Hi, I am your host, Wayne Almlie. On this blog I will post material from some of the older Lutheran books I've been able to get my hands on. I have found several books mostly from before 1960 that show a different kind of Lutheranism than what we have today. I started this blog with a book on Hans Neilsen Hauge called "A Short Account of the Life and Work of Hauge" by C. Brohaugh written in 1890. You need to go to May 2th 2009 to start reading the book or you can go to http://www.haugean.com/ and read or download the book in PDF. I have already posted several other books so feel free to go and check them out. I finished Pastor Forces Book, "Our Refuge and Strength" and I have posted it at http://www.haugean.com/page39.php .
The next project I am going to work on is a book by C.K Solberg entitled Scriptual Evangelism.
The Lutheran Church has forgetten how to evangelize, it didn't use to be so. The Lutheran Bible School Movement emphasized evangelism. The Hauge Inermission and the LEM were involved in evangelistic work. But today we have lost our way. I think we need to look back at those old dead guys and figure out what they knew that we have forgotten. I think this book is a good starting place. This is a book about Lutheran Evangelism?
I hope you will read it and consider it's challenge. Keep in mind that in blog format you need to find the beginning of the stream to start reading.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Chapter Four: Lay-Activity in the Light of History
LAY-ACTIVITY IN THE LIGHT OF HISTORY
IN THIS discussion we are concerned mainly with lay-activity in its narrower and more specific sense, namely lay-preaching and personal work in soul-winning.
Lay-preaching and lay-leadership in public worship is old. We find it exercised in the Old Testament times. The Jewish synagogue came into existence shortly after the return from the Babylonian captivity. At this time there was a spiritual awakening in Israel, synagogues were built, one or more in every village and city, where the people gathered for worship on the Sabbath Day and also in the week. And as a rule the worship in these synagogues was led by laymen. Elders were chosen for such leadership. The ruler of the synagogue exercised much liberty; he did not always lead the worship himself, but often called on other laymen to lead. Up to as many as seven would be called on at one meeting. If a rabbi or priest was present, he would be asked to pronounce the benediction. We are told that the rabbi was offended, when the people crowded the synagogue to hear a layman, while he would deliver his lecture to a handful of people in a synagogue nearby.
In the New Testament times we find, that no sooner had the mother-church at Jerusalem been established, when lay- activity grew out of the vigorous Christian life that characterized the Apostolic Church. Seven elders or deacons were chosen to assist the apostles. They were men “of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom.” Their work was to care for the poor and needy; but they also preached the Word of God. Stephen and Philip were mighty lay-preachers. And when the persecution broke out in Jerusalem the Christians were “scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria—and went everywhere, preaching the Word” (Acts 8:1 and 4).
The Savior has sanctioned lay-activity by word and deed. He sent out seventy lay-preachers, two and two together, on short missionary visits into the villages. He emphasized again and again the needs of the personal testimony. He says to His followers: “Ye are the light of the world, the salt of the earth.” “Ye are my witnesses.” “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.” “Whosoever confesseth me before men, him will I confess before my Father in heaven.”
The apostles emphasized the priesthood of believers. The Apostle Peter writes in his first epistle 2:5 and 9: “Ye also are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood.” Paul made frequent use of laymen and urged the believers to prophesy “that all may learn.” The Thessalonians were told to “edify one another.” He urged upon the Colossians to “let the Word of God dwell in them richly in all wisdom, teaching one another and admonishing one another” in the worship of their assemblies. Peter exhorts the Christians: “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same, one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.”
Paul speaks in his epistles of these laymen, as “co-laborers.” Many prominent lay-preachers are mentioned in the book of Acts and the Pauline epistles, as Barnabas, Timothy, Titus, Silas, Agabus, Apollos and others. Titus was left by Paul in Crete to “ordain elders in every city.” Timothy was stationed at Ephesus by Paul to see to it that certain men “teach no other doctrine.”
And it is noteworthy that this early lay-activity was carried on in close touch with the mother-church at Jerusalem and under the direction and supervision of the apostles.
But as the church gradually became more and more formalistic and the clergy became an organized group that took over the authority in the church, lay-activity gradually decreased until the preaching of laymen was silenced. The church became a priest-ridden institution. The apostolic church life and activity gave way to a dead Catholicism. However, church history tells us that in places elders continued to be elected in the congregations according to the practice of the early church even one hundred years after Christianity became a state religion. The church historian, Bang, describes a public worship in Milan, Italy, while Ambrose was bishop there, where “the deacons took part with free prayer, supplication, intercession and thanksgiving.”
But the Papacy soon put an end to lay-preaching and praying in public worship. In the period between 300 and 600 a marked distinction developed between clergy and laity. All preaching was restricted to the clergy and charity work became institutional, instead of congregational as it was in the Apostolic Church.
Then followed the dark middle ages up to the Reformation. Here and there appeared a few rays of light as forerunners of the Reformation revival. History relates how some devout laymen with courage of their convictions ventured to raise their voices in protest and testimony against the corruption of the priesthood, and endeavored to lift up the torch of the saving truth. In France, Peter Waldus and his followers, known as the Waldenses, preached in the streets, in houses and even in the churches. And when expelled from their homes and their country, they traveled two and two through Southern France, and into Switzerland and Northern Italy, preaching the Word. In England Wycliff sent out laypreachers, who went from place to place opening the Scriptures, that their leader had translated into the language of the people. In Italy St. Francis of Assisi, a layman, was a powerful preacher and founded the order of preaching monks called the Franciscans. In the early part of the 15th century John Huss preached in Bohemia and fearlessly attacked the sins of the priesthood and the false teachings and practices of the church. There were several forerunners of the Reformation, hut they were silenced.
Luther re-stated and strongly emphasized the long-neglected scriptural doctrine of the universal priesthood of believers. He gave the laity the Bible in their own language, introduced popular education and encouraged lay-activity, as far as it was possible in those days, when the common people were in a state of alarming ignorance. In his sermon on St. Stephen’s Day he says: “Here the question arises, whether a layman may also preach. The example of Stephen clearly indicates that anyone may do so, wherever there are those who will hear, but not when the apostles themselves are present.” In another place he says: “A Christian impelled by brotherly love, regards the distress of poor souls, does not wait for instructions or letters of authority to be given him by princes or bishops, since necessity breaks all laws. Love is in duty bound to help, where there is no one else to do so.” But Luther was hampered in using laymen as he did not have those properly qualified. Ignorance was dense and general. He saw first the need of educating the Christian laity. He says: “It were well, if we had the right kind of people to begin with, to divide a city into four or five districts and to assign to each district a pastor and several deacons, who would supply it with preaching and distribute alms, visit the sick and see to it that no one suffered want. But we do not have the persons for it. I therefore fear to undertake it, until our Lord shall make Christians.”
From this time on, lay-activity was more and more recognized and advocated in the church of the Reformation.
