THE genius of the Seventh-day Adventist Church has always been an aggressive evangelistic program. While evangelism has ever been the key to the growth of the church it has undergone a gradual transition that makes today's evangelistic work the most effective ever.
In the early history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, evangelism consisted primarily of dynamic platform personalities whose unusual ability to draw and hold an audience was the key to evangelistic success. God used this approach to soul winning in a mighty way and today there are a large number among us who were won by such men. However, as effective as this approach was, it had some problems.
In discussing these problems and the transition to what we have today, we recognize that in former days there were fewer established churches to give support to the evangelistic meetings, and into which the new converts could be integrated. Many of the meetings were conducted in areas where there were at that time few if any Seventh-day Adventists, and there are still such areas today. In these instances some of the earlier approaches, updated of course, are still important. In this article, however, we are thinking of evangelism in areas where we have churches.
Possibly the greatest concern related to the earlier public campaign was the high rate of apostasy among the new converts. Unusually large numbers of the new converts left the church soon after baptism. They had had very little or no contact with the church prior to baptism; consequently, the transition from the evangelistic meeting to church membership was a difficult and often painful experience. Apostasy during this period of Adventist evangelism often reached 50 to 60 percent of all accessions to the church. According to Adventist Evangelism, page 130, by Howard B. Weeks, the apostasy rate rose to a record high in 1926 with 62 percent of new members leaving the church.
Another concern was the large outlay of funds that often exhausted the financial resources of a conference. The high cost of the long and heavily staffed evangelistic program often restricted evangelism to a few select areas while the other areas of the field received little or no help.
Also there were few men with suitable platform personalities. Considering the needs of the world field, it is not difficult to see the disadvantage of this approach. Again, where there were church members, this approach required no real involvement on their part for the total work of evangelism was done by the evangelist and his team. Although frequently crowned with success, with the dawn of the technological age, drawing and holding large audiences for long periods became increasingly difficult and expensive.
Church-centered Evangelism
Today experience and circumstances have demanded for the most part an entirely different posture in regard to the evangelistic program. The key to success now differs from that of the past in that it centers in the church rather than in the evangelist. Evangelistic success depends not so much on the ability and performance of the evangelist as upon the personality and activity of the church.
This approach simply says that the first work of the church is evangelism; that every department and every member of the church be actively engaged in the single objective of soul winning—that there be a constant and steady work by the total church of sowing, cultivating, and reaping! In this approach the work of sowing and cultivating is left primarily to the church members working through the departments of the church, while the reaping is generally done by a short series of evangelistic meetings, normally about four weeks in duration. However, the greater share of responsibility for the success of every phase of the soul-winning program, including the evangelistic meetings proper, devolves upon the church.
Once this approach is understood by both the ministry and the laity and given proper emphasis in a field, its advantages and merits are quickly seen and appreciated.
Fewer Apostasies
Possibly the most significant advantage of this approach is fewer apostasies. With the use of more churches as evangelistic centers and the gradual transition in our evangelistic outreach, the rate of apostasies has decreased. Today the apostasy rate is at an all-time low. It stands as approximately 30 percent of all accessions to the church. (See graph.) Since most of the work of winning the new converts is done by the church prior to the evangelistic meetings, the new people are, at the time of the baptism, already oriented to the church. Thus the transition to the Adventist way of life is gradual and less difficult. This, coupled with the social ties that have resulted from contact with the church during the period of indoctrination, results in fewer apostasies. Howard Weeks speaks of some of these advantages in his book, Adventist Evangelism, page 270: "With the denominational rate of apostasies in 1964 at only 31 percent of accessions to the church, the lowest level since World War I, conferences readily gave their sup port to the short campaign. Its focus on preconditioned prospects seemed less disturbing to congregations, less expensive, and possibly more conducive to favorable relations in the community than campaigns of long duration in which emotion-laden advertising and public argumentation on disputed points of doctrine sometimes left relationships with other churches rather strained."
Greater Involvement
Another tremendously important aspect of today's evangelism is the involvement of a greater number of the laity in the actual work of soul winning. As the members of the church become active in soul winning, fewer church problems arise and spiritual health is improved. Also, if a large number of church members are involved in winning souls, a successful series of evangelistic meetings can be conducted in that church at least twice each year with thrilling results for both the evangelist and the church. As the laymen see their interests attending and responding, a tremendous spiritual revival takes possession of them and often the entire church. Back sliders are reclaimed and new converts flock to the church. As the church members realize God's rich blessing upon their efforts, their commitment to Christ deepens and their soul-winning activities increase.
Every Pastor an Evangelist
This approach has another unique feature: it allows every pastor to become an evangelist. The evangelistic meeting is simply the last phase in the thrilling work of soul winning. The sowing and cultivating have already been done when the evangelistic series begins; therefore, the gathering in of the ripened harvest is easier, not demanding the platform personality of the past. Consequently we have a great number of our pastors serving as effective pastor-evangelists. Also today we have hundreds of evangelists regularly baptizing more than 100 persons each year, where in the past there were only a few doing this. According to the June, 1969, issue of THE MINISTRY, in 1968 there were 184 evangelists with 100 baptisms or more!
We must not forget the tremendous financial advantage of this approach. To day's short evangelistic meeting can ordinarily be conducted very nicely in the church. The need of extensive advertising is less because most of those attending the meetings come as a direct result of the work already done by the church before the evangelistic meetings begin. Excluding the personal expense of the evangelist, an outstanding evangelistic series can be con ducted for one thousand dollars or less. (Naturally, in larger areas the cost will be more.) By thus conserving our evangelistic funds we are enabled to do a wider and more extensive evangelistic work. Utilizing this approach an entire conference can be worked regularly and systematically without too large an outlay of funds. Not only does the evangelist spend much less money in each meeting but he can also conduct a larger number of efforts each year. A full-time evangelist can easily con duct seven or eight evangelistic campaigns per year.
The New Awakening
The entire field is fast coming to realize that every department of the church must be awakened to do the work of soul winning—the work they were created to do. Our leaders realize as well that all the soul-winning activities must be coordinated in such a way as to focus on preparation for evangelistic meetings. Where this vision becomes a reality, success in the short evangelistic meetings is assured. The possibilities of such a program are unlimited. This is clearly evident in certain areas of the field.
The necessity of coordinating the total evangelistic activity of the conference as well as giving assistance to the pastor in his over-all program has given rise to the appointment on conference levels of a Ministerial secretary. In addition to con ducting several evangelistic series each year, the one called to this work is given, among other duties, the responsibility of coordinating all the evangelistic activities of the conference. He works closely with the other departments of the conference in an effort to focus all their soul-winning activities upon one objective—that objective being preparation for the evangelistic meetings held throughout the field.
We must remember that the key to success in today's evangelistic approach is the individual church member. Only as the church members actively engage in sowing and cultivating the seed of truth can a harvest of souls be reaped in the evangelistic meetings that follow. God is waiting on His people. If we awake to set every man to work and then coordinate the work of all, the world can soon hear the message of a crucified, risen, and soon-coming Saviour.
