In a continuing quest to uplift the primacy of sharing the gospel worldwide, Ministry editors Nikolaus Satelmajer and Willie E. Hucks II interviewed Mark Finley, a general vice president of the world church of Seventh-day Adventists and an evangelist who has preached around the world for more than 35 years.
Nikolaus Satelmajer (NS): The first time I saw you in action as an evangelist on television (TV) was in Mostar, Bosnia. The war had just slowed down. I was walking down the street among the rubble, and I saw a TV inside a little store. A few people were watching the program. What was your feeling as you were broadcasting worldwide for the first time?
Mark Finley (MF): In 1995 I distinctly remember walking onto the stage in Chattanooga, Tennessee, knowing that we had six hundred and seventy-six churches tuned in to this first NET event at the same time. For some, satellite evangelism may have seemed a little impersonal, but it really was not. People identified with the messages being preached. We received faxes from all over the country like the one from a couple who said, “Our marriage is falling apart, but we came to your meetings, and Jesus has come into our lives. We’re going to give it a second chance.” When we got a message from Florida about a young drug addict who came to Christ, it wasn’t impersonal anymore. I recognized that there were tens of thousands hearing the Word.
NS: How do you communicate to such varied audiences in different parts of the world, speaking different languages, embracing various cultures and patterns of thinking? Do you prepare differently for such an event?
MF: I’ve conducted eighteen satellite events. This year I will conduct three more: in São Paulo, Brazil; Johannesburg, South Africa; and Orlando, Florida. When I began satellite preaching back in 1995, I tried to preach in forty languages to forty different cultures at once through forty different translators. The same sermon, translated by that many persons to that many audiences. Soon we discovered that it was not the most efficient way to evangelize. We then went to ten major locations in the world and did satellite events attempting to tailor the message to the culture. The secret is contextualization. For example, African illustrations are different than Asian stories. Each culture has its own uniqueness. I spend a lot of time trying to understand the city I am preaching in, the customs of the people and their historical background.
Graphics also help in contextualization. Preaching the resurrection in the Philippines and describing blue-eyed, blond people coming out of the grave doesn’t make sense. You’ve got to have Asian features. Likewise, storytelling must also be culturally sensitive. If I’m preaching in Africa, I’ll use a lot more village stories and tell village-based parables as the African mind-set is much more story oriented. If I’m in Asia, I recognize the influence of the family and extended family. The biblical truth is the same, but how we adapt that truth is different. I ask my host to send me stories and illustrations in advance. There have been times I have had fifteen translators, and for two hours before the meeting I reviewed the sermon with them and asked them what illustrations they would use if they were preaching. I listened to them and contextualized my preaching.
Willie Hucks (WH): How do you prepare pastors and churches for a NET series?
MF: I use what I call five eternal verities of evangelism. First, churches grow when there’s spiritual renewal. So we begin by making pastors aware of the necessity for spiritual renewal in the local church. That means prayer bands and praying for individual people. Second, churches grow when members are equipped and trained to serve. We develop a countdown schedule on equipping and training members, helping them to discover their gifts. My wife, Ernestine, often conducts extensive seminars on soul winning and evangelism for local churches preparing for our evangelistic series. Third, churches grow when there is multifaceted community outreach. We begin to look at different kinds of community outreach—small groups, Bible study ministry, seminar ministry, health ministry, family life ministry—events that make an impact on the community. Fourth, churches grow when there’s a reaping event. We encourage churches to focus on some reaping evangelistic event each year. Every outreach program of the church must ultimately lead to and culminate in a reaping event. Finally, churches grow when there is nurture.
One sure way to fail in evangelism is to do no preparation. If you think that a NET evangelistic event is a panacea for soul winning and all you have to do is turn on the projector, you will fail. Six months before the series you’ll need to organize prayer events, look at the names of every former Adventist in the community, pray for them and visit them, look for the names of every non-Adventist spouse, look for young people who are not in the Adventist Church any more and plan to visit each of them. Organize visitation teams, hold multifaceted seminars in the church, and be involved in intense prayer sessions. With such preparation, the meetings will be a success. It’s the old biblical principle—whatever you sow, you reap.
WH: You mentioned six months as a time frame. Do you generally need that much lead time before a meeting starts?
MF: I like at least six months; that would be a minimum. Typically, I take twelve to eighteen months to prepare. Right now we are getting ready for a campaign to be held in Forest Lake Church in Apopka, Florida, five months from now. We have just concluded a series on “Empowered by the Spirit” for all churches in the area. These are studies on the ministry of the Holy Spirit—the outpouring of the Spirit, the reception of the Spirit, the true and false counterfeit gifts of the Spirit, Pentecost repeated, end-time symbols of the Spirit—a five-part series on spiritual renewal that will lead to a deeper prayer ministry. My wife is training seventy to eighty lay people as lay Bible workers for Orlando. Bible instructors and a significant number of young people will be involved in a multifaceted approach to reach the city of Orlando for Christ. The master plan to prepare that city for the final campaign will take nine months.