In the struggle against rationalism in the 18th and 19th centuries Christian laymen played an important part. Already in the latter half of the 17th century the Pietists with Spener
and Francke as leaders, there arose a mighty lay movement in the church to counteract the dead orthodoxy and formalism that had crept into the Lutheran church of Germany. An intense and general study of Scripture by the laity was revived, and the vital truths were applied so as to result in genuine piety and Christian service. New stress was laid on the doctrine of the universal priesthood of believers. From the Halle institutions went forth Spirit-filled men as teachers, lay- preachers as well as pastors. Pietism fostered a great missionary zeal; sending out from Halle into the Foreign field such consecrated and courageous men as Ziegenbalg, Plutschau, Schultze, Schwartz, Callenberg and Zinzendorf.
Pietism, as represented by Spener and Francke, was a return to the vital, practical, and scriptural religion of the apostolic church and was not intended to ever develop into a separatistic movement, but to act in the congregations as a leaven in the lump. But unfortunately, partly driven to it by the stubborn and bitter opposition of rationalistic leaders and an external religion in the church on the one hand, and because of the extreme sensationalism and unchurchliness by later pietistic leaders on the other hand, it lost much of its wholesome influence by becoming sectarian and separatistic. However, the pietistic movement exerted a powerful influence in the struggle against rationalism and formalism ever since the Reformation. The leaders of Pietism have always stressed the development of the spiritual gifts and lay-activity both in its congregational and institutional aspect. Lay-leaders like Johan Kiesling, Christian Zeller, Johan Oberlin, Johannes Falk and others wielded a mighty influence in various fields of Christian service in Germany and Austria in the 18th century. In Scotland, David Nasmuth, the founder of City Missions, and others headed a lay movement. Hans Nielsen Hauge, the “Spener of the North” was the God-sent Christian layman, to champion the cause of the pietistic movement and lay-preaching in Norway.
But the one who was first to organize and systematize lay- activity in the Lutheran Church according to the life-principles laid down in Scripture and practiced by the Apostolic Church, was Johan Heinrich Wichern, “The Father of Inner Mission.” He re-stated the cardinal doctrine of the universal priesthood of believers, and advocated the vital need of awakening, fostering and utilizing spiritual forces of the laity into channels of Christian service. He sought to enlist the entire body of believers to co-operate in close touch with the church authorities. He says: “When we speak of the general priesthood of the believers, we have in mind the privilege that all believers have of direct access to the Father through Christ, and in Christ’s Name at all times to worship and serve God, thus bringing Him their life and entire person as a sacrifice. But the offering of such a sacrifice as an act of faith in the Son of God, transforms the believer into a fountain of blessing, in whom is fulfilled the gracious promise, that out of his life shall flow rivers of living water. The congregation thus becomes a congregation of priests, a royal people of God, in which each one who has received the witness of God, himself becomes a witness of the life that God gives.” Wichern, like the earlier Pietiests, met with the opposition of the ecclesiastic authorities, and was looked upon as an advocate of a movement disloyal to the church. But he gained the support and wholehearted co-operation of such devout and able leaders in the church as Fliedner, Löhe, Bodelschwing, Stocker and others in the early 19th century, and the movement swept over all of Lutheran Germany. The deaconate was revived on New Testament basis. This gave rise to a trained and well- educated laity, which engaged in organized lay-activity, both congregational and institutional. Deacons and deaconesses were trained and employed in large numbers in the colonies of mercy established at Bielefeld, Kaiserswerth, Neuendetelsau and other deaconess institutions, from which proceeded an army of deaconesses and deacons, well-trained for the ministry of mercy. Many of them assisted in preaching, teaching and personal soul-winning work.
Lay-preaching was advocated strongly by Wichern in his Denkschrift. He says: “The Gospel must be preached from the housetops. It must be freely offered in the market places, on the streets, if the masses cannot be reached in any other way. Our church must have its itinerant preachers and colporteurs. The Word must be made effective in sermon, in conversation and in printed form. Such preachers would co-operate with the settled pastors.”
In suggesting such itinerant lay-preachers Wichern had in mind the evangelists of the Apostolic Church (Acts 21:8; Eph. 4:11; 2 Tim. 4:5) who, as traveling missionaries, were assistants to the apostles and mainly under their direction, went about from place to place, preaching the Gospel. This ideal was only in part, realized.
Laymen formed groups and associations to realize this plan. Again they were opposed as being disloyal to the church, lax in doctrine and separatistic, while others regarded this tendency as a wholesome leaven in the congregations. A blessed service was rendered by these devout laymen and women in the 19th century in Sunday Schools and Bible Classes, and by distribution of the printed Word. However, the lay-activity in recent years in Germany has mainly been confined to institutional work of mercy through the well-organized colonies of mercy and mother-houses. There is some preaching and personal work done in the various activities of the local churches by laymen.
In Great Britain lay-activity developed at first mainly along practical ministry of mercy, in institutions, city missions, orphanages and prisons. In the great spiritual revival brought about by the preaching of Whitefield and the Wesleys in the 18th century, lay-preaching was greatly developed. Wesley instituted a system of itinerant lay-preaching. He met every year in conference with these itinerant preachers. Though unordained, these men were not unlearned. Out of this movement grew the establishment of the Sunday School by Raikes and the Salvation Army. ForeignMissions received a tremendous impetus. Bible and tract societies were also organized.
Again we find that the established church opposed this vital movement, which nevertheless became the saving agency in quickening and utilizing the spiritual forces of church communities.
This pietistic type of religion was transplanted to America and found a mighty expression in the Great Awakening. A wave of revivalism swept over the Reformed churches in America in the nineteenth century under the powerful ministry of Charles G. Finney and later of Sam Jones and D. L. Moody. A vigorous lay-activity followed as a result.
In the Scandinavian countries lay-activity developed along quite different lines and, to begin with, consisted mainly in lay-preaching and in the participation of lay-Christians with testimony and prayer in smaller groups and public meetings. Rationalism held sway in the state-church of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Hans Nielsen Hauge under God became the Spirit-filled and fearless leader against dead orthodoxy and formalism in Norway. Hauge and his co-workers traveled throughout Norway in the last half of the eighteenth and the first part of the nineteenth century, preaching the Gospel and earnestly applying it in all its simplicity and in his effective way. People were converted in large numbers. Groups of pious lay-people gathered in meetings, and the revival spread irresistibly, braving the most vigorous opposition by the church and state authorities. Many were fined and imprisoned. Hauge himself was imprisoned for ten years. George Brandes, Danish critic, says: “Hans Nielsen Hauge introduced Christianity into Norway.” There is considerable truth in this blunt statement. The clergy bitterly opposed and persecuted him. However, Bishop Johan N. Bruun in Bergen met the persecutors with this retort: “It is your duty to preach just what Hauge is preaching.”
The pietistic revival movement of Hauge was vigorously followed up by a number of able laymen, who deserve a place in this important period of Norway’s church history. We may mention here a few: Lars Kyllingen, Haugvaldstad, Ole Sivertsen, Elling Eielsen, Anders Haave, Iver Gabestad, Per Nordsletten, Daniel Arneson, and J. Traasdahl.
