Winning to Christ, a study in evangelism

Contents

LESSON PAGE

I. What We Propose 9

III. Culture versus Conversion 31

I. ,what We Propose

MANY phrases have suggested themselves as possible designations for these studies. A brief glance at these phrases with a statement of the reason why each was rejected and why '^Winning to Christ" is chosen will indicate the scope of study which is here proposed.

Evangelism has been considered. Strictly speaking, evangelism means winning to Christ by a proclamation of the evangel, the good news of the Christ. It carries the idea of the simple process of bringing to Christ; it speaks of the glorious work of bringing to discipleship, of the initial bringing into the kingdom of grace. It can hardly be said to embrace the preparatory processes which are essential to an early and full surrender to Christ, as it does not include the later measures of training and culture which are essential to the rounded completeness of Christian life and character.

The phrase does not serve our present purpose for the reason that we wish to include a study both of the preparatory steps and of the later processes of care and culture. Certainly conversion, the initial coming to Christ, is a central and vital point, but we would consider also the influences and training which pave the way for conversion, together with the early experiences and training which go to make possible the best fruits of conversion. In a word, we would study the whole rounded process of ''Winning to Christ.'' We aspire to win to Christ the whole nature with all of its powers and possibilities. While the phrase "Evangelism'' is thus hardly adequate to set forth the purpose of our present studies, yet the word is so significant and widely used, and that for which it stands so strikes at the heart of what we desire, we shall find ourselves frequently employing it.

Sunday School Evangelism has been proposed. In any study of ''Winning to Christ" the Sunday school must have special consideration. An enlarged place and emphasis the Sunday school has come to hold in all soul-winning eflfort. And yet we require here a right perspective giving to all agencies and elements proper place and emphasis.

While the personal element must predominate in all evangelistic eflfort, and surely we do well to insist upon personal evangelism, yet there are three divinely given institutions which contribute to evangelism — the home, the Sunday school and the church. Normally, the home is the mightiest factor. It has the child in the early, plastic years almost exclusively. Its silent and persistent influence is all but irresistible. It is for the home to give the earliest bent and bias toward God. The influence of a Christian father and mother may count for more toward conversion than all teachers and schools, all preachers and churches, more than all other individuals or institutions. The Sunday school, the connecting link between the home and the church, further plants the seed of the gospel. Touching the home on the one side, it supplements its instructions and appeals; touching the church on the other side, it seeks to prepare the life for its sacred service. Finally, the church comes in with its glorious word of atonement and its message of life in Jesus, and reaps in salvation the harvest which has been preparing in the work of the home and the Sunday school.

Certainly it is possible to conceive of conversion with one or another of these elements lacking. Men are saved who received no Christian impress in the home ; men are converted who never knew the blessing of the Sunday school; men are sometimes brought to Christ when other influences than the church seem to operate for their salvation. But we cannot "win to Christ'' in the best and largest sense without the cooperation of these three agencies. It is possible to bring to a decision for Christ in the home or in the Sunday school, though it seems good to let the home and the Sunday school stand in line as contributing and preparatory agencies and to bring the lost to a confession of Jesus as Saviour and Lord in the fine atmosphere of the morning or evening worship when the whole congregation is gathered before the Lord. So it falls out that while we propose to magnify the Sunday school and give it due emphasis in this mighty work, Sunday school evangelism is hardly adequate to set forth our real task.

Educational Evangelism, has been suggested. Two elements are essential in soul-winning efforts, education and evangelistic effort. When a soul surrenders to Christ in a blessed experience of grace, such surrender comes through a twofold process, educational preparation and the revival influence. The education to which we refer may be imparted in an endless variety of ways ; it may be by passive influence or by active teaching; or, better, by both of them; it is safe to say that no soul ever comes to Christ without some such preparation, and in the light of Scripture example and precept it is safe to insist upon the place and meaning of the educational element. It is further true that no soul can come to Christ save through the revival influence. As with education, so with the revival, it may come in a variety of forms and with various manifestations.

The revival may or may not involve a protracted meeting. Whenever and wherever a soul is saved, there is a revival, a revival effort, a revival atmosphere, a revival fruit. Educational evangelism, as emphasizing the necessary educational processes in soul-winning, is well enough. But if educational evangelism is to obscure the revival element and to eclipse the special and glorious work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration, it becomes a delusion offering a stone instead of bread.

Because educational evangelism may seem to give scant emphasis to the special evangelistic element, the high and mighty work of grace in the heart, it is not quite acceptable as describing our task.