NS: What got you started in satellite evangelism?
MF: The history of NET evangelism is an interesting one. Back in 1995 the Adventist Church in North America was looking at their growth patterns. Evangelism was losing its effectiveness in certain population segments. In strategic planning sessions, the questions came up: “What can we do to lift the vision of our pastors, inspire them with possibilities for outreach and evangelism? What can we do that will make a major impact in North America?” We began to explore the possibilities of technology. At that time, no other denomination had used satellite evangelism in any significant way in a series of evangelistic meetings. A few years earlier, George Vandeman conducted a seminar in eight locations via satellite. In Southern California, Warren Judd, Dan Houghton, and I and a number of others uplinked a lay training seminar to about ten churches, and we sensed satellite evangelism had real possibilities. It was electrifying for Adventists to see these messages come into their churches. In 1996 our evangelistic meetings via satellite were uplinked to forty countries in multiple languages.
NS: I was one of the pastors that participated in Canada and I recall the enthusiasm of our congregation and active participation in that event.
MF: It was exciting to see church members enthused about evangelism again. The Adventist Church has now conducted two hundred satellite events in almost every continent and baptized almost one and a half million people. We just had our first satellite event in the Swahili language called Safari Africa from Nairobi, Kenya.
NS: A pastor who may have a number of churches, inundated with all kinds of programs, may be told that NET evangelism is needed to be successful. What would you say to such a pastor?
MF: As you look at your district of three or four churches with less than one hundred members each, think of it this way: “When can you get some of these evangelists to come and preach in your churches?” It’s unlikely they will come. But you can bring them in via satellite. You can also enjoy top quality music. Begin planning strategically. Motivate your members. Get them involved, and have them invite their friends. Even if you don’t have a large advertising budget, a motivated church is a great asset. At the end, if you baptize even a few people in that small church, that’s going to make a difference. You will have high-impact, low-cost evangelism.
NS: So this is a resource rather than another program to do in your church.
MF: Very much so.
NS: Every age labels itself and labels the past. Our time is known as the postmodern era. One characteristic of postmodernism is a lack of interest or ability to hear the message of the Bible. What is your perspective on that? Are people listening?
MF: Essentially, postmodernism is the absence of God in life. Compare our times with that of Paul. Today we have a movie called Gladiator. We look at the screen, and we see people killing one another. Ancient Rome invented Gladiator; only you went to the colosseum to see the real gladiator. A lot of the drama we see on the screen today is an imitation of the first century. Or take luxury. The Romans had feasts that lasted for months. Theirs was a morally twisted, godless society. Or take sports and entertainment. The Romans built great amphitheatres and stadiums in every city—just for the purpose of pleasure through sports, dramas, and plays.
But Rome was not all pleasure. The city had a scholarly, intellectual side. The Romans had a philosophical bent that went back to Socrates and Plato. The only formal religion of the time—Judaism—made little impact on the daily life of the average person. Against that background of pleasure, entertainment, culture, philosophy, military might, denial of the true God resulting in the meaninglessness of life, Paul talked about the foolishness of preaching and how the gospel must break through and meet the needs of human hearts in a confused and meaningless world.
Now, turn to our times. The command of Jesus for His church to preach the gospel has not become less important because of postmodern society. There is no place in the Bible that urges the evangelist to use the sociological approach or a psychological agenda. I don’t read in the Bible anywhere, “Go you therefore and philosophize”; the risen Christ says, “Go ye therefore and preach the gospel.” To be faithful to the biblical command, the church must be faithful to Christ’s commission. Should we preach God’s message in language that people understand? Certainly. Should we speak to the contemporary needs of society from a biblical base? Of course. Should the church continually try new ways to reach contemporary society? Definitely. Should we adjust the biblical demands and message to accommodate a secular lifestyle. Never!
WH: How have you seen evangelism and evangelistic methods change over the years? Where do you see evangelism going?
MF: I’ve been in the Adventist ministry for forty years now. Back in the early 1970s when I went into evangelism, our major thrust was propositional truth. If I preached, for example, on the state of the dead, my concern was to prove clearly and powerfully that death is but a rest until the resurrection. So I took every text to prove the biblical truth about death and challenge all the erroneous interpretations. How did I prove to a largely Sunday-keeping audience that Saturday is the seventh day of the week? Again, through propositional truth.