Hauge was always loyal to the church and warned his followers against any schismatic agitations. He says: “Furthermore I admonish you hereafter as formerly not to separate yourselves from the Lutheran Church.”
At first the laymen’s movement in Norway found expression mainly in holding revival meetings in the homes, where a local layman or an itinerant lay-preacher would preach, and as a rule he would ask someone to open and to close the meeting with prayer. These lay-preachers would travel from community to community and preach without pay, except what friends might give them. Testimony and prayer-meetings as we have them were not conducted at that time. They developed later.
In recent years the lay-forces of Norway have organized into several factions, like the “Indremission,” “Kinamission,” and “Landsmissionen.” To begin with, these were quite antagonistic towards each other. Schools have been built by these organizations for the education of lay-preachers and evangelists. Many of these traveling preachers are now salaried. This new development in lay-activity seemed to have disturbed greatly and supplanted the former free and unsalaried lay-preaching and has occasioned much criticism.
Rosenius, who was the leader of the Pietistic movement in Sweden, whose preaching was more of the gentle, evangelical type, greatly influenced the lay-preaching in Norway, which had been more stern and legalistic. Traasdahl, especially, was the leading representative of the Rosenian type among the recent lay-preachers in Norway.
The lay-activity of the Inner Mission societies in Norway today is exerting a powerful and wholesome influence upon the spiritual life in the church. Their preaching and methods of soul-winning are sound and scriptural.
In Denmark during the last century Kristen Madsen was the outstanding lay-preacher. He was assisted by the farmer boy, Peder Laursen, Rasmus Ottesen, and Rasmus Sorensen. Here also the pietistic 1aymovement met with stubborn resistance.
Grundtvig, and later Vilhelm Beck, the founder of the Inner-mission movement, to a great extent made the pietistic cause popular in large portions of the Danish Lutheran Church.
In Sweden the pietistic lay-activity received a permanent backing through the “evangeliske fosterlandsstiftelse” (1856), which also established a mission school to train workers.
The lay-activity in America among our Norwegian Lutherans has an interesting history. They were lay-preachers, who laid the foundation of the Lutheran church life in the pioneer days of our Norwegian settlements. Elling Eielsen and Claus Clausen and Gunnar Graven, who later became a pastor in the Hauge synod, were the pioneer lay-preachers. Lars Dahle says concerning Graven: “Of all lay-preachers I have had an opportunity to hear in my long life, no one has made such an impression on me as Gunnar Graven.”
The first beginnings of Lutheran church work in America among the Norwegians date back to 1836. The State church of Norway did nothing for the early settlers here. Nor were the first steps to gather them for worship taken by any clergyman. It was a lay-movement to begin with. Among the first settlers there were some pious laymen, friends of Hauge, who began to gather the people in the homes for worship. Among these were Ole Olson Hetletvedt, a school teacher, who was the first one to visit the various communities to conduct meetings. Bjørn Hattlestad came to America in 1836 and preached to the settlers. Later, Peder Asbjørnson came to assist him. In the Muskego settlement Even Hegg gathered the people for worship in his barn. Here Claus L. Clausen was later ordained to the ministry, and became the first pastor of the Muskego congregation, Muskego, Wis.
For several years these and other devout laymen baptized, taught and preached and distributed Bibles and Christian literature.
The lay-preacher, who wielded the greatest influence among the early settlers was Elling Eielsen from Voss. As a young man he was converted in one of the Haugean revivals and traveled throughout Norway preaching as a fervent spiritual son of Hauge for seven years. He also preached in Sweden and Denmark, where he was imprisoned for his Master’s sake. He was unafraid, stern and quite self-willed, which often invited friction between him and his fellow-Christians. He lacked the tact and considerateness and patience of Hauge. He came to America in 1839 and preached his first sermon in Chicago to a group gathered in the home of an English speaking lady. Then he settled in the Fox River settlement in Illinois, where he made his headquarters. But he traveled extensively visiting the various settlements in Illinois, ‘Wisconsin, Texas, Minnesota and South Dakota.
Eielsen stands as the most typical representative of the low-churchly and pietistic tendency in firm opposition to the high-churchly and formal tendency represented by the traditional state-church Christianity. Because of the severe persecution of Hauge and the opposition he himself had met from the state church, Eielsen became a radical opponent to high-churchly views and practices.
Another layman, Clausen, who had early in life been converted and during his stay in Norway came in contact with the friends of Hauge, came to America in 1843, four years later than Eielsen. He was called to the Muskego settlement to serve as teacher in religion, but was soon ordained on call to become the first pastor of the Muskego congregation. He was a Dane and, although a pious Christian, yet with a more high-churchly background, he became the typical leader for the more high-churchly tendency. Eielsen was present at the first meeting held by Clausen on coming to Muskego and after the meeting they took a walk together and discussed “whether they could work together or part.” They could not agree, and here began the first split of the Lutheran forces among the Norwegians in America. Eielsen did not hesitate to go and preach anywhere, whether they had any pastor or not, as long as he was invited by one or more. Clausen respected churchly order, but Eielsen did not. In this respect, Clausen and Eielsen could not agree. Eielsen gathered small groups in the various settlements and was known to speak of them as pious Christians, who “belonged to us,” while the others he considered as the worldly group. Two other laymen from Norway joined him, Ole Andrewson and Paul Anderson, who later were ordained to the ministry. Eielsen, too, was ordained in 1843 and served congregations in Illinois, Jefferson Prairie, Wis., and Chicago. He was instrumental in organizing what is known as Elling’s synod in 1846 and was its first president.
The parting of these two lay-leaders occasioned the formation of two separate synodical organizations, representing the two spiritual tendencies that have always in larger or lesser degree, manifested themselves in the post-apostolic Christian Church, namely the conservative tendency that lays a one-sided emphasis on baptism and religious training and pure doctrine, coupled with elaborate ceremonies and liturgical forms in public worship, on the one hand, and the low-church tendency, that in addition to holding on to the pure doctrine emphasizes spiritual awakening and a definite expression of spiritual life in word and deed, and favoring free and simple forms of worship.
Later, there were other divisions in the church in this country, occasioned by controversies over questions of doctrine and practices; but under it all one can see these two tendencies, clashing more or less as the underlying and real cause of the controversies.
