Too many Adventist congregations are like the fisherman who caught fish but had nothing to show for it because he put them in a sack with a hole in the bottom. God has blessed our church with success in fishing for people. But we're not keeping enough of what we're catching.
Sewing up the hole in the sack cannot replace fishing. A church that does not evangelize will die. But we must come to realize that our business involves both catching and keeping. In other words, to return to a metaphor we used in an earlier column, we must learn to keep what we reap.
To become better at keeping:
1. We must prepare our candidates carefully before baptism. "God would be better pleased to have six thoroughly converted to the truth than to have sixty make a profession and yet not be truly converted." * Satan is not the least disturbed by our baptizing large numbers of people—if those we baptize are not thoroughly converted. For his purposes, the more unconverted persons brought into the church the better.
So there is much truth to the argument that we should concern ourselves primarily with whether or not candidates for baptism are converted—that we mustn't expect too much too soon of those just beginning the Christian life. If they're truly converted, the changes in lifestyle will certainly come.
We might liken these newly baptized members to fruit trees. Our desire that they bear fruit must take second place to ascertaining that they have been planted well (converted and rooted in Christ).
Complicating the matter of setting the right priority is the fact that we humans can only tell whether or not the tree is planted by the fruit it bears. So while we cannot expect a lot of fruit in the prebaptismal life of the candidate, nevertheless some fruit must be visible. Surely this fruit should include Sabbath-keeping, church attendance, and refraining from the use of harmful substances.
Now to apply this observation to a situation we have in the church today. With increasing frequency, evangelists from affluent, highly educated, semi- Christian cultures are being invited to conduct evangelistic meetings in areas characterized by low-income, partially literate, non-Christian cultures. These meetings produce masses of baptisms, but some of our pastors in these areas are complaining that the meetings produce too few ongoing Christians.
I do not oppose the short, reaping campaign. But especially in areas where the populace does not have a Christian background, we must depend on the local churches to instruct potential baptismal candidates before the meetings be gin. And we should be very reluctant to see those without such a background baptized until they have received further instruction after the meetings end. We ought to be very sensitive to the counsel of the pastors we're working with and cautious about imposing our methods on a culture foreign to us.
2. We must make their baptism a big event in the local church. First, I believe that ideally baptism should take place in the local church. Some church leaders are enthusiastic about camp-meeting and youth-camp baptisms. Unfortunately, they sometimes fail to bond the new members with the local congregations they join. To some degree, these mass baptisms draw the newly baptized away from the local church pastor, Sabbath school teacher, or Pathfinder leader who has spent scores of hours preparing them for baptism. As in a physical birth, it's best if the family that's going to raise the baby is involved in its delivery.
There are two commitments made at a baptism. The candidates commit them selves to Christ and His church. And the congregation commits itself to loving, befriending, enfolding, and training the candidates. Since it is at the baptism that these commitments are made, both the candidate and the congregation ought to be present for that event.
Second, to maximize the bonding process, baptism should be made a big event in the life of the church. Research has repeatedly shown that the retention rate is directly proportional to the receptivity of the local church. And the baptizing of the children of the church should not be taken less seriously than that of candidates from outside the church. It also ought to be a big event. Studies in some divisions have shown that the highest dropout rate is not among evangelistic converts, but among children who grew up in the church.
Baptism is a rite of passage. A child often grows up presuming she isn't considered as of much importance because she is only a child. But with her baptism she hopes to be treated a little like an adult, as though she really matters to the congregation. If the church does not prove she is important to it, she will soon decide it is not important to her.
More later.
*Ellen G. White, Gospel Workers (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1915), p. 370.