THERE is no need for me to tell you that pastors are busy these days. There are so many projects to be promoted, funds to be raised, evangelistic meetings to be held, and a host of other duties to be performed that sometimes the work holding first importance is many times neglected. Simple as this work may be and surprising as its results are, Satan is gloating over the fact that it is being neglected among our people.
If we were to try to select the most important work in our ministry, whether to win new converts or establish those within the church, which one would we choose? Please understand, we need all the various methods and programs in our ministry and I would not want to minimize the importance of any of them, but which would be the work of first importance? We find the answer in volume 4 of the Testimonies for the Church, page 390: "If there is one work more important than another, it is that of getting our publications before the public, thus leading them to search the Scriptures."
Why Not Adventists?
When we read this statement we immediately think of our literature evangelists, but I believe the "public" includes also our own church members. It is the work of the pastor to encourage and lead his people into a study of our publications, which will lead them to "search the Scriptures." What work could be more important in these solemn days in which we are living?
I would like to make some interesting observations regarding this work of first importance and then suggest a simple method of incorporating it into our church program without adding more to our busy round of activities. In fact, the results will greatly lighten our program and bring about a religious awakening among our church members.First some observations:
Ellen G. White opened her ministry by placing great emphasis upon the literature ministry, and before she closed her work on earth she again made a strong appeal regarding the publishing work. In one of her early visions she was shown that God's people should begin to print a paper and from this small beginning it would become like streams of light going round the world. This vision was in November, 1848.
Jesus also opened His ministry with great emphasis upon the written word and closed it by emphasizing it in a similar way.
In Matthew is recorded the great conflict that Christ encountered with Satan.
How did He defend Himself? To every suggestion and proposition that Satan made, Jesus simply referred the tempter to the Scriptures, the then-published portion of the Bible. Three times Jesus told Satan "It is written." It was His knowledge of and belief in the Scriptures that helped Him gain the victory, and as if to re-emphasize this experience John the revelator was inspired to write: "And they [the brethren] overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony" (Rev. 12:11). Let me ask: From where will God's people today receive their testimony to be overcomers? Will the spoken word once a week be enough?
"I Had Been Wasting My Life"
As we study the history of the Advent Movement we find that our literature prepared the way for the work to begin in various countries around the world. Reports coming from South America, Africa, Korea, and other places indicate that sometimes whole non-Adventist churches become Adventists as a result of a literature evangelist selling our books to their members. Space does not permit me to mention them. Not very long ago a literature evangelist in Ohio received a letter that indicates what our literature does when people read it. I will quote a portion of the letter: "The very same night that you left the books in our home I leafed through the book Your Bible and You and then I read the last two chapters; it was then I realized that I had been wasting my life. God spoke to my heart and He forgave me for my sins, and cleansed my heart and gave me peace and joy within. I have been trying to serve Him ever since."
Now if our literature is such a powerful instrument in leading men and women to Christ and bringing them into the truth, doesn't it stand to reason that if we could educate and encourage our people to read more of these books they would be more apt to stay with the church?
39 Percent by Apostasy
General Conference statistics indicate that we lose by apostasy 39 per cent of our baptisms. This means that if in your conference you baptized 500 people this year, 200 will leave the church by apostasy. A large congregation indeed.
These are sobering facts that are maybe hard to understand and still harder to accept. Could it be that a large percentage of those who apostatize leave the church because we fail to remind them of the literature they should be reading? Hosea says: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6). In Messages to Young People we read: "A long preparatory process, unknown to the world, goes on in the heart before the Christian commits open sin. The mind does not come down at once from purity and holiness to depravity, corruption, and crime."—Page 282. "I am personally acquainted with some who have lost the healthy tone of the mind through wrong habits of reading."Ibid., p. 280. "The best way to prevent the growth of evil is to preoccupy the soil. The greatest care and watchfulness is needed in cultivating the mind and sowing therein the precious seeds of Bible truth." —Ibid., p. 282. Ellen G. White suggests books that should be read by our people and then emphasizes that "these books must be regarded as of special importance, and every effort should be made to get them before the people" (Evangelism, p. 366).
