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John 8. Wiedinger oo Pe eee Vi . hay { ‘ i Pee. Gln t- to 3 » ae e ry ‘ a H { U f Hy * Md y f as ) I. 4 4 A ; 4 . ; } fe “- oof pg arene ernment hen ee oe a Pe a ae t yy of, { : M ! ve i 2 " ‘aan a “ 4 ve A t ’ 7 CP Ey in sey, at \ . } A 1 bet iu i | Ai a, 7 f 2 . al . j Le i ¥ ‘2 eA Daye ig Pait ( De libs Satara tn ig) Seats aye Ns oe a7 of ae Pe eae Aves Bit oa i | Ag, \ CIP Tea, ¥ EES IS ‘i NPEUE Vay VISITATION EVANGELISM na aes a) Ag “4 Laan | AV he R I. Tur Evo,ution oF tHE MetuHop... 15 II. Some UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS... 26 Il. THe Nero of a New Metuop oF EVANGELISM hii Lie oe ee Sh lus se 36 IV. Wuat Was Jesus’ MetuHop?...... 42 II HOW TO ORGANIZE Wirt REBARATORY (WORK vim ihe 49 VI. WHEN AND How ‘to LauncH....... 55 Vil WORKERS CIREPORTS | Cou enn) eau fis VIII. Instruction OF THE WoORKERS..... 76 IX. Continuous EVANGELISM ......... 84 Til THE DISCOVERIES OF VISITATION EVANGELISM X. CONVERSION AND VISITATION EvAN- RET OM aan erire te crete Na bee se hel et ie cto une uae 93 XI. THE REACTION ON THE WoRKERS... 96 XII. Associations FormMEp DuriInc A VISITATION EVANGELISM CAMPAIGN 101 XIII. WHat THE CHURCH Discovers.... 106 11 12 CONTENTS IV GOD’S GREATEST HUMAN RESOURCE XIV. Personauity Gop’s GREATEST RE- SOURCE IN CARRYING THE INVITA- RTC NE ese ae lohn erate a eke Lane a elie saan Eats 117 XV. Some SuccEstions In TECHNIQUE... 119 XVI. OBsERVATIONS WHILE WINNING TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE TO CHRISTIAN TDISCEPLIHSHI Presa ricteversuebcinue epeeks 124 Wi THE EVANGELISM OF THE CHANGELESS CHRIST XVII. THe CHANGELESS CHRIST AND EvAN- CELISM 1 el eivarete oi lula Gtaewiersste wats 135 I THE NEW METHOD ‘ | Wh Mu DAN ‘ Vi i) y 4 it wy 5) F Ki ery ears Dak ' i y A, ? i oa a " t “ a ‘ D * vee RS, I THE EVOLUTION OF THE METHOD HE, one sure proof of a man’s call to the ministry is his ability to win people to Christ. ‘This has been my supreme con- viction since the first thought of the ministry en- tered my mind; consequently, the constant passion of my life has been to succeed here. The background of my religious experience was set in the Middle West. The people of this section are particularly evangelistic. I commenced preach- ing before I was sixteen years of age, and very naturally threw myself with enthusiasm into the only method of evangelism that the people of this region knew anything about—namely, mass evan- gelism. It was my custom to hold one series of meetings in my own church and another in the church of some neighbouring pastor every year. There seemed to be no other way to attempt to win that portion of our church responsibility which we did not win by the regular church program of wor- ship and teaching. God gave us considerable suc- cess. ‘The Methodist Episcopal Church accepted this type of work without any question. In 1913, I went to New England. I carried with 15 16 VISITATION EVANGELISM me some carefully-thought-out conclusions about the mass method of evangelism. One was that we were spending altogether too much time at head-~ quarters. For instance: the last work that I was engaged in before leaving for New England was a series of four weeks of meetings. We kept as careful a record as possible of those who attended these meetings. I preached every evening, includ- ing Saturday, and three times on Sunday, each week. We found that ninety-six per cent. of the people who attended these meetings were already members of the church. You see, I had prepared a series of sermons for the purpose of winning those whom we did not win by regular church work to Christian discipleship. I had preached them to a crowd ninety-six per cent. of whom were already Christians. That was a waste of time. Another conclusion was, that those who attended the services were not using the spirituality that was generated in those services, for the purpose intended. It is. very clear that this new urge and zeal should be, used to persuade men and women to become Chris-j tians. As a matter of fact, most of the people who: were inspired by these meetings, hugged that spir-\ itual experience up to themselves and dismissed their whole thought of responsibility for others by saying, “ Wasn’t it a blessed meeting!” If they had taken this new power and applied it to the task of persuading others to become Christians, then the meeting would have been much more successful. THE EVOLUTION OF THE METHOD 17 I found New England altogether different from the Middle West. It was different in its attitude toward religion in general. The people were less ‘emotional. ‘They did not seem to have much re- spect for emotion itself. If the emotion accom- panied some big decision, well and good. If it was etnotion for emotion’s sake alone—then it was taboo. The Methodists of New England questioned seriously whether the mass method of evangelism was the only legitimate one. They had not thought out any other method, but they had become preju- diced against this one. Many of the churches had suffered painful disillusionments in their experi- ences with professional evangelists. I found, therefore, that it was necessary, if I were to have a series of meetings, first, to convert the members of my church to this method, and then to convert the people in the community. To do this at all success- fully, I must spend a very large amount of money in a publicity program. I justified the expenditure of this money by saying, “ Who can measure the worth of a soul? ” I continued to hold these meetings in New En- gland, not because I was satisfied with them, but because it was the only method with which people were acquainted. Now and then, I heard men speak of personal evangelism, but they meant one of two things: either that a few persons spoke to their friends in some meeting, or that the 18 VISITATION EVANGELISM pastor spoke to individuals in the course of his parish work. After three years in New England I went to New York City for a year. This was just preceding the visit of Billy Sunday to New York. I had the pleasure of assisting in setting up the district ptayer-meetings which are always held preparatory to his work. We looked forward to his coming with high anticipation. I must confess that I was determined to make a close study of his method, so as to find out just what effect a campaign of this kind had upon the local churches. I found that the campaign was of tremendous inspirational value to the city in general, that it had a tendency to make people more militant in their Christian convictions ; but, these assertions are true only when they are regarded from an inspirational point of view. The effect of the campaign upon the churches was discouraging in many respects. The cards that were sent to the various pastors, in a large percent- age of cases, carried the names.of people who were already church members. Many of the cards which were not of this class were discouraging to the highest degree. People had become wrought upon emotionally. Certain psychological advan- tages had been taken. They had been won to the spell of a meeting instead of being won to a clear; intelligent acceptance of Jesus as their Saviour. A very small percentage of those reported as won actually joined the churches, and even many of THE EVOLUTION OF THE METHOD 19 these were very hard to care for. ‘They had been persuaded to make their decision in a very ab- normal situation. They were saying before long: “ Our pastor is not like Billy Sunday.” Probably no experience could have helped me more to come to the conclusion that was already forming in my mind, namely, that sensational evangelism has tremendous hazards, handicaps, and regrettable experiences. After a year in New York I went back near Boston, Mass. Billy Sunday held a campaign there also. I studied his work again and found exactly the same situation. The largest number of the cards carried the names of people who were already members of the Church; very few new men joined the Church; many of those who did, were very hard to train and establish in it. War was declared and I became a chaplain in the Army. I found that my work here had to be done almost entirely by personal contact. I noticed that the boys who were won to Christ by the per- sonal contact method were much firmer in their decisions. They had a tendency to remain faithful to their vows. The boys who raised their hands . or came forward in big mass meetings were, to an alarming extent, temporary in their loyalties and unfaithful in their vows. I had the rare privilege of talking to literally thousands of men individ- ually. They threw away their prejudices about religion and were open to a frank presentation 20 VISITATION EVANGELISM when we talked to them personally. They were often indifferent and irresponsive when we talked to them in a group, but they told us their prob- lems, literally laid bare to us the most intimate secrets of their lives, when we sat by their sides or walked with them. Here we could deal with their one problem, or their several problems, in a definite, positive way—which obtained results. I came back to America with the conviction that if we could get any considerable number of men in our Church to enlist in this work, we would usher in a new epoch in the history of the Chris- tian body. I had been assigned to the pulpit of a church in Boston before I started home from Germany. I found myself situated in a beautiful, prosperous, residential section of the city. ‘The people were comfortable, contented, and conservative. In other words, I had been appointed to work in a com- munity which was quite likely to confirm my conclusions that mass evangelism did not reach many types of people. It was my pleasure a few months after assum- ing the duties of this pastorate, to preach for two weeks in Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, of Norwich, Conn. The Rev. W. H. Bath, District Superintendent of the Norwich District, New England Southern Conference, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, requested me to attempt to “revive” the people. “ Just convince them that THE EVOLUTION OF THE METHOD 21 evangelism is still a live issue,” he said. ‘ Don’t try to hold the old-fashioned meetings. They will not respond. Make them know, make them feel that Jesus can save today as He has always saved men—but do not prejudice them by insisting on the old method.” I went to Trinity Church with the desire to win men by a type of educational evangelism. I ar- rived on a Monday night, and although there were six other churches combined with Trinity Church, we had the large number of seventeen at our first meeting! I was absolutely determined to get a crowd—and I did. The sexton thanked me for getting the seats in the gallery dusted off once more. Many of the members said on the first Sunday we had the largest crowds that had at- tended service since Bishop Quayle presided there, nine years before. The questions that arose in my mind, however, were these: “ Are we spending too much time just to get a crowd? Would it not be better to go to the homes and uncover the religious aspirations and hungers of the individual; question them about their local Christian responsibility; get them to decide to accept Jesus Christ and His program for them in that community, and in the world; and then invite them to church? They should then have something to go for.” When we came to the conclusion of these meet- ings, I sat down and analysed the results carefully. 