Rural evangelism

Dedication

TO MT MOTHER

ANNIE JOSEPHINE WAGNER

WHO FOR SEVENTEEN YEARS POURED HER SOUL INTO MINE

Contents

Chapteb PAGE

Introduction 7

Foreword ; 9

Introduction

The need of evangelism in the local church that is participated in by the membership in general is to-day most insistent. And especially is this true in rural communities where pastors, in many instances, are obliged to minister to more than one community.

It is encouraging, therefore, to see coming from the press a book on Rural Evangelism such as Dr. James Elvin Wagner has here written. Its simple, straightforward presentation of practical methods of leading a church to active participation in the task of winning others to the fellowship with Jesus Christ and service for him is so absolutely free from any academic flavor that it will be a positive force in the ministry of every pastor of a rural community who is fortunate enough to come in contact with its message.

Like all great messages, this one on Rural Evangelism grows out of the developing personal experience and practice of the man delivering it. He knows whereof he speaks, and those who rejoice in a knowledge of the kingdom of God because of his ministry are many.

As a help in the efforts which the Depart-

8 INTRODUCTION

ment of Evangelism of the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church is making to bring the best in the field of evangelistic literature and method to the attention of pastors throughout the church, this volume from the life of a rural pastor is most welcome. And it is recommended enthusiastically for reading and study by the host of Methodist Episcopal pastors who are laboring heroically to make the rural communities of the land veritable garden spots of God.

The nation is looking to the Church of Jesus Christ as never before to fulfill its mission in making Christian every activity of life, in furnishing moral and spiritual stamina and vision for the youth of the land, and in giving mature life that poise of Christian experience which makes possible years of useful service.

To render the aid necessary to make this possible is the purpose of every Methodist Episcopal church. This little book will help every pastor to fulfill this purpose.

George B. Dean,

Superintendent, Department of Evangelism, Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Foreword

The following chapters are lectures delivered before the students of twelve colleges and theological seminaries, and the Summer Schools for Rural Pastors held during the summer of 1919 under the direction of the Department of Rural Work of the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as representative of the Department of Evangelism of the Board.

It was found that while the lectures had been carefully prepared and written, contact with rural pastors in the Summer Schools suggested some modifications. These have been incorporated in the text as here presented. The direct conversational style used when first delivered has been preserved in order that the group intimacy may prevail in class room use of the lectures.

In preparing these lectures I have used my heritage of having been born in the country and having served as pastor of rural charges for fifteen years. I also have drawn on my extensive reading on the subject and thorough

10 FOREWORD

discussion with Dr. George B. Dean, Superintendent of the Department of Evangelism of the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

In presenting plans — and I have tried to do only that — I have confined myself to such as have been approved by successful experience. They are equally applicable to the country circuit and to the larger town or city charge. I do not make this statement hesitatingly, but with the assurance which actual testing in both country and city churches has given me. I began using the Unit or Group plan for evangelistic and other ends years ago, and have no fear in presenting it with the suggestions here set forth.

If the limits of this booklet permitted, three additional chapters, or lectures, should be included. The first would be on "The Church Hymnal and the Evangelistic Campaign, " the second on "A Preaching Program," and the third on "Dangers of Professionalism." For lack of room I have given a little space to each subject in other lectures.

It is with feelings of deepest humility, and with many misgivings that I commit these pages to the public. I should not do it but

FOREWORD 11

for the insistence of some in authority who believe they are needed. May their judgment be better than mine!

I make grateful acknowledgment to all who have given friendly criticism of the lectures as they were delivered; to the rural pastors who constituted the student body of the Summer Schools, for their courteous attention and kindly reception of my suggestions; to Mr. Ralph A. Felton, who, under the direction of Dr. Paul L. Vogt, Superintendent of the Department of Rural Work of the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church, has been directly in charge of the Summer Schools for Rural Pastors, for suggesting their further usefulness; to the Rev. Harold E. Wilson, of the Bureau of Publicity, for complete revision of the manuscript; and, finally, to the Rev. George B. Dean, D.D., Superintendent of the Department of Evangelism of the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension, for friendly counsel and criticism in the original preparation of the lectures from which these pages have grown. James Elvin Wagner.

Chapter I What Is Evangelism?

