03.15. XV. The Pastor And Special Soul-Winning Services

XV THE PASTOR AND SPECIAL SOUL-WINNING SERVICES OUR volume on The Perennial Revival is a plea for continuous soul-winning in connection with the regular Sunday and week-day meetings of the local church.

We hold that the first objective of preaching is the winning of men to Christ, as conversion is the initial step to culture and regeneration must precede growth.

But, however faithful a pastor may be in sounding the evangelistic note Sunday after Sunday, both the teachings of Scripture and the history of Christianity agree that there should be Pentecostal periods, the product of special and continuous meetings.

It is not to be forgotten that the church was born of one such, and the plain record is found in the first and second chapters of the Book of Acts.

There are people who object to these revival efforts. They argue that they are spasmodic, emotional, and unduly expensive, and that the products are short-lived and make but slight contribution to the real church which constitutes Christ’s Body.

Let it be said, in answer, that history refutes the indictment. A large proportion of our best church members were saved in a season of special meetings. As for the cost of securing these converts, when Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman and his company held their simultaneous campaign in St. Paul, notwithstanding the fact that the evangelists were rather richly rewarded for their time, the treasurer reported that the cost per capita for the professed converts was a little less than $2.00. At Manchester, New Hampshire, before the Annual Meeting of the American Board for Foreign Missions, Dr. W. E. Bartlett, pastor of the First Congregational Church, Chicago, some years since said: “Last year all of the 33 Boston churches added but 430 to their number on profession of Faith. It cost $200, 000.00 or nearly $500.00 per capita to reach and win them with the Gospel, while in Chicago, 876 were added to 73 churches at a cost of $241,000.00 or $276.00 per capita for each convert.”

However, we readily admit that this comparison is not fair on its face. The regular services account for most of the opportunities of evangelism and for other valuable work carried forward by a church, while evangelistic endeavor looks almost solely to immediate accessions. The comparison, however, is a complete answer to all the opposing charges. We proceed, therefore, to discuss ways and means for such special meetings, under The Essential Plans, The Intelligent Procedure, and The Desired Products. THE ESSENTIAL PLANS For such meetings we should prepare.—That preparation, while it will include much that may later be mentioned, involves the preacher first of all. A great many pastors are wondering why there is no revival in their church, and are searching assiduously for the cause of its spiritual dearth; but, their suspicion looks always to some circumstance of church, some failing in officials or membership or some hostile atmosphere of the very city or country place itself. Strange to say, this failing preacher seldom indulges in introspection!

Let it be remembered when the disciples of Jesus, on one occasion, defaulted before an unclean spirit and asked their Master, “Why could not we cast him out?” He answered, “Because of your unbelief .” The song that sings “Lord Send us a Revival, and Let that Revival begin in me” is one that every pastor and evangelist should often employ.

It is doubtful if ever any minister has witnessed both a deep and wide work of Grace within the limits of his parish and under his preaching, who had not first felt both the deadliness of sin, and the immortal worth of the soul held in the embrace of the same, and who, in consequence, knew something, yea much, of anxiety over the eternal fate of those who came within the sound of his voice or the reach of his personal influence. Self-preparation, then, we would assign to first place in essential plans.

Associated with self-preparation is solicitous prayer. —Beyond doubt, among the dependable and successful pastor-evangelists of the close of the 19th century and the opening of the 20th, Dr. Reuben A. Torrey held high place. In speaking of preparation for a revival he said: “When a few of God’s children get thoroughly right with God themselves, absolutely surrendered to Him in person and purse, let them get together and pray; not a mechanical kind of prayer that does not amount to anything, but praying with Holy Ghost earnestness that will not take ‘no’ for an answer.”

He recites how when the great Irish revival of 1860 began, a few humble men met together in a school house at Kells and commenced to pray for a revival. After they had been praying for several weeks they said, “Now we must go out and preach and testify.” They went out and failure faced them. They returned to their prayer room and remained until the Spirit of God was in possession of their hearts and lives, when they re-appeared to preach in power, and the Irish revival was on.

We doubt if there has ever been any great work of Grace that did not originate as the Pentecostal Revival of the New Testament occurred. There you have the explanation of Pentecost itself, with its thousands saved, in the report of the prayer meeting in the upper room, “Where abode both Peter, and James and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women” until “the day of Pentecost was fully come.” (Acts 1:13-14; Acts 2:1)

There have been many attempted departures from this plan. Failure is written after each and every one of them. God’s plans require no improvement and permit no departure from essentials. The rule of the first Pentecost is the rule of all Pentecosts,—prayer first, testimony and preaching later. Reverse the order, and disappointment is your predestined experience. A recent writer said,—“False revivals abound; Singing Evangelism, without prayer, tears, or conviction of sin.” Yes, too often! But God’s way is not only the best way; it is the only way. To preparation and prayer must be added sane publicity.—When we speak of sane publicity we do not mean flamboyant advertisement of either the pastor or the invited evangelist. If he is a man widely known, the due and extensive announcement of his coming will naturally increase the audience. If he is unknown, the likelihood is that an extravagant write-up, excites more suspicion on the part of the thoughtful than confidence. However, there are Biblical and approved methods of publicity, that fit perfectly with all that is sane and spiritual.

