WE ARE happy to announce that two new Sabbath School Quarterlies are now available for the pastor's special Bible class. These are for two quarters and are undated. They appear in the same general format as the regular senior lessons. They cover the main points of doctrine. Place your orders through your local Book and Bible House. The price is the same as for the senior Quarterly.
Often the regular Sabbath school lessons have been used for this special class. However, at times these lessons have been too advanced for new interests. Then at other times the lessons were not on suitable topics for visitors. As a result many of our more aggressive ministers have had to reach out elsewhere for more suitable material. The Sabbath School Department has been requested, on several occasions, to prepare appropriate material to meet this particular need.
We are happy to have been able to make this contribution to the work of the ministry. We suggest that those interested write their local conference Sabbath school secretary and ask for Sabbath School Leaflet No. 15; entitled "The Pastor's Sabbath School Baptismal Class." This leaflet is free.
Many ministers have followed this procedure in the past. In fact, the plan was initiated in the field by successful soul-winning evangelists. Where the method has been followed it has proved a rich blessing to both the sponsoring school and to non-Adventist visitors. It is in full harmony with the following counsel from the servant of the Lord:
Our ministers are not to spend their time laboring for those who have already accepted the truth. With Christ's love burning in their hearts, they are to go forth to win sinners to the Saviour.—Testimonies, vol. 7, p. 19.
Several ministers have baptized from forty to fifty each year as a result of following this program of evangelism. The new members who come into the church through this class stay in the message. They read the Bible, they study the Sabbath school lessons, they become acquainted with mission fields and their needs through the mission stories each week, and they help to support our worldwide work. They also become regular in attendance at the preaching service.
The pastor's Bible class should be conducted on a cooperative basis. The regular Sabbath school members should be encouraged to keep the special class filled with non-Adventist class members and visitors. The pastor can do the teaching but should express appreciation to the laymen who bring in their friends and other visitors.
The annual Visitors' Day should serve as a stimulant for the next fifty-one weeks. In other words, it should be a shot of enthusiasm to the regular Sabbath school members to make possible a continuous soul-winning program.
The work of God in this earth can never be finished until the men and women comprising our church membership rally to the work, and unite their efforts with those of ministers and church officers.—Gospel Workers, p. 352.
The Sabbath school is a sleeping giant in our midst. It awakens only when the pastor sees in each class an evangelistic unit capable o£ winning souls or conducting branch Sabbath schools. The Sabbath school will help our ministers greatly to realize baptisms and to evangelize their territory. With all that our busy ministers are asked to do today, they are simply swamped. However, the Sabbath school membership with all of its organization stands ready at the call of our pastors to serve as an auxiliary agency for soul winning. As a shrewd steward of manpower for God the pastor will recognize in the Sabbath school a tremendous potential as a soul-winning agency.
The two Protestant denominations making the greatest growth in North America are the Southern Baptists and the Holiness. It was my privilege to attend the National Sunday School Convention held in Columbus, Ohio, November, 1959. They gave credit to Sunday school evangelism for their tremendous growth.
Ministers, harness the latent energies of your Sabbath school. We are told that— those who have the spiritual oversight of the church should devise ways and means by which an opportunity may be given to every member of the church to act some part in God's work. Too often in the past this has not been done. Plans have not been clearly laid and fully carried out whereby the talents of all might be employed in active service. There are but few who realize how much has been lost because of this.—Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 116.
"The best help that ministers can give the members of our churches is not sermonizing, but planning work for them."—Ibid., p. 82.
The pastor or district leader in some respects occupies a position somewhat similar to that of the foreman of a gang of laboring men. He is expected to see that all men under his charge do the work assigned to them promptly and efficiently.
In laboring where there are already some in the faith, the ministers should at first seek not so much to convert unbelievers, as to train the church-members for acceptable co-operation. . . . When they are prepared to sustain the minister by their prayers and labors, greater success will attend his efforts. —Gospel Workers, p. 196.
Let us all join in praying that our Sabbath schools will ever serve the church well and thus be instruments under the blessing of God to bring many to a knowledge of their Saviour. Remember always that "the Sabbath school should be one of the greatest instrumentalities, and the most effectual, in bringing souls to Christ.".—Counsels on Sabbath School Work, p. 10.
