor second his pulpit professions by a live and sincere interest in the well-being and improvement of the community he serves. He should have a little corner in his "time budget" for the community's worthy causes. Opportunities of service are found in the local Ministerial Association, Red Cross, Community Chest, interfaith temperance projects, juvenile delinquency prevention efforts, service clubs such as Rotary and Kiwanis, and other community betterment projects. These should not, of course, become the all-consuming passion of his busy program, but they should be viewed as windows that open a segment of the community to his view and his own service of love to theirs. Where he cannot serve all these legitimate concerns, then let leading and capable members of his flock be encouraged to do so.
Encouraging more lay participation on the part of seasoned members will not weaken their contribution to the church. On the contrary, if their peculiar skills and abilities are capitalized on, a more efficient and worth-while contribution will often result. A businessman, doctor, lawyer, dentist, or teacher can enter spheres and influence groups where no cleric is normally welcomed. Such church service lends an air of continuity to the witness of the church.
Church Activities Geared to Community Service
Every activity of the church can be cast in a service mold without losing its original purpose. The Dorcas Welfare Society, for example, can put more emphasis on welfare and service by conducting a real program of community welfare assistance instead of merely contenting itself with endless quilting bees or bandage-rolling projects.
The church's Pathfinder Club might in time be enlarged to admit non-Adventist community youth and in this way open up a new avenue of faithsharing that could prove to be a most effective contribution to the youth of both the church and the community.
This suggests a pattern for the other organizations in the congregation. Why should membership in a camera club, outdoor club, young married couples' club, or any other similar organization be conditional on church membership? Our commission is not one of pharasaical exclusivism, the non-Christian attitude that Christ emphatically condemned.
Effective cooperation with civil defense authorities should always be an accomplished fact with Adventists. We do not have to be trained in rescue procedures by our own teachers. Adventist instructors, on the other hand, can volunteer to instruct other groups, thus widening their sphere of influence and witness. This association in community service could well be a new adventure in faith, both to Adventists and to non-Adventists. Arrogant exclusivism and good public relations just do not mix. They are irreconcilably incompatible.
Another area of community service is entered by the pastor who is adequately equipped and trained not only to minister to his own immediate denominational family, but indeed to be a pastor to the community itself, for in the fullest sense his ministerial calling is no narrow parochial summons. Let his study become the shrine or sanctuary where those outside his immediate church family can also find comfort, guidance, and direction in the solution of their own very real and pressing problems. Let it be known quietly, yet effectively, that the Adventist pastor is a real counselor of people in need of guidance in the affairs of the soul and the spirit. It is in this quiet, friendly, and secluded place that some of his most effectual evangelism can be practiced.
How often there must be businessmen in the upper strata of industry, as well as in the lower and more heavily populated levels, who yearn for spiritual counsel. Yet the only time many of them ever have a minister, one who allegedly is trained and devoted to ministering to the needs of the soul, call upon them is when their facility in signing a check drawn in large figures is sought. But seldom does it occur to the pastor that here is one of his most important publics—a rich unworked field of public-relations evangelism.
Public relations, then, for the local church is not simply or solely a matter of column inches in the local or national press, or minutes or seconds of free radio or TV time. It is not merely having every avenue into the city plastered with roadside signs advertising the locale of the church, essential as it is to meet the need of being identified. Public relations involves, rather, the taking of the soul-strengthening message of the gospel to men everywhere by developing and utilizing every available channel of communication to serve the widest possible number with this message in terms that can be readily understood and more easily accepted. True evangelism makes every communicant a communicator of a story that is related to the needs and interests of the many publics each church must serve. This is but the beginning of public-relations oriented evangelism.
Some may airily dismiss the whole matter by saying that the mission of the church is divine and it matters little what methods are used so long as the content of its message is sound for God "will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness." We have no disposition to challenge the backdrop of urgency against which the church conducts its task. But we do suggest that if we are to invoke divine intervention on behalf of the church, every legitimate opportunity for consecrated effort must be utilized.
According to biblical scholars the use of the term Amen in Christian worship denotes the acceptance of solemn responsibilities on the part of the suppliants. It implies a willingness to do all that is humanly possible to effect the answer sought in the prayer. For that reason the very facility with which this term is voiced by Adventists should remind us that we cannot lightly pass over the imperative obligation of exploring every human avenue of accomplishing our task.
In the opinion of this observer a program of enlightened, sound, and progressive public relations conducted in terms of the church's total evangelistic task is an effective and proved adjunct to its accomplishment, which is well worth developing on a broad and comprehensive scale. It will take the "pain" out of many campaigns and give a needed lift to other gospel endeavors and projects. It will help arouse smothering inertia and will often break down the barriers of prejudice and misunderstanding.
THE SERVANT OF ALL
The Saviour went from house to house, healing the sick, comforting the mourners, soothing the afflicted, speaking peace to the disconsolate. . . . With unfailing tenderness and gentleness, He met every form of human woe and affliction. Not for Himself but for others did He labor. He was the servant of all.—The Acts of the Apostles, p. 364.