Since the church union movements of late years have united several of these synods, we find the same characteristic views asserting themselves in the new organizations. Though agreed in doctrine, we find the high-church and the low-church tendencies represented in pastors and congregations. There need be no antagonism between them. They should supplement one another and co-operate in effecting a well-balanced churchliness and exercise of spiritual life. We need a proper and clear emphasis on orthodoxy in doctrine, and we need to emphasize the pietistic life-principles in our church-life and service. The two combined and duly emphasized will avoid the harmful extremes, dead orthodoxism and formalism on the one hand and a superficial and unsound emotionalism (sværmeri) on the other hand. Lay-preaching has been encouraged and has performed a vital and valuable service in this country among our people. In the earlier organizations, known as Elling’s synod, the Norwegian Augustana synod, the Hauge synod, The Conference, the low-church views and practices and pietistic life-principles were the controlling influences. And lay-activity was freely practiced and encouraged. In recent years the Hauges synod, the Lutheran Free Church and United Lutheran Church, representing this tendency, and lay-preaching was extensively exercised in the congregations. Laymen were sent out into congregations, where they were invited to hold meetings. It was quite generally practised in those days, that the different circuits would choose one or more laymen of good report and well-qualified to serve as emissaries or evangelists. They were recommended to the congregations in the circuit. In the local congregation the spiritual gifts of the lay-forces were made use of in the various congregational activities. Prayer-meetings were held where men and women took part with free prayer and testimony.
In the course of time, the laymen organized a number of Inner-mission societies for the purpose of assisting more helpfully the pastors and congregations in awakening and fostering the spiritual gifts. A blessed service has been rendered our churches by these auxiliary organizations of the Christian laity.
The Norwegian Synod represented the high-church type of Christianity among us. They made use of their laymen in certain congregational activities such as teaching in Sunday School, conducting reading services, singing in choirs, and so forth, but they did not encourage lay-preaching. If a layman came to them and was found well-qualified to preach the Word of God, he was ordained to the ministry after a longer or shorter stay at the theological seminary.
Since the union in 1917, lay-activity has had full sanction by the church and continued under proper supervision and leadership. The joint resolutions on lay-activity agreed to in the union are the following:
In the articles of union the Norwegian Lutheran Church at the organization meeting in 1917 adopted the following resolution regarding lay-activity:
“In order to avoid any possible misunderstanding in the case, the conferring church bodies sanction the Christian lay- activity, as it is described in the union report, and that it be fostered. It shall not be regarded as unchurchly or fanatical, that people come together for united prayer and effective work for an awakening and spiritual life.”
Since the union in 1917, I have observed many encouraging signs to prove that the union was a step in the right direction. In many congregations of the former Norwegian synod prayer- meetings are being conducted and our evangelists and lay-preachers are being invited to hold revival meetings, something unheard of before the union.
Another development, which augurs well for the Lutheran Church of the future is the closer inter-relation and co-operation between the various Lutheran church bodies brought about by the organization of the American Lutheran Conference. Prejudice, intolerance, and quibbling over non-essentials are gradually giving way to a larger emphasis upon all that we Lutherans have in common, and the need of uniting our spiritual forces to meet effectively the mighty wave of apostacy, modernism and materialism of today.
These pietistic lay-forces in the different Lutheran church bodies seek to find each other. Thus we find today the various Inner-mission societies and the recently organized “Indremissionsforbund” containing members from the Lutheran Free Church, the Norwegian Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Brotherhood, working in harmony. There may be a difference of opinion between some as to the kind of control should be exercised over lay-activity in order to avoid any unsound and unchurchly development in the church.
We need to encourage a scriptural and harmonious co-operation of our Spirit-filled and Spirit-led clergy and laity.
Whenever there has been a movement in the church to restate and revive the doctrine of the priesthood of believers, and awaken the spiritual life during periods of worldliness and cold formalism in the church, it has nearly always been championed by some Spirit-filled layman, for instance Francis of Assisi, Peter Waldus, Finney, Hauge, Eielsen, Moody and others. Even the great Lutheran Reformation started with a devout layman, Martin Luther, while he as a devout Augustinian monk, sought and found peace in the saving truths of the Gospel.
The spiritual lay-forces among us furnish a wholesome leaven in the church. Our lay-leaders are united in the main and vital purpose and principles of a pietistic evangelical Christianity.
There may be some far-fetched radicalism here and there, but by tactful and sympathetic co-operation on the part of clergy and laity the genuine Lutheran piety will be preserved under the guidance of the Holy Spirit so as to find a sound, scriptural and blessed expression of Christian faith-life and service of love.
If the lay-activity shall be preserved and be made the largest possible blessing, we need to develop a new generation of devout lay-preachers, who speak the language of the land and who are able to preach the Word in a clear, plain and convincing manner. Our future lay-preachers will need a certain amount of practical training in how to preach and how to handle the Bible truths, besides being mature and consecrated men of God, feeling the urge of the Holy Spirit to preach the Word and win souls for Christ.
To our young men, who are going out as pastors we would say: be prepared to work together with the laymen and thus gain their confidence. If you meet with any radicalism or any unsound views, you will be enabled to direct, correct and lead them. They will listen to your advice, because they have confidence in you as a layman’s friend.
Our Lutheran Church, scriptural in doctrine and, so far, free from the contagion of modernism, need to apply the saving truth to the hearts of men, and pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that we may have a deeply consecrated and surrendered clergy and laity, separated from the weakening and contaminating ‘ways and pursuits of the world.
Let me close with a paragraph from the venerable and pious Lutheran father, the late Dr. G. H. Gerberding in his last book, “Reminiscent Reflections”: “I fear that dead orthodoxism which is satisfied and glories in possessing the pure doctrine. As my books and my teaching show, no one can prize and love true, sound, scriptural doctrine more than I do. But to my sorrow I know and have too often noted that it is possible to have the true doctrine in the head and to have, at the same time, a heart as cold’ as a hail-stone.—I fear those ministers among us who seem to be terribly afraid of Pietism. They do not explain the distinction between false and true Pietism. To have ever a greater and deeper measure of the latter is surely one of our greatest needs. Indeed it is the very essence, the heart and life of true Lutheranism. God give us more of it!”
IN THIS discussion we are concerned mainly with lay-activity in its narrower and more specific sense, namely lay-preaching and personal work in soul-winning.
Lay-preaching and lay-leadership in public worship is old. We find it exercised in the Old Testament times. The Jewish synagogue came into existence shortly after the return from the Babylonian captivity. At this time there was a spiritual awakening in Israel, synagogues were built, one or more in every village and city, where the people gathered for worship on the Sabbath Day and also in the week. And as a rule the worship in these synagogues was led by laymen. Elders were chosen for such leadership. The ruler of the synagogue exercised much liberty; he did not always lead the worship himself, but often called on other laymen to lead. Up to as many as seven would be called on at one meeting. If a rabbi or priest was present, he would be asked to pronounce the benediction. We are told that the rabbi was offended, when the people crowded the synagogue to hear a layman, while he would deliver his lecture to a handful of people in a synagogue nearby.
In the New Testament times we find, that no sooner had the mother-church at Jerusalem been established, when lay- activity grew out of the vigorous Christian life that characterized the Apostolic Church. Seven elders or deacons were chosen to assist the apostles. They were men “of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom.” Their work was to care for the poor and needy; but they also preached the Word of God. Stephen and Philip were mighty lay-preachers. And when the persecution broke out in Jerusalem the Christians were “scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria—and went everywhere, preaching the Word” (Acts 8:1 and 4).
