TO THINK of It Is Written as merely a set of films that can be purchased and put on television, something that we can pay for and then stand by and watch the results, is a dangerous mistake. The films have demonstrated that they will create interest, more interest than can easily be cared for. But that interest may lie dormant and die if it is left to itself. It is a long road from the television screen to the harvest. And if that road is not carefully traveled, the tender plants of conviction may wither and wane and our efforts will have been in vain.
The third angel's message, given as fully as it is in the It Is Written films, is too potent to be sent into thousands of homes and not followed up. That is why It Is Written is not envisioned as a nationwide network release. Rather, it should be released only where plans are laid to follow it up, like any other city campaign.
It Is Written is not just a set of films. It is a plan of evangelism. The films are one more tool in the hands of the local fields, meant to be a strong teammate to every existing plan for finishing the work. But the tool must be used if it is to achieve results. The heart of the plan must be not the sowing, important as it is, but the reaping. The sheaves, not the seeds, are to be counted.
Enrollments will come in—in surprising and satisfying numbers. But right here is the danger. Do not allow your laymen or yourself to be lulled into a false security by the sometimes amazing first results as counted in enrollments. There is a tendency for pastors to catch the enthusiasm of this thing and be thrilled with the response —what they find in their own personal contacts, and what they hear from their laymen. But this is not enough. To rest secure in the developing interest, thinking it will come to fruition automatically, is an attitude that will lead to disappointment. The enthusiasm of interested viewers must be surrounded and watered and given strong personal attention if it is to come to harvest.
The Place of the Layman
Television, you see, is evangelism's air force. But you will never take the city by air alone. You need the infantry. You need the officers. You cannot take the city without personal contact. The soldiers of Cyrus could not be content to rest inside the walls. Nor can we. We must go up into the palace gardens and make personal contact. There is no other way.
The place of the layman in It Is Written evangelism is vital. It is fully described in the brochure Paths to Decision. The laymen will cooperate to the full if given enthusiastic and untiring direction. But leadership, encouragement, and constant direction are needed. Make sure that these lay visits are being made, that they are being made on schedule, that they are being reported promptly. Don't just assume.
But even then there is a place beyond which the layman cannot go. Most of them are not trained in the giving of Bible stud-Written program folder.
ies. Most of them are not trained in the delicate art of gaining decisions. The conducting of Paths to Decision classes is vital to the program, and is most helpful, but it is not enough. Somewhere along the line the pastor, the trained worker, will have to step in and lead the enrollee into full acceptance of truth. People simply cannot be baptized through the mail, or by means of a layman's report. There must be a personal contact. And the pastor or some trained worker will have to make it.
The Decision Meeting
The first thought will be to plan a large decision meeting for your area. Nothing can take the place of these decision meetings. When the telecast has been released for six or eight months, or perhaps a year, and as large numbers of enrollees are completing Take His Word, a decision meeting should be planned.
A long public campaign is not needed. The telecast and Take His Word have laid the groundwork. People know what we believe. Much of what we used to have to do in public meetings has been done in the intimacy of the living room. But now the interest has deepened to the point where men and women who never could have been attracted by handbill or newspaper announcement to a public meeting, are receptive to an invitation.
Since the inception of the program Elder Vandeman has held as many reaping meetings as possible in the large metropolitan centers. Naturally, one man could not begin to touch the vast expanse of territory covered by the telecast. Already thirty States are engaged in the program to some extent. Major meetings have been conducted in Washington, Orlando, Nova Scotia, Wichita, Denver, Seattle, Philadelphia, Bermuda, and Atlanta, with three-night or one-night appearances in many cities across the nation.
In each of the meetings held thus far anywhere from four hundred to a thousand non-Adventist It Is Written families have attended—once, some of the time, or all of the time. The recent series in Atlanta, Georgia, has been a typical one. Here 140 men and women decided for truth during the three weeks. The series was immediately followed by a two-week meeting conducted by Elder H. E. Metcalf, conference evangelist. During those two weeks the number of decisions increased to nearly two hundred. Next followed a schedule of Sabbath afternoon and Sunday evening meetings in which various denominational leaders were the speakers. Attendance at these meetings was amazing, with nine hundred people present on a night when it rained so hard that the parking lot was like a lake. The four churches in the area are baptizing the converts from week to week.
The setting created by these three-week meetings is ideal. There is nothing to hide. The people have viewed the telecast, they have read Take His Word, and are prepared for decision truths. They know we are Adventists. Hence there is little or no letdown. They know what to expect.
Under the blessing of God many hear the message through, and a representative cross section take their stand. At least they join a baptismal class. And while all of these may not come through and be baptized, yet the number of those whose in terest has been deepened is such that if some fall aside these others take their place so that the final baptism figure has in most cases approximated the original number making decisions. It is decision consciousness that we seek to deepen in these three-week meetings.
We thank God for the pioneering by-Elder Detamore in this type of meeting. The short meeting is ideal, a revolution in our thinking, especially for the reaping of existing interests—Voice of Prophecy, Faith for Today, colporteur, backsliders, et cetera.
Elder Vandeman feels that he is a great debtor to the philosophy of Elder Detamore in this type of service. Yet every man has to deliver his message in his own way, as you will see from the list of subjects shown in the program folder photographed on pages 24, 25. The complete message is given, including our singular decision truths, intermingled with a freshness in the way of presenting conversion, marriage happiness, body health. All these can help to hold and build toward the desired end.