22 VISITATION EVANGELISM I had been the preacher—I could violently criticise, and nobody could object. I came to several con- clusions. The first one was that we had made no real impression on the life of that portion of our constituency for which the meeting was held; that we had won no whole families to the Christian program of living. Just now and then one out of a family had been won. Another conclusion was that if you were to visit Trinity Church six months from that date, it would be difficult to discover any difference in the spiritual life of the people in the church. Another conclusion was that the old members of the church were not prepared to as- similate these newcomers into the body and spirit of the Christian Kingdom. I went back to my own pulpit in Boston, held a series of meetings for my own people. At the conclusion of this special endeavour, I said: “I will never hold another series of evangelistic services for the specific purpose of winning people to a public decision for Christ. I will, now and then, hold a series of meetings for inspirational, educational, and cultural purposes; but not for the purpose of converting men to Christian disciple- ship.” I had always been practical in my ministry. I did not believe in discarding one method without having some other method to substitute for it. The situation was becoming serious. I was abso- lutely determined to find some way to accomplish this work satisfactorily. It occurred to me that it THE EVOLUTION OF THE METHOD 23 would be wise to try and discover just how Jesus did this work. I found clearly, to my delight, that Jesus won every outstanding follower by the per- sonal contact method. (A full exposition of this fact in the fourth chapter of this book.) I also found that the immediate followers of Jesus car- ried on their work in evangelism by personal inter- views. ‘There is the record that St. Peter preached and thousands were won; but if you will read that record carefully, you will find that the other fol- lowers, while he was preaching, were running here and there and everywhere, inviting men and women to become followers of Jesus. You will remember Jesus sent the Seventy, two by two, to carry on this work. They came back so hilariously happy that they said: “Even the evil spirits are subject unto us.” After I had found that Jesus did the work thus, and that His immediate disciples did the work thus, I turned my attention to the early history of the Church and I found that here, again, there was unmistakable evidence that during the phenomenal growth of the Church in those early years, the work was done by religious conversations in which ‘one Christian talked to another, or, at the most, to a few. The laws of the day made it impossible to hold mass meetings, and yet, during this very period, one of the striking miracles in the history :of the Christian church occurred; namely, the conversion of the Roman Empire. 24 VISITATION EVANGELISM I was now convinced that it was time to experi- ment. I could tell the laymen that Jesus won His followers by personal interview, that His immedi- ate disciples found romance and achieved success in this kind of work, that the members of the Early Church extended the borders of the church and accordingly converted the Roman Empire through quiet, persistent, passionate, religious con- versation. I would ask them: “Is there any reason why the early followers of Jesus could do this, and not we? Did they have any authority that we do not have? Could they anticipate suc- cess any more than we can?” I was quite sure that Jesus’ disciples of today could do anything that the early disciples did. I was of the opinion that we had just as much authority as Peter, or John, or Matthew, or Nathanael. I was persuaded that we had a far greater promise of success than they had. We had not been preaching and teaching for nine- teen hundred years without building up a certain religious background. We could appeal to society on these grounds with every reason to believe that we would get a response that the early disciples could not have expected to get. Just at this time I met a man by the name of Guy H. Black. He had been experimenting in exactly the same field. We had come to exactly the same conclusions. We worked together in the city of Chicago for several weeks. Our results were a revelation to the Christians there. THE EVOLUTION OF THE METHOD 25 I resigned from my pastorate and consecrated my life to the purpose of demonstrating what lay- men can do towards winning the fifty million or more people in our country who are now outside of the Roman Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant Churches to friendship with Jesus Christ and mem- bership in some body of His followers. I] SOME, UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS T is safe to assume that Jesus’ Name is not strange. It is very difficult to find a man any- where who does not know perfectly well what you mean when you ask him to become a Christian. I am not talking about a perfect understanding of all the individual and social responsibilities that one has as a follower of Christ—I am speaking about the first step in the Christian life. We as- sume, therefore, in this work, that men and women, everywhere, have been in such relationship to Christian preaching and teaching that they under- stand the invitation when it is given to them. We assume also that members of every denomination under the shining sun are talking about some type of Christian experience which is absolutely valid; that we do not, therefore, expect all to have the same experience; that it is our duty and privilege to get them to look upon Christ and have their own experience. We must consequently respect the other person’s religious background. In South Manchester, Conn., one of the first teams of two to go out to do this work was made up of an English woman and a German woman. 26 SOME UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS 27 The first call they made was in a German home. The. people in this family had had their religious experience and training in the German Lutheran Church, but had ceased all relationship therewith. The children had been attending the Sunday school of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This team was calling from that church. The workers had heard me, when giving instructions, emphatically request that they respect the other person’s religious background. After they had been visiting a few moments, the German mother said: “I am wor- ried about my children. They are old enough to be in classes leading to confirmation. I do not, however, wish to send them to the Lutheran Church here; the services are all held in the German language. I do not want my children to attend a church where the services are all in German.” The German worker said to this mother : “ Why not send them over to our church and have them confirmed ? ”’ She answered: “Oh! you do not confirm in your church.” “Yes, we do,” the German worker replied. “We do not call it confirmation, but it is the same thing. We baptise children, if they have not been baptised before; we have them come to the altar and consecrate their lives to Jesus and His work in the world; we put them into instruction classes.”’ 28 VISITATION EVANGELISM The German mother then said: ‘‘O, dats so goot—you may have my children.” This team of workers remembered that I had said never to take the promise of a second party, but always to see him themselves. So the worker said to the mother: “ But, don’t you think we should see the children?” “O, no,” she replied, “ you may have my chil- dren ”’—and, as the workers were leaving the door, the mother continued: “If you don’t mind, father and I would like to come over and join your church also.” Do you see what had happened? These workers had discovered a family that used to be in close relationship with a church, but that had severed the relationship and was not getting the Christian nurture that every family needs. ‘The visitors had entered appreciatively into the religious background of this family; they had even used the religious vocabulary with which this German mother was acquainted. They had re-established their relation- ship with the Christian Church. Only God in Heaven knows what that will mean to posterity! Another assumption that we make is that people are basically, universally, instinctively religious. It is very helpful when one is attempting to get a layman to do this work to call his attention to this fact. Oftentimes merf say: “I could not do that— that is not in my line”’; and really what they have in their mind is that it would be abrupt and out of SOME UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS 29 place to go into a man’s home or his private office and introduce a subject of conversation which is absolutely foreign to the man’s mind. The thing that they are overlooking is that all men are inter- ested in religion. It is the chief interest in life. There are men who talk loudly upon the street and would lead you to believe that they have no respect for the Church and no confidence in its religious program for the world. These same men, when you get them in their own homes and ask them some direct questions about their own personal religious responsibility in the community, com- mence to reveal aspirations and hunger that you never dreamed were in their minds and hearts. One day in Burlington, Vermont—in the midst of a wonderful single church campaign where we won three hundred and nine individuals to a Chris- tian decision in five days—we met a man. He was the owner of a theatre. After we had announced the purpose of our visit and had been talking for a few moments, he asked: “Have you seen MrrAstk “No,” I said. ‘ Who is Mr. A.?” “He is a friend of mine—a merchant,” he Teplied. “ Well,” I said, “ we will be glad to see Mr. A. But just now we are interested in talking to you about the Christian life and about your local re- ligious responsibility.” “Go and see Mr. A., and if you get any- 30 VISITATION EVANGELISM where with him, come back and see me,’ he returned. L saw that it would be best to do as he suggested, although I was quite sure that it was his strategy to send us to a man whom he thought it was impos- sible for us to win. After we left his place of busi- ness, I said to Dr. Mark Kelly, pastor of the church in Burlington: “ Who is Mr. A.?” | “Oh,” he answered, “he is a ‘hard nut.’ Now, do not misunderstand me. He is highly respected in the community and a good man; but it would be absolutely useless to talk to him about making a definite Christian decision.” “ Well,” I said, “ let us see him.” “T think it will be a waste of time,” he replied. ‘We have been working pretty hard,” I an- swered. “ Let’s take a vacation and go down and see him.” | When we arrived at the store, the clerk at the counter told us Mr. A. was in the private room. We asked if we might go back there and see him, and were told we might. As we entered the room, I said: “You're Mr. A., I understand. You know Dr. Kelly, of course; he is the pastor of the church up here. My name is Kernahan. We have come to you to talk about the Christian life, about church membership, and about your religious responsibility in your community. We would like to visit with you about what it would mean if you would invest your personality SOME UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS 31 in the church here. Of course, you know, Mr. A., that the Christian Church is like every other human institution; speaking from the human standpoint, it is the combined strength of the per- sonalities that are invested in it. You, undoubt- edly, want a Christian environment in which to live; you wouldn’t live where there were no public schools.” “No,” he replied. “Well,” I continued, “the public school is the product of the Christian Church. You wouldn’t live where there was no system of jurisprudence.” Again he replied, “ No.” “Well,” I continued, “many of the protective features of our system of jurisprudence, as we have it now, have been fostered and nurtured in the heart of the Christian Church. You would not live in a community where there was no place for the religious education of the children.” Again our friend answered in the negative. “The Church is the only institution that fur- nishes that type of education,” I went on. I had already discovered that the general assumption of the community that Mr. A. was not interested in religion, was false. I then asked him a number of direct questions. “Do you receive Jesus Christ as your Saviour, and confess Him as your Lord and Master?” I asked him. “Why,” he said, pointing to an emblem on the 32 VISITATION EVANGELISM lapel of his coat, “ Mr. Kernahan, I could not be a member of this organization if I did not be- lieve that.” “T rather thought that you believed it,” I said. “But I wondered just how personal your belief was. Have you just believed in a rather general way that Jesus Christ is your Saviour? Have you just, in a general way, confessed Him as your Lord and Master? If that be true, Mr. A, I am here, today, to appeal to you that you crystal- lize those general beliefs into a personal attitude and decision. Do you accept and profess the Christian faith as contained in the New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ?” “Why, yes. ‘That’s prerequisite to membership in the organization represented by this emblem.” ‘Yes, I know it is,” I said, “because I, too, belong to that fraternity. But, the question is— just how personal have you made this profession of belief in the Christian faith? Do you believe that Jesus was right when He taught that God was a loving, Heavenly Father? Do you believe that Jesus was correct when He said that we live for- ever? Are you persuaded that Jesus was right when He taught that a human life is the most valu- able thing in the world? You will remember that is told us in the fifteenth chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel, in the story told of the shepherd who left the ninety-and-nine in the pasture and went out to look for the one that was lost.’ SOME UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS 383 Mr. A.’s attitude, as I discovered after I had questioned him upon these two matters, indicated that he had no question as to the legitimacy of this appeal. Then I said, “ My friend, if you actually believe these things, I am sure that you will agree with me that it is necessary to have a church. You cannot perpetuate or promote any- thing unless it is organised. Now that’s just where the local church comes in. If you are willing in a definite, positive manner to receive Jesus Christ as your Saviour, and to receive the Christian faith as taught in the New Testament, then it is your inevitable responsibility that you invest your personality in a church.” “T will think it over,’ was his answer. Now, nine times out of every ten, when a man says he will “think it over,” he is just dodging the issue. In as large a percentage of cases as I have here mentioned, he has been thinking it over more or less all his life. This is the biggest obstacle we meet in our work—not merely a spiritual laziness, but a psychological difficulty which gets in the way of an immediate decision. We do not need to persuade people that the Christian teachings are true,—ninety-five per cent. of them believe that— half as much as we need to persuade them to act on the thing that they already believe. “All right, Mr. A.,”’ I replied, “if you want to think it over, let’s think it over together right now. Have you any problems, have you any 34 VISITATION EVANGELISM unbelief, have you any sinful practices? Is there any obstacle in the way?” I discovered by these questions, and others of like nature, that this man’s difficulty was procrastination. So I said to him, “Mr. A., today is the day to make your de- cision!’ ‘This man who had been spoken of as a “hard nut,’ insofar as a religious appeal was concerned, commenced to show a good deal of emotion and I saw that my opportunity had come. “Mr. A.,” I said, “if I could promise you that if you were to make your decision today, we could win at least six other men in Burlington before the close of our work this week, would that be any consideration to you?” He turned toward me, reached out his hand. and said, “If you could assure me, Mr. Kernahan, that my decision for Christ would win one person in | Burlington to a like decision, I would make it this moment.”’ “Mr. A.,” I replied, “I am safe in assur- ing you that if you will make your decision today, we will win at least one other man, and possibly several,” “Tl do it, then,” he said. He signed his name upon our “ Record of Decision” card. We shook hands, had a word of prayer, and once more it was demonstrated that man everywhere is basically, instinctively religious. We could multiply this illustration by hundreds. It is scarcely necessary. When we go with the SOME UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS 35 realisation that folks are thanking God that we came, that we feed an immense hunger, that we uncover and develop deep and sacred aspirations —then we can go out with a conviction and come back with tremendous results. Til THE NEED OF A NEW METHOD OF EVANGELISM HERE is a great need of a new method of evangelism in which the laymen can play a larger part. ‘The method that I suggest is new to us, but not to Jesus. We have always talked about it—-we have never tried it. It must be based upon a passionate fondness for mankind and a holy love for Jesus. We must set this method up at the foot of the Cross, for that is the only place where sufficient dynamic can be received to enable us to succeed. “ At the foot of the Cross,” says Sir Oliver Lodge, “there has been a perennial experience of relief and renovation. Ours is not a creed, it is a passion. Men in every age have died for it. In every land where its tale is told and with every new sun that dawns, drunkards may be found whom it has made sober, thieves whom it has taught to be honest, harlots whom it has lifted up to chastity, selfish men who, touched by its preaching, live by a great law of self-sacrifice. It is the root whence blossom great heroisms and charities. All human sorrows hide in His wounds. All human self-denials lean on His Cross.” 36 THE NEED OF A NEW METHOD 37 It is here that every sincere layman, as well as ordained minister, may receive such a passionate fondness for people and such an appreciation of Jesus’ spiritual power that he can become as powerful as any immediate disciple of Jesus ever was. Jesus said, “ He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” Dr. Charles L. Goodell says, ‘“‘ In His own person He brought a spiritual power and dynamic which broke up the old order of the pagan world and founded a system based upon an un- calculating and overwhelming love. He mastered men and events, and broke into the leaden night with a blazing passion that was volcanic and irre- ristible. He broke up the order of His time to the breaking of His own heart.” And Forsythe says, “He was an austere man, a severe critic, a born fighter, of choleric wrath and fiery scorn, so that the people thought He was Elijah or the Baptist. Yet He was gentle to the last degree, especially to those ignorant and out of the way. Clear, calm, determined and sure of His mark, He was the next hour roused to such impulsive passion as if He were beside Himself. But if He let Himself go, He always knew where He was going. He poured out His soul unto God and unto death and He was the friend of publicans and sinners.” If we found our new method at the foot of the Cross, these two indispensable possessions will be ours, namely, a passionate fondness for mankind, and a graphic appreciation of Jesus’ spiritual power. 38 VISITATION EVANGELISM When we realise that Jesus said that we could do greater things than these—referring to some things that He and His immediate disciples had done— then we are fired with an enthusiasm to try. As we look out into the world, we understand better, as our experience broadens, just what Jesus meant. He meant that the world would be better prepared in our day than in His to respond to the teaching and preaching of good men who looked, and lived, and worked, and loved like Jesus. There is now a spiritual content in the world that did not exist when He walked upon the earth. His spirit has energised every race of people on earth. His name is not strange! Where once there was violent antagonism to His leadership, there is now admira- tion. Where once there was misunderstanding, there is now a partial recognition of His Saviour- hood. Where once there was gross ignorance as to His spiritual ability and transcending qualities in general, there is now an increasing and ever ex- panding spiritual literacy. This new method must grow up within a congre- gation. It must not be imported. Responsibility can not be shifted. We have had far too many spiritual tragedies where congregations have at- tempted to place the entire responsibility for the saving of their constituency upon the heart of their pastor or upon some one else brought in from the outside. Jesus can not fully nurture those who are converted, unless the people into whose con- THE NEED OF A NEW METHOD 39 gregation these individuals come, know something of the spiritual travail through which they came. Now, as to the method. We are safe to follow Jesus here. He sent His disciples out two by two to visit, to do deeds of love, and to deliver mes- sages of spiritual promise. Think of the Seventy, for instance. These men obeyed Jesus. They went out willing to use their lips to speak His message, and their hands to do His work of love. They . came back so hilariously happy because of the things they had seen accomplished that they said, “ Fiven the evil spirits are subject unto us.” We have every right to conclude that we are sent just as these early disciples were. We have the same authority, we have the same commission. We will have greater success. The harvest is ripe. The difference between this method and the method of mass evangelism lies in the fact that the laymen become the evangelists together with the pastors. The old method was liable to be the appeal of one man. Jesus could not possibly make a complete evangelistic appeal to a whole commun- ity through one man. There is a difference in personality. Some are compatible, some are incompatible. ‘There is a difference of experience and education in any com- munity. We must be prepared for all types of personality, all degrees of experience and educa- tion, if we are to make a comprehensive evangelistic appeal to the unsaved portion of our constituency. 