WHAT an exciting time to be alive! The mind of man seems literally to have exploded into a meteoric shower of scientific advance. There is an air of excitement among all men who do creative thinking. Suddenly and mysteriously an unseen hand has lifted the veil that separated man from the vital secrets of the universe, and he is pursuing these new bypaths with enthusiasm.
But man's character, for all his excellence, remains stunted. As Omar Bradley said, "Man is a technological giant but an ethical infant." It is just this that provides for the gospel minister his area of opportunity, and the reports before me clearly indicate that hundreds of God's messengers took this challenge seriously.
From the land of historic Egypt, Fakhry Naguib broke into the century division for the first time in the history of that field. The land of the Pharaohs heard the gospel preached with power, and 108 persons accepted the message and were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. There were larger campaigns with greater numerical results conducted elsewhere, but this campaign is significant in that it marks a break through in a land where Christianity is not the predominant religion.
This is also true of Southern Asia where P. C. Thomas, D. K. Down, John Willmott, A. Dawson, E. V. Samuel, and S. Isaac all scaled the heights of century achievement. And once again the Spirit of God revealed Himself in an area where "it couldn't be done."
It is interesting that while some men occupy their time denouncing public evangelism as being a method of the past, Spirit-filled men from North America to the ends of the earth are busy demonstrating its continuing effectiveness under the power of God. However, it should be clearly understood that there is no one method of evangelism that should monopolize our attention at a time like this. The God of heaven has a thousand ways for the accomplishment of His purposes, but certainly central to every procedure is the communication of the light of the gospel to the sin-darkened heart of some sin-sick soul. Evangelism is winning souls by whatever God-ordained method it is practiced. For some it is preaching to thousands in a tent or a hall or a theater. For others it is a strong pastoral program, emphasizing the many faceted ministry of the church. For others (and may this be increasingly so) there is a pastor-directed lay involvement that carries the Word of God into the homes by the firesides of the people. Then there is the pastor who makes his church an evangelistic center and year after year steadily baptizes men and women into the kingdom of God.
The Ministerial Association salutes you all. In this report no attempt is made to evaluate the worth of the minister or to exalt one man above another; rather, by spreading the good news of the blessings of God to men wherever they are, we inspire one another, for a "good report maketh the bones fat." There is enough leanness of bone around.
Spearheading the 1968 evangelistic surge was the president of the General Conference, who demonstrated the primacy of contacting souls with the message as the mission of the church by holding a campaign in Jamaica and leaving scores of men and women in the baptismal classes down there. Other officers of the General Conference followed suit as have many departmental leaders of the world church.
Evangelism is the spirit of the age. It is in the air. It is neither dead nor dying. It isn't even sick. This is not the day of the long face and the funeral dirge and the maiming complacency of the "it can't be done today" philosophy. Let glad hosannas split the air, for this is evangelism's Palm Sunday. The risen Christ goes forth to do battle in the ministry of His servants. A world helpless to deliver itself awaits the only true Deliverer, and the challenge rings out to the ends of the earth, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And may each reader of this article intone the response, "Here am I; send me."
Men of the Century, 1968 is history. This report will give only a minor fraction of that beautiful story eternity alone can tell. A more thrilling story than this is already in the making in 1969.
Recently the president of the South Central Conference, C. E. Dudley, had a unique workers' meeting by conference call telephone. I was invited to that meeting and heard the thrilling report that more than 116 people had been baptized in the first quarter of 1969. This was nearly a 50 per cent increase over 1968, and baptisms are scheduled each quarter and often in between.
So the work is onward, and the public preaching of the Word was never more necessary than now. Remember, preaching will never be outdated. Some of our sermons may need updating as well as our methods, but there never has been, is not now, nor will there ever be a substitute for personal contact with souls and their introduction to the living Christ.
May you be inspired as you study the list of century men for 1968.
