THE history of the Christian church has a sickening repetitious note. One movement after another had its genesis accompanied by extraordinary zeal and energy for winning souls only to gradually wither in a vacuum of witnessing inactivity. Can Adventists break the record?
We rejoice, and rightly so, over evangelistic achievements. But in spite of our soaring statistical records, much of the world still sits in spiritual darkness. The problem is not one of converting the world but rather of letting the world know that they can choose something besides death as their ultimate aim in life. It is the problem of letting every human being understand that sin and death have been defeated in the person of Jesus Christ.
We constantly assert, "We have the truth the world needs," "Ours is the last warning message." But are we really communicating the Adventist tidings to our planet? There is no shortage of activity within our movement. We have our retreats, trips, workers' meetings, congresses of every description, and camp meetings. But are we getting across?
The Lifeless Road
One of the most interesting statistical records we could read, kept only by heavenly statisticians, is exactly how much time, money, and energy is spent in directly approaching the masses of the world with the three angels' messages. Is it possible that we spend more in travel and moving expenses than in direct public evangelism? A recent published report indicated that in North America alone approximately one million dollars a year are spent in moving workers. This is in addition to regular travel budgets and expenses. Of course, a certain amount of motion is a necessity. But isn't it time to search our hearts and ask if some of this motion isn't nervousness instead of earnestness? Isn't it time to find out whether much of our vitality is being consumed in fortifying gains rather than in occupying more enemy territory? There's not much point in building up churchly Maginot lines attempting to safeguard the movement both financially and doctrinally. Our only safeguard is in launching constant attacks against the enemy. What a despairing thought that Seventh-day Adventism should walk the life less road of the institutional church!
Is the Advent Ship Beached?
Think of the influence and impact the Millerite movement made on society. It gained an estimated fifty thousand to one hundred thousand followers out of a national population of seventeen million. The two short summers of 1843 and 1844 witnessed five hundred thousand to one million people attending one hundred and thirty Adventist evangelistic camp meetings. Why can't the same fervor and zeal grip our movement today? Has the good Advent ship been beached on the shores of timidity, caution, and outright lethargy?
Dragging Our Evangelistic Feet
Today is earth's Gethsemane. Her cry "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me" ought to awaken even the most skeptical and drowsy among us. Current newspaper headlines would have shocked the Adventist shepherd and sheep ten years ago. The unusual has become the usual. The world wonders in awe at the god of science which is about to land a man on the moon. But the church unimaginatively drags its evangelistic feet in letting the world know that Christ is about to land on earth! The earnest commands to give the trumpet a certain sound and to cry aloud should not be interpreted as whispering. Are we busy making umbrellas instead of boats to escape the swirling flood waters surrounding us? Could it be that the Master's comment, "The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light" (Luke 16:8), applies especially today?
"Whereases"
Surely there is no shortage of sermons, letters, articles, reports, testimonies, and whereases on the need for all types of direct-method evangelism. But when the smoke of conventions, precouncils, councils and post councils, and other "stimulators" clears away, don't we usually find ourselves trudging on the same treadmill of traditional, conventional church activities?
Our giant metropolises like towers of Babel are scattered over every continent. What is being done for them? In most, Adventists have one or two dim lights, some of which are barely flickering. Our smog-filled city skies block out a quarter of the sun's light---are we blocking out the light of the gospel by unconcern? At best our present status is a far cry from what we fondly hope will take place when the Revelation 18 angel lights the earth with his glory. This prophetic description is certainly remote from facts as they exist today!
Infinitesimal Degree
It doesn't require much nerve to pat ourselves on the back and shake each other's hands at Adventist conventions. But go out on the world's highways and byways both of colossal cities and tiny villages and ask the man on the street what he knows about us and our message. You will be fortunate indeed if the majority have ever heard of us, let alone know what we believe. Let those who labor in heavily populated Adventist areas not be deceived as to the degree of accurate knowledge the world's masses have of us.
"Millions upon millions of human souls ready to perish, bound in chains of ignorance and sin, have never so much as heard of Christ's love for them. Were our condition and theirs to be reversed, what would we desire them to do for us?" --The Desire of Ages, p. 640. Would not we demand that efforts of overwhelming magnitude be devised and executed?
If there ever was or will be a time when "ministers of God's appointment will find it necessary to put forth extraordinary efforts in order to arrest the attention of the multitudes" (Evangelism,, p. 122), that time is now!
Heartening Developments
Perhaps one of the most heartening developments of all is the recognition from the president of the General Conference down to the pastor in Paducah, Kentucky that the church is not achieving the goals the Lord has set for her. What is being said here is simply a reflection of a growing awareness in the church that modern Israel has spent enough time in the desert; it's time that we step out by faith and put our feet in Jordan's water preparatory to our crossing to heavenly Canaan. There is a growing conviction on the part of many that the church will regain the posture and specifications so forcefully out lined in King Solomon's question, "Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?" (Song of Solomon 6:10).
I personally know that our leaders are doing their utmost to get the church moving again. They are attempting to place more funds into the field of direct types of public evangelism. Task forces have been set up by the administration to study denominational trends in every area. Our complex departmental structure is being examined. Allocation of educational re sources and combining of objectives are being studied. This is heartening news when you consider that one of our educational facilities today takes one tenth of our entire world budget! The coming Fall Council will have as one of its main themes the entering of new territories in the world field. These are only a few of the moves being contemplated.
We dare not permit the tragedies that have prostrated the efforts of other churches to strike us. The challenge facing our church today demands the most perceptive thinking, daring dramatic planning, and insuperable faith. Above all, the times demand that we as ministers reach that exalted state of total self-renunciation in favor of a combined forward thrust in soul saving. God will no longer tolerate His great gospel commission to be used as a worn-out, threadbare cliche. It must be come a dynamic truth in action! A thrust of this nature will polarize the latent and misguided energies of our movement, and once again as in apostolic days the church will start marching as a mighty, conquering army! The battle is ours. Victory is assured if a converted church gets involved in witnessing.
What You Can Do About It
In succeeding articles we want to suggest certain plans that will aid the church in moving in the right direction. We ask you to put yourself in the General Conference president's place; or if you can't stand the heat, then try the local conference president's position. What ideas, concepts, and plans would you attempt to inaugurate if you were in their position? Send in your concrete proposals as to what the church can and should do to let the world know that God is, that God has a Son, and that God has a church with a message for these final moments of earth's history.
