As you may know, we are involved in short campaigns. Our work has taken us over quite a bit of territory. We belong to the Texas Conference, but the Texas Conference evidently reaches all the way from California to Ohio.
Since last General Conference our team has carried on work in fifteen conferences. We have appreciated the privilege of being with the brethren in the different fields. Our team includes Pastor and Mrs. R. INI. Turner, Pastor and Mrs. W. R. Holley, Pastor and Mrs. H. Flory, and my wife and I. Our team work together on the same basis; all live in trailers; all get the same wages; but we are not all the same size. Brother Turner, as you know, is tall, and I am short. Our children take their work by correspondence, as we do not stay long enough in one place for them to go to school.
In the last hours the message is to fly in the midst of heaven. We need to step up the tempo of our work. In our institutes we have ministers in for the full three-week campaign. Our institute work covers both the short and the long program. Yes, we still believe in long campaigns.
Now, a word about the various types who come into the meetings. One third are related to Adventists, one third are backsliders, and the rest are strangers to the message. But these are just round figures. It is our aim to give the entire message in three weeks. But we believe that we should build a firm foundation of consecration before giving the testing truths.
We feel we need to preach the old-fashioned Seventh-day Adventist doctrines, the old-fashioned Bible message with Christian love and phrased to fit the time in which you and I are 'living. I used to think I could not do it, but the message the pioneers preached still fits our day. We must not be discouraged and think evangelism is more difficult in our day. If it is, it is not because of the people. We ourselves must arouse and challenge the difficulties. There will be obstacles, but we have one understanding with the devil—we are going through with our evangelistic meetings. The Lord will give the victory.
Now, pertaining to the visiting program, I would like to emphasize the importance of visiting 200 to 250. homes in the three-week campaign. We visit all the time; we must. One time we came into a small town and the pastor apologized, "I do not have many names for you —only ten to fifteen Voice of Prophecy and Faith for Today interests."
"Well, with whom shall we start?" I asked. He mentioned the name of a woman, and we decided to go and see her. She began talking about the Signs and the Review.
"Are you a Seventh-day Adventist?" I asked.
"I wish I could be," she replied. "I have been keeping the Sabbath for some time, but there are no Seventh-day Adventist churches in this area."
How had she learned about the Sabbath? Through reading her Bible as she was guided by the Signs of the Times. Today we have a branch Sabbath school in her community and the prospects of a good church for the future.
I went to a doctor's office at his brother's invitation. He was alone, and after we talked with him awhile, he remarked, "Yes, I believe this message with all my heart, but I am in such a mix-up."
I invited him to have prayer. After prayer he leaned back in his chair and started sobbing. These were his words: "O Brother Detamore, you are nine years too late! If only you had come with an appeal nine years ago I would be in the church, but now my life is all tragedy."
I believe with all my heart that the harvest is ripe. Maybe we cannot have big crowds, but we should keep on preaching. Keep at it, always. If there are thirty or forty on a week night, be grateful to God. Where you might be giving a Bible study to only one, you are now preaching to forty people.
If you want to solve your pastoral and evangelistic problems, make good use of your laymen. I once thought I had no time for evangelism. The previous week I had conducted six funerals. It seemed hopeless to think of an evangelistic campaign. However, we started the next Sunday night and ran for fourteen weeks, and we had no funerals! Evangelism helps to keep people alive! Carrying on vigorous, aggressive evangelistic work will help to keep our own people spiritually alive, as well as solve the problems of the church. It is true that in evangelism today it is harder to draw crowds to the meetings. You may get only half the number you used to get, but the interest is deeper, and after all, that is what counts. There is an earnestness and intentness in many people today, for they seem to sense the lateness of the hour. We ought to be using this hour to point men and women to what is coming.
