EXAMPLES OF WORKING CHURCHES I HAVE KNOWN
EXAMPLES OF WORKING CHURCHES I HAVE KNOWN EXAMPLES OF
WORKING CHURCHES I HAVE KNOWN
Willard Collins The growth of the church during the past 60 years has been amazing. During* the latter part of the life of the beloved L. S. White, he told some of his friends in middle Tennessee that when he preached for the church in Gallatin, Tennessee, and Brother Jesse P. Sewell was preaching for the Pearl and Bryan congregation in Dallas, Texas, that so far as he knew they were the only two preachers in the brotherhood, south of the Ohio River from coast to coast, doing full-time local work with one congregation. There may have been one or two more full-time preachers not known to Brother White, but these facts are mentioned to show how much the church has grown during the past half cenutry.
Other Examples of Growth
Sister J. E. Acuff of Nashville, Tennessee, who is attending this present lecture series, remembers as a small girl how digression divided the downtown con-gregation in Nashville and a handful of faithful brethren went to south Nashville and started the old College Street Church. There were only two other congregations meeting in Nashville then. Now there are some 56 in the city and 101 in Davidson County.
Think of the growth of the church of the Lord in this lady’s lifetime!
Brother John T. Lewis, who is still an active gospel preacher in Birmingham, Alabama, wrote on January 24, this year, that when he went to that Alabama city years ago there were 24 members meeting in Fox’s Hall. Brother Lewis at that time was the only gospel preacher giving all of his time to preaching within 100 miles of Birmingham. The congregation paid him $207.90 one year, $185.30 another and finally in one six-year period he received $6,000. But the twenty-fourth congregation has just been started in the Birmingham district—this in one lifetime.
James E. Laird, who now lives in Rockmart, Georgia, has been preaching forty-seven years. He remembers when the members of the church in Memphis could get on one elevator at the same time. He remembers when there was only one congregation in Dallas and only one in Houston. Think what has happened in these forty-seven years!
O.D. Bearden and his wife began conducting services in their living room in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1905. Now just 48 years later there are 15 congregations in that city.
These are but indications of what has been happening across the southern part of this nation in the past 60 years. From Gallatin to Lubbock
May we take a mental journey tonight from Gallatin, Tennesse, where Brother L. S. White formerly preached, to Lubbock in West Texas. Nashville and Davidson County have been mentioned with their 101 congreations. From Nashville to Lubbock you can find hundreds of churches with scores of full-time gospel preachers giving their full time to the lord’s work. In Memphis there is Union Avenue with 1,000 members and with an average weekly contribution in 1952 of $1,584.00. We pause on this mental journey at Little Rock at Sixth and Izard and find a church of 967 members with a contribution of $1300 per Sunday. At Skillman Avenue in Dallas we find a beautiful new building, a congregation where there were 252 responses in 1952 and an average of $2,236.90 per Sunday. In Fort Worth we think of the Polytechnic church which is enlarging its auditorium to seat 1400. There they have over 600 studying the Bible every Sunday morning and a contribution of $65,894.62 for 1952. Our journey ends in Lubbock where we find an auditorium which seats 2100, a Sunday School attendance of 1100 per Sunday and a 1953 budget for $200, 200. These are but a handful of the many faithful congregations which are at work along the way. Perhaps this surpasses the fondest dreams of the late L. S. White as he traveled from Tennessee to Texas in the distant past.
Church Must Be Aggressive
The church was aggressive in the New Testament period. Members looked for opportunities. In Acts 11:29 Luke tells of the disciples in Antioch who decided to send aid unto the brethren in Judea. It seems they rejoiced in such work.
Christianity is unique in that it takes the initiative in seeking to save the lost. Christians must be alert, aggressive and enthusiastic.
Disciples of Christ should have vision and deter-mination to accomplish great things for Jesus who said, “Go ye into all the Avorld, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). A congregation of God’s family should be aggressive in personal evangelism. Even when the church had the apostles to preach, the members did not depend entirely upon their public proclamation of the gospel because Luke says, “Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). In Dallas the Cedar Crest congregation is -an example of what can be done through an energetic program of personal evangelism. Frank J. Dunn, who preaches for the Peak and East Side church in that city wrote in his church bulletin on January 11, 1953, “Cedar Crest, here in Dallas, where Brother Fred Bandy works, has the most amazing record I have read.”
