If the empire builder Cecil Rhodes could couple the immensity of the task of colonizing South Africa with the shortness of time, then certainly every alert Adventist preacher should think in two terse phrases as he couples the immense task of evangelism with the imminent Second Advent: "So much to do! So little time!"
Intensity of human effort is not the secret in finishing God's work, however immense and urgent it may be. The oft-used phrase "Let's rise up and finish the work" is theologically wrong, since "he will finish the work" (Rom. 9:28). "By my Spirit" is God's way, not the way of human might.
Having straightened out our theology to that extent, let us not evade the fact that God finishes His work by His Holy Spirit in surrendered men. Paul forever settled this when he gave all the glory for the converted life to the Lord Jesus Christ: "The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God," and "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal. 2:20, R.S.V.).
Everything in the earthly life of Jesus was done in relation to the salvation of man. Jesus was the ever-alert soul winner. Everywhere He saw souls to be saved. The Christian minister whose life is hidden with Christ in God is both indefatigable in labor and alert in finding souls ready for the kingdom. Yet none of us is too alert nor too perceptive in soul winning.
Souls Waiting for Baptism
The church departments are fruitful fields for soul winning, and since the Sabbath school embraces everyone from birth to the end of life, none is a more fruitful field for the minister seeking to get every member of the flock baptized and every member stabilized and built solidly into the truths of the Advent message. Here are souls waiting to be "found" in Christ, and the man who cannot see them surely needs a new anointing of the Holy Spirit.
If "through the grace of Christ, God's ministers are made messengers of light and blessing" (The Acts of the Apostles, p. 278) to the waiting souls on the outside of the church, much more should they be thus empowered to bring salvation to those who are attending the church through the Sabbath school but are not yet baptized into its membership.
Children can be won for Christ long before they are considered mature enough to be baptized. Dedicated and capable teachers, observant and friendly ministers, lay men and women who are encouraged to befriend the younger members of the flock, and, above all, parents who are understanding and watchful—all contribute something to the conversion of boys and girls. Their subsequent baptism then is almost a foregone conclusion.
When the youth have passed the junior age without baptism, a minister needs to be doubly alert and prayerfully wise. To go beyond the age of fifteen or sixteen without baptism brings our boys and girls into a danger area. After this the readiness of the youth for baptism diminishes, and normally each passing year multiplies the difficulty of decision. The soul-winning objective for teachers and ministers is to get every young person baptized while the impressionable years are on them. Ministers contribute greatly to the value of their work by carefully watching the psychological time for unbaptized young people to go forward in public confession of Christ.
There will always be some who pass into the youth group unbaptized for certain reasons. They are not easy to work for, and it takes longer to win them at this age than in their earlier years. The wise minister keeps especially near to this group. The youth who enter adulthood unbaptized are in danger. If they enter marriage and are not church members the danger is greater still. But the dedicated minister watches over and assiduously cultivates such people, ever seeking their assent to baptism and responsible church membership.
Watching for Unbaptized Adults
In every church there are some unbaptized adults. For reasons that do not concern us here, men and women worship with us but are unbaptized. A minister works on the assumption that regular attendance should lead logically to full membership. Such cases may have peculiar backgrounds, and an extended association for the cultivation of confidence may be necessary. But there is a potential baptism or rebaptism in each of these cases.
Visitors to our Sabbath schools are a fruitful soul-winning field for ministers, who should endeavor to have all visitors together in a class which he should teach. It is logical to expect baptisms from such classes.
It is obvious that the Sabbath school is a missionary field for every minister. "The Sabbath school, if rightly conducted, is one of God's great instrumentalities to bring souls to a knowledge of the truth," says the servant of the Lord in Councils on Sabbath School Work, page 115, and the minister is involved in this statement because, though others may figure in the routine conduct of the school, he eventually will study the doctrines with the new people and baptize them.
Using the Sabbath school as a contributing agency to the soul-winning program of the church is surely the mark of a keen, alert, dedicated minister.
