I was stranded at the airport, tired and hungry. My flight was indefinitely delayed. After an hour of waiting I went to the air port restaurant and ordered a simple meal. The waiter politely informed me that it would take 15 minutes to get the food ready. "That's fine," I assured him. Within two minutes he was back again, this time with a pamphlet in his hand. "Perhaps you may like to read this while you wait." The pamphlet was on who Jesus is, and was issued by the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing House in Manila.
The meal was good. The mango was delicious. It was time I checked in my luggage. The airline clerk profusely apologized for the delay. She checked my luggage, gave me my boarding pass, and just as I was leaving she handed me a magazine. "Something to read while you wait," she said with a smile. A Signs of the Times, 9 months old.
"Where are you coming from?" I was startled from my doze some 30,000 feet up in the air. The elderly gentleman had moved from his seat and had taken a vacant one next to mine. "India," I told him. He was full of questions about India and showed a great deal of enthusiasm. A few minutes later he gave me a card and suggested that I should enroll in a correspondence school. "You would find in Jesus your best friend, and you must get to know Hun," he insisted. I told him I was only visiting the Philippines. "Never mind," the old man smiled again. "We have a branch school in India, and I will ask them to mail the lessons to you." He was persistent in enrolling me in the Voice of Prophecy Bible Course.
Within a matter of one hour three Adventists were trying to make an Adventist out of me. That was my exposure to Filipino evangelism three years ago.
And now in 1992 I had another opportunity to see for myself at close quarters the passionate zeal and the enormous enthusiasm that Filipino Adventists have for their faith. The opportunity came in the form of a crusade in the city of Davin on the island of Negros. This is one of two cities on that island in which we did not have a Seventh-day Adventist presence. At the conclusion of the crusade, we baptized 311 persons and established a church in the city. I was the preacher during the crusade, but for the entire duration of the evangelistic campaign I found myself a disciple sitting at the feet of simple believers so totally immersed with the burden of sharing their faith. I found myself being taught instead of teaching, being an instrument of grace rather than an extension of a giant ecclesiastic machine.
What did I learn?
Strength of a church is not in its institutional structure and administrative edifice, but in the commitment of its members to the Lordship of Jesus. Sure, our church in the Philippines has an organizational structure similar to the worldwide model. But there is a deliberate thrust to make the structure a servant of the church, the administration an avenue of service. Consequently, evangelism and church nurture seem to dominate the concerns of church administration, clergy, and laity. Most churches are cared for by members: what else can they do when routinely a pastor is a pastor for multiple churches, at times extending to as many as 18, in a radius of 40 miles or so, and without the convenience of a car?
The pastor coordinates, supervises, trains, and equips the members for the local church ministry and evangelism. Pastor Mansueto Leonar was the coordinator for the Davin crusade. I got to know him quite well. He knows his Bible. He loves the Lord. And he is the pastor of 10 churches. Make that 11, now that the crusade is over. I asked him how he manages and what he does. Members run his churches. Trained elders, Bible workers, Sabbath school teachers, and youth workers attend to church care, nurture, and growth. Pastor Leonar trains personnel for the church, coordinates church nurture programs, promotes local evangelism, and takes rums preaching in his 10 churches.
Among the many pastors I met, including a woman who pastored 18 churches, no one could conceive of pastoring without at the same time evangelizing. The new frontier is ever the goal of the pastors, and they take the church along to that frontier.
Elders play a vital role in the ministry of the local church. An elder from another church was among the associates who formed our crusade team. He and his wife are experienced in visitation. They love their Lord. They love this message. They love people. With that combination they could lead people to decisions. A few days before the crusade was over, this elder told me his strategy for the new company of believers. He would take care of the church (no pastor or worker is possible), and with the help of the district leader, he would train an elder from the newly baptized group, and the infant church will then be on its own with, of course, an occasional visit and more training from the district pastor. The elder of the new church with his colleagues will then become responsible not only to care for the Davin church, but also to seek after a new frontier.
The local church elder in the Philippines is unlike elders in some other parts of the world. His role is not limited to the worship program on Sabbath morning and to other routine duties. The Filipino elder takes the ordination to that office seriously and gets fully involved in the total ministry of the church. As in other parts of the world field where the church is experiencing an evangelistic explosion, the local church elder in the Philip pines is often the de facto leader of the local congregation, working of course in close cooperation with the pastor. If the work of the elder was not available to church ministry and evangelism, the lo cal missions in many cases would need 10 times their present worker force. I thank the Lord for elders. (And I'm glad the Ministerial Association is committed to training, encouraging, and equiping the local church elders around the world to become global partners in the gospel ministry.)
"Come and see" still remains a good evangelistic tool. How do we get strangers in an altogether strange town to come and hear a stranger preach a strange gospel? Good public relations, advertising, a strong organization, and a good budget all have a place. At Davin we had very little of these, but we had a powerful team of laypersons who loved the Lord so deeply that they could talk about Him wherever they were, with whomever they met, without fear and without embarrassment.
The three Filipino Adventists I mentioned at the beginning of this report are typical of our members who share their faith in the fish market as well as in the president's palace. In their relentless pursuit of seeking the lost, many members employ the only tool they can use—the tool of the Samaritan woman, who at the moment of her greatest discovery shouted to the city, "Come and see."
Thus I came away from the Philippines strengthened in my faith in the gospel commission of our Lord. That commission has to do with me my love for my Lord, my commitment to a life of faith, my passionate participation in sharing my Lord with others.