Since the beginning of that church five years ago there have been 1218 responses, including 572 baptisms. Of those baptized, 265 were former members of the Baptist church, 223 had never been affiliated with any religious body, 81 were children who had reached the age of accountability and the others were members of various churches.
Centers in Personal Work
In describing the work at Cedar Crest Fred Bandy wrote, “As to our program of work, it centers around personal work. We also try to have an active teaching program. One Sunday not long ago we had 15 men out filling appointments.” It is my understanding that Brother Bandy spends as much as eight hours in a day teaching from house to house. This gospel preacher says, “We believe in impressing our people over and over of the reed for work and service.” When C. E. McGaughey was preaching in Washington, D. C. a plan of personal work was devised which was very effective. This plan included sources for new contacts and a follow-up wrork program.
New Contacts
I. Source
A. Visitor’s register.
1. Have qualified greeters at door to welcome all visitors.
2. Have membership taught to introduce guests and have them to sign guest
(It is tragic for visitors to attend and no name be secured.)
B. Have members to turn in names of people who might be prospects.
C. Get names of new-comers in city from Chamber of Commerce, Utilities or whatever source is available.
D. Keep a record of all visitors in Bible School.
E. Secure names of all students in Bible School who are not members.
F. Keep a record of all people in different families of the church who are not members.
G. Funerals preached give excellent contacts with non-members.
H. Marriages give names of many new prospects.
II. How worked.
A. All visitors should be written a personal letter.
B. All visitors should be personally contacted by local evangelist or members.
C. All prospects should be visited.
D. All names should be filed.
E. The file should be kept alive and worked.
F. Reports should be made by those who visit and information recorded.
G. Efforts should be made to win prospects by bringing him to services, to Bible classes,
by private teaching, by giving literature and by inviting into homes for building up friendship.
H. Never give up.
Membership and Work
I. All membership divided into groups, number of groups dependent on size of congregation.
A. Elder over each group.
B. Deacon to assist elder.
C. Teachers and supervisors to assist elder and deacon.
II. Purposes:
A. To become acquainted with each other and help each other.
B. To study some particular lesson, conducted at the convenience of the group.
1. To look after the sick.
2. To give special attention to prospects.
3. To give attention to delinquent members.
4. To carry emblems to the sick.
5. To send packages to those in service.
6. To look after the needy.
7. To do any other of the many duties found in churches.
Other fine examples of churches at work in personal evangelism include the Harris and Irving Church in San Angelo, Texas, the Nineteenth and Herring congregation in Waco, the Twelfth and Drexel and Culbertson Heights churches in Oklahoma City. In San Angelo, 250 men and women have pledged two hours per week for church visitation. In 1952 there were 308 responses to the invitation. In Waco the Nineteenth and Herring Church has a full program for contacting prospects. It includes the following according to Max Neel, the preacher for them.
“We have access to a Newcomer’s List furnishing names of almost every prospect that comes to our city. We have a folder that is left with every newcomer in our section of the city, regardless of religious affiliation. This - is followed by a personal letter to all whom we deem as prospects. This usually is followed by a call, either by someone in that zone or myself. Our zone work is set up in such a manner that the ladies during some months have made as many as 600 personal contacts. A card file is made of prospects, a copy is handed to the ladies and also a card that is left if they do not find the prospect at home.
“We write personal letters to new parents, as we 'have access to this information. We also write letters of sympathy to those in the city who have lost loved ones. This information is obtained through the newspapers.
“We have been planning for some time to begin a Visitation program using our younger married couples, with two couples going together at night and visiting prospects or delinquent members.
“The ladies in their various zones frequently will have a Coffee, inviting several of their neighbors for discussion and fellowship in connection with getting them interested in the church.
“We have Christian Fellowship cards that are given to various members with a name of a new member for whom they assume responsibility over a period of six months. They are to encourage them in regular attendance, etc.
“We have a very fine chorus that frequently goes to the hospital, old folks’ home and to shut-ins to sing.”