Child Evangelism. So far as distinction may be properly made, we will approach evangelism from the viewpoint of the child rather than from that of the adult. Such approach is natural and normal. At the same time we must insist that in its essentials, in its final analysis, child evangelism is not different from adult evangelism. Some one has said, 'The New Testament is a book dealing almost entirely with adults.'' Rather let us say that the New Testament deals with man as man, without regard to age or condition. It is universal in its message and scope. The conditions precedent to baptism are such as are suitable and inevitable for all who come to baptism.

Awhile ago only adult conversion was believed in or sought, and it was scarcely believed that a child could be saved. The word to the child seemed to be, "Except ye be converted and become as a grown man ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." Little effort was made for the conversion of children, and a wide-spread skepticism existed as to the genuineness of child conversion. Now the pendulum has swung back the other way. Everybody believes in the possibility and necessity of child conversion, while some have almost come to question whether we can any longer win men and women. An eminent minister said awhile ago, 'Tn my early days there seemed to be a question as to whether children could be really converted ; now there seems to be some question as to whether anybody besides children can be converted.'' It is well to remind ourselves that the same Lord who took little children in his arms and blessed them also came to seek and to save that which was lost, that he gathered about him publicans and sinners, giving himself and delivering his message to sinful men. ''Only by deserting the method of the Master can we give the conversion of mature men, yes, of hardened sinners, a secondary place in our expectations and Christian efforts."

The conversion of a child may differ widely from the conversion of a man, as the conversion of a given man may differ widely from the conversion of another man. The experience of a child is usually different from that of an adult in the depth of feeling and in many other particulars, but we do well to lay it to heart that the essentials are in either case the same. Our Lord did not make two atonements, one for the child and another for the man. There were not wrought out two plans of salvation, one for the child and one for the adult. There are not two processes by which we are to conre into the kingdom of God, one for children and one for mature people. Insidious peril lurks in the tendency to regard child evangelism as an essentially distinct type of evangelism, and to consider the child as somehow possessing inherent innocence which, if it does make conversion unnecessary, yet makes salvation possible to the child on some easier basis than to the adult.

The Scriptures bring us the conditions of salvation with no hint of distinction between child and adult or between man and man. 'There is no difference ; for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3: 22, 23). ''But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John i : 12).

Child evangelism, as indicating and magnifying the winning of children is well enough, but child evangelism as hinting that the need and experience of the child is in any essential different from the need and experience of the adult is not for a moment to be accepted. We will approach the great question of winning to Christ from its normal and natural viewpoint, that of the child in unfolding life, but we will demand and expect conviction for sin, repentance and faith, regeneration ; in a word, all the constituent elements which enter into any experience of grace.

Soul-winning. This phrase is widely used and expressive. Certainly it may be said that we are concerned to save lives, not simply to save souls ; our commission is to deal with the whole man, the man physically and mentally, no less than the man spiritually. The gospel is not meant alone to cure ills and aches of the heart and wounds of the soul, but to sweeten and save the whole man. It is not simply an insurance company by which we are to be guaranteed immunity in death and safety in eternity. It is not merely a transportation agency by which we are to have safe transfer from this life to realms of bliss. Our gospel proposes to save men, to save the whole man, here, in time, and this to the end that he may be saved in eternity.

Yet we may not forget that the gospel in saving men deals primarily with sin and concerns itself first of all with the soul. It will sweeten and bless the whole life by cleansing the inward life from sin. It deals primarily with the soul, the spirit, where sin dwells and whence are the fountains of life. True, it is not merely an insurance against loss at death, but it is such insurance. It is not simply an agency for safe transfer to heaven when this life ends. Yet it is such an agency. Successful evangelism is based on the conviction that the gospel saves in the crisis of death and the judgment, that it gives sure entrance into the presence of God.

If we will purify and sweeten the life we must first see that the soul, the deep inward source of life, is purified and sweetened. Sin in the soul is the source of all the real ills of life. The gospel deals primarily with sin and begins by saving the soul. "The soul of all improvement is the improvement of the soul." While the phrase, "soul-winning," is hardly adequate to set forth the whole work of the Christ in the life, and hence is hardly sufficient to describe our present task, it yet strikes at the heart of that work.

