Truth Magazine

By Morris D. Norman

More and more churches are learning the worth of the lecture type program as a part of local effectiveness. The Lord’s church that meets at 640 Thayer Street in Akron, Ohio has been using this as a part of its work since 1970 and it has proven to be profitable for many reasons. Prior to 1970, the traditional gospel meeting was not serving local needs as it had in the past and the elders decided to try the lecture program as an alternate. This article will set forth the program and its advantages to us.

Although those attending “college lectureships” have enjoyed, and obtained great good from them, there is some difference in a lecture series put on by a local church and a school. The situation on a school campus is not always conducive to the atmosphere of worship and edification as is possible in a local church at work. If a church is contemplating such a program, the final decision should not be made on what is sometimes observed at a “college lectureship.”

Since this program is a local church at work, it is prepared with the needs of Thayer Street in mind. The elders design the program for the local situation and then invite others to share in it much like the gospel meeting. But the very nature of it can extend its effectiveness beyond the local level like the gospel meeting.

There can be several variations to this type program. There can be week-long sessions with either evening services, morning and evening services, or morning, afternoon and evening services. Some have had weekend programs with the sessions beginning on Friday nights and continuing all day Saturday and Sunday. Thayer Street Lectures begin on Monday night with morning, afternoon and evening sessions through Thursday night. There is a total of 19 lessons with two speakers at each session with the exception of Wednesday evening. We leave that night for one speaker, a guest to the lecture series from out of town. This permits those from other churches in Akron to attend their own services without missing any of the scheduled speakers, and also to let out-of-town visitors visit other churches locally.

The selection of subjects can vary. Some carry a theme throughout. We prefer to deal with a variety of subjects. The elders prepare the program, covering areas of doctrine, faith building, character studies and devotion. One of the features of the past few years has been the study of the lives of Biblical persons, ranging from women, patriarchs, prophets, apostles to general people of faith who have merited a place in the divine record. We have also used the first part of the afternoon session to emphasize worshiping in song with audience participation. In 1976, attention was given to a study of the psalms that had been set to music. We have highlighted the other areas of worship as well. All subjects are chosen according to local need and interest.

After selecting the subjects for a given program, the elders then seek the men whom they feel will best be able to deal with the subject. They strive to have a balanced program each year in both subjects and speakers. We use young men to encourage them, local men who are new to the area to acquaint them with local brethren, and then more seasoned men for the more mature subjects. We urge the speakers to prepare their presentations with the “man in the pew” in mind. Most of those attending are average members (housewives, working :people, young couples, etc.) and we ask that the material be directed to such, rather than “scholarly” material that may be apparent at school lectureships.

Outlines are printed of each speech, put in book form and available to all attending. We also mail out a number each year to some who are unable to attend but desire the material, thus extending the good accomplished. We have printed up to 700 outline books for any one program. This will likely be our limit. Since the outlines are in demand from year to year, there would hardly be a limit otherwise. Some speakers make brief outlines, others as many as 15 pages. We are considering limiting each speaker to about five typewritten pages because of the expense involved. We request the outlines be in our hands 4 to 6 weeks prior to the program to give our volunteer help time to prepare the books.

The over-all response in attendance and enthusiasm has grown over the years. We broke previous records this year with the day services about double the first years. Those attending from other local churches have grown appreciably as have those from out of town. We have had visitors from over a dozen states and Canada. More young preachers attended this year than ever before. Their over-all response and attitude show that the cause of the Lord is in good hands in the years to come. The assistance that these lectures give them is alone worth the cost and effort. But let it be emphasized that the program is designed for Thayer Street, not those attending from elsewhere. The good done beyond Thayer Street is secondary; this is not a “brotherhood” work. We maintain a mailing list of churches and individuals who have shown an interest in the program and we begin notifying them of that year’s program in early Spring, with two more mailings by late August. The periodicals published by our brethren have been kind in printing notices for us.