More Planning Needed
Elders should have the initiative to make plans for the future in local congregations. Jesus gave his followers a big job to do in trying to convert the entire world to Christianity in each generation. In San Angelo, Texas, a group of elders have the foresight to be planning a ten-year program for the church there. The elders of the Broadway Church in Lubbock, Texas, recently met 20 hours in one week in planning for the Lord’s work. Norvel Young has aptly suggested that if the directors of a bank need to meet every tnorning to plan for the business then elders of a local congregation certainly need to meet more often than once a month.
Out of the planning in Lubbock has come a four page attractive folder showing, The Church at Work in 1953. It includes page one, a letter from the elders to the members, on pages two and three a diagram of what the church plans to do this year, a message on giving, and a challenge for more work written by the preacher. The budget is listed on page four. In Lewisburg, Tennessee, the elders of the Church Street Church prepare an annual calendar which is given to each member with the activities of that local congregation for a year. The services and other activities are listed by the week and month. For example during May the 1953 calendar attractively advertises the Vacation Bible School as well as all the regular services. In June a mission effort that church is helping with in Maine is discussed. July lists all the meetings in the congregations of the entire county. The church in Burbank, California, publishes an annual report of what was done in the past year and the plans for the New Year. It is an attractive mimeographed booklet of 40 to 50 pages.
Working in the Sunday School
Since 80 to 85 per cent of the ones baptized in many congregations are first taught in the Sunday morning Bible School this work is having more attention focused upon it. There are two congregations which will serve as our examples in this phase of the work; Church Street in Lewisburg with an average of 700 per Sunday and Broadway in Lubbock with an attendance now of around 1100 per Sunday.
There is one word which accounts for the growth of the Sunday School in these two places—work. Both churches have a full-time man helping in this work besides the elders and the regular preacher. More and more congregations are employing a person to give time to the educational program of the church.
It is interesting that the preachers for these churches left their native sections of the nation to preach. Avis Wiggins, a native of New Mexio, moved to Lew- isburg, in middle Tennessee, and Norvel Young left ’middle Tennessee and came to West Texas, a place very near the home of Avis Wiggins.
This plan for pushing the Sunday School has worked for the church in Lewisburg, Tennessee.
I. Methods:
1. Place this work under direct supervision of elders.
a. Eliminate a general assembly.
(1)Have a devotional in all classes thus putting more people to work.
2. Enlarge facilities—must have room to grow 'if we expect to grow.
3. Give attention to visitors and absentees.
4. Set forth the importance of Bible study.
5. Keep the church informed.
6. Hard ivorlc on the part of many members.
Attendance jumped considerably in Lewisburg when the church started a men’s class in the local theater.
Here is the plan as outlined by Avis Wiggins:
II. The class downtown:
1. This class began because we need the classroom space at the building.
2. We took one class of men with an average at-tendance of about 35 to the theater as a beginning
point for the class.
3. We advertised the class in the local papers, over the radio and passed out printed invitations.
4. We advertised it purely as a Bible class—no literature, no roll calling (or keeping), no pressure
for regular attendance, and no collections. Undenominational.
5. We have had as many as 200 present. Our average attendance has been about 100. Six or eight
have been baptized who were attending the class. There are two men who have not missed
a class meeting, except for illness, who have never been to church. One day we believe they
will come. I suppose about 10% are not members of the church. Many of the men are coming to
Sunday School who never came before. The class has an appeal for business men.
6. We have a box of New Testaments and song books at the theater which are used by this class.
We provide each man with a Testament to use while he is there.
7. We use the song books for a devotional period of three songs and a prayer before we begin each morning.
Growth in Lubbock
Bible school growth at the Broadway congregation in Lubbock has been outstanding. What is the formula?
1. A group of elders with unusual vision who believe in planning.
2. A full-time worker.
3. Work.
4. Evangelistic fervor upon part of the members.
5. Use of direct mail and other promotional material. This can be obtained by writing Alan Bryan or Norvel Young.
6. A well organized school.
7. Regular meetings of teachers each month. A smaller congregation in Bremen, Georgia, has done a great job in Sunday School. In a six-year period the attendance grew from an average of 68 per Sunday one month to an average of 258 per Sunday in 1952. Howard Carter, who preached for the congregation during this period of growth stressed the assignment of goals with publicity through the church bulletin and a teaching program from the pulpit on the importance of Bible study.
