Most Seventh-day Adventist pastors will confess that they are never able to do all there is to do. At the same time, they are painfully aware that most of their people are doing next to nothing by way of direct missionary endeavor. Why are they idle? " 'Because no one has employed us,' they replied" (Matt. 20:7, Phillips).* "It is evident that all the sermons that have been preached have not developed a large class of self-denying workers. . . . Has a line of labor been devised and placed before them in such a way that each has seen the necessity of taking part in the work?"—Christian Service, pp. 58, 59.
In my opinion one of the greatest weaknesses in our lay evangelism is at the point of enlistment and assignment. And the larger the church the more apparent is the failure. As I stated in a previous article, we have long depended on exhortation to lead our people to work. We have not come to grips with the hard, grueling task of enlisting, organizing, and sending our people to work. It reminds me of a man I once knew with a large family of boys, and much work to be done in the garden. He was continually telling his sons that it was their duty to help, and furthermore it was for their good to learn to work. But this father never could bring himself to assign specific tasks and see that they were carried out. Consequently, these boys never got around to the work to be done and grew up to be listless, irresponsible men. As pastors, are we not told, "Every one who is added to the ranks by conversion is to be assigned his post of duty"?—Ibid., p. 74. "Many would be willing to work if they were taught how to begin. They need to be instructed and encouraged."—Ibid., p. 59. We should pray the Lord of the harvest "that he would send forth labourers into his harvest" (Luke 10:2). Then let us follow our prayers to the market places of the world where our members are spending their energies in selfish pursuits. Let us confront them with the grand privilege of working for God in this sunset hour and enlist them in the work of the Lord.
In considering this vital matter of enlistment and assignment, we must first define our tasks. Like Nehemiah, we should examine the broken-down wall and measure the work to be done before we confront people for enlistment and assignment.
Within the framework of an average church organization one can enlist from one fourth to one half of the active membership. The larger the church the more complex is the organization. But a church whose main interest and concern is directed within will never experience optimum spiritual growth, nor will it become an evangelistic force in the community. We must lift up our eyes and look on the fields, white ready for harvest, and obey the divine imperative of the Great Commission. Our members should be taught the importance of preparing the hard soil of the human heart for the seed by acts of loving kindness, missionary visitation with smiles, encouragement, sympathy, and help for the poor and needy. Under the ministry of the Holy Spirit hearts may thus be softened and prepared for the more formal presentation of truth in the form of Bible studies.
As mentioned earlier in this series, one must first discover the prospects if he expects to conduct a lay visitation program. Who are they and where are they? Do careful research in areas mentioned earlier, such as correspondence school interests, the church guest hook, colporteur interests, backsliders, non-Seventh-day Adventists attending Sabbath school, interest lists from evangelistic meetings. From these sources build a master file of prospects. (See Figure 1.) You will be surprised at the large number of names you will find. In one large city where I served, we found more than six hundred names for our prospect file. This file must be kept active. There should be a constant flow of names added to the file from our members who are alert and actively engaged in seed sowing. For the convenience of the people I kept small cards in the tithe receptacles in the pews entitled "A Prospect for Our Church." (See Figure 2.) As the prospect file is worked, names will be added and deleted constantly.
What can a pastor do with six hundred prospects? Buried in such a list are the names of many people ready and waiting for follow-up and Bible studies. With the heavy pastoral responsibilities of a large city church it is impossible for the minister to follow up such a list of prospects. In this instance I turned to our Sabbath school. It provided a ready-made organization for this huge task. The pastor can place the responsibility for these lost persons squarely upon a responsible, compatible group, namely, the Sabbath school classes and divisions. These basic units thus provide organizational outreach for evangelism, and the teachers and division leaders become responsible for names or tasks assigned. I have found that our Sabbath school can be led to accept these challenges by following the eight steps mentioned in my last article. With patience, prayer, and persistence they can be inspired to visit constantly and effectively for Christ. Visitation assignments can be made from the prospect file and sent to appropriate Sabbath school classes or divisions. I have a card printed for this purpose entitled "Prospect Visitation Assignment and Report." (See Figure 3.) On this card I place all the pertinent information available about the prospect. A record should be kept of who has the card, and the visitor must be instructed to write a full report of the visit on the back of the card. This information should be posted on the master card and the name reassigned to appropriate persons for follow-up, or discarded, as the case may be.