An advantage on the local level, in addition to the edification, is the involvement of our members in the program. In a gospel meeting, the usual involvement is an occasional invitation to a friend or neighbor, the attending of all the services and having the visiting preacher in for a meal. In our program there is much more involvement. The printing of the outlines alone involves a number of people. The stencils must be cut (as many as 50 or 60), then printed (700 copies of each), then collated (imagine 20 or 30 people marching around a couple of tables gathering 700 fifty-page outlines) and finally stapled into book form. So far no out of town guests have had to depend on commercial housing; Christians have opened their homes with good old fashioned hospitality. Our people are learning the joy of sharing. More and more are scheduling their vacations so as to attend all sessions and get the full benefits of the program, and this is spreading to other churches in the area. This type of involvement is invaluable in the continued development of the saints.

This type program can be recommended for any of the above reasons. It can be effective most anywhere, but particularly where there are a number of congregations. The cost may vary. We pay travel expenses to each speaker plus a small amount for his effort. The cost has been approximately $1,000 per year. That is about the cost of two gospel meetings, but we feel that the benefit is more than that which would be obtained from two annual meetings. If you are interested in such a program and would like to have more information than obtained here, we would be glad to give it.

Truth Magazine XXI: 29, pp. 450-451
July 28, 1977

By Luther Blackmon

Methodist and Lutheran preachers can find enough water in Mt. 19:14 to sprinkle all the babies in the world, and there is not a word in the whole chapter about water. But John 3:5, where water is said to be an essential element in the new birth, is bone dry.

Christian Church preachers can find an organ in Eph.5:19 and a Missionary Society in Mt. 28:18, while in neither passage is either mentioned.

Some of my brethren can put money from hundreds of churches into the hands of one eldership to spend in preaching. They can, and will, and have put so much pressure on a church just for announcing a gospel meeting in another church that is not in harmony with their ecclesiastical practice, that the elders where the meeting was announced got up and publicly apologized for making the “mistake” of announcing the gospel meeting. And all of this can be done without interfering with the autonomy of another church. But just mail a few bulletins to members of a church which supports these brotherhood projects suggesting that we need to examine our authority for some of the things we are doing, and you are “violating the Bible teaching of congregational autonomy.” Hmm. It “do” make a difference, “don’t” it?

Truth Magazine XXI: 28, pp. 446
July 21, 1977

By Royce Chandler

All four of the young men who worked with us through the past four summers are now preaching “full-time” in Missouri, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky; and we already have secured another young man to work with us during the summer of 1977.

The responsibility to commit the gospel to faithful men, enabling them “to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:1) is clearly required of gospel preachers. Early in 1973, the elders of the local church in Danville, Kentucky, began making plans to accomplish that work by inviting Bruce Edwards, Jr., to spend May through August working with us, developing his skills and knowledge in order to do the work of an evangelist.

The results were so gratifying that the elders have continued the work in successive summers with Barry Hudson, Rick Lanning, and Scott Vifquain. Helping to develop and to train five preachers in five summers has been one of the most productive and edifying works in which this church has engaged. Rich dividends have been paid to those young men, to practically every family in this church, and especially to our large number of teens and pre-teens.

The basic idea behind the work is to take a young man who knows he wants to preach and to give him practical experience in teaching and preaching while under the guidance and instruction of the elders and the local preacher. So many “beginning preachers,” still wet behind the ears, so to speak, begin local work with no idea of what to expect or what to do. When problems arise within the church, these inexperienced young men often have no elders to turn to and no experience upon which to draw. Consequently, devastating mistakes are sometimes made when, with some previous teaching and guidance, they could have been avoided.

By preaching, teaching, exhorting, and edifying in a learning situation where he receives correction and advice from both the elders and an experienced evangelist, the preacher-to-be has a great advantage when he begins “full-time” work. Especially does this training and teaching show its value in situations involving possible disciplinary action within a local church. But this principle is universally seen to be true in every area of life: a prepared worker is a better, more productive worker.