40 VISITATION EVANGELISM Too often the professional evangelist brought in to lead a campaign of mass evangelism, is reactionary in his theological outlook. Oftentimes he is eccen- tric, and his eccentricities are exaggerated for pub- licity purposes. Oftentimes he is a past master in the creating and directing of a dangerous mob psychology. Often the people who are won by this method are won to a certain theological inter- pretation of the Bible, which is mechanical and out of date. When the evangelist leaves, these people become discouraged and fall away. Every pastor knows that there is great danger of a bad after- math when this method is used. Another method is needed, not only actually to have a comprehensive evangelistic appeal, but in order to answer the greatest hunger of our laymen. Since the first time that a layman came to a definite realisation of his immediate relationship to Jesus and the Father, he has wanted to win others to this same consecrated relationship. Give him the op- portunity, furnish him the instructions, place in his hands the names of friends and neighbours to whom to go, tell him that Jesus goes with him, and do this all at the foot of the Cross, and straightway he will come back with the wonderful story that five, ten, fifteen people have made their decision for Christ at his solicitation. I do not wish to be unduly critical, but the very logic of our present situation drives us, if we are to be practical, to this new method. I have fol- THE NEED OF A NEW METHOD Al lowed carefully the work of evangelists, who once were successful, for the last four years, and it is very evident that mass evangelism has largely served its day in many sections of the country. Let us accept without reservation the fact that hun- dreds of members in a church will do far more towards evangelism in any community by going out in teams of two and visiting in the most cour- teous, direct, and persuasive manner with their friends and neighbours about the claims of Christ upon life and the demands of present day Christian citizenship, than any one man can possibly do by attempting to get decisions for Christ in a public service. IV WHAT WAS JESUS’ METHOD? PERSON is supremely fortunate when he discovers Jesus’ way of doing anything. This is especially true in the field of evan- gelism. Our immediate concern here is, how did Jesus try to win His followers? One does not read very long in the New Testament before he comes to the conclusion that Jesus never held a series of meetings for the purpose of winning His followers. He preached, and no man will ever preach like Jesus did, but when it came to the defi- nite task of winning His followers, He went to them or called them to Him. He talked with them on the road, when He walked, or while He rested at the well, or in some other homely place. You will remember that when Jesus was baptised, the man who baptised him said, “ Behold the Lamb of God.” ‘There were some people who overheard this announcement, and one man by the name of Andrew came to Jesus. Jesus had an interview with Andrew and immediately, in the most natural way in the world, Andrew became a disciple of Jesus. There is something so simple, so beautiful about 42 WHAT WAS JESUS’ METHOD? 43 Jesus’ contact. Andrew was at once filled with a passion to win others. He could think of no one on earth that he would rather bring to Jesus than his own brother, so he went at once to his tempes- tuous brother Peter and brought him to Jesus. Jesus did not ask a number of dogmatic questions. He interpreted Peter to himself, and during that conversation, Peter, one of the most interesting characters of the New ‘Testament, was won to Christian discipleship. Jesus was out walking one day and He saw a man. He called to him, “ Follow Me,” and a man by the name of Philip came at once to Jesus’ side. He had not been long in contact with the spirit of Jesus when he, like Andrew, said to himself, “Now, whom can I bring to Christ?” He thought how wonderful it would be for his brother Nathan- ael to become acquainted with Jesus, so he pro- ceeded at once to get his brother. There is just a little interesting side light here on human nature. When he met Nathanael he told him about Jesus and told him whence He came; and Nathanael re- vealed one of the age-long human tendencies when he said, “ Why, how could it be that a man such as you say Jesus is could come from the place He did?” However, Philip was so sure that he had met one who had spiritual dynamic enough to make life triumphant that he persisted in his entreaty, and Nathanael consented to meet Jesus. Jesus saw him coming and the story that is told of their Ad VISITATION EVANGELISM introduction is exceedingly interesting. Jesus told him that he was without guile. Nathanael im- mediately accepted Jesus’ spiritual dictatorship, and became His obedient friend and loving servant. I like to think of another man whom Jesus in- terviewed, who had the same handicap that I have —whenever he wanted to see anything, he had to stand up on something. He came hurrying down to see Jesus. The people were all tiptoeing to look upon the beautiful face of the Master and to hear His musical voice, and to be thrilled with His message of love. ‘This man was all puffed up with dignity because he had been elected to a position of public trust. He forgot all about his dignity and tried to look over the folks into the face of Jesus, but found that it was impossible; so he ran down the road ahead of Jesus, climbed up into a sycamore tree, and looked down to see Jesus as He passed. Now notice how natural our Divine Ex- ample was here. He looked up into the face of Zaccheus and said, “Come down, Zaccheus, | want to go home and dine with you.” On their way home, Jesus talked to him about the program of the Kingdom of God. _Zacchetus was so thrilled and charmed by the altruistic purpose of the heart of Christ that he said, “ I'll tell you what I’ll do, Jesus, I'll give fifty per cent. of all the goods I possess to works of charity.” ‘This is a good proof of conversion. I have known some folks who lived in the Church WHAT WAS JESUS’ METHOD? 45 all of their lives and you could not convince them, to save your soul, that they should give ten per cent. to Christian work. Jesus seemed to anticipate the fact that people would be rather hesitant to adopt His method of evangelism, and the history of the Christian Church proves that His anticipation was correct. One of the reactions that one meets in this work is the growing astonishment that comes as one notes the phenomenal success that many sincere laymen have in this work, when one remembers that for over nineteen hundred years we have almost entirely forsaken Jesus’ method of evangelism. As though He were to say one more final and emphatic word upon this subject, He has a con- versation one day with a woman at a well. He is sitting upon the well platform and a woman comes to draw water. He engages her in conversation and, using the figure of the water as a symbol of spiritual life, He speaks of “ Living Water.” He tells her all about her past life. She admits that His story is true. She marvels at His courtesy and sympathy. He turns her attention from the past to the future. She grasps the opportunity of re- demption. She hurries at once back to the village and persuades her friends and neighbours, who knew all about her bad past, to come and meet her Saviour. This story proves beyond any doubt that any person who is sincere can do this work. All that a person needs is a capacity for friendship and 46 VISITATION EVANGELISM an acquaintanceship with Christ to be able to visit with others in a winning manner about Jesus’ personality and Saviourhood. Send-a number of laymen, two by two, out into any community to visit about Jesus with the people for whom your church is responsible, and there will be others like Andrew, Peter, Philip, Nathanael, Zacchzeus and the Woman at the Well, who will accept the invitation to meet Jesus. When once they have met Jesus, it will be the most simple and natural thing in the world for them to confess their faith in Him at some church altar, and to be re- ceived as members of the group of modern dis- ciples. This was Jesus’ method—it should be ours. We must learn to capitalise the spiritual and psy- chological elements, just as a good salesman does, but for the purpose of the presentation of the Christian religion. il HOW TO ORGANIZE V PREPARATORY WORK ORK in the field of evangelism has suf- fered for lack of careful organisation. Sometimes we have emphasised the abso- lute necessity of the presence of the Holy Spirit in an enterprise of this kind, with an inference that the Holy Spirit would not work in an organised and systematic way. Some churches have given the impression that they thought the Holy Spirit was not interested in the work of evangelism at any other time than in the winter. I have heard people say, “ We will wait until the meetings next winter.” I have heard pastors say, “‘ I am antici- pating that Mr. A. will make his decision when the meetings come on.” If I understand the Holy Spirit, my idea is that He would instruct us that every week in the year is acceptable to Him; that He comes whenever people receive Him. Let us always remember that the Holy Spirit has seemed to be present with greater power at certain seasons than at others, simply because we prepared our- selves better these times to receive Him. This fact points to the necessity of preparatory -work. We must prepare ourselves, not only in 49 50 VISITATION EVANGELISM spiritual fervour, but also in a carefully outlined program of procedure. The first part of the pre- paratory work is very important. John Stuart Blackie says: “The Early Church worked by a fervid moral contagion, not by the suasion of cool argument. ‘The Christian method of conversion, not by logical arguments, but by moral contagion and the effusion of the Holy Ghost, has with the masses of mankind always proved itself the most effective.’ We should prepare ourselves by prayer and by the reading of spiritual conquest, both in the Bible and in books which record great spiritual achievements. We must irradiate religious earnest- ness and contagious enthusiasm. This type of spiritual mood becomes the dynamic in our work. We must, however, be so well organised that the spiritual energy that we exert will be directed to the proper places of need, or we will expend our physical strength and spiritual suasion to little effect. Therefore, we make the following suggestions : 1. The pastor should set apart one week for in- tensive work. He should have all-the-year-around evangelism—and he can have it; but he must first have a demonstration of what Christ can do through a number of laymen in this method. Therefore, he should have a date marked on his church calendar for a one week Intensive Visitation Evangelistic Campaign. 