One Sermon a Week Insufficient
What a tragedy that in a world that has so much surplus food, millions of people go to bed hungry every night. What a greater tragedy that in our organization that has so much wonderful literature, our people are starving spiritually.
Our churches have members who need to be led into a reading experience to feed their hungry souls. Many of them are growing weak spiritually. They need more than the one sermon a week, no matter how good it is. "It is not in God's purpose that the church shall be sustained by life drawn from the minister. They are to have root in themselves."—Ibid., p. 343. One of the best ways to become rooted and grounded in the faith that we hold so dear is to read and study the books that have been so abundantly given to this denomination. My father, who had only a third-grade education, became an excellent lay preacher, largely as a result of studying the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy books.
Study Guide
A very interesting study guide to The Adventist Home has been prepared, and a number of pastors are beginning to use it to lead their church members into the reading of the book itself. This study guide is available from the Book and Bible Houses for 81.25.
Many of us have had reading programs such as this for our prayer meeting group. However, those who really need to be reading these books may not have been present. To make a reading program successful, assignments should be made from Sabbath to Sabbath during the announcements just preceding the eleven o'clock hour as well as printed in the church bulletin.
Personal Testimony
It would be well to ask from time to time, by a show of hands, how many are reading the weekly assignments. This would encourage others to join the reading fellowship. There would be nothing amiss if time were allowed during the announcement period for some of the church members to give a personal testimony as to what the reading program has done for them and their home. This program is beamed to help the weaker members in the church, and every effort should be made to get them to read the assignments.
We can find ways of our own to make this program work and be a tremendous help to our church membership. Where this program has been started the people like it and very good results have been seen. One pastor told me that after the members in his small church had been reading the book The Adventist Home for some time they told him that they never knew such helpful material existed. One woman said, "There are going to be some big changes in our home. We have not been bringing our children up in the right way."
Angels and Assistant Pastors
The Church Reading Fellowship Plan can play an important part in our pastoral work. Notice these words: "The Holy Spirit will impress minds as they read the books, just as He impresses the minds of those who listen to the preaching of the word. The same ministry of angels attends the books that contain the truth as attends the work of the minister."—Testimonies, vol. 6, p. 316. (Italics supplied.) Think of it! Books can be assistant pastors to us if we will only introduce them to our people.
In closing her work on earth Ellen G. White wrote: "I do not expect to live long. My work is nearly done. Tell our young people that I want my words to encourage them. . . . We should select books for them that will encourage them to sincerity of life, and lead them to the opening of the word. This has been presented to me in the past, and I thought I would get it before you and make it secure. . . . Books that are a blessing to mind and soul are needed. These things are too lightly regarded; therefore our people should become acquainted with what I am saying. . . . I am very anxious that our young people shall have the proper class of reading; then the old people will get it also. .. . We could begin a course of reading so intensely interesting that it would attract and influence many minds."—Messages to Young People, pp. 287-289. (Italics supplied.) True, we have the MV Book Clubs and they have been a blessing, but let us go a step farther and lead our people into reading not only these but our other books. A program such as this has been long overdue.
Jesus in one of the last meetings with His disciples asked Peter a simple but pointed question. And after receiving an affirmative answer He made known to Peter the concern He had for His people when He said, "Feed my sheep" (John 21:17). So that Peter would not forget, Jesus repeated it three times. This charge that Jesus gave to Peter applies to pastors today. The Church Reading Fellowship Plan is designed to help us carry out the request that Jesus made of Peter and all church pastors.
We as leaders today can show our love to the Master by leading the flock entrusted to our care to greener pastures by introducing them to the Church Reading Fellowship Plan. Let us try it soon. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Our congregation will follow if we lead them. Who will do it if we don't? This is a work of first importance.
