I have never met an Adventist pastor who did not have an intense interest in winning souls. But I have met many who were reluctant or unwilling to hold public evangelistic meetings.
In fact, I was one who avoided personal involvement in public evangelism for many years. I have been in the pastoral ministry for twenty-two years, but only in the last eight has public evangelism captured my imagination. What was happening during the first fourteen years of my ministry?
As a young pastor I quickly learned to circumvent any possibility of having to personally conduct public evangelistic meetings. I could always have a Voice of Youth crusade and let the youth of the church do the speaking. Or I could call upon the conference evangelist. Even a neighboring pastor could sometimes be enticed to come over to my district to hold meetings. Of course, there were always the professional evangelists from the Voice of Prophecy, Faith for Today, The Quiet Hour, or Amazing Facts, et cetera. And if none of the above were available, then, as an astute pastor, I could salve my conscience by suggesting to the conference president that I was a personal worker and that those baptisms resulting from Bible studies were the ones that really remained faithful anyway!
This desire to avoid public evangelism describes fairly accurately the attitude of far too many Seventh-day Adventist pas tors. "Public evangelism doesn't work anymore," some maintain, in order to justify their lack of personal involvement. Others argue, "I just don't have time to plan and prepare for a public crusade." But after getting through all the rationalizations, the true feelings surface. The real problem is usually an inherent fear to attempt the unknown and the anxiety of not doing well. Such fear is understandable in the inexperienced young pastor. How ever, this same fear seems to plague the older and more "experienced" men as well.
In many conferences very few pastors (and even fewer ordained men in nonpastoral roles) conduct their own public evangelistic meetings. In a conference very near to my own heart forty-six pastors or other ordained ministers are employed. Of these, only six (or about 13 percent) were involved as the speaker in a public crusade during 1981. Those six included the conference president, the conference evangelist, and the Ministerial director, leaving only three field pastors (or less than 1 percent) who conducted their own crusade, doing their own preaching. There were, however, in this same conference, twenty-three public crusades conducted during 1981, most of which were held by the professional evangelist. Can these statistics be turned around and more pastors be motivated to conduct their own evangelistic crusades? I sincerely believe this is possible. Considering the average pastor's lack of time and his fear of evangelism based on inexperience, what are the answers? Is there a way to approach public soul winning and at the same time conserve time in planning? Is there a way to conduct public meetings and generate a minimum of anxiety? I believe there is.
Don Gray, Ministerial director of the Idaho Conference, has produced a taped evangelistic program that can be a real help to pastors. It saves time in planning sermons. It also provides messages so clear and concise that with a minimum of study preparation, the average evangelistically inexperienced pastor could feel very comfortable conducting his own evangelistic crusade. The approach is a multimedia one using three projectors. Being impressed with the program, I purchased the entire twenty Sermon series. Of course, I also had to purchase three projectors, a stereo tape deck, a Clear Light Multi-image Control System, and a large portable fold-up screen.
Now I was in business. On the surface, the program appeared fantastic, and I felt that it might just answer a real need for the pastors in our conference. But would it work? Would pastors be interested in using the taped material? Would it just sit in my office waiting to be used? One way to find out was to use the material myself in a pilot program.
So August 29, 1981, found me prepared for the opening meeting of a test series in Norrisville, Maryland. All was in readiness in that little congregation of just forty-two members. The handbills were mailed. Much praying had been done. The equipment was in position. By 7:15 P.M. more than one hundred people were present, forty-six of whom were visitors! How would these people respond to a preaching series that was on tape for the most part? Would taped sermons, illustrated with slides, work? Would souls make decisions? Could God use this approach? Was it imperative to have a "live" sermon? We hoped this pilot evangelistic crusade would provide criteria by which Don Gray's multimedia materials could be evaluated.
