Training Laymen For Witnessing

HE SAID unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). The foregoing words of Jesus present the magnitude of the task committed to the church. The following words of Scripture present the means for the accomplishment of this task: "These were his gifts: some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip God's people for work in his service, to the building up of the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:11, 12, N.E.B.*).

These inspired words make it clear that the chief function of every minister is training church members to minister. God expects His church to discipline and fit its members for the work of enlightening the world. . ..

There should be no delay in this well-planned effort to educate the church members.—Christian Service, p. 58.

In every church the members should be so trained that they will devote time to the winning of souls to Christ. . . . Let those who have charge of the flock of Christ awake to their duty, and set many souls to work.—Ibid., p. 61.

In the Adventist movement we vociferously decry the doctrinal changes introduced by the apostasy, and rightly so, but we must recognize that the apostasy also distorted the role of the Christian minister. We must be sure that our concept of the ministry is patterned after the New Testament and not after apostate churches.

The greatest help that can be given our people is to teach them to work for God. ... It is evident that all the sermons that have been preached have not developed a large class of self-denying workers. . . . The people have had too much sermonizing; but have they been taught how to labor for those for whom Christ died?—Ibid., pp. 58, 59.

The best help that ministers can give the members of our churches is not sermonizing, but planning work for them. Give each one something to do for others. . . . And let all be taught how to work.—Ibid., p. 69.

On-the-Job Training

Fortunately, the importance of on-the-job training is receiving wider emphasis and acceptance today, and encouraging results are being experienced wherever such a program is consistently followed.

A questionnaire was mailed to a number of men who are known to be actively engaged in in-service training programs. A summary of the responses indicates that:

1. The pastor is the key to the success of a continuing laymen's evangelistic-training program. He must recognize his main function to be the training and directing of his laymen as a soul-winning team.

2. Conference personnel should conduct training sessions for pastors, elders, and lay-activities leaders. Time devoted to such a training program ranges from nine hours to one week. Regardless of the length, all respondents agree there must be on-the-job training.

3. Weekly training sessions should be conducted by the pastor and lay assistants for about four months to thoroughly train one group of soul winners.

4. Trainees should be encouraged to become trainers in future training programs.

5. Each training session should include:

30-45 minutes for instruction and inspiration

60-90 minutes for on-the-job training

30-45 minutes for exchange of experiences and reporting following visitation

A laymen's evangelistic-training program will not succeed if it is to be some thing added to our already overcrowded schedule of activities. Such a program must be given the priority it deserves. It must become the pattern of the Adventist ministry. If members are given a choice between serving the Lord by winning souls or through some indirect means, soul winning usually will suffer.

Ministerial training in our colleges and seminary should emphasize on-the-job soul-winning training as the chief function of the Adventist minister. It is a scandalous fact that most of the young men graduating from our ministerial courses have never won a soul to Christ or given a Bible study. This situation needs to be rectified immediately. Provision should be made for on-the-job training in soul winning during each year of ministerial training.

We have young men who are losing their Christian experience while taking ministerial training on our college campuses because they are constantly receiving instruction and have no adequate means of sharing their faith with others.

What can we expect but deterioration in religious life when the people listen to sermon after sermon and do not put the instruction into practice? The ability God has given, if not exercised, degenerates.—Testimonies, vol. 6, p. 425.

This same principle holds true of religious instruction in the classroom. There must be an outlet for service. This is a desperate need in our ministerial-training program.

Teach Them How

New converts should be taught that witnessing is a part of the Christian life just as much as Sabbath-keeping, tithing, and abstinence from unclean meats.

In the selection of church officers ability and willingness to witness and to train others should be a prime requisite.

Great care should be exercised in selecting officers for the new churches. Let them be men and women who are thoroughly converted. Let those be chosen who are best qualified to give instruction, those who can minister both in word and in deed.—Ibid., p. 85.

God has made it clear that every church is to be a training school. Inspiration also makes clear the principle of on-the-job training:

Every church should be a training school for Christian workers. , . . There should not only be teaching, but actual work under experienced instructors. Let the teachers lead the way in working among the people, and others, uniting with them, will learn from their example.—Ministry of Healing, p. 149.

The Sabbath school hour should be a time when we come together to learn so that we in turn may be able to teach others. The study material and discussion should center on the witnessing activities of the members. Such an emphasis will bring new life and renewed relevance to the Sabbath school.

If witnessing is to be at the top of our priority list, it must be featured and discussed at a time when the majority of our people are assembled. As this purpose is restored in the Sabbath school it will be come one with lay activities and will fulfill its purpose as stated in Counsels on Sabbath School Work, page 61: "The object of Sabbath school work should be the ingathering of souls."

What Might Have Been?