An old English Grammar in defining "word" said, "A word is the sign of an idea." Very true; but how inconvenient it is that the same word does not uniformly connote the same idea to each of us! Previous experience, environment, age, occupation, training, have their influence upon the idea which any particular word will convey. So simple and familiar a word as "love" depends for its meaning upon the age, the experience, and the character of life previously led by the one using or hearing it. To the child it will mean something very different from what it suggests to the "maid in love"; and something more different still to a young mother holding her own first babe in her arms; while its richest meaning belongs to an old couple who have reared their children, seen them mated for life, have dandled their grandchildren on their knees, have worshiped God throughout life, and now in the twilight face the setting sun together, and wait the summons to "come up higher/ 5 Love will convey different ideas and emotions to a clean-minded, clean-living man and to a voluptuary.

Evangelism is our subject. What does the term signify to your consciousness? Were you converted in a "gracious revival meeting" where the people sang with unction and the minister preached with power, and a strange spell was upon the multitude? Then examine your consciousness and see if you have not thought of that kind of a meeting when you have heard the term "evangelism." And, equally, if you were converted in a Sunday school class, where there were restless boys and girls, but a teacher who knew God and helped you to find him; or if you had a wise mother who brought you early to choose God as your God, you have probably thought of those experiences. They are definitely associated in your mind with the term "evangelism."

To get anywhere in these lectures we must each have the same concept when the term "evangelism" is used. It is important that as ministers we should understand terms alike; it is even more important that our lay hearers understand as we do the terms we use. What do we mean, then, by the term "evangelism,' 5 and what do laymen generally understand us to mean?

I wonder if something like the following has not happened in many charges: It is six weeks since a Fall Conference adjourned when Brother Bundy was appointed to Rockwell charge. He was on duty and made a splendid impression the first Sunday after Conference, and by his pulpit work and visitation among the people since then has deepened that good impression, and his people are ready to follow his leadership. Thanksgiving time has arrived, and January with the revival meeting is only five weeks away. Rockwell is a splendid country village of a thousand population, in the midst of a thickly settled and very rich farming community, and the membership of Brother Bundy's church is the cream of the village and community around. It is Monday morning before Thanksgiving, and walking to the post office the new minister meets his leading member, a splendid farmer living in the finest home in the county. They stop for friendly greeting and after some conversation the minister says: "Fm glad we met this morning, Brother Shanks. I was intending to go out to see you.

You know January will soon be here, and I was wondering what we ought to do about our evangelistic campaign this year. What ought we to do?"

Many things can pass through an alert mind in a brief moment, and Brother Shanks has such a mind. What is his mental reaction to the term "evangelistic"? Does he first think, "A revival! And I raised my subscription so much this year that I have nothing in reserve. Wonder what it will cost me"?

Now, this good man is not stingy. He believes in giving liberally to every good cause. And there is no harm in the fact that revivals cost money. The danger lies in the fact that Brother Shanks thinks "money" when evangelism is mentioned.

We must manage some way to use that term, or another as good, without making Brother Shanks think first of dollars.

At that moment something like this may go through Brother Shanks's mind: "You have begun mighty well, Pastor; preached sane and real gospel sermons, and I like you; we all like you. I wonder if, when you get into revival meetings, you will begin giving us a lot of sensational slush and rubbish? I hope not, but it makes me uneasy to think about it. Wonder why so many ministers preach so differently in a revival than at any other time. I simply can't stand teary stories, graveyard horrors, and such efforts to get the people worked up. Brother Bundy, I hope you can preach revival sermons that have meat in them."

There are reasons for the average layman thinking such thoughts. I have known pastors who did not really prepare their sermons until the revival meeting arrived, and then they quit thinking, quit sermon building, and began simply "boring for tears," or trying to awaken unusual sensations. Some evangelists cannot get into their stride until they find "something rotten in Denmark," and then they appear to be perfectly happy, forgetting that they are making many sore spots, and work of healing for pastors to do after they have had their little day of glory and are gone. So often the "something rotten in Denmark" has to be manufactured, or exaggerated, to gain the point. No wonder Brother Shanks hopes his pastor is not a sensationalist. Something must be done to prevent him from having such thoughts when evangelism is mentioned.