2. The pastor should make a very careful Re- PREPARATORY WORK 51 sponsibility Roll. ‘This list should carry the names of every man, woman, boy, and girl in the com- munity for whose religious nurture his church is responsible. This list should be complete; no one should be missed. ‘Then these names should be transcribed upon a Prospect Card, giving the nature of the person’s relations to the church, and any other information that will assist those who call upon him.” 3. The pastor should secure just as large a num- ber of laymen as he possibly can to do the calling. The best way to enroll them as workers is to go to them privately and get their signatures upon a Visitation Committee Agreement Card. He can enlist a great many people in this work by assuring them that wherever the laymen have attempted to do this service, they have had phenomenal success ; that, for instance, one director in campaigns that resulted in the winning of over ten thousand people found, when the results were averaged, that each team of two laymen had won fourteen new people; that he, the pastor, understands that they feel as if they cannot do it, but if they will only try, he will release them if they should find they are not suc- ceeding. The pastor will never have to release a person. | These workers should designate exactly the amount of time that they will give. We find that it is much better to get them to promise to work during all the periods set aside in one week, than 52 VISITATION EVANGELISM to allow them to spread their periods of work over a longer length of time. Have them sign for Sun- day afternoon, and every evening of the week with the exception of Saturday. 4. The pastor should make arrangements for a workers’ supper at 6:00 or 6: 15 every evening of the “intensive.” This supper is very essential. You will find that the workers will be much more — regular and punctual when a supper is served than they would be if they had to get their sup- per at home first. A great many interruptions are avoided. ‘Then there is virtue in the fact that when the workers eat together, they have the op- portunity to talk about the work. We will say, for instance, that two men are sitting side by side at the table. Mr. A. failed last night to win any- body. Mr. B. won four. Mr. B. is so enthusiastic about his success that he becomes a veritable foun- tain of inspiration for Mr. A. Mr. A. goes out from the supper with a great deal more courage than he would have had if he had eaten at home and thought about last night’s failure. The Pros- pect Cards which were used the night before are turned in while the people are eating. ‘The new assignments for that evening’s work are made the moment the supper is finished. Several of the workers give their reports. They tell of their ex- periences, and of the problems that they have met. The director seizes this opportunity to emphasise the instructions that are needed to meet the situ- PREPARATORY WORK 538 ations that are revealed. Immediately at the close of his address, which must be condensed and liter- ally saturated with inspiration, the group engages in prayer, and at the conclusion of the prayer, they go to work at once. 5. The pastor should ask all those whom he secures as workers to give special time in prayer in preparation for this enterprise. It is best to ask them privately. He should ask any wife whose husband is on the prospect list, and also any hus- band whose wife is on the prospect list, and like- wise any member of the family who is interested in any other member of the family becoming a Christian, to pray for that person. He should warn them, however, not to speak to that person about the matter until the name is assigned unless they are impressed with the fact that the Holy Spirit leads them to do so. 6. The pastor should prepare two classes of in- struction for church membership. ‘This schedule of work should be carefully outlined, the teacher secured, and everything made ready to place these new members in classes the minute that they make their confession of Christ at the altar. The way in which these people are received into the church is entirely in the hands of the pastor—the director has nothing to say about that. He suggests, how- ever, that the young people be given a thorough course of training in what it means to be a Chris- tian citizen today; what it means to be a member 54: VISITATION EVANGELISM of any Christian church. He suggests that the older ones, who have not had a Sunday School and church background, either be given instruction in a class that meets at a regularly appointed time, or be given an outline for reading. I would have a series of religious educational and cultural ad- dresses a few weeks after the “ intensive.” If this preparatory work is done carefully, and sensitiveness to the leadership of the Holy Spirit is magnified, any church anywhere on earth may have a Pentecost. A passion for the work and organisation of the work are both absolutely essential. VI WHEN AND HOW TO LAUNCH HE method of Visitation Evangelism may be launched the moment the preparatory work is done. ‘The season of the year is immaterial. ‘The only time that we must avoid is the summer vacation period, which takes a large percentage of the people out of the community, or brings in a large number who are to be cared for in the homes of the people upon whom we would call. But there are ten months of the year which can be used for this work. ‘There are no exceptions to this statement. ‘The weather is a consideration, but from the opposite point of view of the old method. ‘he worse the weather, the better the chances of success; people are more liable to be home when it is raining; those who are calling will be able to find them. | After the preparatory work has been carefully done, the campaign should be launched—on a Sun- day. It is well to have a director; in fact, I should not advise any church to launch its first campaign without some minister who has one or more week’s experience in this work. A man who is acquainted with technique of the work gains confidence, speaks 55 56 VISITATION EVANGELISM with authority and proceeds with an assurance which are invaluable to those who have never done this work before. This director should visit the various departments of the Sunday School, speak about ten minutes in each department, and tell in the clearest and most direct manner just what is to be done that week. He should attempt to win co- operation in these departments. At the regular morning preaching hour, he should preach a sermon in which he magnifies the fact that Jesus can save this world for the Kingdom of God just the minute that the laymen will volunteer to carry the message. ‘The laymen should be led to see that the great unused resource of the church is the combined per- sonality of its laity. At 2:30 in the afternoon he should meet the workers. He should go over in the most careful manner the background, technique, and appeals of Visitation Evangelism. ‘That we may be clear here, I will cover these three things briefly. | 1. The background of the method. We have been driven to attempt a new method because we are in a new day of evangelism. Mass evangelism has very largely served its day and is gone, or is going. Visitation evangelism is in accordance with Jesus’ own work. He won His followers by personal contact; His immediate disciples won folks by the personal contact method. The mem- bers of the early church extended the work of the church and the Kingdom of God by personal inter- WHEN AND HOW TO LAUNCH 57 view. The laymen who will do this work today will have amazing results. One director of this work has directed laymen who have won in ten months of work over ten thousand people, to de- cisions for Christ and for church membership. _ 2. Technique. The workers should be instructed to be direct, courteous, and persistent. The mo- ment they meet a person at the door, they should announce their errand in some such manner as this, “Our church has set aside a week in which we are attempting to call upon every man, woman, boy, and girl in this community who has any connection with our church and who, so far as we know, has never made a decision for Christ.” Then, after getting into the home (always get in: if a person does not invite you in, say, “ We'll only take a few moments of your time, may we please come in and go over the matter with you?”’) ask him, “ Have you ever been a member of any Christian church? ” It will depend upon the person’s answer as to how the workers will proceed. If the person says he was a member of such-and-such a church in some other place, then it will be a good thing to say something like this, “ Give us the information and our pastor will send for your church-letter.”” Never say, “ Don’t you think you should send for your letter?’ “ When will you let us get your letter?” or “ How soon may the pastor send for your let- ter?” Such questions suggest that there are two sides to the matter of church transfer. There is 58 VISITATION EVANGELISM ’ only one side. A person has no right to live in one community and belong to a church in some other place—it is impossible to send one’s personality by proxy. He is either functioning for Christ and the Church in the place where he lives, or nowhere. Put the matter in a constructive sentence like this, “ Give us the information and our pastor will send — for your letter.” It may be, however, that even when you put your request in this form, the person will hesitate on account of sentimental associations. He will tell you that his mother and father were members of that church for twenty years, that he met his wife there, that they were married by the pastor, and that their babies were baptised there. If he does this, remind him that he was fortunate enough to have a father and mother who were loyal enough to their religious responsibility to assume their local Christian and church relationship; that every reason which argued that they should be careful about their religious duties and privileges, also argues that he and his wife should be definitely related where they live. If you do not succeed at this point on account of these sentimental associ- ations, then do the rather severe thing of suggesting to him that the pastor back there at the old church will be glad to remove his membership from that church to some other. This will probably be an absolutely new consideration to the person. He felt that they cherished his membership back there WHEN AND HOW TO LAUNCH BO in the old church, when as a matter of fact, any pastor feels that he is doing his friend the very best service by getting him related to the church in the community where he lives. This argument usually brings his permission to get the transfer. On the other hand, we will suppose that the man says he has never been a member of any church. Then I would suggest proceeding by asking several direct questions to discover just what the man’s attitude is toward Christ and Church. If you dis- cover, as we do in numerous instances, that his attitude is friendly, insist, in a tactful, gracious manner, to get an immediate decision. My own method is to ask him if he is willing to accept Jesus Christ as his Saviour, and to confess Him as his Lord and Master; if he receives and professes the Christian faith as contained in the New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ? I ask him whether he will be loyal to the Church and uphold it by his prayer, his presence, his gifts and his service? If he answers in the affirmative, thén I indicate to him the fact that I would like to have him make this statement: that he accepts Jesus Christ as his persona! Saviour and purposes, with His help, to live a Christian life and do all he can to help carry out His entire program; that he will unite with a church which he indicates as his choice and will present himself for membership at that church upon a definite Sunday. If I find that it is more difficult to win him than this description just given 60 VISITATION EVANGELISM indicates, then I proceed to make one of several appeals. 