The Savior has sanctioned lay-activity by word and deed. He sent out seventy lay-preachers, two and two together, on short missionary visits into the villages. He emphasized again and again the needs of the personal testimony. He says to His followers: “Ye are the light of the world, the salt of the earth.” “Ye are my witnesses.” “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.” “Whosoever confesseth me before men, him will I confess before my Father in heaven.”
The apostles emphasized the priesthood of believers. The Apostle Peter writes in his first epistle 2:5 and 9: “Ye also are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood.” Paul made frequent use of laymen and urged the believers to prophesy “that all may learn.” The Thessalonians were told to “edify one another.” He urged upon the Colossians to “let the Word of God dwell in them richly in all wisdom, teaching one another and admonishing one another” in the worship of their assemblies. Peter exhorts the Christians: “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same, one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.”
Paul speaks in his epistles of these laymen, as “co-laborers.” Many prominent lay-preachers are mentioned in the book of Acts and the Pauline epistles, as Barnabas, Timothy, Titus, Silas, Agabus, Apollos and others. Titus was left by Paul in Crete to “ordain elders in every city.” Timothy was stationed at Ephesus by Paul to see to it that certain men “teach no other doctrine.”
And it is noteworthy that this early lay-activity was carried on in close touch with the mother-church at Jerusalem and under the direction and supervision of the apostles.
But as the church gradually became more and more formalistic and the clergy became an organized group that took over the authority in the church, lay-activity gradually decreased until the preaching of laymen was silenced. The church became a priest-ridden institution. The apostolic church life and activity gave way to a dead Catholicism. However, church history tells us that in places elders continued to be elected in the congregations according to the practice of the early church even one hundred years after Christianity became a state religion. The church historian, Bang, describes a public worship in Milan, Italy, while Ambrose was bishop there, where “the deacons took part with free prayer, supplication, intercession and thanksgiving.”
But the Papacy soon put an end to lay-preaching and praying in public worship. In the period between 300 and 600 a marked distinction developed between clergy and laity. All preaching was restricted to the clergy and charity work became institutional, instead of congregational as it was in the Apostolic Church.
Then followed the dark middle ages up to the Reformation. Here and there appeared a few rays of light as forerunners of the Reformation revival. History relates how some devout laymen with courage of their convictions ventured to raise their voices in protest and testimony against the corruption of the priesthood, and endeavored to lift up the torch of the saving truth. In France, Peter Waldus and his followers, known as the Waldenses, preached in the streets, in houses and even in the churches. And when expelled from their homes and their country, they traveled two and two through Southern France, and into Switzerland and Northern Italy, preaching the Word. In England Wycliff sent out laypreachers, who went from place to place opening the Scriptures, that their leader had translated into the language of the people. In Italy St. Francis of Assisi, a layman, was a powerful preacher and founded the order of preaching monks called the Franciscans. In the early part of the 15th century John Huss preached in Bohemia and fearlessly attacked the sins of the priesthood and the false teachings and practices of the church. There were several forerunners of the Reformation, hut they were silenced.
Luther re-stated and strongly emphasized the long-neglected scriptural doctrine of the universal priesthood of believers. He gave the laity the Bible in their own language, introduced popular education and encouraged lay-activity, as far as it was possible in those days, when the common people were in a state of alarming ignorance. In his sermon on St. Stephen’s Day he says: “Here the question arises, whether a layman may also preach. The example of Stephen clearly indicates that anyone may do so, wherever there are those who will hear, but not when the apostles themselves are present.” In another place he says: “A Christian impelled by brotherly love, regards the distress of poor souls, does not wait for instructions or letters of authority to be given him by princes or bishops, since necessity breaks all laws. Love is in duty bound to help, where there is no one else to do so.” But Luther was hampered in using laymen as he did not have those properly qualified. Ignorance was dense and general. He saw first the need of educating the Christian laity. He says: “It were well, if we had the right kind of people to begin with, to divide a city into four or five districts and to assign to each district a pastor and several deacons, who would supply it with preaching and distribute alms, visit the sick and see to it that no one suffered want. But we do not have the persons for it. I therefore fear to undertake it, until our Lord shall make Christians.”
From this time on, lay-activity was more and more recognized and advocated in the church of the Reformation.
In the struggle against rationalism in the 18th and 19th centuries Christian laymen played an important part. Already in the latter half of the 17th century the Pietists with Spener
and Francke as leaders, there arose a mighty lay movement in the church to counteract the dead orthodoxy and formalism that had crept into the Lutheran church of Germany. An intense and general study of Scripture by the laity was revived, and the vital truths were applied so as to result in genuine piety and Christian service. New stress was laid on the doctrine of the universal priesthood of believers. From the Halle institutions went forth Spirit-filled men as teachers, lay- preachers as well as pastors. Pietism fostered a great missionary zeal; sending out from Halle into the Foreign field such consecrated and courageous men as Ziegenbalg, Plutschau, Schultze, Schwartz, Callenberg and Zinzendorf.
Pietism, as represented by Spener and Francke, was a return to the vital, practical, and scriptural religion of the apostolic church and was not intended to ever develop into a separatistic movement, but to act in the congregations as a leaven in the lump. But unfortunately, partly driven to it by the stubborn and bitter opposition of rationalistic leaders and an external religion in the church on the one hand, and because of the extreme sensationalism and unchurchliness by later pietistic leaders on the other hand, it lost much of its wholesome influence by becoming sectarian and separatistic. However, the pietistic movement exerted a powerful influence in the struggle against rationalism and formalism ever since the Reformation. The leaders of Pietism have always stressed the development of the spiritual gifts and lay-activity both in its congregational and institutional aspect. Lay-leaders like Johan Kiesling, Christian Zeller, Johan Oberlin, Johannes Falk and others wielded a mighty influence in various fields of Christian service in Germany and Austria in the 18th century. In Scotland, David Nasmuth, the founder of City Missions, and others headed a lay movement. Hans Nielsen Hauge, the “Spener of the North” was the God-sent Christian layman, to champion the cause of the pietistic movement and lay-preaching in Norway.