In assigning names for visitation, the pastor should be careful to match the visitor with the prospect. A timid visitor who calls on a person who is antagonistic—whose name happened to be in the prospect file —may be treated so cruelly that he can never be persuaded to visit again. As the members visit, they will discover some genuine interests who are ready for Bible studies. If the person who made the initial contact is not capable of following through, the pastor should assign someone able to carry through with Bible studies. Every pastor should gather a smaller group of capable, consecrated laymen about him and teach them everything he knows about soul winning. This "elite corps" become his specialists for reaping. They can be equipped to instruct the prospect and lead him to a decision for Christ and the message.
The importance of keeping a careful record of all prospects should be emphasized. How many names of precious, blood - bought souls have been lost because of a poor record system! One of your most capable and responsible laymen should be designated as "secretary of visitation" to assist you in making visitation assignments and in keeping the master file of prospects up to date. Reports of visitation should be posted to the master card regularly. Should we be any less meticulous in keeping records of our prospects than a physician would be in charting the progress of his patients? The pastor can thus turn to his master file and select the names of those who are ready for depth visitation. His members have found the real interest and saved him days of searching and "sifting" names. Then he and his "elite corps" can spend their time where it will count the most. This procedure is no more complicated than it must be for efficiency. "Big business" and the professional world understand the importance of keeping records with meticulous care. We must do likewise, for our God is a God of order.
There are some churches where the prospect list is small or nearly nonexistent. And there are members who just will not accept a formal visitation assignment. The Lord has said, "There is work for every mind and for every hand. There is a variety of work, adapted to different minds and varied capabilities."—Ibid., p. 12. I have followed the plan of suggesting that each adult Sabbath school class meet informally once a month. I have provided each class with a list of soul-winning projects, requesting that they select one. These projects should be varied and challenging, such as supplying reading racks for laundromats, a block of territory for systematic literature distribution, visitation of nursing homes, or the placing of our books and magazines in public libraries. The projects should be changed from time to time. Reports to the entire Sabbath school, with success stories, will help to keep the interest high.
All of the foregoing suggestions covering enlistment and assignment will be productive of little good if careful spiritual preparation is not made before the organization is attempted. As mentioned earlier, there should be a series of studies given to the church board and Sabbath school council. They should be led to see their responsibility, to feel the woe of a lost soul. Too many of our people belong to the "cult of the comfortable." Some may tend to resist the man or program that dares to disturb them; they may look upon the whole idea as an impertinence. But a preacher in his pulpit, fully consecrated to God, with his heart ablaze with concern for lost souls, may become the scourge in the hand of our Lord to drive out apathy, worldliness, and indifference from the soul temple. A series of sermons, before anything is said to the leaders about the program, may be used of the Holy Spirit to "prepare . . . the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God" (Isa. 40:3).
I have used such topics as "The Peril of Uselessness," "The Pull of the People," and "Why Stand Ye Here Idle?" We may, under God, build a tremendous and convincing accumulation of testimony regarding the imperative hanging over our heads. The church must recognize the urgency of reaching the side of men and women dying in sin with the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. As Arthur Archibald says in his book New Testament Evangelism, "The preacher is the pivotal man. . . . Without evangelism in the pulpit there will be none in the pew. . . . There must be a fire in the pulpit, not fireworks, but passion, power to stir the people like the tap of the drum. There can be no earthquake in the church unless the preacher is profoundly stirred himself. . . . The church must see the soul-winning mind and spirit in their pastor before they will move."—Page 35. Doctor Archibald goes on to say, "One of the biting criticisms leveled at lay evangelism by its critics is that it tends to degenerate into mere mechanism without spiritual content or power."—Ibid., page 65. But this need not be. Correct methods, baptized with a spirit of concern for lost men, and the power of the Holy Ghost, will bring success. Let us, therefore, seek to enlist, assign, train, and send forth a host of men and women into the vineyard of the Lord, and thus bring to pass the vision, "Servants of God, with their faces lighted up and shining with holy consecration, will hasten from place to place to proclaim the message from heaven."—The Great Controversy, p. 612.
(To be continued)
