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A More Effective Ministry

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 9, 1910

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 23.

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A More Effective Ministry

By A. T. ROBINSON

A. T. ROBINSON
“He that winneth souls is wise.” Prov. 11:30.
The demand of the hour is for specialists in every department of life. He who attempts several lines of effort is sure to excel in nothing, and more than likely to make a failure of everything. The work of the gospel ministry is no exception to this rule. He who thinks he can drift into that sacred and holy work, after failing in almost everything else undertaken, places a woefully low estimate upon that high calling.
The only way a man can reasonably hope to make a success of any worldly profession is by throwing every energy of his being into it. No lawyer, banker, merchant, or other professional man ever attained success, influence, or wealth, except by making his chosen work the one dominating idea of his life. Every man who has reached any degree of greatness in his life-work has started out by placing before himself a difficult task, a high ideal to be reached. “This one thing I do,” has been the motto of every truly successful life.
That which made the apostle Paul great in his profession — that made his testimony an authority on the work of the gospel ministry — was the fact that he set his mark high, and made it the one effort of his life to reach it. Here is his life motto, a good one for every minister of the gospel: “This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.” “Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. . . . Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear unto all.” These are among the admonitions of the great apostle to every man who dares assume the solemn responsibility of the gospel ministry.
My brother in the ministry, I invite you to critically review your work for the past year. Have you kept the “mark for the prize of the high calling” everbefore your eyes? Have you worked for definite results? I will venture what I believe would be the answer that many preachers would give to their own hearts in this matter: “Well, I went where the conference committee asked me to go; I thought I would try it. If souls were converted to the truth, well and good; but if not, of course I could not help that. It is the Lord who must give the increase; and if he does not see fit to give any increase, of course I am not responsible. The Lord says that if a man does not provide for his own house, he is worse than an infidel; but I drew my salary each month, and this enabled me to provide for my family: so I did not have anything to worry about. Of course I must live, and my family must live. The Lord says that a man who plants a vineyard has the right to eat of the fruit of the vineyard, and that ‘the husbandman that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits.’” True, brother, but the Lord’s plan for the support of his ministers is based on the supposition that there will be fruit as the result of their labor. How many preachers would go out in the work during the coming season if some definite arrangement was made by which their salaries would be dependent upon actual returns from their labors?
Sometimes I wish we had some way of applying Gideon’s army test to ourselves. Gideon had raised a little army of thirty-two thousand men, to go out against the Midianites, who were “as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number.” But the Lord, looking at Gideon’s army, saw a feeling of pride and self-sufficiency in their hearts. “And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, ‘Mine own hand hath saved me.’” A proclamation was made in the camp: “Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return, and depart early from mount Gilead.” Many were glad to avail themselves of this permission. “And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.” “The people are yet too many,” said the Lord, and another test was given. When the number was reduced to three hundred men, each one of whom was so true to God and to the task before him that he would not take his eyes off the enemy, even while quenching his thirst, God said, “By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you.”
I would like to see every worker in the employ of the Nebraska Conference, including the conference president, settle it in his heart — in some way get his soul fired with the conviction from God — that he is going out to win souls for the Master; and that unless he can go from this workers’ meeting with a fixed and unconquerable determination to see definite results from his labors during the coming season, he will turn his attention to some other occupation. Better, a hundred times over, make a success of some honorable worldly calling, than to be dabbling in other things while engaged in the work of the ministry. The gospel minister must “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ,” remembering that “no man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”
I would rather see two thirds of this company of workers decide at this meeting to turn their attention to some worldly occupation, and ten of our number go out from this meeting with their souls fired with a zeal for God which would consume their very being if they could not see results of their labors, than to see what I fear we shall see,—what we have seen year after year,—this company, after spending ten days here, at conference expense, go out into the field, and at the close of the season come up to our camp-meeting and report one or two churches, made up mostly of old Sabbath-keepers, added to the conference.
Among those who labored in the earlier days of this message, we have some noble examples, worthy of our emulation. I knew a young minister in the earlier days who was counseled by the conference not to pitch his tent in a certain locality, but who insisted that he felt a burden to go to that place. The committee finally consented, but told him that they were impressed that he would not meet with success. The tent was pitched, and meetings began with a small interest, which gradually grew less, until at the close of the first week, there was almost no attendance, in spite of everything that could be done to interest the people. What was to be done? — Only one thing seemed left,—to confess his mistake in not following the counsel of the committee, take down the tent, and go to another place. But that would mean to disregard his conviction of what he had felt the Lord was calling him to do. A whole night was spent in pleading with God for victory. Something like the spirit that led John Knox to plead, ‘Give me Scotland, or I die,’ took possession of the heart of the young man and his associate; and that God who proves his people at the waters of Meribah, and answers in ‘the secret place of thunder,’ gave them the assurance of victory. The next day they went out as usual, and invited the people to come to the meeting. Somehow they felt sure the people would come; and they did come, and an interest was aroused. The Spirit of God set its seal to the word spoken, and a good church was raised up.
O that the Lord will baptize his servants with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and give us a victory at this workers’ meeting, the results of which shall be seen and felt by us in all the days of service that are to come!
Hastings, Neb.