This is truly a century of miracles. From the Tamil Section of South India comes evidence of this. In a village called Kanakkanpalayam there were a few people who earnestly sought the Lord and studied the Word of God. They went to Brother S. David and pleaded with him to come to their village and teach them more about the Bible. This interest was followed up, and it was discovered that an entire village was deeply interested in our message and about forty other villages in addition. In this area a mission similar to that of the Pentecostals had flourished, but the woman who was leading them had died some three years ago and there was no one to supervise her work. Deacons were left to take care of the individual churches by themselves, and three deacons thus came to our Seventh-day Adventist worker with a Macedonian call. Brother E. V. Samuel and Brother David were sent to conduct a campaign in these churches. After six months of hard labor, forty people were baptized and during the follow-up work, twenty-seven more have been baptized. Thirty-eight villages of the forty still await the answer to their appeal.
In Mexico C. E. Aeschlimann has baptized six hundred persons into the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. There was a time in Mexico when an assembly of six hundred people in a Protestant service was cause for great concern. But today thousands hear the preaching of the Word of God, and thousands make their way to the foot of the cross.
But it is in Bolivia that a most thrilling story was enacted last year. One of the pas tors baptized more than seven hundred people into the faith without holding a single campaign. He literally acted out Mrs. White's philosophy that she would rather see one man organize work for ten people than one man to do ten men's work. Perhaps he has shown us a part of the pattern of the future. Combined with the evangelist in a campaign, the work of individual laymen could make our church a spectacle to men and angels.
As I write these words the year 1969 is nearly half history, and this promises to be a year of challenge for us all. We are challenged first of all with reference to our concept, for the Seventh-day Adventist ministry must never become a mere institutional ministry. We must rightfully be concerned with the preservation of our own, but we cannot settle down to this. I find no fault with majestic edifices and spine-tingling music that rejoices the heart and waters the soul provided these churches do not become pyramids that constitute the resting place of the dead. The church is by its own essence an aggressive force in the world. Its Founder commanded, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." There can be no retiring within ourselves, no bogging the church down in pet projects, however worthy, that would negate or even substitute for the preaching of the gospel.
This statement must not give aid and comfort to the conservative who would be content to minister simply to the spirit of man through preaching and neglect those vital areas of human experience that may indeed lead to the rejection of the message. When Christ was here He exhibited a concern for the whole man, and our evangelism must embrace this broad concept. But public preaching, whether to thousands or to one, still constitutes God's most effective weapon for the winning of souls. It is so now, and it will ever be.
There is inherently no conflict between an aggressive public evangelistic approach and a human welfare ministry broadly based to meet as far as possible the maximum human need. Any apparent conflict between the two concepts is a manufactured one, for Christ brought the two concepts together into one, and therefore His was a total ministry. There need be no conflict in loyalties here, no schismatic influence. The salvation of the whole man is the chief end of all evangelism and pastoral ministry. To win a soul is more than to baptize him, for having baptized him, he must be settled into the faith. Those who are adept at doing this are worth their weight in gold.
Every pastor is an evangelist, and every evangelist must strive for excellence in pastoral ministry, for the two go together. Any line drawn between them is an artificial one. The burden of the Master must be our own to save a soul.
Dr. Guthrie says that during a heavy storm off the coast of Spain a dismantled merchantman was observed by a British frigate drifting before the gale. Every eye and glass was on her and a canvas shelter on her deck, almost level with the sea, suggesting that there might be life aboard. Boats were lowered; the wreck was reached. One man was found apparently alive but in a state of insensibility, wasted by hunger to a mere skeleton. They bore him to their own vessel, and every effort that pity could suggest was put forth for his restoration. After a long time the efforts were successful. He showed signs of life. He moved, and in a voice weak and hollow, scarcely audible, he muttered, "There's another man!" Saved himself, the first use he makes of speech is to save another.
May the year 1969 bring home to each of our hearts the knowledge that "there is another man." Saved ourselves, may our one impulse be to save others. This done in 1969 will be for the whole Advent world the year of the tiger!