The church bulletin is an effective medium to use as a ‘'pusher” in the local church. C. J. Garner, Madison, Tennessee, is perhaps the father of such publications in the eastern section of the country. His book, How to Mimeograph a Successful Church Bulletin, has helped many. With the use of the bulletin he laid the foundation for the great growth of the churches in Old Hickory and Madison, Tennessee. After 25 years of experience he believes it is a better “news medium” than a “teaching medium” and that it should be mailed and delivered during the week before the Sunday services. Of course, it is the gospel which changes people. This is the one message of salvation. Whatever the method, the loyal congregation is teaching the gospel 'in order to save souls.
Looking Ahead to the Meeting
A gospel meeting is an effective way to harvest souls. Nothing gives more enthusiasm to a local congregation than a great harvest of souls during a well- planned and inspiring gospel meeting. Such a meeting took place in Old Hickory, Tennessee, in 1949 but the elders and the local preacher really began work on this effort two years before. In this 12 day meeting 111 were baptized and 55 were restored.
Here are some specific steps which were taken before the meeting, according to Rufus Clifford, who was then the local preacher at Old Hickory.
1. Two years before this meeting the church arranged a three months course on “Personal Evangelism.”
Each, pupil was given a copy of C. J. Sharp’s book on the subject. The average attendance during
this course was 478.
2. In 1948 a course entitled “Examples of Conversions” was taught in all the classes from the fifth grade
up for three months.
3. During 1949 for two months before the meeting the local evangelist preached on “How to Do Personal
Work.” Sunday School teachers were assigned to talk with members of their classes about obeying the gospel.
4. A personal worker’s campaign was started two months before the meeting with a long list of prospects
being visited by the members of the congregation.
During and after so much personal work the gospel can be preached and there can be a great harvest. Brother Clifford sums up his observations by saying “Gathering the harvest during a meeting depends in a large measure upon the preacher—style, manner, type of sermons and attitude.”
But behind all of this effort there is the example of Christianity as practiced in the local congregation and the power which is generated by gospel preaching and singing in the spirit of love for lost souls. The gospel is the power. It thrills me tonight to be able to reach into a so-called mission field and inspire you with an example of a working church.
Church in Frankfurt
Otis Gatewood writes of a working church in Frank-furt, Germany, “there are more than fifty Bible classes taught in this building every week. This includes the teaching of practically 150 children which are brought in buses from the Bornheim section of Frankfurt every Sunday at 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. In addition to this, of course, you know that we are having a daily Bible school here in which approximately 25 young men and women are taught the Bible daily. Since coming to Germany, approximately 20 native German boys have been prepared to give their full time to the gospel preaching of Christ. Most of them have attended our daily Bible school here in Frankfurt. The school is not conducted as the Christian colleges in America but is part of the work of the church, and we teach only religious subjects. If any of the students desire to take secular subjects, they go to the university of Frankfurt which is just across the street from our building. Several of them are taking special courses in the university and several of the university students are taking courses in Bible with us. In addition to this school, we have a daily kindergarten here which has just started and at the present time only eight children are enrolled of preschool age. However, already two of the mothers who have brought children to the kindergarten have been converted. We feel that this will be a good avenue through which to preach the gospel.”
Brother Gatewood recommends a weekly work eve-ning in the local church as the West End Church in Frankfurt is using. He says, “One of the most interesting phases of our work here in Frankfurt in the West End congregation is a work evening. Every Tuesday evening we select certain members of the church which we ask to come together and then go out under our direction to do personal work. In this way, we are able to supervise the work that is done by members of the church. It helps us in contacting many people who would not otherwise be interested in the church. We have about 16 personal workers who engage in this activity every Tuesday evening. It’s paying big dividends and I am very much sold on this idea of a work
evening. I feel that it changes the history of any con-gregation in which it is used, and I would like to rec-ommend it to other congregations.”
It is profitable to make specific assignments to the members. The Charlotte Avenue Church in Nashville uses 184 men each month in the work of the church on specific jobs. Each man signs a work card and a committee makes the assignments and records on a master file what is done by each person. It has really helped the work of that church.
