THE part we like best about the evangelistic crusade here is that now our church is humming with activity and enthusiasm, while before, it was just going along half asleep and lifeless." This statement, made just after one hundred new members had been added to the church, made us stop and consider some of the by-products of public evangelism.
Many observers calculate the effectiveness of an evangelistic campaign only on the basis of dividing the total cost of the series by the number of converts baptized. The result is often a figure that seems to prove public evangelism an expensive method of soul winning. But as we count the cost let us consider some valuable byproducts.
The church members themselves are more firmly established in the faith by hearing the doctrines presented once more. There are always some who did not receive adequate instruction before baptism. Others have grown up in the church, and as mature adults, realize their need of understanding the Bible truths more fully than they were able to comprehend as children or young people. Others have simply forgotten much they once knew, and they are glad for a refresher course.
A church member, who had to walk five miles to reach his home after the evening meetings because the buses were no longer running at that hour, told us, "I enjoy that long walk home, even when it is raining, because it gives me time to think through the doctrines I have just heard. If the subject is deep for me, I go to the lecture in both halls to hear it presented twice, then I have two evenings in which to meditate and better digest all I heard as I walk home."
It is always our aim that after a series of evangelistic meetings the tithes shall increase sufficiently to put on one new worker. This is a very tangible result of evangelism, understood even by those who draw their conclusions from mathematical reasoning. The church members, seeing the financial results, feel the responsibility of paying tithe more faithfully themselves. In a recent campaign one unexpected amount of tithe given by a woman not a church member more than paid for the total expense of the evangelistic crusade. In other campaigns we have seen the tithes in the church doubled after the meetings.
A well-organized evangelistic crusade stirs up all the activities in the church. The Sabbath school, the MV Society, the welfare society, all try to put on the kind of program that will appeal to the visitors who are beginning to attend.
Since most other denominations do not carry on evangelism as we do, a successful series of meetings gives our people a feeling of pride in their church, of satisfaction with their pastor or evangelist, as they realize that an impressive impact has been made on their city. The concept of the Adventist Church has taken on new proportions for them as Adventism has gained prestige.
Probably the greatest by-product of all is the blessing that the church members receive as they cooperate with the evangelist in working for others and bringing them to meetings. In San Salvador we had one church member who, during a series of thirty-six lectures in each of the two halls, brought 395 visitors to the meetings. This good brother received a tremendous blessing and showed a marked change of attitude. Those who invite friends to the meetings, or bring them, immediately feel a responsibility to set the right example before those friends, to show them special kindnesses, and to encourage them in every way.
A good evangelist is always training some young ministers in the best methods, in order that they may branch out later on their own and be more effective soul winners. These young workers learn some intangible facts and many practical ideas that they could not possibly absorb in their, theoretical studies in college or in the Seminary. They learn through practice and through observation. It is a real satisfaction to the evangelist to see those young workers become outstanding ministers in their own right in the next few years. We felt the truth of this in a certain country where the six workers who were assigned to assist in the evangelistic crusade became the outstanding soul winners in their conference the next year, baptizing among them more than the other twenty district leaders together. Each one baptized more than the most experienced of the other workers. They had truly been awakened to new zeal and new methods.
Need we mention the tremendous blessing that comes to the minister-evangelist himself as he presents once more the great truths of our salvation, endeavoring to give them to his audience from a fresh and original outlook? He benefits from the deep study he must make, and his faith is strengthened as he sees the results of conversion in the lives of others. Nothing else can bring such satisfaction to a minister as that he feels when he sees the transforming power of the gospel giving purpose to wayward lives, lighting up countenances that were dark with despondency or hard with indifference. His heart is moved when he hears such testimonies as:
"My husband is completely different now. He used to drink and mistreat me and neglect me, but now he is kind and faithful."
"After hearing the truth about the state of the dead, I went home and slept peacefully for the first time in forty years. That question had haunted me all that time" —this from a prominent lawyer.
"I was never so happy even when my husband was alive and we had a good business. Now I am alone and poor and crippled, but I have peace in my heart for the first time."
So let us not only count the effectiveness of evangelism mathematically. Let us realize that its blessings are manifold and its results far reaching.