Then, flashing on the heels of the fear of sensationalism, there comes a memory to Brother Shanks. It is not so much a thought which can be put into words as a vision of what once happened. There had been a revival in his church, an enthusiastic evangelist who liked to make a big showing had been in charge. Everyone who had held up his hand, or could be coaxed down to the front of the tabernacle on any sort of proposition, had been compelled — no other word will do — to sign a card with a confession on it, and a place for the name, address and church preferred. These cards had been jealously kept, and finally had been divided among the pastors, but not until the evangelist had stated with great unction that the meeting had been a glorious success; the church had been awakened, souls had been saved, and the Lord had been greatly honored. Then he took up the cards, arranged in a number of neat stacks, with a rubber band around each stack, and distributed them among the pastors, taking care not to say how many any particular pastor received, lest there be hurt feelings, but stating the total number of converts had been five hundred and fifty. A magnificent work! Brother Shanks, at the time, had wondered how many of those converts were from the Sunday school, brought in by faithful teachers; but he had not thought that cards signed by such faithful church members as himself, when urged to go forward to help others, would be counted. He had also been thankful for so many converts, and had felt sure his own church would be strengthened by the revival. He was glad, moreover, to do his part in the collection, although it helped inevitably to lay a foundation for future thoughts about dollars when his pastor should ask about the evangelistic campaign

After the evangelist had gone, they went over their cards. There were, for his church, fifty cards signed by children of the Sunday school, every one of whom would have been brought into the church that very season by the regular Decision Day service. Seventy-five were signed by the most faithful members of the church; twenty by newly arrived people who had their church letters and would soon have joined anyway; and twelve by supposedly genuine converts, They had then gone about finding those twelve. The first one they called on laughed at them. He said: "Why, I don't want to join any church. I just wanted to shake hands with 'Henry/ and when I went down the sawdust trail to shake hands with him, they put that card under my nose and wouldn't let me go till I signed it. I put down 'Methodist 5 because my mother was a Methodist; but I'm not going to join any church" — and that ended the matter.

Out of the twelve, they secured • five new members, and held them fairly well. Brother Shanks had wondered at the time why, if he and his pastor and a few more earnest Christian people had gone about it faithfully, they could not have done as well, or better, without the revival; and now he is fearful that Brother Bundy also may be a "nose counter," or that he may get that kind of an evangelist. We must divorce evangelism and "padded returns."

And, just here, Brother Shanks glances inquiringly at his pastor again. This time it has flashed through his mind, in a fraction of a second, that this pastor, or the evangelist he secures may take the bits in his teeth and run the meeting after some cast-iron method suited to himself but not to the community. Brother Bundy, or his evangelistic helper, may take the attitude of "I am it! Do as I say; work as I direct; or cause the damnation of your neighbors and children/ 5 He is quite sure, in his own mind, that the day when great evangelistic results can be attained by the efforts of one man, or through the counsels of one man, is past. He believes that in order to achieve best results every member of the church must be engaged in the work, and that only as they are urged to work in their own way can they all be enlisted in the task. The people must feel responsible, with the pastor, for the work of evangelism.

Following this last thought, an expression of pain passes over Brother Shanks' strong face. He is wondering something like this: "Pastor, I have not heard anything to suggest it in your sermons, but in revivals you can never tell what ministers will do. You have not brought out any sort of hobby as yet, but I wonder if, in a revival, you will trot one out, or if you will get an evangelist who will ride one into town and out again/ 5 The average layman is almost compelled to think of this, because so many ministers and evangelists who really do keep their hobbies pretty well in hand at other times let them loose during the revival meeting.

I know a pastor, as sane usually as the average, always devoted and sincere, who, under the strain and fervor of revival preaching, could see nothing of importance except damnation through the dance. Dancing is no worse during the revival than at other times, but the preacher often becomes possessed during that period with the feeling that all young people are going to hell by that route, and he effectually drives them away from his services, not because they object to his condemning the dance so much as that he emphasizes that evil to the exclusion of all others and seems to imply that they are all committing that particular sin. The average layman may not approve of dancing, but he is absolutely shy of a minister, any minister with a hobby.

There are two particularly dangerous hobbies which are likely to be trotted out in a revival meeting. The first is the "secondblessing-holiness-hobby." Many men who in a sane way preach perfect love, sanctification, holiness, throughout the year, at revival meeting time will begin explaining the mystery of sanctification, and urging faith in their particular theory of it, until they have about them a small company of souls as possessed as themselves with the idea that they know all the mystery of godliness.