Certainly it is inspiring to think of the growth and activity of these congregations which I have mentioned. However, at this time I think of Haldon Arnold, a young preacher in the mission field of Augusta, Maine. He began there in September 1950 with five present at the first service. The first convert came forward two months later. I heard Brother Arnold tell about this scene during the Lipscomb lectures this past January. He could hardly speak because of emotion. As I heard him talk, with tear- filled eyes, about how 52 had attended a service there, I realized that in our nation there are many such little bands who may be working harder than some big con-gregations. Maybe in the sight of Almighty God such gr oups are better examples of working congregations than others I have named. Much sacrifice has preceded the present larger churches. The church is growing because local churches of Christ are interested in reaching the lost. I think of Highland Avenue and the “Herald of Truth” over 241 stations, of the College congregation in Abilene and its training program for young people who will go out across the land, of the Fourteenth and Vine congregation in Abilene and the Newspaper Sermons, and of the Pecos, Texas, church with its fine program of teaching the Latin Americans. I could speak of Central in Houston with its large budget for mission work, of the congregations pushing the work in Germany, Japan, Africa, and Belgium but it can be said today that the church is spreading so rapidly that the sun never sets on local congregations 'in the kingdom of God. More and more churches are practicing a motto uttered by the late Hall L. Calhoun, “Spend as much away from home as you spend at home.”
Dynamo Behind It
Prayer is the dynamo behind this great work. 0. D. Bearden, now past his 80th year, told the young preachers at Lipscomb one year ago, “Begin and end each day with prayer.” I know a gospel preacher who goes to his office each morning, sometimes by six or six-thirty. Before he begins his work he prays. At first he prayed only about five minutes but now he sometimes talks to God for an hour. Such men are helping turn this nation toward Jesus the Christ, our only hope and the one way of salvation (John 14:6). A few days ago I clipped an article from the Nash-ville Tennessean. The headline read, “Unbearable, Unthinkable, Unspeakable The Facts May Be!” It told about the horrors of the Hydrogen gomb. This article said, “Under test the H-bomb developed the unexpected and unprecedented power of three to five million tons of TNT.” Listen to this sentence, “There is the virtual certainty that the American monopoly of hydrogen bombs cannot endure for very long.” Then the authors of the article, Joseph and Stewart Alsop wrote, “It looks like being in an intolerable situation, when two vast competing world systems will both be brandishing this fearful weapon.”
What Is Ahead?
Do we stand tonight on the brink of World War III with its devastation or a period of the “golden years” of great growth for the church? I like to think that those in this room can help frame the answer. Doesn’t the condition of this world, the love of God for man and the crucifixion of Christ at Calvary make you desire to go home and work like you have never worked before in helping make this world a united one?
Jesus, the Prince of Peace, the symbol of unity and the way of salvation must be placed in the hearts of men through the teaching of the gospel which produces faith and obedience. The Touch of the Master’s Hand
“Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But he held it up with a smile.
“What am I bidden, good folks?” he said;
“Who’ll start the bidding for me?” “A dollar! A dollar!” then, “Two!”
“Two dollars! and who’ll make it three?".
“Three dollars, once! Three dollars, Twice!
“Going for three?” But, No!
From the room far back, an old gray-haired man
Came forward, and picked up the bow.
Then, wiping the dust from the old violin
And tightening the loose strings,
He played a melody, pure and sweet
As the caroling angel sings.
The music ceased, and the auctioneer
In a voice that was quiet and low
Said, “What am I bid for the old violin?”
And he held it up with the bow.
“A thousand dollars! and who’ll make it two?
“Two thousand! and who’ll make it three?
“Three thousand once! Three thousand twice!
“And . . Going . . and Gone!” said he.
The peoole cheered, but some of them cried,
“We do not quite understand
“What changed its worth.”
Swift came the reply,
“The touch of the master’s hand.”
And many a man with life out of tune,
Who is battered and scarred with sin
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd,
Much like the old violin.
A mess of pottage, a glass of wine,
A game,—He travels on.
He’s going once! He’s going twice!
He’s going—and almost gone!
But the Master comes! and the foolish crowd
Never can quite understand
The worth of a soul, and the change that’s wrought
By the touch of the Master’s Hand!
—Anonymous May you dedicate your life in teaching others what the Touch of The Master’s Hand can mean to them.