But the one who was first to organize and systematize lay- activity in the Lutheran Church according to the life-principles laid down in Scripture and practiced by the Apostolic Church, was Johan Heinrich Wichern, “The Father of Inner Mission.” He re-stated the cardinal doctrine of the universal priesthood of believers, and advocated the vital need of awakening, fostering and utilizing spiritual forces of the laity into channels of Christian service. He sought to enlist the entire body of believers to co-operate in close touch with the church authorities. He says: “When we speak of the general priesthood of the believers, we have in mind the privilege that all believers have of direct access to the Father through Christ, and in Christ’s Name at all times to worship and serve God, thus bringing Him their life and entire person as a sacrifice. But the offering of such a sacrifice as an act of faith in the Son of God, transforms the believer into a fountain of blessing, in whom is fulfilled the gracious promise, that out of his life shall flow rivers of living water. The congregation thus becomes a congregation of priests, a royal people of God, in which each one who has received the witness of God, himself becomes a witness of the life that God gives.” Wichern, like the earlier Pietiests, met with the opposition of the ecclesiastic authorities, and was looked upon as an advocate of a movement disloyal to the church. But he gained the support and wholehearted co-operation of such devout and able leaders in the church as Fliedner, Löhe, Bodelschwing, Stocker and others in the early 19th century, and the movement swept over all of Lutheran Germany. The deaconate was revived on New Testament basis. This gave rise to a trained and well- educated laity, which engaged in organized lay-activity, both congregational and institutional. Deacons and deaconesses were trained and employed in large numbers in the colonies of mercy established at Bielefeld, Kaiserswerth, Neuendetelsau and other deaconess institutions, from which proceeded an army of deaconesses and deacons, well-trained for the ministry of mercy. Many of them assisted in preaching, teaching and personal soul-winning work.
Lay-preaching was advocated strongly by Wichern in his Denkschrift. He says: “The Gospel must be preached from the housetops. It must be freely offered in the market places, on the streets, if the masses cannot be reached in any other way. Our church must have its itinerant preachers and colporteurs. The Word must be made effective in sermon, in conversation and in printed form. Such preachers would co-operate with the settled pastors.”
In suggesting such itinerant lay-preachers Wichern had in mind the evangelists of the Apostolic Church (Acts 21:8; Eph. 4:11; 2 Tim. 4:5) who, as traveling missionaries, were assistants to the apostles and mainly under their direction, went about from place to place, preaching the Gospel. This ideal was only in part, realized.
Laymen formed groups and associations to realize this plan. Again they were opposed as being disloyal to the church, lax in doctrine and separatistic, while others regarded this tendency as a wholesome leaven in the congregations. A blessed service was rendered by these devout laymen and women in the 19th century in Sunday Schools and Bible Classes, and by distribution of the printed Word. However, the lay-activity in recent years in Germany has mainly been confined to institutional work of mercy through the well-organized colonies of mercy and mother-houses. There is some preaching and personal work done in the various activities of the local churches by laymen.
In Great Britain lay-activity developed at first mainly along practical ministry of mercy, in institutions, city missions, orphanages and prisons. In the great spiritual revival brought about by the preaching of Whitefield and the Wesleys in the 18th century, lay-preaching was greatly developed. Wesley instituted a system of itinerant lay-preaching. He met every year in conference with these itinerant preachers. Though unordained, these men were not unlearned. Out of this movement grew the establishment of the Sunday School by Raikes and the Salvation Army. ForeignMissions received a tremendous impetus. Bible and tract societies were also organized.
Again we find that the established church opposed this vital movement, which nevertheless became the saving agency in quickening and utilizing the spiritual forces of church communities.
This pietistic type of religion was transplanted to America and found a mighty expression in the Great Awakening. A wave of revivalism swept over the Reformed churches in America in the nineteenth century under the powerful ministry of Charles G. Finney and later of Sam Jones and D. L. Moody. A vigorous lay-activity followed as a result.
In the Scandinavian countries lay-activity developed along quite different lines and, to begin with, consisted mainly in lay-preaching and in the participation of lay-Christians with testimony and prayer in smaller groups and public meetings. Rationalism held sway in the state-church of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Hans Nielsen Hauge under God became the Spirit-filled and fearless leader against dead orthodoxy and formalism in Norway. Hauge and his co-workers traveled throughout Norway in the last half of the eighteenth and the first part of the nineteenth century, preaching the Gospel and earnestly applying it in all its simplicity and in his effective way. People were converted in large numbers. Groups of pious lay-people gathered in meetings, and the revival spread irresistibly, braving the most vigorous opposition by the church and state authorities. Many were fined and imprisoned. Hauge himself was imprisoned for ten years. George Brandes, Danish critic, says: “Hans Nielsen Hauge introduced Christianity into Norway.” There is considerable truth in this blunt statement. The clergy bitterly opposed and persecuted him. However, Bishop Johan N. Bruun in Bergen met the persecutors with this retort: “It is your duty to preach just what Hauge is preaching.”
The pietistic revival movement of Hauge was vigorously followed up by a number of able laymen, who deserve a place in this important period of Norway’s church history. We may mention here a few: Lars Kyllingen, Haugvaldstad, Ole Sivertsen, Elling Eielsen, Anders Haave, Iver Gabestad, Per Nordsletten, Daniel Arneson, and J. Traasdahl.
Hauge was always loyal to the church and warned his followers against any schismatic agitations. He says: “Furthermore I admonish you hereafter as formerly not to separate yourselves from the Lutheran Church.”
At first the laymen’s movement in Norway found expression mainly in holding revival meetings in the homes, where a local layman or an itinerant lay-preacher would preach, and as a rule he would ask someone to open and to close the meeting with prayer. These lay-preachers would travel from community to community and preach without pay, except what friends might give them. Testimony and prayer-meetings as we have them were not conducted at that time. They developed later.
In recent years the lay-forces of Norway have organized into several factions, like the “Indremission,” “Kinamission,” and “Landsmissionen.” To begin with, these were quite antagonistic towards each other. Schools have been built by these organizations for the education of lay-preachers and evangelists. Many of these traveling preachers are now salaried. This new development in lay-activity seemed to have disturbed greatly and supplanted the former free and unsalaried lay-preaching and has occasioned much criticism.
Rosenius, who was the leader of the Pietistic movement in Sweden, whose preaching was more of the gentle, evangelical type, greatly influenced the lay-preaching in Norway, which had been more stern and legalistic. Traasdahl, especially, was the leading representative of the Rosenian type among the recent lay-preachers in Norway.
The lay-activity of the Inner Mission societies in Norway today is exerting a powerful and wholesome influence upon the spiritual life in the church. Their preaching and methods of soul-winning are sound and scriptural.
In Denmark during the last century Kristen Madsen was the outstanding lay-preacher. He was assisted by the farmer boy, Peder Laursen, Rasmus Ottesen, and Rasmus Sorensen. Here also the pietistic 1aymovement met with stubborn resistance.
Grundtvig, and later Vilhelm Beck, the founder of the Inner-mission movement, to a great extent made the pietistic cause popular in large portions of the Danish Lutheran Church.
In Sweden the pietistic lay-activity received a permanent backing through the “evangeliske fosterlandsstiftelse” (1856), which also established a mission school to train workers.
The lay-activity in America among our Norwegian Lutherans has an interesting history. They were lay-preachers, who laid the foundation of the Lutheran church life in the pioneer days of our Norwegian settlements. Elling Eielsen and Claus Clausen and Gunnar Graven, who later became a pastor in the Hauge synod, were the pioneer lay-preachers. Lars Dahle says concerning Graven: “Of all lay-preachers I have had an opportunity to hear in my long life, no one has made such an impression on me as Gunnar Graven.”
