IF IT will work in the British Isles, it is bound to work almost anywhere! In a country like Britain—where fewer than three percent of the population has any meaningful relationship with a church—any program, any idea, any method, is bound to have difficulty from the beginning. For a nation that has a church on almost every corner there seems to be a tremendous lack of spiritual knowledge. And with an under standing of the background anyone can see the excitement and enthusiasm generated by gospel workers when a new method, in its early stages, finds success on this island.
Thanks to the generous hearts of some American donors, the Bourne mouth church was well endowed with more than 1,000 copies of the paperback (newsprint) edition of Steps to Christ. The question in January, 1976, was "What will we do with them all?" Formerly, the idea of taking the book to a contact and asking him to read it brought moderate results in Devon. Then, in January, Pastor M. J. Stickland and I put our ideas together and worked up a "public reaction survey" to the book Steps to Christ. Simple, but as field records show, very effective.
The lay activities leader brought this idea before the church members and it was agreed that one hour Sunday after noon be set aside each week. During the hour, the members were briefed, paired off, and supplied with amounts of books and survey forms. The remainder of the hour was spent going from door to door in the immediate vicinity of the church.
At the door the layman would say something like this: "We are calling at your door today, looking for people who would be so kind as to take part in a public reaction survey to a small book. The survey is simple. All you have to do is read this small book and answer these seven questions. Then in two weeks we will call back and pick up the completed survey form (handing them the form), and the book is yours to keep."
At this point the usual response was "What is the book about?" The next usual response, after they have seen the title, was "Oh, I'm not religious," or "I'm Catholic" (or Jewish, et cetera.). To this the reply was, "We would really appreciate your view on this book, because we're looking for the opinions of people from varying religious backgrounds and from people who are not religious or don't attend church." Amazingly enough, people are accepting and reading the book for this reason.
Now for the results. The project was run for the approximately thirty weeks with a few interruptions due to bad weather and other activities. One hundred forty-three people responded—and this within three blocks of the front door of the church. Once the members got used to making the calls at the door it could be expected that one out of every eight prospects would accept. Then, with some more calculations of the current percentile of Britains having any relationship with a church, it was found that 76 percent of those accepting were nonchurched individuals. (This is assuming that every church attender accepts the survey when asked.)
About midway into the thirty weeks two ladies contacted through this approach requested baptism. At about the same time, a spring Week of Prayer under the direction of Pastor Stickland was held and nine or ten nonmembers, mostly Steps to Christ contacts, at tended. It thrilled the church members, especially those participating in the project. When Pastor T. McLeary, lay activities secretary for the South England Conference, heard of the idea he adopted it wholeheartedly and has since energetically placed the project before his church lay activities leaders. He re ports that the idea has taken hold and has had good results so far. The major difficulty is securing the Steps to Christ at a price the churches can afford.
It is felt that the particular survey form used is not essential to the success of the project. A variety of questions could be used, as long as they give opportunity for negative and neutral as well as positive responses.
In the second visit to the home, if all goes according to plan, the lay worker collects the form and tries to get a short conversation started. One question generally asked of the participants was, "Have you heard of this author before?" This usually started a discussion about Ellen White as a writer, and in most cases the reader reacted favorably to her writing. In the conversation the visitor could then point out that Mrs. White has written many spiritual books, thus get ting the contact interested in more reading. In Bournemouth six people took on the rather ponderous (in terms of length) task of reading The Desire of Ages. There was no mention of Mrs. White's prophetic abilities. It was just hoped that a favorable impression for her other books would be made.
By far the most important step in the project is the second visit. It is here that any possibilities beyond the survey, such as Bible studies, more literature, gift Bible, invitations to meetings, are established. The visitor must be aware of his purpose in the second visit and be capable of attempting to start a friendly conversation with this main purpose always in mind.
It must be added that some of our best contacts were with people who did not read the book during the first two weeks, but did so after further prodding.
The Steps program lifts up Christ and brings results, as indicated by many of the comments written on the survey form. One person wrote: "I found the book faultless. The Holy Spirit spoke to me throughout (especially concerning repentance) and convicted me of my guilt in backsliding, and, although not fully restored, I feel assured of God's love and mercy and confident that I will once again walk in His will."
The promise is, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me" (John 12:32).