Winning to Christ, In this phrase we have both evangelism and culture, both education and the revival, soul-winning and all that accompanies soul-winning. Our real task is to win to Christ, to win and save the whole life with all its elements and powers to the kingdom and service of God. This phrase faces out toward all life, the child and the adult alike. "Win" is a good scriptural phrase. It implies what must never be obscured or forgot, that men are from 2 birth alienated from God and must be won. "He that is wise winneth souls" (Prov. ii : 30). The word here used is suggestive. It is taken from the hunter's craft and literally means "ensnareth/' ''taketh alive." Sinful souls, wandered and alienated from God, must be ensnared, taken alive, and delivered back to God. It is this large, rounded task of "Winning to Christ" which we are to study together in these pages, evangelism together with the preceding processes of preparation and the succeeding processes of training.

RESTATEMENT.

What We Propose.

A study of —

I. Evangelism?

Hardly adequate.

II. Sunday School Evangelism?

Not a full perspective.

III. Educational Evangelism?

Hardly sufficient.

IV. Child Evangelism?

Inadequate.

V. Soul- winning?

Hardly sufficient.

VI. Winning to Christ !

Both adequate and sufficient, setting forth the studies which we propose.

To Guide and Test Study.

What is evangelism? Why is the phrase inadequate to describe our present scope of study?

What insititutions especially contribute to evangelism? Which should be the greatest factor? Why?

What two elements are essential in the soul-winning process? Why is educational evangelism hardly acceptable as defining our task?

State the things in which child evangelism and adult evangelism are not different. In what are they different? What change has come in the attitude toward child conversion? What should be our attitude toward the conversion of adults? Why is child evangelism insufficient to describe our task?

In what sense does the phrase "soul-winning" appear to be inadequate? How far may we press this objection?

What advantages has the phrase "winning to Christ" ? What is the significance of the word "win"?

WHY STUDY WINNING TO CHRIST?

THIS theme must command the attention and thought of pastors, Sunday school workers, Christian parents and all who love the Lord Jesus. Among the many and commanding reasons why this study is worth our while, we can name only a few of the more important and comprehensive. We should study ''Winning to Christ'' (i) because this task is supreme and supremely glorious; (2) because of the place which ''Winning to Christ'' holds in the Sunday school; (3) because of the place which the Sunday school holds in "Winning to Christ" ; (4) because "Winning to Christ" is an art, a fine art, which, having its own laws, requires intelligent effort; (5) because the study and practice of evangelism brings us into the Holy of Holies of all spiritual service.

The task of winning to Christ is supreme and supremely glorious. We are saved in order that we may save; we are ourselves chosen and redeemed through divine love that we may win others to love the great Saviour and to know the great salvation. Beyond all controversy the supreme end of every Christian life is somehow, somewhere, to fit into God's mighty plan to save men. As winning to Christ is supreme in individual life, so also is it preeminent in the mission of the churches of our Lord Jesus. And this work is supremely glorious. It engages the thought and employs the effort of the triune God ; the Father planned it, the Son executed the eternal plan; while the Spirit applies the atoning work of the Christ. ;This work engages the attention and commands the interest of the unfallen angels and the hosts of the redeemed. As the saints and the angels look down upon the affairs of men and view this earth, they are not so much interested in political revolutions, in ebbs and flows in the financial world, in social upheavals, as they are concerned for God's mighty redemptive work among the sons of men.

Winning to Christ holds the supreme place in the Sunday school. Evangelism in the broad sense in which we use the phrase stands central in the Sunday school. Beyond all question the business of the Sunday school is "winning to Christ.'' This is our task, first to bring to simple surrender to Christ and acceptance of Him as Saviour, then to bring the whole life into harmony with his will, to make men Christian in all the depth and sweetness of that term. Failing here, we have failed utterly. Tt is of little avail that our youth shall grow up to know the Bible if they do not come to know by a vital experience the Christ of the Bible. It is of little moment that men shall come to know the frame work of Bible history if they are not to know the living Spirit which breathes in every part of that history. We have signally failed if having taught our youth the Ten Commandments of God, we do not bring them to know and obey the God of the Ten Commandments ; if having taught them to know the twelve disciples of our Lord, we do not bring them to know our Lord himself. Let all the estates of Israel, let all the forces of the home and the Sunday school, set forth this as a supreme goal, that the young life about us shall be redeemed by the blood and brought into complete subjection and conformity to the will of Christ.

Every worker in the Sunday school would do well to face quietly and candidly the question as to what in the work of the school shall have first place. Are there schools in which numbe?'s, a great attendance, seems to hold first place in thought and effort? i\Iore is said of numbers and attendance than is said of bringing to Christ. More, and more persistent, effort is made to increase the membership than to win to Christ. Surely, it is good to be zealous for numbers and to seek by relentless effort to increase attendance, but in quietness and confidence the first place in thought and plan is to win to the Saviour.