Over the years, the primary question has shifted. Society no longer necessarily asks, What is truth? Its current concern— is truth relevant? In spite of this change, I still make clear and plain the essence of biblical teaching, but I spend less time trying to prove the nature of death and more time trying to provide the assurance of God’s hope and resurrection for those who are facing death. I still powerfully proclaim the truth of the Sabbath, but I also include the significance of rest in Christ. So we blend the propositional with the relational.
I see another change in evangelism today. Revelation 14:6, 7 speaks of the everlasting gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. Evangelism today must be multicultural. The world has become smaller. The evangelist must understand diversity and be sensitive to people from different backgrounds.
I believe that our world is headed for stupendous crisis, and when that occurs, there will be a readiness, an openness, and a receptivity to the gospel, such as we have not experienced before. Societies in transition are much more open to the gospel. However, if our skills and gifts for evangelism are atrophied because we do not take the opportunity now to preach, we will not be prepared for the doors God is going to open in the near future. The central point is keep preaching the gospel, keep preaching, keep preaching, and let God move through your life with the Holy Spirit. Some day soon He’s going to open up hundreds of hearts and minds, maybe tens of thousands, for you to preach to.
No longer does the evangelist preach and people listen. Now evangelism emphasizes interactivity and connectivity between the evangelist and the audience. In our Discoveries ’08 satellite series from October twenty-four through November twenty-nine in Orlando, we will attempt to make our meetings more interactive. We will also develop an interactive Web page with YouTube opportunities for questions, and we will make it possible both personally and electronically for people to connect and interact. They’ll be able to see themselves on the screen live and ask questions during our satellite series. I’ll have a live chat room after the meeting, and anybody can log on a computer, and we’ll interact with them. We will have outlines that we will review with people and lessons that they participate in.
WH: What impact has the act of preaching, the act of evangelizing, had on your own spiritual growth?
MF: For me, evangelism is life transforming. It drives me to my knees in prayer, as well as to the Word of God. Preaching each evening in an evangelistic meeting is spiritually exhilarating. Let’s suppose the evangelistic meeting starts at seven in the evening. I’m in the auditorium between five-thirty and six. I sit in a chair on the stage and look at each of the seats before me. I imagine here’s where Mr. Brown who’s sixty-eight years old is going to sit. Here’s where that young single mother with two children sit. Here’s where that lovely young couple in their early twenties sit. I visualize the audience entering the hall and pray for each of them. I sit there and meditate on the power of God’s Word and seek God for them. It’s a spiritually revolutionary time for me. I get up and go over my sermon again and again and again. Every time I preach it, it’s like it’s burning in my own soul and I can’t wait to tell the story of Jesus. Any pastor who is simply involved in church board meetings and in church finances, but not in outreach, is stunting their own spiritual growth. Any pastor who is not involved in Bible studies, small groups, or some form of evangelistic outreach can easily become overburdened and burned out in ministry. Soul winning is the lifeblood of ministry. I’ve been doing evangelism for forty years and I can’t wait until the next campaign comes.
NS: You and evangelism just go together. When you look back, who are some of the people who have inspired you?
MF: My first evangelistic meeting was in Trenton, Georgia, at the bottom of a hill in a tent during the rainy season. There were nights when the tent had a few inches of water covering the floor. I preached to about one hundred and fifty people and do not remember baptizing a person. But I sensed that I received a deeper infilling of the Holy Spirit in that series. God did something in my own life. Later during my first major evangelistic series, I remember making a call and seeing people come down the aisle. There was something about seeing them come to Christ and become part of the Adventist message. Within the last few months, I was engaged in a major campaign in Africa, and what a joy it was to see that some of the young people we baptized in 1971, over thirty-five years ago, are now in Africa as missionaries. People ask why am I an evangelist? Because Jesus was. God had only one Son, and He was an evangelist!
You asked about people who influenced me in evangelism. The early pastors that you intern with help to set the tone for your whole ministry. I pastored with Pastor O. J. Mills in Hartford, Connecticut. Pastor Mills had a passion for souls. I thank God for him. In my first district he said to me, “Mark, I want you to concentrate on giving Bible studies.” So, I spent fifteen to twenty hours a week giving Bible studies. That made a significant difference in my life. I also worked with Elder W. D. Frazee. He taught me how to make altar calls. I remember he said to me, “Mark, I’m going to make an altar call tonight, can you go down and greet the people?” I said, “I’m uncomfortable with that, and don’t think I can do it.” And he worked with me kindly to help me understand how to make an appeal and minister to those who came forward. I long to see the power of God come down in my evangelistic meetings.
