One afternoon early in an evangelistic series the evangelist and the pastor of the church where the series was being held got into a rather heated discussion. For a few minutes tempers flared over an issue. Being a young, inexperienced pastor, I watched quietly, rather stunned at what I was observing. At one point the evangelist threatened to close down the meeting that night if he didn't get his own way. To my relief the conversation cooled after a few minutes, and the meetings continued as planned. God blessed, and a sizable number were baptized.
Over the years I have had the opportunity of working with 10 different guest evangelists besides conducting seven series of my own as a pastor. Reflecting on these experiences, I have formulated several conclusions concerning the pas tor-guest evangelist team.
First, I strongly recommend that we pastors occasionally conduct our own evangelistic series. This reminds us again of how it feels to walk in the evangelist's shoes. Reflecting back on the series I conducted, I vividly remember the anxi ety of the opening nights wondering what interests would come and how many church members would attend. And the challenge of altar calls and the joy of visiting individuals in their homes and leading them to accept Christ and His teachings remain fresh in my mind. Perhaps remembering these experiences will help us pastors be a little more understanding when a guest evangelist comes to our church.
My observations lead me to believe that evangelists and pastors are two very different breeds. Because of the nature of their work, evangelists must initiate, conduct, and successfully complete a program in a short time frame. They know what has worked for them in the past and need the freedom to work in their own "armor." They focus their time and energy entirely on the evangelistic series, which they probably believe is the most important work of the church. They are programmed to function at almost sprint pace during their series. When a series has been completed, the evangelist leaves that church behind and focuses on the next.
While pastors must also work with greater intensity at some times than at others, they must continually keep in mind the long-range program. An evan gelistic series is one of the many activi ties they must sustain through the year. They must live with, and provide spiri tual leadership for, their parishioners for years to come. These factors cannot help shaping the pastor's thinking and work.
Increasing the meetings' effectiveness
For the guest evangelist's series to be most effective, the church calendar should be cleared of all scheduling conflicts. During the series the evange listic meetings must have the highest priority. Prayer meetings, unnecessary board and committee meetings, con flicting evening school meetings, and so forth should be canceled. If the Path finders usually meet on a night when there is an evangelistic meeting, the Pathfinder meeting should be changed or canceled.
I have also found it best to stop any home Bible studies during the series. This lets the interests know how important I consider the meetings, and gives my invitation for their attendance greater significance.
The congregation must see that the pastor supports the meetings. The pastor can best communicate this during the worship hour on Sabbath morning and when presenting the plans to the church board. The general congregation and the board need to feel that the meetings are theirs and not just the evangelist's. If they don't, their financial support and attendance may not be what the pastor had hoped for.
Evangelistic meetings can deliver their full potential only if the local pastor supports them enthusiastically. One evangelist commented that he had worked with pastors who played chess or went bowling during the meetings. And one pastor even refused to visit interests with the evangelist. Admittedly, such blatant withholding of support happens only rarely. But we must be careful that we are not communicating the same lack of support in more subtle ways.
The evangelistic series will be more successful if it is not the only soul-win ning endeavor of the church. A pastor should be helping the church to develop interests and lead them to decision throughout the year. Then when a guest evangelist comes to the church he becomes simply a part of the ongoing program.
In a very real sense the success of the meetings rests with the pastor. Many baptisms will come from interests the pastor and church members have culti vated prior to the series. Thus an up-to-date interest file is very important. In fact, if the two men can spare the time, it would be very profitable for the pastor to introduce the evangelist in the homes of these interests prior to the opening night of the series.
Carefully following up the series can be very beneficial. I have found that if the interests are systematically followed up with Bible studies or by other means, the results can be increased by 50 percent. It may require a month or two of further effort, but it will be time well spent.
A second point on follow-up. It is vital that the pastor not be moved just prior to or immediately after a major evangelistic thrust. With such a disruption, 9 times out of 10 the soul-winning results will be diminished.
Tying converts to the pastor
To make this follow-up most effective, another important factor must be considered. The new interests quite natu rally develop strong ties to the evange list. This has its positive aspects in that it enables the evangelist to influence the interests to make decisions for Christ. However, it is also important that they come to look to the pastor for spiritual guidance. I have several suggestions to help the interests make this transition.
I believe the pastor should preach the morning sermon at least half the Sab baths of the series. The evangelist should also increasingly involve the pastor in the home visitation conversations as the meetings progress. By the end of the series the pastor and the evangelist should be sharing equally in the conver sations while visiting in the homes of the interests.
During a series in one of my churches, the guest evangelist and I spent 20 minutes at the conclusion of each nightly meeting dialoguing before the audience on issues relating to the eve ning's subject. In this dialogue I took a more prominent role. The evangelist would ask the majority of the questions, and I would give biblical answers. We both found this to work quite well in helping the interests to look to me, the pastor, as their spiritual leader.
As pastor, I have certain expectations of the evangelist. It is important that he remember that he is a guest. It is very important that he support me as pastor. Unless I invite him to participate, he should carefully keep himself out of such pastoral duties as counseling or dealing with problems that may arise in the church.
In addition, the guest evangelist should always be loyal to his host. If members bring complaints to him, he must tactfully be supportive of the pastor.
Along a related line, the evangelist should be careful not to embarrass the pastor by presenting as standards theol ogy or lifestyle practices with which the pastor may be uncomfortable. For instance, opinions on the Middle East question vary. Before an evangelist preaches enthusiastically on Armaged don, he would do well to find out what the pastor has taught his congregation. As another instance, some pastors will baptize an individual who is wearing a wedding ring, while others won't. In view of this, the pastor and guest evangelist would do well to dialogue privately concerning certain issues with varied views accepted in the church, and come to a consensus.
Another very important matter is baptism. The pastor should approve and perform all baptisms. The evangelist must remember that the pastor has to live with both the new members and the congregation.
Both the pastor and the guest evange list should aim to leave the congregation with a good feeling about evangelism. Public evangelism is one of the most important tools God uses to spread the gospel. Both the pastor and the evange list must recognize this and do every thing possible to leave the congregation looking forward to the next series even though they wouldn't necessarily want it to begin the next week.
