The Experience of One Church
By C. E. Bradt
Six years ago conditions prevailed in Wichita, Kan., which made the continued existence of any institution, however free from internal embarrassment, more or less precarious. The First Presbyterian church of that city was burdened with a debt of many thousands of dollars, with no assets of any particular value. Our members, though heroic and generous, had personal obligations and responsibilities which taxed them almost beyond the limit of their endurance. These circumstances made the problem of a bare existence as a church organization and the maintenance of the stated services of the church a great question. Indeed, such an existence had not been financially sustained for some years previous, and in consequence a floating debt, rising higher and higher each year, threatened to submerge the church and extinguish the lighted candlestick, or cause its removal. When added to this we look out, not upon a fair harbor in which we anchor for a time until the storm be past, but16upon the frowning cliffs and rocks of a large bonded debt of eighteen thousand dollars, for which the church had absolutely nothing to show as value received, and with which it had apparently nothing to grapple, we begin to appreciate the situation. At this time the Lord appeared to the church as truly as he appeared to Paul of old, and said what he said to Paul, “Arise, stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” “Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” At this time the doctrine was preached that Christ had conditioned his presence and his almighty power, the Holy Spirit, upon the practical willingness of his people to obey the great commission. One January Sabbath,—a bleak, cold, gloomy day,—the pastor crossed the threshold of the church with this conviction in his heart, that their salvation as a church, financially and in every other way, depended upon their taking the little meal they had in the barrel and the little oil in the cruse and undertaking to feed the starving millions of heathen lands. The pastor as he went along the aisles of the church to the session room that morning, seemed to hear whisperings from the sacred precincts of the empty pews and the galleries in the church. The import of those whisperings was that the pastor had gone mad, that he had lost his mental balance, that he was about to make a fool of himself. But within there was a voice heard at every step, “Lo, I am with you.” And entering the session room, he looked into the faces of those godly elders whom he loved, and who loved him, and what he saw filled his eyes with tears. He turned his face to the wall to hide his tears, and there he saw the Son of God, and heard again the words, “Lo, I am with you.” That morning he delivered his message to the congregation, the message of Christ’s great commission to the church; and the Lord stood with him, and revealed himself to the people, and they saw the Lord Jesus, and that day they took for support a foreign missionary pastor. They closed that year with the floating debt removed, and the current expenses of the church met in full, a condition which the church had not enjoyed for ten years previous. The next year they doubled their contributions for foreign missions, adding another missionary to the first one, also taking the support of a home missionary; and that year they removed the bonded debt, and closed the year with all current expenses met, and money in the treasury. I repeat that the success of the church in this particular was due to the church taking Jesus Christ at his word, and going with him by faith to preach the gospel, first to the uttermost parts of the earth. Jesus verified his promise to be with the church. The foreign missionary program of the church for the past five years has cost it upward of ten thousand dollars, with which it is supporting and has supported three foreign missionaries, about thirty native pastors, and is just now taking the support of a fourth American foreign missionary. Her average contribution is now about four dollars a member. Now, this is not the only thing which has awakened comment in the minds of some. The church, by reason of this vision of Jesus Christ which infatuated her as she saw in him a world Saviour and undertook to go with him unto the uttermost parts of the earth, has been able also in the last five years to bring an equal amount for home missions—upward of ten thousand dollars, and place it upon the altar of the Lord for preaching the gospel in this land. And this is not yet the most astonishing result of our seeing Jesus Christ. So was the church wrought upon by the sight of Christ going to the uttermost parts of the earth and asking his disciples to go with him, that she has been enabled out of what seemed her poverty to bring during the past five years about forty thousand dollars for preaching and establishing and maintaining the gospel in the city of Wichita. She is supporting now one of the largest plants doing business for God anywhere in the United States, with a pastor, an assistant pastor, two office assistants, a city missionary, a church of twelve hundred members,—about eight hundred of whom have united with the church in the past six years,—a mission church, three Bible schools, four young people’s societies of Christian Endeavor, four ladies’ societies, a men’s department with a men’s club, two boys’ clubs, a girls’ industrial school, a department for the study of the Bible in its institutional work, and a printing department, publishing thousands of pages of literature every year, and a missionary magazine. This is the result of a true vision of Jesus Christ. We think sometimes that we see Jesus Christ when we do not see him. A true vision of Jesus Christ is to see him with his hands not only outstretched, but actually touching the unsaved with healing and saving power; with his face set toward the unsaved of the world, going to save the lost, seeking to save the lost. We do not see Jesus Christ always in the churches; we may get a glimpse of him, but if so, it is a glimpse of his back parts and not of his face. No man shall see God face to face, and live his old selfish life any longer. To see the face of Jesus Christ we must undertake to go with him to the uttermost parts of the earth, to give our lives, our all, to the preaching of the gospel to every creature. We must know what it is to sacrifice for that for which he gave every drop of blood in his body, and that for which the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon all flesh, and is groaning to-day, making intercession for us.—Rev. C. E. Bradt.