Congregations Today
George Eldridge
Lafayette, Louisiana
Congregations today have members that have the ability and resources to do personal visitation. The problem today is not holding training classes in order to learn or study personal visitation! The difficulty is getting members to go and do personal work. No clear cut answer is available to solve the problem in every church, but there is a solution! In every congregation, there are "chief men among the brethren." (Acts 15:22) These men must come together in prayer with the preacher and admit there is a problem, discuss the problem, inaugurate the solution, and then by example and speech encourage and teach other saints to go and do personal work. Practice faithfully God's plan as did His children whom we read about in the New Testament. God will then bless our work as we plant His "seed" and water it. (Luke 8:11 and 1 Cor. 3:6). "So shah my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shah not return unto me void, but it shah accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it" (Isaiah 55:11).
God's Word is sent through us! Every saint has the ability to do something in sending the gospel to lost souls. The story of the talents of Mt. 25:14-30 teaches each Christian will be held accountable for what he or she can do. The one talent man was condemned, not for what he did, but for what he did not do! I Therefore, the aptitude that many Christians today possess for teaching lost souls through personal visitation, personal invitation, or personal work need to be used today. This ability is lying sleeping presently, but if it is awakened now many lost souls will be taught Bible truth and congregations will grow spiritually as well as numerically. Will you do it now? Remember, "The responsibility for outreach and evangelism lies primarily with the members."
TRUTH MAGAZINE XIV; 44, p. 8
September 17, 1970
