Dear Fellow Worker:
The editors of MINISTRY have dedicated this special issue to the challenge of world evangelism and the One Thousand Days of Reaping. Its pages are filled with inspiration, and it is my prayer that during this special thousand days, beginning September 18, 1982, and ending with the quinquennium when our world session convenes, in New Orleans, we will share in the greatest victories of the cross that the church has yet seen!
By the time this message reaches you, all of the world divisions will have established their own objectives and laid their plans for this special period of soul winning. There is something unifying in adopting a common goal, and then through the power of the Holy Spirit reaching this prayer objective. A million souls for Christ! What will it mean to us and God that because we acted, many of this number will stand on the sea of glass who would not otherwise have been there? And yet, even a million, impressive as that number seems, is relatively small when we think of the many millions who need to be reached. Today's world of 4.5 billion souls, a population that is increasing by 141 per minute, will have increased by 203,040,- 000 during the thousand days. We must ask, How will these 203 million be reached, in addition to the present population? As we contemplate these things, we are grateful that the work is God's, and that He and He alone will "finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness" (Rom. 9:28).
This very situation also makes us recognize the inadequacy of numerical goals. Numbers do stimulate us and give us a working target, but is reaching a numerical goal really the purpose of this church's evangelistic outreach? Of course not; not even a million souls! It is to see God's work finished in a blaze of glory and ultimately to be a part of "a great multitude, which no man could number" (Rev. 7:9). The secret of success is summed up in a phrase found in the Thousand Days of Reaping document: "Placing unquestioned priority on evangelism in all forms and at all levels."
What does it mean to give "unquestioned priority" to evangelism? In the complex emergencies that today's world forces upon us, should evangelism take precedence when it comes to our time, attention, and dollars? We are often guilty of caring for the urgent, but we fail to give emphasis to the important! The winning of souls in these last days is a challenge that has both qualities. It is the most important function of the church, and the most urgent! While we must give effective leadership in administering the affairs of God's church, yet we must confess that every administrator in God's church is under sacred mandate also to be an evangelistic leader. There are to be no nonevangelistic leaders in God's church; any such are misplaced persons! Administrators therefore must find a way to provide governance while at the same time giving undebatable priority to the church's evangelistic thrust. If the church is weak and given to lesser goals, it is probably because leadership has permitted an emphasis that gives priority to business and organizational matters, rather than to spiritual revival and the reaping of earth's final harvest. Jesus said, of the irresponsibility of Jewish leaders in His time, "These ought ye to have done, and not to have left the other undone" (Matt. 23:23). Christ's appeal for soul winning is supported by Ellen White: "We need now to esteem souls above money. If you know of a higher work in this world than the work of soul saving, a work which will bring better results for the investment of means, will you not tell us of it, that we may measure its value?" — Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 57.
A companion statement clearly estimates the value of a soul: "The soul is of infinite value. Its worth can be estimated only by the price paid to ransom it. Calvary! Calvary! Calvary! will explain the true value of the soul." — Ibid., vol. 3, p. 188.
The decisions of the church's highest councils, its tithe dollars, its finest talent, its best leaders, must all be focused upon the church's first business. Nothing the church does has much real value in this world unless it contributes to confronting men and women with the claims of Christ upon their souls. Even preaching — that great and compelling part of gospel ministry — has but one objective. As my dear friend R. A. Anderson so forcefully points out: "To preach the gospel of Jesus Christ is the highest privilege and the most alluring adventure ever committed to man, and yet the ultimate purpose of all gospel preaching is evangelism." — The Shepherd-Evangelist, p. 14.
And so, fellow evangelist, pastor, administrator, the challenge is for us to put first things first! The challenge is to do whatever we need to do in our individual programs in order to give evangelism first place. Perhaps this will require much faith and even torturous struggle in some cases. Let us emancipate ourselves, even if it means entrusting to God and others some of those things that formerly consumed so much of our time and effort! And let us go forth with sanctified resolve to give priority to the work of soul winning. As God's ministers "at all levels" respond and do this, God's church will prosper, His unimpeachable purpose for us will be fulfilled, we will experience revival, God's work will be finished, and we will know, as we have never known before, the fullness of His blessing!
Sincerely your brother,
Neal C. Wilson
President,
General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