The twenty decision sermons presented by Elder Vandeman are not available in printed or mimeographed form. However, you will find the philosophy of his message presentation and much of the content of his messages in his book Planet in Rebellion, which was the missionary book of the year for 1960.
These three-week decision meetings are vital. Many will be brought to immediate decision. But more important, a decision consciousness is created that will bear fruit for many months to come.
Not Dependent on One Man
Your first thought may be to request that Elder Vandeman hold a meeting, or several meetings, in your area. Naturally, the speaker on the telecast, because he is the speaker, will be able to do something that a stranger cannot. And such a meeting should be planned for the major metropolitan centers.
But—and we emphasize—if this program is to depend upon one man, it will fail to reap its largest potential. It is impossible for one man to go into every city where the films are being released. And if God is in this reaping program, as we believe He is, it will not depend upon one man to do the reaping. We have able men, skilled in the techniques of three-week evangelism, who can move into this ripening harvest in the large centers and bind up the sheaves.
The Cities Not Enough
But—and here is the point—even if we send a successful evangelist into every large city, we still have failed to reap a tithe of the potential interest that has been created.
In Washington, D.C., for instance, mail was received from 549 cities, towns, and communities reached by the one television outlet. The potent question is this: Is holding a decision meeting in the city of Washington reaping the interest? What about the other 548 communities—or a major portion of them—that were not touched by this meeting?
Television signals know no boundaries. When you put It Is Written on in a city you are putting it on in scores of other communities. And is it thorough evangelism, or even wise spending of funds, to hold a campaign in a hundred communities and reap in only one?
The Pastor's Program
It Is Written is not planned to overshadow the work of the local pastor, or in any way to hinder it or take the place of it. Nor will it take the credit for his work. This is his program. It is a tool in his hands, an opener of doors to a ripening harvest that he alone can reap. It will not interfere with his own program of evangelism.
Elder Vandeman will go in where he can, with a three-week series or with a three-night or one-night meeting to consolidate the interest. Other men can go in and do a strong work. But the reaping will never even approach what it might be until our local conference evangelists and our local pastors are encouraged to discover what they themselves can do.
Such a man will not have the advantage of being the speaker on the telecast. lie may not be nationally known. He may not be experienced in the techniques of short-meeting evangelism. But there is not a mem of us who cannot visit.
Visiting, the Key to Success
In that one word visit is the key to the total success of the plan—not visits after the meetings are over, but before they ever begin. If a meeting, whether a three-week series or only a weekend, is preceded by intensive visiting of those who have been viewing and reading and are ready to make decisions, the results will be amazing.
One evangelist of long experience went into a rural area. He made nineteen visits on Thursday and Friday, then held four meetings over the weekend. Thirteen decisions were made by those ready to take their stand. There is absolutely no substitute, even for the most experienced man, for getting into the homes of the cream interests and winning their hearts before the meeting is held. Then they will come out. Then you can work with them.
The reaping plan is flexible. There is no set pattern. Every man can work in his own way, so long as he remembers that handbill evangelism alone is not the answer today. It must be personal evangelism.
One pastor of a semirural church had already baptized a number from the first year of telecasting. He had taken the cream. But he took a group of what were considered only casual It Is Written interests and came up with some amazing results. He began Sunday night meetings in the church, careful visiting and Bible studies in the homes. After fourteen weeks he reported thirty-two definite interests, nineteen of whom had made a commitment to join the church after further study. In addition to the thirty-two, an equal number were showing more than passing interest in the meetings and in the message. His non-Adventist attendance on Sunday nights averaged better than forty.
This is how one man did it. And all with a group of names considered only casual interests. We need to depend heavily upon three-week reaping programs, to be sure. But such a plan touches only the hem of the garment. Here is the sort of thing that every pastor can do—and be wonderfully blessed in doing it.
There is nothing elusive or mysterious about the secret of getting results. If a man is living close to his God, and if these interested people are getting a Bible study every week in the home and attending one public meeting a week, baptisms will result.
The Sunday Night Class
A man need not necessarily be a strong public speaker in order to reap. One man, whose greatest strength is in his personal visitation, successfully followed up a reaping meeting conducted by Elder Vandeman and held nearly the same crowds. He did it with a Sunday night program in which there was no music and no sermon. He simply showed an It Is Written .film in color, conducted a txventy-minute question-and-answer session, and then presented a brief message while seated at the table. And the people loved it.
Continual Reaping
God will help each man to find his pattern of reaping. But continual reaping— not just one big evangelistic push in the city at the center of it—is the answer. These large decision meetings will count for much. But their chief benefit, aside from their immediate fruitage, is to create a decision consciousness on the part of many who may not take their stand at the time of the meetings. These individuals, however, become a pool of interest from which the pastors can draw for months to come. And the lasting impact of your reaping program will, we believe, be the over-all cultivation of the ground in a hundred cities, towns, and hamlets—not just the city where the telecast originates.
Decision Films
And now, to help every man in reaping the full television harvest, to make it easier to gather the interested ones into groups, and to make available a personal decision appeal from the telecast speaker to the people, we are preparing a series of decision films in color. These are a final link in the It Is Written plan of evangelism. Next month we shall discuss the use of the films and unfold the surprising way in which they build the work of the local pastor. Here is a plan, we believe, that under the blessing of God will lead many hundreds into full and final commitment to truth. Pray that it may be so.