Are there schools which are exhausting their energy in the effort to maintain an elaborate and complicated machinery of organization? Organization is good, but it is a means to an end, and is never to be made an end in itself. The Sunday school, like the church, is made up of devout, simple-hearted folk, bent on a single and simple purpose. When organization becomes complex and irksome, consuming the efforts and energy of the school or of the church, it ceases to be a blessing and becomes a burden. Oxen are organized and put under a yoke not to increase but to lessen their loads. Horses are organized and put into harness not for the sake of the harness, but for the larger service they may render. Organization in proper form and within proper limits will make easier all the tasks and burdens of Sunday school and church life.

A man in Texas invented a cotton-picking machine. It was a notable achievement. Thousands of earnest men had bent their energies to this end and had failed. This man was elated over his success. Certain officials and government experts came to Ipass on the merits of the new machine. They looked it over, tested it, found it a perfect bit of machinery, wonderful and complete. They had only one fault to find — it would not pick cotton. Are there modern Sunday schools which bear some resemblance to that cotton-picking machine?

In many ways the preeminence of evangelism in the work of the Sunday school is being recognized. The Standards of Efficiency erected by the various evangelical denominations now practically all take account of evangelism, requiring that it shall be emphasized and specifying that in the school special appeals shall be made to the unsaved to accept Christ; in the normal courses offered for the training of Sunday school workers this matter of winning to Christ is taking rank as a department of study with organization, psychology, teaching and missions.

The Sunday school holds large place in ''znnnning to Christ/' Two cooperative agencies must be relied on in the matter of evangelism, viz. : education and the revival or the evangelistic appeal. These two elements are not to be separated from each other. Any revivalism which should fail to take account of education and the many essential processes of preparation would be worthless; education which is not permeated with the purpose and spirit of evangelism is equally unavailing. "Let us evangelize our education and educationalize our evangelism.''

The word is sometimes passed around that our day has witnessed a transfer from the old-time emphasis on the revival to a special emphasis on education. It is said that the revival is no longer a factor and that its day of usefulness has passed. True, in some churches where the evangelistic fires have died and possibly in some sections where love for souls has waned, the old-time revival may have passed. True, also, that certain types of revival effort and method have passed, and should pass. But in the spiritual, as in the material, realm the law still holds, 'While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest shall not cease.'' Down through Old Testament history and throughout the history of Christianity progress and advance have come through revivals. Much is said in favor of the perennial revival ; Mr. Spurgeon and some others in exceptional circumstances and of exceptional ability have been able to maintain a continuous state of revival. But the perennial revival can, as a rule, be maintained only with the help of the occasional special revival effort. The notable instances of exception in Mr. Spurgeon and others only go to strengthen the general rule that God's law is seed-time and harvest.

As a matter of fact, is the revival really passing? A generation ago Mr. Moody stood out in some distinctness among the few really influential evangelists. We could easily name now a number of well-known evangelists who draw as large audiences and as completely move great cities as did Mr. Moody ; only the name of sane and mighty evangelists is now legion. In a recent evangelistic conference held at the Moody school in Chicago, more than three hundred evangelists assembled to confer together about the things of the kingdom. The Southwestern Bapti'st Theological Seminary has a chair of Evangelism, ably filled, and we have come on times when every preacher and pastor is expected to possess evangelistic ability and to engage constantly in soul-winning effort. We may change, and possibly improve, the old-time methods of revival w^ork, but we will never be able to dispense with the old-time revival.

We would hardly care to say that our day is witnessing a transfer of emphasis from the revival to education. Let us rather say that there is increasing* disposition to put emphasis on the processes of education and training which make possible a perennial revival. We are depending on quiet, persistent evangelism more than on special revival efforts. We are drawing our educational processes and our revival efforts closer together. Our educators, pastors, teachers and parents are becoming our evangelists. We have perhaps overworked the saying, ''one soweth and another reapeth," God's plan is that sowing and reaping shall be simultaneous, that a man shall sow with one hand and reap with the other. Seed-time and harvest need not be widely separated. More and more, pastors are coming to be their own evangelists. Teachers and superintendents are coming to be their own revivalists. The workers who sow are at the same time quietly and persistently reaping. The Sunday school is the fruitful evangelistic opportunity.

The evangelism of tomorrow is to find here its mighty field. The Sunday school holds a first place of influence in the incoming tides of childlife, while through its adult class movement and its home department it is reaching and influencing adult life as no other agency can hope to do. Because the Sunday school is a preeminent evangelistic agency and opportunity, Sunday school workers ought to study the principles and methods of evangelism.