In some sectors of the church, we have moved away from the whole idea of appeals. This reminds me of a psychological phenomenon called “programmed nonresponse”—a loss of ability to respond. If your intellect is informed and your emotions are aroused and you are not given an opportunity to respond, you may gradually lose your ability to respond. The more you deny the reality of what’s going on in your life and fail to respond emotionally, the more you lose the ability to respond. If a person comes to church week after week and there is no opportunity to respond in any way—no hand raising, no card to fill out, no standing, no coming forward, a spiritual inertia is created and apathy fostered. Impression without expression leads to depression. An evangelist must aim not simply to inform, but to transform. Transformation begins with that first step of responding to Christ.
WH: Why do you think preachers today don’t make appeals like they used to?
MF: Some preachers feel that appeals are too emotional. Spurgeon said it well: a sinner has a heart as well as a head. I understand Billy Graham has a number of letters in his files from psychologists— letters that affirm his making appeals. They may not agree with the content of his preaching, but they do agree with the importance of giving people an opportunity to respond simply from the aspect of inner healing. They believe it is cathartic for people to come forward. Quite fascinating. So preachers must not forget that people are physical, mental, spiritual beings. They have emotions as well as an intellect, and the gospel must appeal to every aspect of life. Another reason why some preachers hesitate to make appeals is their failure to understand the role of appeals. Why make an appeal if God already knows? Proverbs 16 tells us that when we have certain thoughts and act on them, our thoughts are strengthened. Thoughts lead to actions, and actions lead to further thoughts. So when we make appeals, we cooperate with the Holy Spirit to strengthen and intensify the thought patterns so that the individual will be solidly committed to Christ. Our responsibility as preachers is to give our audiences the opportunity to respond to the gospel and not worry how many will respond. We need to leave that with God.
NS: Let’s talk a little bit about your upcoming series in Florida. What are your dreams for it and what counsel would you give to congregations in anticipation of the series?
MF: The series is called Discoveries ’08. It will be held in Orlando, Florida, and broadcast via Hope Channel throughout North America in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, and rebroadcast to the whole world. We want to encourage every single church to participate. We’ll use new graphics and will have new sermon content. Discoveries ’08 will take the viewer on a journey. The ancient past casts light on the present and provides principles to change our lives today. So, for example, we’ll travel to ancient Egypt, examine the pyramids, review the great desire of the ancients to have eternal life, and we’ll talk about Jesus. We’ll travel to Petra, see human sacrifice, and talk about the sacrifice of Christ. We’ll travel to Pompeii, see people living in luxury, visit their homes, see how in an instant that city was wiped out, and we’ll talk about the coming of Christ and how to develop a greater value system than the things of this world. We will travel to the caves of the Waldenses and see the need to have a basis for our faith in Scripture. We will go to the island of Patmos and discover a message for our time in the book of Revelation. We will travel to Rome and look at how church and state united in the Middle Ages and learn end-time lessons. So, we’ll preach every doctrine of Scripture, but base it in the ancient past. One thing about the contemporary world, with the postmodern mind-set, there’s a sense of mystery—a desire to understand how the future will be impacted by the past. Many people today are not religious, but they are spiritual, and they look to the ancient past and want to find answers to solve the riddle of life. It’ll be fresh, new, and relevant.
WH: Is this going to be podcast also?
MF: Yes, we’ll be podcasting, webcasting streaming video. Every bit of technology that we can use, we’re going to use.
NS: I have one more question. If Jesus comes in your lifetime, what would you like to be doing when He returns?
MF: There are two dreams I have when Jesus comes. One is to be preaching and making an appeal, seeing Jesus come, and ascending to meet Him. But there is another dream that I want more. I’d like to be having family worship with my wife, my three children, and their spouses and see every single one of them saved when He comes. That would be the greatest joy of my life.
NS: Looking back historically, our early pioneers didn’t go to places because there was an assurance of success, but because that’s what needed to be done.
MF: Exactly. If evangelism becomes a numbers game, it makes a real mockery of God’s calling. Many young thinking pastors have tuned out evangelism because they see it only as how many people can be manipulated into baptism. But evangelism is the proclamation of the gospel and the truth of God’s Word—to present the indictment of the Holy Spirit, allowing God to move hearts and transform lives. It’s the essence of God’s highest calling. God doesn’t call me to success; He calls me to faithfulness. And if I am faithful, He takes upon Himself the responsibility for the success of the meetings. If young preachers keep that in mind, they will not weary themselves or become anxious about success. Preach God’s Word and He’ll take care of the rest.
WH: Thank you so much for blessing our readers with your insight and experiences.