The first beginnings of Lutheran church work in America among the Norwegians date back to 1836. The State church of Norway did nothing for the early settlers here. Nor were the first steps to gather them for worship taken by any clergyman. It was a lay-movement to begin with. Among the first settlers there were some pious laymen, friends of Hauge, who began to gather the people in the homes for worship. Among these were Ole Olson Hetletvedt, a school teacher, who was the first one to visit the various communities to conduct meetings. Bjørn Hattlestad came to America in 1836 and preached to the settlers. Later, Peder Asbjørnson came to assist him. In the Muskego settlement Even Hegg gathered the people for worship in his barn. Here Claus L. Clausen was later ordained to the ministry, and became the first pastor of the Muskego congregation, Muskego, Wis.
For several years these and other devout laymen baptized, taught and preached and distributed Bibles and Christian literature.
The lay-preacher, who wielded the greatest influence among the early settlers was Elling Eielsen from Voss. As a young man he was converted in one of the Haugean revivals and traveled throughout Norway preaching as a fervent spiritual son of Hauge for seven years. He also preached in Sweden and Denmark, where he was imprisoned for his Master’s sake. He was unafraid, stern and quite self-willed, which often invited friction between him and his fellow-Christians. He lacked the tact and considerateness and patience of Hauge. He came to America in 1839 and preached his first sermon in Chicago to a group gathered in the home of an English speaking lady. Then he settled in the Fox River settlement in Illinois, where he made his headquarters. But he traveled extensively visiting the various settlements in Illinois, ‘Wisconsin, Texas, Minnesota and South Dakota.
Eielsen stands as the most typical representative of the low-churchly and pietistic tendency in firm opposition to the high-churchly and formal tendency represented by the traditional state-church Christianity. Because of the severe persecution of Hauge and the opposition he himself had met from the state church, Eielsen became a radical opponent to high-churchly views and practices.
Another layman, Clausen, who had early in life been converted and during his stay in Norway came in contact with the friends of Hauge, came to America in 1843, four years later than Eielsen. He was called to the Muskego settlement to serve as teacher in religion, but was soon ordained on call to become the first pastor of the Muskego congregation. He was a Dane and, although a pious Christian, yet with a more high-churchly background, he became the typical leader for the more high-churchly tendency. Eielsen was present at the first meeting held by Clausen on coming to Muskego and after the meeting they took a walk together and discussed “whether they could work together or part.” They could not agree, and here began the first split of the Lutheran forces among the Norwegians in America. Eielsen did not hesitate to go and preach anywhere, whether they had any pastor or not, as long as he was invited by one or more. Clausen respected churchly order, but Eielsen did not. In this respect, Clausen and Eielsen could not agree. Eielsen gathered small groups in the various settlements and was known to speak of them as pious Christians, who “belonged to us,” while the others he considered as the worldly group. Two other laymen from Norway joined him, Ole Andrewson and Paul Anderson, who later were ordained to the ministry. Eielsen, too, was ordained in 1843 and served congregations in Illinois, Jefferson Prairie, Wis., and Chicago. He was instrumental in organizing what is known as Elling’s synod in 1846 and was its first president.
The parting of these two lay-leaders occasioned the formation of two separate synodical organizations, representing the two spiritual tendencies that have always in larger or lesser degree, manifested themselves in the post-apostolic Christian Church, namely the conservative tendency that lays a one-sided emphasis on baptism and religious training and pure doctrine, coupled with elaborate ceremonies and liturgical forms in public worship, on the one hand, and the low-church tendency, that in addition to holding on to the pure doctrine emphasizes spiritual awakening and a definite expression of spiritual life in word and deed, and favoring free and simple forms of worship.
Later, there were other divisions in the church in this country, occasioned by controversies over questions of doctrine and practices; but under it all one can see these two tendencies, clashing more or less as the underlying and real cause of the controversies.
Since the church union movements of late years have united several of these synods, we find the same characteristic views asserting themselves in the new organizations. Though agreed in doctrine, we find the high-church and the low-church tendencies represented in pastors and congregations. There need be no antagonism between them. They should supplement one another and co-operate in effecting a well-balanced churchliness and exercise of spiritual life. We need a proper and clear emphasis on orthodoxy in doctrine, and we need to emphasize the pietistic life-principles in our church-life and service. The two combined and duly emphasized will avoid the harmful extremes, dead orthodoxism and formalism on the one hand and a superficial and unsound emotionalism (sværmeri) on the other hand. Lay-preaching has been encouraged and has performed a vital and valuable service in this country among our people. In the earlier organizations, known as Elling’s synod, the Norwegian Augustana synod, the Hauge synod, The Conference, the low-church views and practices and pietistic life-principles were the controlling influences. And lay-activity was freely practiced and encouraged. In recent years the Hauges synod, the Lutheran Free Church and United Lutheran Church, representing this tendency, and lay-preaching was extensively exercised in the congregations. Laymen were sent out into congregations, where they were invited to hold meetings. It was quite generally practised in those days, that the different circuits would choose one or more laymen of good report and well-qualified to serve as emissaries or evangelists. They were recommended to the congregations in the circuit. In the local congregation the spiritual gifts of the lay-forces were made use of in the various congregational activities. Prayer-meetings were held where men and women took part with free prayer and testimony.
In the course of time, the laymen organized a number of Inner-mission societies for the purpose of assisting more helpfully the pastors and congregations in awakening and fostering the spiritual gifts. A blessed service has been rendered our churches by these auxiliary organizations of the Christian laity.
The Norwegian Synod represented the high-church type of Christianity among us. They made use of their laymen in certain congregational activities such as teaching in Sunday School, conducting reading services, singing in choirs, and so forth, but they did not encourage lay-preaching. If a layman came to them and was found well-qualified to preach the Word of God, he was ordained to the ministry after a longer or shorter stay at the theological seminary.
Since the union in 1917, lay-activity has had full sanction by the church and continued under proper supervision and leadership. The joint resolutions on lay-activity agreed to in the union are the following:
In the articles of union the Norwegian Lutheran Church at the organization meeting in 1917 adopted the following resolution regarding lay-activity:
“In order to avoid any possible misunderstanding in the case, the conferring church bodies sanction the Christian lay- activity, as it is described in the union report, and that it be fostered. It shall not be regarded as unchurchly or fanatical, that people come together for united prayer and effective work for an awakening and spiritual life.”
Since the union in 1917, I have observed many encouraging signs to prove that the union was a step in the right direction. In many congregations of the former Norwegian synod prayer- meetings are being conducted and our evangelists and lay-preachers are being invited to hold revival meetings, something unheard of before the union.
Another development, which augurs well for the Lutheran Church of the future is the closer inter-relation and co-operation between the various Lutheran church bodies brought about by the organization of the American Lutheran Conference. Prejudice, intolerance, and quibbling over non-essentials are gradually giving way to a larger emphasis upon all that we Lutherans have in common, and the need of uniting our spiritual forces to meet effectively the mighty wave of apostacy, modernism and materialism of today.