Some thirty-five years ago we went to the First Baptist Church of Fort Worth, Texas, to assist Dr. Luther Little in a twelve-day evangelistic campaign. Before our arrival in that city, he had preaching at six different points in the city, and among the men thus engaged were such notable names as Dr. Scarborough, Dr. Gillon, and others, who later became nationally famous. On our arrival, Dr. Little united the six meetings, and centralized all at the First Baptist Church. That method assured a full house with which to begin, and brought with it an atmosphere that was at once spiritual and expectant. The result was that some days before the meetings closed, Dr. Little contributed an article to one of the Southern Baptist Papers in which he said: “To date 330 persons have been converted and received into the fellowship of the church, and there is every expectation that this number will be tremendously increased before the twelve-day engagement is at an end.”

If I were asked what was the most paralyzing influence to be faced in the average church to which I am called for a campaign of evangelism, I should be compelled to answer, “The utter lack of preparation.” Too many pastors seem to think that when their Board has voted favorably an invitation to a man of sufficient reputation, the full part of pastor and church has been filled, and they can complacently fold their arms and await the time of his arrival. The result is that he commonly begins on what we sometimes call “a cold collar.” He has to build his audience, create his atmosphere, effect, with the people hearing him, some spirit of consecration, and, above all, lift an unexpectant people to the level of expectancy. It often takes a week, two weeks, and even three weeks to accomplish these things, and with those of us who are pastor-evangelists, the work—all of which should have been done before our arrival—is only approaching development at our departure. This fault lies largely with the pastor. AN INTELLIGENT PROCEDURE

Here I speak of the part to be performed by the preacher, whether it is the pastor or a visiting evangelist. His first job is that of—

Securing some consecration on the part of church members.—Until the members of the church are willing to give time, and thought, and prayer to a protracted meeting, it will lack in power. It is our judgment and experience that at the first meeting there should be a call for the officers of the church, to know whether the elected leaders are present and ready for the campaign. If found absent, a meeting with them for counsel and prayer should be announced for the next day, and so on, until the last man of them is in line.

It is not difficult to explain why the early church was a success. Its Board of Deacons were “men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom.” Those men were the financial trustees of the time. It is not likely that the elders were of less spiritual account. A godly, consecrated soul-winning official force, is a primary essential to either a temporal or perennial revival.

One reason why the coming of an evangelist often creates a disturbance in the smooth fellowship, (that his opponents announce as having existed before his arrival,) is only the result of his having disturbed the spiritual slumber of certain church officials. But, while Billy Sunday was an adept at so doing, he was also an agent of redemption for both dead church members and men dead in trespasses and in sins. The plain truth is a disturbing pronouncement, and the presence of the Holy Ghost is as antagonistic to spiritual slumbers as an alarm clock is unwelcome to a sound sleeper ; but there could be no revival without both. In drawing the net, begin with youth.—The interest in a meeting is immediately and greatly enhanced by the response given to the first appeal for decision. If it is nil or small, superficial souls will immediately begin to get discouraged and even critical; if it is large and ready, both the superficial and the Spirit-guided will rejoice together and take on enthusiasm in both expectation and endeavor. That is why some of us prefer to preach a week to the church, and wait for the assembly of the Sunday School to make our first appeal for decision. In this connection let me recite two of my recent experiences, the first held in the Gospel Tabernacle of Rev. Morris Johnson, Racine, Wisconsin, and the second in the church of his brother, Rev. B. J. Johnson, the Salem Evangelical Free Church, Chicago, Illinois. In both instances I addressed the Sunday Schools on Sunday morning at the Sunday School hour, and asked for public confession on the part of those who accepted Christ as Saviour and Lord. In Racine ninety-three responded; in the Salem Free, Chicago, one hundred and thirty-seven. In both instances some good, but inexperienced men had complained to me that I was going on from day to day without giving the invitation to the unsaved; but when that invitation was finally given, and they saw the response, they came back with apology and expressed satisfaction.

You can preach your heart out to men and women in the sixties and seventies, and small will be the result. Your after-meetings, instead of inspiring, will discourage; but you can present, in a simple, clear way, the Gospel plan of salvation to boys and girls in their teens, and young men and women in their twenties, and the result will be an inspiration to pastor and people.