When possible, the young man lives with my family; seeing exactly what transpires daily in an evangelist’s life removes any hazy, romantic notions in that regard. By watching how every situation affects a preacher and his family, and seeing the great demands made upon a faithful preacher and his wife, the young evangelist’s work and expectations will be realistic and, hopefully, maturely aimed.

The specific works engaged in by these young men were greatly varied. For the most part, they were held responsible for a great amount of the work normally done by a located preacher: regular sermon deadlines, at least two classes to teach, a weekly bulletin, and a weekly radio program. In addition, we involved them in writing articles for a local newspaper column, leading one of the four work groups into which the church is divided, teaching home studies, visiting sick and needy brethren, and observing how the elders handle the spiritually ailing brethren. When needed, special studies were held with these men to strengthen their Bible knowledge.

Other local churches have started similar efforts only to watch them quickly die. The success with which we have been blessed is due, to single out the greatest factor, to the strong enthusiasm of the local saints themselves. If the elders and the saints in general are not zealous for such a work, I doubt that it would continue productively. But because the local elders were careful to involve the fellow-members in the work, we have reaped greatly from it.

For example, it was thought essential to get every saint to feel a share of responsibility in this work. To that end, the elders arranged for the young man to be in the homes of different families on at least two nights of every week (often it was more). The teenagers met, on their own, prior to the arrival of these men, to draw up a list of projects for the summer, most of which involved the help of the “trainee.” With the elders, the regular evangelist, most of the families, and an active teen group all planning ahead and feeling a shared responsibility, the four men received much and gave much.

Naturally, we have learned more about what we are doing every year we are involved, and we try to upgrade our efforts accordingly. Consequently, Bruce did not get nearly the help Scott received; and with God’s blessings, we shall do a better job this summer.

Over and above what benefit these summers have been to these aspiring evangelists, by far the greatest fruit has been ours! Seeing the local church’s work actually resulting in four “full-time” evangelists, feeling a common share in the development of these men, and seeing the inestimable good effects these men have had on our own young people’s concern with spiritual things have helped to generate more and more enthusiasm for the continuation of the work.

It was this feeling of thankfulness for our blessings that led us to enlarge the work somewhat. Beginning this past August, we began a series of intensive Bible studies for any who wish to study, and especially for any young man desiring to become an evangelist. Brother Kelly Ellis, one or our elders, and I teach three trimesters of Bible classes each year, from August through May. During each twelve week session, six different Bible classes are taught each week, Monday through Friday mornings. This way, by the time one has studied six courses per session, over the two-year arrangement, he will have studied every book in the Bible.

This enlarged teaching work is in addition to the summer work; their aims are distinctly different at this point, and we plan to continue them both, the Lord willing. We began the first trimester’s work with six students; three of those have had to drop out for various reasons, but the future of this work looks promising. Several have inquired about it and are considering taking advantage of it.

It might be appropriate to mention that we have at no time arranged this work as being in competition with any school or college. Our only motive is to do all we can in our local situation, under the direction of our own elders, and using only the local church’s resources, to teach the Bible and develop the abilities of any Christian desiring to study with us. The work is totally scriptural, it is completely local in nature, and it in no way involves taking money or anything else from anyone but local members.

It also is appropriate to add that this teaching program is in no way a reaction to the college Bible department dispute. In fact, believing that issue to be a matter of one’s personal judgment, it has not even been considered in our planning to do all we can do, in keeping with the Word, to produce fruit for the Lord. We are simply a local church doing a local work with local resources; anyone wishing to study with us is welcome. These classes will be of distinct benefit to any who wish to study in them.

While the church in Danville is not, in anyone’s mind, an ideal church, we have been richly blessed in this work. By local saints cooperating in a scriptural work, we have fellowship with four “new” evangelists; a fifth has pledged to be with us this summer, and we anticipate, with the Lord’s blessings, more.

