FIFTY-ONE thousand seven hundred and fifty-five. Any way you look at it, it's still a big number, especially to the ministers of the Middle East Division. Our president, F. C. Webster, placed that number on the wall of the division committee room to be a reminder to us that there are 51,755 people in the Middle East for each Seventh-day Adventist in our division, and 51,755:1 is the highest ratio population to members in any of our world divisions, with the exception of China.
It has been eighty-eight years since the three angels' messages entered this area of the world via Egypt. Membership grew by a sure but agonizingly slow pace, and to date has not even reached the three-thou sand mark. There have even been setbacks, such as what happened in Turkey. In that country we had twenty-two churches and almost five hundred members prior to 1915, but then came war, persecution, and death. In Turkey today we have only one church and sixty members in a land of 32 million.
Evangelistic Training Institute
Until now, baptisms have always come slow in the 98 per cent Moslem Middle East. A man can work hard in his ministry and be counted successful if he baptized a handful each year for his effort. In fact, the Middle East has never seen in its ranks a centurion evangelist at least not yet. But there is going to be one, or more, soon. August 13-20, 1968, brought seven of the youngest ministers from almost every section of the Middle East Division to a special evangelistic training institute sponsored by the division Ministerial Association. Division evangelist Salim Japas, recently arrived from Argentina, conducted an intensive training program based on the New Method Evangelism, which has proved so successful in South America. Pastor Japas stressed again and again that although this method of evangelism leads to Bible investigation classes primarily geared for non-Protestant Christians, yet with adaptation these basic principles of evangelism can be applied to approaches with other religious groups, even to Islam.
In the Bible investigation plan the evangelist functions as a teacher and not as a preacher, using the terminology of the people he's working with, and not the cliches common to, and understood only by, Protestants in general and Adventists in particular. By this method the speaker will enter into a presentation of material familiar to his auditors and parallel to their thinking, as he leads them gently but convincingly, step by step, into what is unfamiliar and possibly divergent to their previous beliefs.
Theory and Practice Combined
Each day's workshop of practical evangelistic techniques and methods was followed each evening by public evangelistic meetings, in which Pastor Japas demonstrated what he had taught earlier in the classroom. He supported his sermons with a simply made black-light visual aid, a set of which each young evangelist attending the institute was given opportunity to make for use in his own series of meetings to follow shortly. Each of these men has already set a date for his initial campaign, using what he learned in the institute. It is planned that Pastor Japas will be present at each of these campaigns to assist the young evangelist in his effort.
Will this method of teaching evangelistic techniques aid and inspire young men in a truly helpful manner? Only time will tell as we await the results of the campaigns, but one young minister was overheard to remark, "I've attended various rallies, seminars, workshops, and institutes, and they were good, but this time I'm going home with something I truly believe I can put to use, something that will enable me to approach people on their own ground and in their own language of thought. More than that, I'll have someone experienced nearby to help me in my own campaign. It's one thing to observe someone else doing it, but another thing to do it yourself."
There was an attitude of earnest dedication reflected from the faces of all attending. You could feel it in the air during the morning prayer and meditation periods, as one by one men arose to bear testimony to the burden on their hearts to win souls to Christ.
Prayer for Early and Latter Rain
During the opening evening address L. C. Miller declared, "Now is the hour the hour for all-out evangelism in the Middle East. According to the words of Samuel Chadwick, 'The symbol of Christianity is not a cross, but a tongue of fire.' What is needed in the Middle East is a tongue of fire like that which brought the power of Pentecost to the apostles." In a following sermon F. C. Webster showed that the fire of Pentecost that comes with the latter rain cannot come until we first receive the former rain.
The group then began to pray for the former rain, for as the disciples went through an "upper room" experience, so we desired the same. A special Lord's Supper was held toward the end of the institute, during which those present were challenged to follow the example of Mary Magdalene and break the box the box of self-denial.
In the quietness of that hour each searched his heart, surrendered his life anew, and began to ponder the question, When I leave this place, what part will I play in evangelizing the Middle East for Christ?
It was about this time during the session that the June, 1968, issue of THE MINISTRY arrived, with E. E. Cleveland's article "Men of the Century." It was with some heaviness of heart that we acknowledged that the Middle East has never had a centurion evangelist. Looking at the big red 51,755 on the wall had us awed; it made us realize we were a definite minority! Then we remembered that by teaming up with Christ for evangelism, we can be a majority. The Spirit that brought the Pentecostal tongue of fire is still working in these latter days---it was working upon hearts at that moment of the institute.
At the closing session Pastor Webster stated, "It's time to set our baptismal goals so that we have something to aim at as the Spirit works in and through us."
Evidence of a New Day
There was a moment of silence. Some, who were facing the big red 51,755, didn't find the number so large now, for we were convinced that we stand on the verge of a breakthrough for God in the Bible lands. In fact, the wall of resistance has begun to crack. We saw it crack even more when Pastor Webster announced that during the first two quarters of 1968 there have been two hundred and seventy-one baptized in the Middle East. That is almost twice the number that has ever been baptized in any previous whole calendar year!
Slowly, calmly, and one by one, the young evangelists stood to announce their baptismal goals. Pastors Webster, Japas, and Miller sat keeping the tally, and as each man spoke, it was evident that our men were aiming high not for personal glory at becoming a centurion evangelist, but simply to glorify Christ, and to bring down that challenging ratio of 51,755:1. We have confidence in these young men. They collectively, with God's help, pledged themselves to baptize nearly one thousand souls nine hundred and fifty-nine, to be exact by the end of 1969, with the greater aim of helping to triple the division membership within the present quadrennium. Certainly out of this institute must come some centurions for God, for we have seen the wall of resistance to the gospel of Christ in the Middle East begin to crack. The breakthrough must follow.