If we had more carefully followed the blueprint, an Adventist minister might have written the now popular Evangelism Explosion, by Dr. D. James Kennedy, in which he outlines his success in these lines. We were instructed long ago:

In every city there should be a city mission, that would be a training school for workers. Many of our brethren must stand condemned in the sight of God because they have not done the very work that God would have them do.—Medical Ministry, p. 303.

In conjunction with our field school of evangelism in Montreal we operated a field school for lay Bible instructors. The conference provided free room and board for those who would devote a month of their time to take the training. Instruction was given in the mornings, on-the-job training in visitation in the afternoons, and public meetings in the evening.

Experience was offered in the following areas:

1. House-to-house visitation.

2. How to lead a soul to Christ.

3. Gift-Bible visitation.

4. Evangelistic visitation.

5. Visiting former members.

6. Gaining decisions in the home.

7. Preparing candidates for baptism.

Needless to say, these laymen returned to their home churches with zeal and knowledge, determined to win souls and to share with other church members what they had learned in the art of soul winning. Eventually every participant had the joy of seeing souls for whom he had labored go all the way in baptism.

The Adventist Minister as a Trainer

The Adventist ministry must recognize and fulfill its role as trainer of church members for the work of soul winning. Members must see themselves as fishers of men. All must see the relationship between loving God with all our hearts, loving our neighbor as ourselves, and preaching the gospel to every creature.

Our lay evangelism will be only sporadic until we accept our responsibility to con tact every person in every home with an invitation to receive Christ and His message.

Wherever a church is established, all the members should engage actively in missionary work. They should visit every family in the neighborhood and know their spiritual condition.— Testimonies, vol. 6, p. 296.

There is a religious organization other than our own which has demonstrated that it is possible to contact every home systematically by assigning specific territory to members for visitation. In spite of its teachings, this organization exceeds our own in growth rate by sheer virtue of its house-to-house visitation program.

Unless more is done than has been done for the cities of America, ministers and people will have a heavy account to settle with the One who has appointed to every man his work. . . . May God forgive our terrible neglect in not doing the work that as yet we have scarcely touched with the tips of our fingers. —Ibid., vol. 8, p. 35.

It would be hypocrisy to ask forgiveness and continue our sin of neglect. "If every church member had sought to enlighten others, thousands upon thousands would today stand with God's commandment-keeping people."—Ibid., vol. 6, p. 296.

Every church member should attempt to cover his assigned visitation territory once a quarter. Objectives in terms of minimum hours of service per week should be established. We have the tools. We have a wonderful diversity of approaches to meet the needs of humanity. We have a gracious Christ-centered approach, which, if used in mass-scale door-to-door work, would stand out in striking contrast to some of the approaches that have been used by other groups. We have God's message for this hour and the command to carry it to every man's door. What we need is to get out and do it.

A Personal Conviction

It is my personal conviction that our ministers and members need more specific instructions regarding their duties. For decades we have been admonishing our people in generalities, and the results condemn the method. Specific directives are needed for an aggressive work. MISSION '72 has given us a demonstration of what can be accomplished in a specific coordinated program.

A consolidation of our many diversified interests will, I believe, prove necessary. We can have only frustration as long as we have six specialists planning work for one pastor. According to the Spirit of Prophecy the all-important thing is a person-to-person sharing of the everlasting gospel. All other aspects of our work must become part of a "this one thing I do" philosophy.

In order for a lay evangelistic program to succeed on a permanent basis in our church, provision must be made for training, direction, and supervision. Our pastors will not provide the needed leader ship unless this plan is decreed to be their first responsibility. This method will require a change of emphasis in our pastoral program.

The blueprint for the Adventist ministry must not come from other churches but from the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy. I would urge that the emphasis in the Adventist ministry be shifted from sermonizing to witnessing.

It has been proved in the missionary field that, whatever may be the preaching talent, if the laboring part is neglected, if the people are not taught how to work, how to conduct meetings, how to act their part in missionary labor, how to reach people successfully, the work will be nearly a failure.— Ibid., vol. 5, p. 256.

Perhaps our churches should be reorganized to function without dependency on a paid minister, and the paid workers devote their time to training laymen and conducting evangelistic meetings.

Two of the most rapidly growing religious movements, the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons, function without paid pastors. If we were to use all our paid employees for in-service training, evangelism, and administration with the stipulation that a condition of employment be weekly participation in a personal witnessing program, think what progress we would see!

It should not be the object of the laborer to present a large list of sermons he has preached, but what has he done in the work of saving souls, of training workers?—Medical Ministry, p. 301.

The times demand that every worker be a producer and that every convert become a convert maker. In 1968 the average number of baptisms per worker in the North American Division was 9.9. Surely these facts demand a new emphasis in our ministry. Let us make every church a training center and train our people to preach the gospel to every creature.