There are people who imagine that it means vastly more for a hardened old sinner to be saved than it does for a ten-year-old child to take his stand. Such are sadly mistaken! In the first instance, you save a soul, but the life has been lost; in the second instance you save a soul and redeem a life to the Lord.

D’Israeli once said, “History of heroes is the history of youth.” And certainly, if you took from the church of God the contributions of youth, you would so far despoil her as to practically destroy her.

Utilize new converts to increase interest.—It is said that the early Methodists in America made it an almost uniform custom, in their protracted meetings, to put the new converts back of the chancel railing, and, as from night to night they assembled there and their crowd increased, they became at once an inspiration to the workers and an appeal to the unsaved to quit their sinful companions and join this new and ever increasing company. The method was so excellent a one that we marvel at its having been forsaken! But a decline in Faith fruits in the loss of divinely improved methods. Methodism has, for some years, been drifting from orthodoxy and, at the same rate, declining in evangelistic interest and success. As a matter of personal experience, I have found it extremely helpful to have new converts come forward several times in a series of meetings, and to appoint one or two nights, near the close of a campaign, for the presence of all such, creating at the same time opportunity for testimony from them. The young men or women who are turning backs upon former companions are greatly strengthened by the feeling that in making this movement they have many companions turning also to journey with them. THE DESIRED PRODUCTS

Special meetings should be planned for, and made to move toward, objectives. There are at least three of those that we would mention in this connection.—

First, a conviction of sin.—That is necessarily primary in preaching. For its accomplishment, however, two things must be had. First, the plain presentation of God’s Word concerning man’s sinful estate. Until hearers are brought to believe the statement of Scripture, “The soul that sinneth it shall die,” they will remain indifferent. The only possibility of their acceptance of that statement as true rests with the Holy Ghost, whose office it is to convict of sin, “Of sin because they believe not on Christ.”

However, no minister need entertain fears that when he has done his part of preaching God’s Word, the Holy Ghost will fail either him or it. The Old Testament promise will be fulfilled: “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that winch I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11) The preacher’s part is to preach the Word; the Spirit’s work is to convict of sin. Where the first is done, the second is sure! The old hymn sung very constantly fifty years ago, when our fathers were faithful to God and trusted His Word,
“Weeping will not save me—

Through my face were bathed in tears, That could not allay my fears, Could not wash the sins of years,—

Weeping will not save me,” was Scripturally true, but experimentally it is also true that salvation without a tearful sense of sin seldom or never occurs with those who have gone beyond their childhood.

Moderism has well-nigh smothered out the agonizing emotions that the Spirit would willingly work, and to that extent it has also suppressed the spirit of evangelism which effects conviction for sin as the first step toward salvation.

Conversion from sin is the further step.—Conviction in itself is not enough; it is a work of the Holy Ghost, but a beginning only. We have known men to be under conviction for years, but who never reached the stage of conversion or turning from sin to God. Evidently the reason in these cases is that some unholy idol retains its position in the heart, and God is not permitted occupation.

Evan Roberts, the great Welsh evangelist, asserted that there were four steps to salvation. Beyond doubt, one could quote Bible texts to confirm his claim. They were, repent, confess, submit, obey. I should re-arrange them,—repent, submit or surrender oneself fully, confess openly, and prove that Faith by works.

Finally, culture in Christ, should be accomplished.— It is a blessed day when a babe is born into a home; but if that babe does not grow into a man or woman, the joy of his arrival is soon eclipsed by the sadness of arrested development. Some of the most pathetic sights that we witness in this life are along that line!

Once in a while we see a child wheeled about the street by an attendant. We learn, to our amazement, that though infant in size, he is fifteen or twenty summers old! It is a sight to make angels weep!

One case I knew where a boy grew to manhood in size and years, but, in mind, remained a babe. That is sadder still! And yet, a sadder sight is so common as to become a subject of little attention and even less interest, namely, an undeveloped soul,—a Christian upon whom spiritual infantile paralysis has laid its hand, and the character, that was promised in the hour of conversion, has failed to materialize!

Christ said “I am come that ye might have life, and that ye might have it more abundantly.”

OUTLINE OF CHAPTER FIFTEEN THE PASTOR AND SPECIAL SOUL-WINNING SERVICES I. THE ESSENTIAL FLANS a.For such meetings we should prepare. b.Associated with Self-preparation is solicitous prayer. c.To preparation and prayer must be added sane publicity.

II. AN INTELLIGENT PROCEDURE a.Securing some consecration on the part of church members. b.In drawing the net, begin with youth. c.Utilize new converts to increase interest.

III. THE DESIRED PRODUCTS a.First, a conviction of sin. b.Conversion from sin is the further step. c.Culture in Christ should be accomplished.