Double Burden for 47 Years!

In 1927 the Andersons returned to Aus­tralia and began evangelistic work in the capital city of Brisbane. The 1,400-seat theater soon proved too small. A 2,200-seat theater was secured, but after several weeks they were compelled to vacate, owing to theater remodeling plans. Now the ques­tion was, Where could they go?

A prominent businessman of the city knowing their predicament tested their faith by saying, "Remember, my friend, there is only one way to go and that is up. If you believe what you are saying and if you are confident that it is true, then you must go to His Majesty's Theatre—the op­era house. It is the largest and finest in the city and will attract the very best people." The chief's youthful faith was tested to the limit. How could he ever begin in a place like this? Faith overcame fear, and meetings were begun in this strategic and important location. Two and a half years later capac­ity crowds were still listening to the Advent message.

Daniells, Australia, and England

In 1928 A. G. Daniells visited Australia and attended one of the Sunday night meet­ings when more than one thousand people were turned away. He talked very candidly to the chief and said, "I believe the Lord wants you in another area of the world." Eighteen months later a call from the Gen­eral Conference came for the Andersons to work in London, England. In 1930, when the world was plunging into the depths of an awful depression, this 34-year-old Aus­tralian Adventist preacher began his work in England. The Lord's Spirit was mightily poured out upon his labors. Remember, these were the days of depression, but the people attending the meetings supported the work year after year, as practically no budget was received from the conference. (One year $75 was advanced by the con­ference committee.) Those who know the chief best know that his strong faith in God's power and leading is a personal qual­ity to be desired far above budgets and equipment. Where there is vision, the peo­ple prosper!

La Sierra College

Six and a half years later they were in­vited to connect with the Pacific Union Conference. Activities included strong pub­lic evangelistic work, chairmanship of the La Sierra College Bible department, grad­uate work at the University of Southern California, and being loaned to the Inter-American Division for a large evangelistic campaign in the city of Kingston, Jamaica. This latter experience undoubtedly en­larged the vision of the ministers and evan­gelists of the British West Indies Union. Today we have more centurion evangelists in that area of the world than in any other.

Ministerial Association

At the 1941 General Conference session he was elected as a staff member of the Ministerial Association. This involved teaching, editorial work, and ministerial training. Eventually seminary extension schools were developed, and during the years he has participated in twelve or thir­teen of these training programs held in most of the world divisions. Forty-three of his 47 years in active ministerial service have been spent largely in training other ministers—either in the ministry or in one of the most effective of all programs, large field schools of evangelism. These field schools of evangelism have found him con­ducting meetings in three of the largest cities of the world—London, New York, and Tokyo. For twenty-five years his work in the Ministerial Association has molded the thinking and enlarged the vision of our world ministry.

Won by Music

The gift of music seems to be a heredity feature in the Anderson family. The late A. W. Anderson, father of three ordained ministers, was an accomplished musician. Therefore music has played an important part in the life of our subject. During his ministry he has compiled several songbooks and had a part in the development of the Church Hymnal. One of the unique fea­tures of his evangelistic work was the use of a choir, many of whom came from a non-Adventist background. A group of anywhere from one hundred to two hundred singers became a part of the soul-winning program. At least twice every year an ora­torio with orchestra and choir was rendered. This not only attracted the public but gave the musical organization a real challenge.

On my recent visit to Australia a faith­ful member attending the Adelaide camp meeting told me his experience of being in one of the chief's choirs. Then he naively said, "I never could understand why he wanted me in the choir, for when we first met I could hardly sing a note." I asked him, "Don't you really know the reason?" His response was negative. Then I told him that this was the chief's method of getting him into the truth.

During a period of ten years a careful account was kept of the non-Adventists who joined the choir, and the results showed that more than 95 per cent of them were later baptized. This method surely proves that singing is not just an adjunct to evan­gelism, it is evangelism in the highest sense!

Personal Experiences

A story of this type would not be com­plete unless I related a few personal experiences. My first contact with the chief was during a Week of Prayer held at Wash­ington Missionary^- College (now Colum­bia Union College) during the school year of 1941-1942. The musical part of the Week of Prayer revealed new songs such as "Spirit of the Living God," "There's a New Day Dawning," "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus," "It Is Morning in My Heart," "He Lives," et cetera. We had never heard these songs before. The entire student body was lifted by song during and following this week of spiritual emphasis. My senior year found me in one of his classes in pas­toral training. Here we were taught to do street preaching, first in the classroom and then outdoors. I remember helping to erect a Daniel 2 image under a tree in a Washington park. Some distance away an­other outdoor preacher was surrounded by a crowd of several hundred. But our arrival with the help of our image magnetized our competitor's crowd and in a short time we reigned supreme as far as numbers were concerned! Other training featured extem­poraneous elocution. Five-minute speeches were assigned, the subject of which was an­nounced to us while walking from our seat to the platform. To capture the results of this experiment on paper is impossible, only tape recordings could suffice.

Following graduation, I was assigned to be a part of his evangelistic team in a large campaign held in the key city of Cleveland, Ohio. A young intern does not begin to realize the impact made upon him by a suc­cessful evangelist until years later. No pol­icy of the church could ever supersede that of placing young workers with older quali­fied ministers. This policy, if unswervingly followed, would assure success to many an intern who otherwise might become dis­couraged or accept mediocrity as a stand­ard.

The vision I caught, the ideas, methods, and experience gained during the Cleve­land evangelistic programs, helped me more than any theoretical classroom train­ing. Perhaps the greatest enlightenment re­ceived was during the house-to-house visi­tation program patterned after the apostle Paul's method. The chief's tact, kindness, and patience helped me to realize the op­portunity and value of personal work. Time after time we would be placed in dif­ficult positions when a wrong answer could have lost a soul. To watch the skillful han­dling in bringing the concerned individuals to a decision has been one of the most precious experiences of my entire ministry.

As associate evangelist in the 1951 New York Carnegie Hall campaign more les­sons were learned. The staggering perplexi­ties and problems of this giant metropolis forced us to our knees time and time again. One unforgettable expression of the chief is, "Let's have some prayer." The load car­ried by him during these campaigns was extremely heavy. The physical endurance exhibited proved that he was more than an evangelist; he was a shepherd—a shepherd-evangelist. One of his philosophies was that every evangelist should be a shepherd or a pastor of the flock and every pastor should be an evangelist. True evangelism always springs from the shepherding instinct. His book The Shepherd-Evangelist centers on this theme.

Visual Aids

Another strong feature of his evangelistic program was the use of visual aids. A large blackboard was ever an indispensable item (see picture). Not only did this hold the attention of the people, but it made the truth clear and plain. He played a major role in developing the cut-out type of visual aid such as the beasts of Daniel 7. Thousands who have been led by him through the waters of baptism can never forget the force of spoken words mingled with im­pressive eye-catching devices. 

Author

Besides the hundreds of articles for THE MINISTRY and other magazines, he has au­thored the books Unfolding the Revelation, Preachers of Righteousness, Secrets of the Spirit World, and The Shepherd-Evange­list. A full-message three-volume set for the public is now being printed by the South­ern Publishing Association. In recognition of his theological contribution to the Adventist Church, Andrews University hon­ored him by conferring the Doctor of Di­vinity degree upon him in 1964.