3. Appeals. ‘There is the appeal to conscience. Every person on earth knows the difference be- tween right and wrong. A worker should take advantage of this fact. If I were calling upon a father and were going to make the appeal to con- science, I would proceed somewhat after this fashion as indicated on an earlier page. “ You would not live in a community where there were no public schools if you could avoid it?” The answer would always be, “ No.” Then I would remind him that the public school was the product of the Christian Church. “ You would not live in a community where there was no system of jurisprudence?” His answer again would be, “ No.” Then I would suggest that the system of juris- prudence which we have has many protective features which have been fostered and nurtured in the Christian Church. ‘‘ You would not live where there was no opportunity to send your children to Sunday school?” In most instances, his answer again would be, “ No.” Then I would again remind him that the Sunday school is perpetuated by the gifts and leadership of the people in the church. I would then directly and frankly impress him with the fact that he was de- manding a certain kind of social environment, WHEN AND HOW TO LAUNCH 61 which is in a real sense Christian, in which to rear his children; that this demand made him mutually responsible with every other person in the com- munity who made a like demand; that just at present he seemed to be assuming that somebody else would carry his religious responsibility; that that really was not the thing he would choose to do when he realised that he was doing it. I would call his attention to the fact that the only way to perpetuate any institution is to invest personality in it. I would ask him if he did not think it per- fectly fair to expect him to put his life into the Church if he desired the continuance of the kind of an environment which he now demanded in the community where he was building his home? This presentation of Christian citizenship will have a challenge in it that he never saw before. He will realise that he has the opportunity to pour his life and spiritual energy into the life of his children, not only through the home, but through every other institution in the community which he needs to supplement the work of the home, if he is to reach the highest goal that he has in mind for his children. If I were talking to a mother, I should make the same appeal. If I were talking to a youth, I should attempt to persuade him that he was not using his time and talents properly and ask him if he were not preparing himself for some really constructive and altruistic pur- pose in the world. Now this appeal in either 62 VISITATION EVANGELISM instance is an appeal to conscience—as to whether the person is using his physical strength, his mental ability, and the influence of his person- ality for the purpose that God intended—as to whether he is really fair to himself, to others, and oe ee a = “ss XVII THE CHANGELESS CHRIST AND EVANGELISM HANGEH is written in large letters across the face of the universe. We find it where we least expect to find it. I am told by scien- tists that if you take a bar of steel and a bar of brass and place them very close together and leave them for a considerable length of time, and then analyse them, you will find molecules of the steel bar in the brass, and molecules of the brass bar in the steel. Consequently, the only conclusion you can come to is that these two hard metals are in constant change and motion. We speak of the everlasting mountains, yet they are being constantly smoothed upon the top by the play of the elements and tunneled beneath by the genius of man’s hand. Change is everywhere. I have seen it ingrained upon the peaks of the mountains, and crocheted upon the profiles of the hills by great railroad trunk lines. When I was a boy, I had the privilege of hearing one of those unusual speakers who was able to take all of the experiences of the people who sat before him and make them preach marvelous sermons. 135 136 VISITATION EVANGELISM Later, he was elected a Bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church and was retired at their General Conference held in Springfield, Massachusetts, in May, 1924. I am speaking of William A. Quayle. His address that day made a lasting impression upon me. His language was so homely and his delivery so unique that one of the paragraphs of that address still stays in my memory. It was not a definition of change but a description of change given in his poetic manner. Here it is: “ You re- member a schoolhouse where the world was at its widest ; the fishing stream; the swimming pool; the scramble up the bank with bruised feet; the spring at which you used to recline and drink and drink and drink and drink and yet you were never satis- fed; the spankings wherewith your relatives re- galed you that you never got one too many; the chores; the Saturdays; the first indications of Spring; the stopping amid fields to see the sullen splendour of a cloud burned low like a great ship in conflagration.” These things he said were the commonplace things of the past. The humdrums and stupidities of life. They were the hardy makers of our souls, but they were gone, never to return. Scientific theories change. JI remember that, when at college, we had a certain scientific theory which was at the basis of our investigation in a certain department of chemistry. We supposed that that theory was as changeless as the laws of THE CHANGELESS CHRIST 137 the Medes and the Persians. We even referred to ‘itasalaw. I had not been graduated from college long, however, when I was informed that that theory had proven false and that all future experi- ments in that department of chemistry would be based upon a new theory. Forms of government change. There has been a constant succession in changes of government from the old Patriarchal down to the Presidential— the best form of government God ever smiled upon. I cannot mention governments any more without digressing long enough to say that I am fearful that there are many people in the United States of America who have no idea of the cost of this gov- ernment. It has evolved through agony and blood- shed which no tongue or pen will ever be able to describe adequately, but it has come to us through a series of changes. We change ourselves. Some of the things we used to love, we hate; and some of the things we used to hate, we love. Our old homesteads change. A few years ago I was discharged from the Army at Camp Dix, New Jersey. I started off across the long miles to my native home in the Middle West. I had no more than taken my seat in the Pullman car and the locomotive had started, when the wheels commenced to sing songs of other days. Now, a young person may not understand this, but anyone who is older, who has sat a long distance from some fond destination and has allowed the memories of 138 VISITATION EVANGELISM yesterday to come trooping back through his mind, has observed that any rhythm will take upon itself the clothing of words, and straightway come songs of yesterday. As I sat in the car through the first day and attempted to sleep during the first night, the old car wheels went on singing their songs. I could again see my boyhood home out there in the country eight miles from Oelwein, Iowa. I could see the little dining room where mother would spend the long winter evenings, and there were my brothers and sisters, George, Julius, Mae, and Belle. I heard the old stories again that Mother used to tell, stories about the early hardships of the Middle West; and about a trip across from South Dakota to Iowa ina prairie schooner. There in my mind’s vision was the old home, just as it used to be. Of course I knew that it had changed, but I was in one of the moods in which a man is easily deceived if he be not careful to check up upon the natural read- justments which have come to him. When [I ar- rived in Iowa I found that old home all gone. One sister had been called long ago to a home that was far superior to anything we could provide for her, and we soon ceased to complain. My brother had been burned to death during the war. Another sister was living in a home upon the Pacific Coast, another brother in a new home in the Middle West, Mother in another home, and I on the Atlantic Coast. ‘The old home was absolutely gone—never to return. THE CHANGELESS CHRIST 139 I believe that I understand human nature some- what, and I am surely telling the truth, when I say that in the midst of this change, transition and chaos, the deepest instinct of the human soul is to reach up and get hold of something that does not change, preferably a personality. ‘There has been but one system of thought, philosophy, or religion that has ever presented a person who has been eternally changeless in the qualities that make him like God. ‘There has been but one Person who, irrefutably, has declared Himself, through the centuries, to be changeless in the virtues that make Him stand out like a giant mountain in a mountain range. I am speaking of Jesus. If I were to do the next logical thing in the pur- suance of this thought, I would attempt to prove that Jesus is changeless. I am not going to do the logical thing. I ask you to consider a more funda- mental question. The question is not as to the changelessness of Jesus, but concerning Jesus Him- self. If the reader happens to have been trained in the same kind of school as I was, please be patient. If you feel that we have no right to enter upon this ground, I beseech you to consider the thousands and thousands of young men and young women in our high schools and colleges who are more interested in this question than in any other consideration that has to do with religion. Down there in those years of natural doubt and necessary readjustments, they are looking toward us. and asking “ Who is Jesus 140 VISITATION EVANGELISM and what is Jesus?” What do we usually do when one from this group, or perchance someone from an older group, asks this question? We usually do nothing, and when we realise that there are hun- dreds who are thinking it but do not ask it, then the seriousness of this situation dawns upon us. I say, we usually do not do anything. It has been my experience that only one person in fifty ever talks about Jesus in his regular everyday life in a con- tagious manner. ‘These people are trying to dis- cover by our conversation whether we actually think that Jesus is real. We remain silent. There is at least one reason for this silence. Here it is: We look into the face of Jesus and we see a beauty there that cannot be comprehended within a sentence, a paragraph, or a book; and we say, “ Who can define Jesus in absolute terms?” We look into His personality, and we see a power there that has transformed the thought of the ages, renovated the social life of millions of people, changed customs and let in the sunlight of a whole- some philosophy of life which has already started to set up the Kingdom of God on earth. We say it is impossible to define Jesus in absolute terms. Here is the fallacy. Just because we discover that we cannot define Jesus in absolute terms, we should not cease to talk about Him. As a matter of fact, we cannot define anything that has life in it in absolute terms. Religious creeds are very helpful, but they are never absolutely true. That is the THE CHANGELESS CHRIST 141 wonder about Jesus. That is the romance in Chris- tianity; for Christianity is life, not creed. We do -not insist upon defining many things in terse and explicit sentences which we talk