I believe in holiness as sincerely as any man. In my mind there is not the slightest doubt that when one of the Lord's children comes to him with all his redeemed powers and all his possessions, and presents them upon his altar for service, something wonderful and beyond description happens to him. God takes him at his word; he becomes his Lord's for service. We need not less, but more preaching on consecration; not less, but more preaching on the life of ''perfect love." But when a mere mortal man begins telling all the details of what happens in a believing and consecrated soul, using such terms as "old Adam," "carnal nature," "inbred sin," "eradication," and meaning, by "sanctification," that the roots of sin have been removed after a given method, I feel like rising to ask a question or two. How can a man who cannot tell how a flower gets its perfume, how our nostrils sense the perfume; how the flower gets its color, or we see it; how we digest food; think, feel, walk; understand what gravity is, or light, or life, dare attempt to tell what God does in a soul when he accepts it as an offering and equips it for glorious service? Not the hobbyized doctrine of sanctification, but the indisputable fact of the power of a life rightly related to God needs to be preached.

The second hobby so apt to be trotted out just now is that of the immediate second appearing of our Lord. War and rumors of war, unrest, strife, and fears in men's hearts always bring forward this doctrine. Always a few give heed to it and watch for a particular kind of immediate appearing of Christ, while any terrible happening or event out of the ordinary brings a swarm of teachers and believers in such an appearance. Just now the country is full of this teaching and preaching. Every one of us is thinking about it more or less, and we ought to do so. But who knows enough about it to begin riding it as a hobby? No one knows either the manner or the time of his coming. Christ even said that such things were shut up with the Father. It ought not to be of nearly so much importance when he will appear, or how he will appear, as in what state of mind and heart we shall live and await his coming. Some way, some time, the day of reckoning will come, and he will be at hand. If we have lived according to his teaching, we shall be ready when he comes.

The Scriptures afford one theme upon which one may preach forever and never become a hobbyist. Christ and his apostles and all great leaders have preached that sin is ruin, and that deliverance from sin can be had only through Jesus Christ. That is theme enough, and it needs to be testified and declared with all that it involves as an experience of life rather than explained as a philosophy. It is not an explanation of the gospel that saves, but acceptance of it as a fact.

It has taken but a moment for all this to flash through Brother Shanks's mind, and now he is ready to reply to his pastor's question. "Why, Brother Bundy, I want to follow your leadership, and I think all our people do. Get your plans laid and we will meet you on them. Don't think you must plan to do as we have always done. Just go at it in your own way, and count on us to fall in line."

These good and sincere men separate, each going his own way and each thinking his own thoughts. Does "evangelistic" mean the same thing to each of them? Interpreted in terms of method, Brother Shanks is anxious, a bit fearful, but courageous enough to go forward in spite of his past and painful experiences; while the pastor is perplexed only as to what method will probably bring the best results. Interpreted in terms of results, each of them probably desires that the present membership of the church shall be stirred to action, and that the unsaved shall be brought into Christian fellowship. Brother Bundy thinks of the considerable number of his church members who are only nominal in their membership, who attend church when they feel like it, who are at prayer meeting not at all, and who can be depended upon for nothing except a trifling financial contribution, and wonders if evangelism has a mission to them, and what method will reach them. With a village and community population of some three thousand souls, of whom not more than seven hundred belong to any church, or make any public confession of faith, and where very few of the other twentythree hundred ever attend public worship, what shall he do to bring the larger group to a consciousness of the claims of religion upon them? For him the great problem of evangelism is one of method. For each of us, when we have reached a definite decision as to the kind of product we hope the evangelistic mill will grind out, the problem of building the mill and of making it deliver the desired grist still remains.

A few months ago Roosevelt and others were making hyphenated Americans very unpopular simply by calling attention to them. There were many loyal and splendid Americans of German descent in those days, and we have them still, but it is not proper to call them German- Americans; they are Americans. Many of us just now are growing very tired of other hyphenated citizens. It makes very little difference what name one writes before the hyphen; it is objectionable. For my own part Irish-American sounds quite as bad as German-American. Not because the Irish are objectionable, but because for any one who comes to our shores "American" is enough. It is quite bad enough, it seems to me, to have Democrats and Republicans lying one about the other and slandering each other, without giving place to members of foreign political parties among us. Sinn Feiners may be all right in Ireland, but America is no place for them or their agents. Let us have no hyphen in our American citizenship, political party membership, or church membership.