Winning to Christ is an art, the finest of the fine arts, which has its own lazvs and which requires intelligent effort. If the impression has prevailed that piety and fervor alone are essential, we may without depreciating these prime essentials, insist that no other art more imperatively calls for equipment and skill. It is true that any fervent soul may accomplish wonders here, but that soul might with skill won by training wield a far wider and safer influence in soul-winning. Here as elsewhere in Christian service, even a little instruction, starting aright and giving some guidance as to method and intelligent effort must be helpful.

It is impossible to estimate the harm done by untrained and misguided workers. The soul is peculiarly sensitive and impressionable in those days when it seeks through conviction and confession of sin to know its Lord. Error planted, wrong bias or direction given, in that critical time may bear an evil harvest in all after years.

Winning to Christ leads us into the Holy of Holies of the spiritual life. It brings us to stand close beneath the shadow of the cross and to breathe its holy atmosphere. Superintendents and teachers who are winning Christ, know a high joy which enables them to surmount obstacles and overcome discouragements. The purpose and the effort to win to Christ lend a halo of glory to our tasks and makes service worth while. It pulls all of our Sunday school work up to a high plane. With only a half hour in the whole week in which to teach, the Sunday school teacher can never find his chief satisfaction in the amount of concrete information which he may be able to impart to his pupils. His real comfort will be in the assurance that the information he does impart may under the blessing of the divine Spirit be vital to temporal and spiritual welfare and that the truth he imparts may bless to all eternity.

A vision of the meaning of evangelism and an experience of the joys which come from winning the lost would transform many a Sunday school. Is it difficult to find among the great numbers of cultivated men and women in our churches those who will teach and bear the burdens of the Sunday school? Do those who teach lack joyful and triumphant zeal? Let the fires of evangelism burn, let the community be pervaded by a quiet, gracious revival, let the workers get a vision of the meaning and matchless dignity of what we are doing as these things touch life and destiny, and all will be changed. Great hearts are drawn to great tasks; the higher and nobler the tasks we have in hand, the more surely will lofty spirits be inspired to undertake them.

RESTATEMENT.

Why Study Winning to Christ f

I. This task is supreme and supremely glorious. II. The place which "Winning to Christ" holds in the Sunday school.

III. The place which the Sunday school holds in "Winning to Christ.'*

IV. Winning to Christ is an art, which, having its own

laws, requires intelligent effort.

V. Winning to Christ brings us into the Holy of

Holies of all spiritual service.

To Guide and Test Study.

Name five reasons why Christian workers should study "Winning to Christ."

Why is this task supreme? Why is it glorious?

What place does "Winning to Christ" hold in the Sunday school? Why?

Name some other things which may be given an undue emphasis as compared with "Winning to Christ."

Name some ways in which the importance of ''Winning to Christ" is being recognized.

What of the place which the Sunday school holds in "Winning to Christ" ?

Is the day of the revival passing? What of the transfer of emphasis from the revival to education?

What deduction is drawn from the fact that "Winning to Christ" is an art?

Discuss the statement that "Winning to Christ" leads us into the Holy of Holies. What will a right conviction here do for Sunday school workers?

III. Culture Versus Conversion

WINNING TO CHRIST! If we are to win to Christ we must have a clear conception of the human nature which we are to win; we must know its natural moral and spiritual condition, its state before God and its attitude toward God. The natural heart, what is its native attitude toward God, what does it require in order to enter into God's kingdom? Wrong thinking here will unhinge and vitiate all of our efforts to win. Right thinking at this point furnishes a safe basis for all future building.

Broadly speaking there are two theories concerning the child's natural condition and state. These theories divide the Christian world into two great camps. We may call these the culture theory and the conversion theory.

I. The culture theory. This theory denies the necessity of conversion and puts forward culture as the supreme need, the one thing essential, in the bringing of the life to a right relation to God. The advocates of the culture theory differ widely among themselves, four types being worthy of mention.

(i ) Some deny the necessity of conversion and regeneration. Human nature, they say, is not naturally sinful and tainted ; rather it is essentially holy and God-like. The child is by nature God's child ; he is from birth in the kingdom of God. He does not need to be brought into the kingdom ; he requires to be kept from growing or going out of the kingdom. He is by nature rightly related to Christ, and so far from needing to be converted to Christ, our one concern should be to keep him from being converted from Christ. "Conversion is an event which ought not to be necessary in the conscious life of any human being."