The evening's program up to the sermon was rather typical. The local pastor's musical talents provided preliminary music. Of course, an offering was taken. Special music followed. Then I introduced the first message, "On the Edge of Tomorrow," for about four minutes. The elder of the church pushed the button to begin the multimedia presentation. For the next thirty minutes those present heard and saw a message on the end of time presented so vividly and forcefully that when I made a live appeal at the close, every person in the church indicated that he wanted to be ready to meet Jesus when He comes.
When the message of the Sabbath was presented via the taped multimedia pro gram, I made a live appeal at the conclusion, and the response resulted in twelve decisions. Seven of these have resulted in baptism. The entire series unfolded in a similar way. At least twenty-five developed an interest in the unique messages they heard and are being followed up by the pastor with Bible studies.
There was no evidence during the meetings that the taped messages were less than adequate. The Don Gray multimedia series is not a panacea, of course. I am not suggesting that live evangelistic preaching is no longer necessary or that pastors should not attempt it. However, if proper planning, advertising, and visitation are conducted in the context of much prayer, this program will produce souls for the kingdom.
A recent conference workers' meeting was the perfect opportunity to introduce all the pastors to the merits of this multimedia series. After the message on the Sabbath was shown, the response was overwhelming. Both experienced and inexperienced pastors were clamoring to reserve the program for a series in their district. Somehow they saw in this taped program an opportunity to personally conduct an evangelistic crusade without the usual anxiety. Nor would an inordinate amount of time be a factor in deciding to become personally involved in this soul-winning venture. It was a new day! Pastors were actually excited about the prospect of holding their own evangelistic series. So great was the demand that a schedule of dates for the program's use had to be set up. Every month during 1982 a crusade will be using this taped approach in our conference. The pastor will introduce the mes sages and then conclude with a personal appeal or a simple summation, depending upon what the particular message demands.
The most exciting aspect of this whole experiment is that many young pastors in our conference have reserved this taped series. They have made their plans with a minimum of anxiety and with a great deal of enthusiasm. From the initial interest, it appears that this program will be helping pastors, young and old, to feel free to conduct their own public crusades in our conference for years to come.
The evangelism plans in our small conference have increased from the twenty-three crusades held in 1981 to thirty-nine planned for 1982, an increase of 70 percent. In 1981 less than one percent of our pastors were personally directing public evangelism. More than 17 percent will be doing so in 1982. This figure would be higher except that the multimedia equipment will not be used for crusades during camp meeting or the Ingathering season.
On January 13, 1982, a special seminar was conducted to orient those planning to use the Don Gray taped series to the other components of the multimedia equipment. These pastors were given instruction in the mechanical operation of the equipment and ideas for introductions and appeals for each message. They were prepared and anxious to experience the thrill of doing their own evangelistic crusade.
As I review our conference and its public evangelism expenditures, this question arises: Is public evangelism cost effective when we continue to hire professional evangelists and yet do so little to motivate our pastors to do the work of an evangelist? One series in 1981 cost our conference more than $23,000 and resulted in 12 persons baptized. Another crusade cost more than $5,000 and produced four new members. Both of these were conducted by professional evangelists. 1 don't intend in any way to indict or disparage the work of any full-time evangelist. However, could not the pastor, using a single multimedia program, create a more balanced, cost effective evangelistic thrust? Shall we let specialization lead us into turning all public evangelism over to the full-time evangelist? Is such a course effective either financially or in terms of pastoral fulfillment? Should we not provide a milieu in which pastors can feel the thrill of winning souls through public crusades?
When a pastor reads of the success of the professional evangelist, does he become inspired? More likely, his fear of inadequacy and the pressures of time become more firmly cemented in his thinking as reasons for avoiding public evangelism.
I would make a plea to Ministerial directors to help pastors develop their own evangelistic skills. I believe they can become effective public evangelists if given the opportunity to conquer their fears. They can function effectively if they are given methods which will save preparation time. I would appeal to every pastor: Determine that by the grace of God you will claim your right and privilege as a gospel minister to be a public soul winner.