For we have hyphenated Methodists and Baptists and Presbyterians. They are Worldly- Methodists, Nominal-Baptists, Backslidden- Presbyterians. It may be straining a point to place a hyphen in these names, but they indicate my meaning. Americanization seeks to take the hyphen out of every name, and to leave every citizen among us a pure, onehundred-per-cent American. That is an undertaking worthy the zeal of the crusaders. But if so, what of the work of evangelism? Should not its purpose be to take the hyphen out of the name of every churchman, every believer in the land? That, and more.

A pastor was conducting Sunday evening evangelistic services in an Eastern city. One evening he called for seekers, and a fifteenyear-old boy, small of stature, unkempt of body and clothing, knelt at the altar and was beautifully converted. He arose, his face shining with the inner light of redeeming love. It happened in that church that the "Moneybags' ' was also the most spiritually minded member, and was always deeply interested in the work of evangelism. After the benediction this good brother hurried down the aisle to the altar and putting one arm around the pastor and the other about the lad, he exclaimed with genuine warmth: "Great, Pastor, great! Just think what has happened here! God has saved a soul, given himself to this lad! Isn't it glorious?"

"Yes, Brother Count," answered the pastor, "but what shall we do to save the lad?"

"What shall we do to save him? Why, Pastor, I don't understand you. We have nothing to do with it. God has saved him. What do you mean?"

"Yes, I know. But do you know this lad, and his home?" Just here one of the other members of the church wanted to speak to the lad, and the pastor and Brother Count were left alone.

"You don't know the boy, or his parents, but I know \hem all. This boy's father is a drunkard and blackguard. His mother is a drunkard and worse; she is a woman of the street. He has an older brother who is a genuine tough, and an older sister who is following her mother. When he gets home to-night, his father will be just about returning from the saloon. Later his mother and sister will come in. If they know where he has been to-night, and what he has done, they will ridicule and maltreat him, and to-morrow will put him to doing things no Christian should do."

Brother Count had forgotten the beginning of the conversation, and was thinking solely of the boy and what to do for him, as he exclaimed, "Why, Pastor, what can we do to save the child?" using the very words of the pastor to which he had previously objected.

The pastor took the boy home with him that night, and the next day he and Brother Count found a good Christian home for him, and in due time got him legally placed there. Several years went by and the boy had become a man, and one fine day he entered one of the theological seminaries of the Methodist Episcopal Church to prepare himself for mission work in China. When was the work of evangelism done for this lad? At conversion? When placed in such an environment that he had a decent chance? Did the work of evangelism end for him at the church altar, or did it extend through the act of securing for him a Christian home? Probably redeeming grace did its work at the church altar; the people of the church did their part in bringing him to the altar and in securing for him a

Christian home; but he will not be finally saved until he has "worked out his own salvation" in faithful service where God shall call him.

Evangelism has to do with getting men saved. Laying aside all questions of method, to save men is to bring them to a keen personal sense of relationship with God, through conversion; so to relate them to their environment that they shall have opportunity to "work out their own salvation," and finally to help them to a place for service. The work of evangelism is to get men converted; to get the social order in which they live converted; to get converted men actually employed in the effort to save the world.

This series of lectures is intended, not to deal with what conversion is, what a Christianized social order is, but with the obligation of gospel ministers to bring such things to pass, and with methods for accomplishing that end.

Chapter II Every Pastor An Evangelist

Using the term in the broad sense suggested in the previous chapter, can, ought every pastor to be an evangelist? Or, restricting the term to mean only getting converts, can every pastor be an evangelist? No doubt some will be stronger, more effective evangelists than others, but I unhesitatingly declare that every pastor, to justify his right to be in the ministry, must be an evangelist, must get converts.

I once heard the pastor of a college church, a man of attainments, of great ability and mature years, state that he did not know whether he had ever directly been the means of leading a soul to Christ. He had held meetings called revivals, but there had been no converts whom he could confidently claim as his own. No one had ever told him that his preaching or personal effort had brought him to Christ. He was not discouraged or distressed, but remarked, "I think it is my duty and call to edify the church." I felt at the time, though I was but a student in the college, that he was losing the most effectual means for edifying the church when he failed to secure converts.