Every year I hear of more and more local churches having a part in similar works and it greatly encourages me to see such zealous interest and activity. Any suggestions you brethren might provide on arrangements you have found helpful, I would appreciate. Likewise, we will be happy to share anything we might have found useful, if anyone cares to inquire. May the Lord’s work increase, and may we all zealously and enthusiastically go to work to help each other in the common work of righteousness.

Truth Magazine XXI: 28, pp. 444-445
July 21, 1977

By Bob Buchanon

There are more people in the world that know about Coca-Cola than know about Jesus Christ and His gospel. All of us, individually and in the congregations, must become concerned and involved in trying to reach more people with as many scriptural methods of spreading the gospel as possible. The church in the first century saw the need of going to the people with the gospel. The apostles went to the temple area often to teach (Acts 3, 5) for that was where the people were. Paul often went to the synagogue in various cities he visited (Acts 13, 14, 17) and he entered the market place in the city of Athens (Acts 17:17).

Just as the Christians did in the first century, we must go to the people and not rely strictly upon people coming to us. Gospel meetings, lectureships, and other such public meetings that we have are very important (space is given to a discussion of improving these by other writers elsewhere in this paper), but the Lord ordered us to “go” not just to invite others to “come.” One such way of reaching more people is to have a booth at the city, county, or state fair. Literally thousands a day flock to the fair.

Its Aim

It has been my privilege to directly work with fair booths for three years and to assist about six churches in planning theirs. My interest in this program, basically, was founded on the principle that a study of God’s Word can do more to enrich an individual than any other form of study available today. The aim of the booth is to reach those persons who, for the most part, have not had an opportunity for such a study.

Proper Planning

As soon as your decision is made to become involved in Fair Exhibit Evangelism, it is vitally necessary that you establish your main purpose and goals. The more time spent in constructive planning, the more fruitful the end result will be. The first thing one needs to do is to develop a theme. You might want to use a theme like God’s Work Is Today’s Only Hope, and when you speak to the people in the aisles who are concerned about what is happening to our nation and to our community and you feel that the only real hope that we have is found within the Word of God, then it will be easy to encourage people to study the Bible that they might be able to help themselves and direct their children. With the cooperation of Truth Magazine and Searching The Scriptures, we developed the theme An Unchanging Kingdom In A Changing World for use in our 1974 booth. In conjunction with the bicentennial, we chose The Truth Shall Set You Free. You can easily come up with good themes to suit your purposes.

Once you have established a main theme, try to select all your tracts, visual aids, courses, etc., to complement it. This type of approach will necessitate the use of a number of people to read and evaluate all the materials.

Methods Used

We used a variety of methods to interest the individual at the fair; some of which have been the use of two telephones with two-minute sermons, slide shows, tape recordings, wall charts, motion pictures, and the use of a special quiz machine that I own called I.Q. Computer which was tailored to suit our specific needs and desires with 64 different Bible questions. What will work in one location may not work in another. The methods used should have only the purpose of getting the people’s attention. Some things that I have not used yet, but keep storing the information for later years include: a closed circuit TV, a puppet show with Bible characters, Jule Miller’s film strips, advancing slides showing Bob West’s Theophilus cartoon character, and a “walk through” history of how we got our English Bible.

The basic design and cost of the booth, itself, is something that the individual working with the program should come up with and tailor to fit the surrounding area with which he is working.

Each year, I have tried to come up with some “crowd stopper.” What I mean by this is just some little simple Bible riddle or puzzle that you can use to walk up to someone and say, “Here is a little riddle that a lot of people here at the fair are really enjoying.” This serves several purposes: (1) It gets the people to stop in the isle long enough that you can at least begin a conversation with them, (2) It shows them that whatever it is that this booth is offering it is different from most of the others because it is free (3) It shows them that you have nothing to force on them.