about in a per- suasive and contagious way. Think, for instance, of four of our indispensable possessions. What is beauty? I was at one time pastor of First Methodist Episcopal Church, North- ampton, Massachusetts. There is a wonderful old street in that city called Elm Street. It is skirted on either side by giant trees. They are so large and so old that it is necessary to put bands of steel around some of them to keep the limbs from break- ing down. On my way to the church every Sun- day morning, I walked beneath the spreading limbs of these old trees. I was always in a tender mood to catch any suggestion that might make me a bet- ter preacher that morning, and many times, in fact I think always, I would look out between these limbs over the steeple of my church located on the corner of Smith College Campus, and see in the distance a little mountain. They called it Mount Tom. I would say to myself, “ Isn’t the mountain majestic this morning, holding its head up high in the heavens, worshipping God? Isn’t the mountain beautiful? ” Later, I was pastor of a church in Boston, Mas- sachusetts. Just to the right of the pulpit stood the erect, superb figure of Jesus. Now 1 knew that that picture worked into a stained glass window 142 VISITATION EVANGELISM was the result of the best dreams of an artist. I do not know just how much that picture looked like Jesus when He was upon earth. I think, however, that the artist must have seen Jesus some sunlit morning, for there was a beauty upon that face that was matchless. One day I was out in the middle of the ocean, upon the largest passenger ship owned by France. I was sitting far out at the stern and I saw a storm come staggering across the sea. One of the biggest dreams that I had as a boy and a young man, was to see a storm at sea. ‘This may seem strange, for I was born and had lived nearly all my life in the Middle West. I was so green about the ocean that I felt like doing what a friend of mine said he felt like doing when he first saw the ocean. I wanted to get down on my knees and taste the water to see whether it had any salt in it. But here I was face to face with one of the big experiences that I had always yearned after. I almost tied myself aboard and stretched out over the stern to see the storm that came wading on with giant strides towards us. It was beautiful. ‘The heavens put on a mourning that I did not know even the fingers of God could weave and hang across the early day. The angry ocean churned up a thousand colours until, as you looked upon the crest of every wave, it seemed as though you were looking into a fairy park studded with myriads of jewels. I walked back into the middle of the ship and THE CHANGELESS CHRIST 143 stood with thousands of men about me. They were crossing the sea to enter into another storm. ‘They were dreaming about it. It was already raging in their hearts. The marks of it were upon their faces. ‘They were experiencing already the pain, hate, and mental anguish of the war. “ This is beautiful,’ I said, “the sky, the wind, the sea, the brain, and the heart of men all in a strain and strugegle.”’ Now, I have been talking about beauty. I think that I have been talking about it contagiously. I do not believe that anyone would doubt that I believe there is such a thing as beauty. But what is it? Somebody says it is a harmonious relationship of parts. That’s no definition. I have seen some girls who could arrange powder and hair very har- moniously, but there was no beauty there. What is poetry? Somebody says it is the voice of the soul, but that’s no definition. We have not yet been able to define the soul. What is the home? Somebody answers, “‘ Why, the home is four walls, the ceiling, the floor, and a man and woman who have been joined in the holy bonds of matrimony.” That’s not a definition. You present to me a man and woman who love each other and have been joined together in the holy bonds of matrimony, and you have a home without a house. Was it not Mark Hopkins who said, “‘ What is a college? A log with a professor at one end of it and a student at the other. That’s a college,” What is genius? 144 VISITATION EVANGELISM Abraham Lincoln was a genius, but there have been scores of books written about Abraham Lincoln, and the one thing that they cannot explain is his genius. Do we cease to talk about these indispensable possessions of the human race? Do we refuse to accept their contributions to our lives? How about beauty? When I am in the midst of beauty, I drink it in; and that same beauty courses down through my personality and becomes a ministry to the folks. How about poetry? Just because I cannot tell you in explicit terms what poetry is, do I refuse to receive what it has to enrich my life? Is this poetry? “The American finds not in this wide world a pleasure so sweet As to sit at the window and tilt up his feet, And puff away at his Cuba whose flavour just suits, And gaze at the world ’twixt the toes of his boots.” : How about this? “He gathers our prayers as He stands, And they change into garlands in His hands, Into flowers of purple and red; And beneath the wide arch of the portal, Through the streets of the city immortal, Is wafted the fragrance they shed.” What is the difference between these two selec- THE CHANGELESS CHRIST 145 tions? Ohne is poetry, the other is not. Now, just because I cannot define poetry in absolute terms, shall I deny to the mind of some unusual person the privilege of reaching up into the skies and gathering up the screech of the shells that went on their deathward march a few years ago, the cries of the men who burned to death up there; of reach- ing down into the bowels of the sea and gathering up the murmurs of the babies who drowned down there ; of reaching out over the blood-soaked battle- fields and gathering up the prayers and the profani- ties of the boys who fought over there; and mixing them all together in the magic of his personality, to pour out an epic into the minds and the hearts of the people? No, we will accept his songs, and some day, in the midst of depression, we will find that the songs we cannot define have become the means of our escape. Now, how about the home! Just because I can- not tell you what the home really is, shall I deny the arms of a woman the privilege of holding her offspring and breathing into his face the dreams of a hundred mornings? No, rather we shall say, “Go on. Make your contribution to the needs of this day, furnish God the first generation that ever anywhere nearly approximated Jesus’ ideal of world citizenship.” What shall we do about genius? We cannot define it, and yet this is the day of genius. One morning I was leaving a hotel to go to a pulpit 146 VISITATION EVANGELISM where I was to preach. Just as I passed through the lobby, I heard a beautiful song somewhere. The clerk said, “‘ Sit down a moment.” I did, and for the next ten minutes I enjoyed a religious service. I said, “‘ Where is this service being held?” The clerk informed me that it was Omaha, Nebraska. I heard the people singing that beauti- ful old hymn, “ Who Could It Be But Jesus?” I heard the preacher pray, and as he became the mouthpiece of his congregation and prayed for the wide world that morning, I felt that genius was acquainting us, better than we had ever before real- ised, with our Heavenly Father. It is surely fair to suggest that we should take exactly the same attitude toward Jesus. Of course we cannot define Him. Words are too forced and rigid. Jesus cannot be tied down to this earth in the cold shackles of a definition, but we can talk about Him with a greater certainty and contagion than we can about beauty, poetry, home, or genius —and the consequences are more needful. I am not saying that we cannot have a practical definition of Jesus. May I suggest it in this way? Many of the so-called laws of nature were not dis- © covered until some men were willing to pay the price of incarnating them in their own being. Men died for centuries and passed by herbs that had ‘medicinal properties in them that would have cured their diseases, until some doctors gave the health- giving properties contained in these herbs to the THE CHANGELESS CHRIST 147 world. Men died upon ships and were buried in the sea, and all that was necessary for them to do was to speak through the proper kind of an instrument thousands of miles away to receive the aid which would have saved their lives. Then Edison com- menced to think, Marconi thought a bit further, and they gave to the world wireless telegraphy. A man named Newton observed an apple fall dc wn and he said, “ If the apple falls down instead ot up, there must be some reason.” He commenced to co-operate with God in his willingness to serve, and eventually discevered a certain law, and he gave it to the world as a law of gravitation. Just as Newton, Edison, Marconi, and others, are the ‘incarnation of natural laws; so Jesus is the incar- nation of the love, of the will, and the purpose of God. ‘This makes our work simple. As we go out to talk about religion, we do not need to talk in abstractions or platitudes. We are to .talk about Jesus. He personifies the teachings of our Heav- enly Father. All we need to have is capacity for friendship and acquaintanceship with Jesus to be assured of success. Jesus dramatises in the most eloquent way all of the teachings of God to us. We have been thinking about Jesus, about the changeless Jesus. Let us talk about the three ways in which Jesus does not change. 1. He does not change in His teachings. We change in our interpretations of His teachings, but when we fathom what He really taught in reference 148 VISITATION EVANGELISM to any particular relationship of life or about life itself, we can be sure that these teachings will never change. I am glad that we do change in our in- terpretations of His teachings. We are more nearly approximating the truth as the years go by. I once boarded a train in a small city about three hundred miles from Chicago. After we had trav- elcd a few miles, I found that my seat companion was also a preacher. He was a minister of a de- nomination I am not acquainted with in any inti- mate way. I said to him, “This is a great privi- lege for me. I do not suppose in my whole life that I have had an opportunity to visit with a man of your denomination as long as I shall today, and if you do not mind, I would like to ask you one question about your Church. Do you still teach that if a baby dies who has not been baptised, he is lost?” He seemed rather reticent in answering. Then I asked him again, “ Does your Church still teach that if a baby dies without being bap- tised, he is lost?” “We have no right to teach that he is saved,” he said. “‘ Brother,” I replied, ‘ I am sure that I have the right to look into the face of any broken-hearted mother and tell her that when death breaks the little chubby arms away from her bosom, the baby spirit goes directly to the bosom of the Father, whether he has been baptised or not. That is the only en- THE CHANGELESS CHRIST 149 vironment for a baby-spirit when he leaves the arms of his mother.” Now, the purpose of the story is this: There are many still living who remember when there were at least a half-dozen denominations or small branches of denominations that were teaching that babies who die without baptism are lost. I thank God that we do change in our interpretations of Jesus’ teachings. I could take you to a score of cemeteries today where little headstones stick them- selves up outside of the cemetery walls as monu- ments to this superstition. Thank God we are moving away from that, but Jesus remains ever the same in all of His teachings. When we change our teachings, we are simply getting nearer to Jesus. If you were converted, my reader, after you be- came adult, the first ambition that you had when you became acquainted with Jesus as your Saviour, was to go home or out in the community and win somebody else to Christ. He taught you in that first wonderful experience that it was possible for you to take enough of His beauty into your face, His winsomeness into your voice, and His passion- ate love into your heart to go out and win scores to a Christian discipleship. If He is not teaching you that today, you have lost your contact with your teacher. He will teach His loyal followers that, as long as there is one man upon earth who has not become His friend. ‘That is a sentimental teaching but absolutely fundamental to the redemp- 150 VISITATION EVANGELISM tion of the world. Jesus has put this at the very basis of any evangelistic program. It was pre- requisite to His own success. It is likewise abso- lutely indispensable if the modern church is to make the advance that looks very possible. 