“What You Know and We Don’t Know Is What Will Interest Us in This Church”
By T. E. Bowen
Some good practical missionaries are needed at home,—every conference needs them; every church needs them,—men and women of good judgment, practical ability—people who know how actually to do things. Theory may be good and necessary, but real practicability, that which accomplishes things, is of still greater value. This is true when it comes to real home work in providing the munition of war for work in foreign fields. How preachers at home can help in creating and maintaining an interest in missions, as well as how missionaries can touch the right spot when they are home on furlough, is illustrated by a few paragraphs taken from “International Review of Missions,” under the topic “Broadening the Home Base,” written by C. H. Patton:— “If ever our preachers had an opportunity to offer a demonstration of Christianity, to compel belief in its universal and divine claims, it is now. Yet, as a matter of fact, with rare exceptions, the people have not been made acquainted with this situation [in foreign fields]. In the majority of the churches the sublime opportunity is allowed to pass unnoticed. Or, if attention is called to the new era which has set in, it is not done in a manner to carry conviction and bring a hearty response. There is material in the present world situation to stir the churches profoundly, and if the churches are not greatly stirred it must be because the facts have not been made known. “A somewhat careful study of the ministerial mind favors the conclusion that the ordinary preacher is not facile in the presenting of facts, possibly does not see the supreme value of facts. The habit of dealing with religious and philosophical abstractions, of laying down principles, of elaborating ideas and developing texts, holds many a preacher as in a vise. If a body of missionary facts is placed before him, he looks at them in a helpless sort of way, and, more than likely, considers it beneath his dignity to build such material into his sermon. Sermons, he thinks, should move on a higher plane. Strange to say, missionaries on furlough sometimes are possessed of the same idea. They will consume a large share of the precious time allotted them in explaining the missionary motive, enforcing missionary texts, and engaging in general exhortations, instead of giving to the people the superb body of information at their command. Missionaries sometimes confess that when occupying pulpits at home they desire to give the impression of possessing sufficient intellectual power to preach a regular sermon. This is natural of them, but unnecessary. Few doubt the ability of missionaries in these days of high intellectual standards. In fact, returned missionaries have always had a glad hearing in the churches. But what the people desire of them is evidence as to the success of the enterprise—what is the good cheer, what the news of the kingdom? “Now I maintain it is no small intellectual feat so to marshal a series of facts as to cause conviction in a modern audience. This is the ability of the great pleader at the bar; this is the talent which enables the leading journalists and foreign correspondents to earn their munificent salaries. A writer like William E. Curtis would visit a mission field, spend a few hours talking with missionaries and government officials, and then lay out his facts in a compelling article which would be read round the world. The facts which he would use are the very material which a missionary is liable to pass over as too commonplace for use in a pulpit address. ‘What you know and we don’t know is what will interest us in this church,’ was the remark of a discriminating pastor to a missionary about to speak. . . . “This world situation means something to Christ. It should mean something to Christ’s people; and it will mean something when the people know about it. There is no one thing more important just now than a definite and earnest purpose on the part of pastors to ‘preach up’ missions. Let our pastors master the facts, become afire with enthusiasm as they consider their meaning, and then speak with the ring of conviction, and we shall see a situation changing with great rapidity. . . . No amount of literature issued by the boards or newspaper articles written by experts can take the place of the living word spoken from the sacred desk by ministers on fire with missionary zeal. One strong sermon, earnest, intelligent, vibrating with conviction, will often accomplish more in the way of converting a church than years of cultivation by literature and special programs. It is a mistake, too, for pastors to depend upon secretaries and missionaries in this matter. They should speak out for themselves as the accredited interpreters of the times, as the spokesmen for Christ in the hour of his great opportunity.” These are strong arguments well stated. We have a world situation to-day that should appeal to every Christian, and especially to every Seventh-day Adventist, as nothing else has ever done. Never before were there such golden opportunities for achievements in the winning of souls to Christ as to-day. Practically every door stands open to the missionary. And not only so, but earnest pleading for teachers to come among them is heard from nearly every land from those who but a short time ago were in dense heathen darkness and opposed to the entrance of Christianity. Think of the situation faced by Judson, Livingstone, Morrison, Carey, and others only one hundred and less years ago. What would they say were they to awake and see the situation presented to-day in Burma, Africa, China, and India? Would they not urge the church in burning words of zeal to press out into these wonderful openings created by the providence of God? They certainly would. May God help us, ministers and people alike, believing as we do that the end is right upon us, to be alive to appreciate the opportunities afforded us in such a time as this.