After giving them the “stopper,” I can then procede with step two–getting them to fill out one of our religious survey cards. The only ones that refused to sign one of these were the ones that felt in the beginning that there was “some catch” to it. I have recommended saying something like: “We are taking a survey of the people visiting this year’s fair. If you would, we would certainly appreciate it if you would fill one of these cards out for us.” While working with the church in Pekin, Indiana, we had some ink pens printed with the address on the side for the Bible correspondence courses offered by the church and told the folks that upon the completion of filling out the survey card they could keep the pen. Our survey card began by asking such questions as: what church do you prefer to attend, how often do you attend, do you have any difficulty in understanding the Bible, and what subjects do you wish preachers would talk more about. The bottom of the card gives space for their name, address, and age and opportunity to sign up for Bible courses, bulletin, tracta-month, filmstrips, etc. The survey card will have to be designed to offer what is available from the church sponsoring the booth.

Not Recommended

For a congregation considering undertaking a program of this nature, I would not recommend entering into it on a one-year basis. The first year’s program might not show the results that others have experienced that have done it for several years. We feel that if it is undertaken on a three-to-five-year basis, your diligence and patience will be rewarded.

Your Conduct

Before noticing more about the specific function of the workers, let us mention a few things we should remember about our conduct.

(1) Be Friendly. Smile and speak to as many people as you can-even though they may not come into the booth. This may influence many more to come in and look around and favorably impress those who do not. Do not take it personally if they fail to visit your booth. If you will only observe, each person has only a few booths that he visits.

(2) Show Interest In People. Of course, you are interested in people or you would not be here. But concentrate on those that may come in to look around. Show by your actions that you are interested in them as people rather than “customers” or “statistics.” Workers should guard against becoming involved. in talking to one another so that they ignore the visitors.

(3) Invite Visitors To Take Literature. Literature should be displayed in the booth in racks or on tables. The only thing that we have used for mass distribution has been our “crowd stopper.” These are very inexpensive and it does not matter if many of them are later tossed on the ground. But with today’s prices for tracts, we do not want to see them destroyed. I have always encouraged the “take what interests you” approach. Inform the visitor that the tracts are there, they cover various subjects, they are free, and one may take any that interests them.

(4) Guard Against Being Negative. Be tactful and positive in your conversation. Do not try to arouse an argument by your comments or questions. Do not compromise the truth, but speak it in love. When strong questions arise, suggest that a study in their home where more time would be allowed would be more productive.

Function Of Workers

The number one objective of our booth is to interest that person to the point that we may form a contact with him to later save his soul. Remember, the worker must take the initiative. We must make the initial contact. Therefore, we must use the approach and contact method. As a visitor approaches the booth, step out and make the contact. Use a “crowd stopper” and explain the displays in the booth. For example, you will point to the recorded telephone messages and explain those. Next, point to the I.Q. Computer with a brief explanation. Then conclude by pointing to the literature in the booth, emphasizing that the literature is free. Finally, ask, “Would you like to step in and have a look at the booth?” Leave the visitor to visit the booth and to explore areas of his gown interest. But, still your work is not over. Keep a close eye on the visitor while he is in the booth. It may be that you can assist in some way or explain a question. I do not recommend “clergy uniforms,” but I have recommended that each worker in the booth wear black or blue pants or skirt with white blouse- or shirt. This lets the visitor know who to direct their questions to. As the visitor starts to leave, take a registration card and pencil or pen and ask the visitor to fill out the survey card. You have already been an assistance to him. Now ask him to do something for you.

Conclusion

People are going to the fair? Are you? A fair booth has been successful with as little as $50 and a 6 foot square floor area. You will have to work out your own plans. The Lord’s people must always work to destroy the works of Satan and exalt Jesus Christ. The fair is one place to utilize a new way of propagating the gospel. Good luck with your booth this year!

Truth Magazine XXI: 28, pp. 442-444
July 21, 1977