2. Jesus does not change in His attitude toward lost people. Do you remember what it was? ‘They brought before Him a woman that was taken in sin. Jesus stooped His face in modesty, the mod- esty of a Saviour. “If anyone of you men who brought this woman here is without sin,” He said, “you cast the first stone”; and, while He waited, He wrote some words in the sand, the only words we have any record of His writing. When He lifted His face He looked deep down into the heart of the woman and said, “ What, is there no man here to condemn you?’”—for the men had all slipped away. “No, Lord,” she answered, “there is no one here to condemn me.” . “ Neither do I condemn you,” Jesus said. “Go, and sin no more.”’ Christ’s attitude was that of a Saviour. As you read the records of His work, you will find that while He gave His attention, now and then, to con- demnation and judgment, most of His arduous days were spent in the work of a Saviour. May I emphasise just this one point? We slip altogether too easily into the attitude of judges. We see _ people who are bad and we judge them. Meanness THE CHANGELESS CHRIST 15t and sin should be rebuked, but people who are lost in the wild labyrinths of sinful habit need to be redeemed. We should make much greater progress if we were to take Jesus’ attitude and give our- selves to the business of assisting Him in His beau- tiful work of redeeming lost souls. People do not need to be judged half so much as they need to be. loved. People do not need to be criticised adversely nearly so much as they need to have Christian sympathy. People, bad people, lost people, will respond in an amazing percentage of instances to an appeal for clean Christian living when the appeal comes from the lips of one who has tasted the romance of that abundant life of which our Master spoke. Here is a modern illustration of Jesus’ attitude toward lost people. A special revival campaign was being held in one of the great Eastern cities. A girl who had come into the city, lost her way, married an infamous character, and had settled down under the eaves of one of the churches, became interested. She said to her husband, “ Let’s go to that meeting tonight.”” They had no sooner arrived when the speaker threw himself into a pas- sionate, eloquent portrayal of the Gospel message. These two people saw themselves in their hopeless besmirched condition. ‘They also saw Jesus in His immaculate whiteness. They heard the speaker say, “ You may be like Jesus if you will look to Him.” They made their decision that night to give them- 152 VISITATION EVANGELISM selves to Christ and beg His forgiveness for the past. The next Sunday morning they attended the church near which they lived. The pastor that morning gave an invitation for all who had made Christian decisions to come forward and become members of the church. These two hesitated. They knew that the members of that community knew them as vicious people. During the week the pastor sent some proper workers to visit in this home. They talked with these people just as they believed Jesus would have, if He had been there. They used their person- alities for the wonderful work of carrying the spirit of Jesus into a lost home. They persuaded these two people to seek admission into the church the next Sunday morning. The pastor again gave the invitation and the two arose and started forward. People all over the church were attempting to see these infamous char- acters. The woman became very highly wrought up nervously. It looked as though she might even become hysterical. Another woman on the oppo- site side of the church saw the situation, and as the pastor left the pulpit to come down to the altar, this woman, highly educated, beautifully cultured, arose from her seat and came forward. She took her place by the side of the outcast woman. As the pastor came forward, the outcast woman gasped as though she would collapse in her nervousness. The THE CHANGELESS CHRIST 158 beautiful woman stepped in front of her, put one hand upon one cheek and the other hand upon the other cheek, turned the face of the woman, kissed one cheek and then the other, and thereby reinstated her in decent society. This is an unusual illustration, you say? Yes, it is, and God forgive us! For it was just another instance of Jesus operating in the body of a highly educated, beautifully cultured woman. ‘The sooner we realise that for some reason, over nineteen hun- dred years ago, Jesus took off His body and that the only body that He has to use now, which can be seen by those whom we would win, is ours, the sooner the Kingdom of God will come upon earth. Your hands may become His hands, your face may smile down into sin and sorrow with the sympathy and love of Jesus. Your heart may become the dynamic which will change many sordid situations. This gives our work a dignity and a beauty that are beyond compare. 3. Jesus remains the same in His attitude toward children. I have left this to the last because it is the most important. Do you remember what Jesus’ attitude was? He was surrounded by captious questioners one day who were attempting to prove that He was a revolutionary man. He saw a little child. He forgot the curs that were barking at His heels for destruction, saw the beauty in the face of the little child, and I think He must have placed His hand upon the little head, for He was a great 154 VISITATION EVANGELISM teacher and He would know that when you place your hand upon the head of a child, your fingers touch the hearts of the parents. ‘ Forbid them not to come unto Me,” said Jesus, “ for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Let us get the whole suggestion here. Some of us have been under the influence of a heresy, one of the worst heresies that has ever attacked the Christian Church. We have thought that a child | had to be converted. Notice what Jesus says. He says: “For of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” What does He mean? Just precisely what He says. Children are Christians, children do not need to be converted unless we allow them to go astray. This is a big challenge to the home and to the church. It is the business of parents and of churches to keep children so near Jesus through Christian nur- ture and example that they will never become lost. Bishop Edwin Holt Hughes has told a story which illustrated the value of childhood. A family living somewhere in the Middle West had but one child. He was about at the age of maturity when he came to his father one day and said, “ Dad, I would like to go to college. I have felt for some time that if I were trained I might become of some public service.” “John, we are poor,” his father replied, “ and the crops have been bad for two years. I do not know how we would arrange to meet the expense, but I will go in and talk it over with mother.” THE CHANGELESS CHRIST 155 Fle was gone but a few moments when he came out and called John. If you want to discover severe economy, appeal to a mother in the interest of her -son. Mother had decided that John could go to college. ? After the old gentleman had uttered his homely words of advice, and the crooked fingers of the old mother, made crooked in long and loving service for her son, had gathered together her loving gifts, John went off across country to college. He worked almost night and day for three years and a half, and then wrote back to his parents to come down to college, that he would be graduated but once, that they must come. The old folks wrote to John saying, “ We have never been among college people. We haven't the right kind of clothes. We would disgrace you, John. Furthermore, we couldn’t get any one to do the chores.” John wrote again and said, “ Dad, you must come,’ and when a boy tells his Dad that he must ‘do something, usually something happens; so the old gentleman hitched up the old gray horse to the carriage and drove down to the college town. John saw them coming, ran down through the streets and threw his arms about the shoulders of his father and mother as though they were a prince and princess. He took them up and down the campus and introduced them to his colleagues and professors as though they were the most eminent people on earth. 156 VISITATION EVANGELISM John had won the honours of his class. Class Day arrived. They had built a great platform out of doors and arranged seats for the Class Day pro- gram. It was John’s privilege to deliver the ora- tion. He placed two chairs down in front of the platform for his mother and father, and finally arose a beautiful testimony to a Christian home, a Christian church and a Christian college. Again and again he was interrupted by applause. The old gentleman was finding it difficult to hide his pride. His old hand was gripping the arm of the chair with all the strength that he had left. Just before the conclusion of the oration John was interrupted again, but before he could continue, the old gentle- man arose, placed his hand upon his wife’s shoulder and said, “ Mary, that is the best crop we ever raised.” ‘The best crop that any institution can raise upon the face of the earth is a generation of boys and girls who have been kept close to the face, the heart, and the program of Jesus. This is Jesus’ richest field of evangelism, for evangelism has to do not only with the saving of those who are lost, but with the saving of those who are saved; and there never was a time in the history of the world when it was quite so necessary to give attention to this kind of a product. The world needs a generation of boys and girls now who more nearly approximate Jesus’ ideal of world citizenship than ever before. America stands in a place of great opportunity to supply this need, but she will THE CHANGELESS CHRIST 157 fail to meet it unless her boys and girls are kept closer to Christ than any other generation in the history of the human race. May we emulate Jesus here, and all be evangel- ists who will place the most emphasis upon the conservation of the fragrant beauties and potential passions of childhood. This is the message of the Changeless Christ to those who would succeed in evangelism. 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