These pietistic lay-forces in the different Lutheran church bodies seek to find each other. Thus we find today the various Inner-mission societies and the recently organized “Indremissionsforbund” containing members from the Lutheran Free Church, the Norwegian Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Brotherhood, working in harmony. There may be a difference of opinion between some as to the kind of control should be exercised over lay-activity in order to avoid any unsound and unchurchly development in the church.
We need to encourage a scriptural and harmonious co-operation of our Spirit-filled and Spirit-led clergy and laity.
Whenever there has been a movement in the church to restate and revive the doctrine of the priesthood of believers, and awaken the spiritual life during periods of worldliness and cold formalism in the church, it has nearly always been championed by some Spirit-filled layman, for instance Francis of Assisi, Peter Waldus, Finney, Hauge, Eielsen, Moody and others. Even the great Lutheran Reformation started with a devout layman, Martin Luther, while he as a devout Augustinian monk, sought and found peace in the saving truths of the Gospel.
The spiritual lay-forces among us furnish a wholesome leaven in the church. Our lay-leaders are united in the main and vital purpose and principles of a pietistic evangelical Christianity.
There may be some far-fetched radicalism here and there, but by tactful and sympathetic co-operation on the part of clergy and laity the genuine Lutheran piety will be preserved under the guidance of the Holy Spirit so as to find a sound, scriptural and blessed expression of Christian faith-life and service of love.
If the lay-activity shall be preserved and be made the largest possible blessing, we need to develop a new generation of devout lay-preachers, who speak the language of the land and who are able to preach the Word in a clear, plain and convincing manner. Our future lay-preachers will need a certain amount of practical training in how to preach and how to handle the Bible truths, besides being mature and consecrated men of God, feeling the urge of the Holy Spirit to preach the Word and win souls for Christ.
To our young men, who are going out as pastors we would say: be prepared to work together with the laymen and thus gain their confidence. If you meet with any radicalism or any unsound views, you will be enabled to direct, correct and lead them. They will listen to your advice, because they have confidence in you as a layman’s friend.
Our Lutheran Church, scriptural in doctrine and, so far, free from the contagion of modernism, need to apply the saving truth to the hearts of men, and pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that we may have a deeply consecrated and surrendered clergy and laity, separated from the weakening and contaminating ‘ways and pursuits of the world.
Let me close with a paragraph from the venerable and pious Lutheran father, the late Dr. G. H. Gerberding in his last book, “Reminiscent Reflections”: “I fear that dead orthodoxism which is satisfied and glories in possessing the pure doctrine. As my books and my teaching show, no one can prize and love true, sound, scriptural doctrine more than I do. But to my sorrow I know and have too often noted that it is possible to have the true doctrine in the head and to have, at the same time, a heart as cold’ as a hail-stone.—I fear those ministers among us who seem to be terribly afraid of Pietism. They do not explain the distinction between false and true Pietism. To have ever a greater and deeper measure of the latter is surely one of our greatest needs. Indeed it is the very essence, the heart and life of true Lutheranism. God give us more of it!”
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Chapter 3, Bring Men To Christ!
BRING MEN TO CHRIST!
SERMON BROADCAST OVER STATION WCCO
SERMON BROADCAST OVER STATION WCCO
Text: “He first findeth his own brother, Simon, and saith unto him: we have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ, and he brought him to Jesus”
(John 1:41-42).
BELOVED in Christ: Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. I keenly feel the responsibility as well as gladly welcome the opportunity in bringing a message from my Lord and Master to the many who from far and near listen in at this hour of evening worship.
If I were permitted to utter but four words and then have my lips sealed forever, the words that I would give with the greatest possible earnestness to my fellow believers in a sin-cursed world would be these: “Bring men to Christ!” This is the great commission of the Master to His disciples, the one great mission of the Christian Church.
Man in his natural state is lost to God. It matters not how highly cultured he may be or what degree of morality in life he may attain. By his own effort he cannot save himself. I know the doctrine of total depravity is not popular. It is resented by the moralist. But the Bible teaches plainly in Old Testament and in New Testament, that we are dead in trespasses and sins, and that man’s heart is evil from his youth. David says in Ps. 51: “Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Paul says in Romans 3:12: “There is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Isaiah says: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way” (Is. 53:6). In the book of Job, 15:14, we read: “What is a man, that he should be clean? And he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?” But we are not left hopeless. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). He came to seek and to save the lost. He is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. With His death on the cross He redeemed us. He died for us. His blood cleanses from sin. Only they who believe in Christ as Redeemer, as the Atoner for our sins and, who serve Him as their Lord and Master, are saved. Those who teach, preach, and believe in Jesus as a mere man, a prophet, whose moral teachings and noble example we should follow, are lost to God. They have religion, but not Christianity. But everyone who has found Jesus and accepted Him as Savior and Lord and experienced His wonderful love, has also a desire kindled in his heart to win others for Christ. No sooner had Andrew found Jesus and accepted Him as the Messiah before, without delay or hesitation, he finds his brother, Simon, tells him of his own experience, that he has found the promised Messiah, and then brings him to Jesus.
Here we have Christianity applied and practiced. We are not only saved for the sake of being saved. We are won to win others. Christ invites us to come unto Him. The Gospel first says Come. But the Gospel has also a “go” in it. Christ directs His followers to the vineyard, the harvest field, the mission field, and says: “Lift up your eyes and see the fields ripe unto the harvest.” He wants laborers, witnesses. “Go ye into all the world and make disciples of all nations.” “Go, work today in my vineyard.” When He holds up before us the example of the Good Samaritan, He says “Go thou and do likewise.” Whom does He mean? Every believer. That means you and me, as many as are professing Christians. He wants His followers to be His co-laborers. Andrew was an uneducated man, not especially gifted, nor had he received any special command to win others, but the love of Christ and the love for his brother constrained him to go.
Oh, how sadly Christians lose sight of this supreme mission of winning others for Christ! This personal work is left by the many to the few, to the pastor, the missionary, the Sunday school teacher. Our Christian life must and will surely suffer if we neglect this Christian service. If there is a living faith and a love for Christ in your heart, do not wait for a formal command to testify to others of your Savior. Flowers need not be told to blossom and bear fruit. The sun need not be told to shine. It is their nature to do so. Even so is it the nature of the new life in Christ to serve in love. As soon as the sinful woman of Sychar had met Jesus at the well and believed that He was the promised Messiah, she returned at once to her home community and told others of Him. And the result was a revival in that town. Many believed. Salvation means service.
Note also with what certainty Andrew testified. He did not say, “I hope we have found the Messiah,” but “We have found the Messiah!” There was the ring of assurance in his testimony. He spoke from conviction, and therefore his testimony carried the power with it to impress and influence his brother. There are so many Christians, who lack this assurance of their own salvation. If questioned as to their own relation to Jesus, many will say, “I don’t know”; others will reply, “I hope I am saved.” Where the assurance of faith is lacking there can be little power over sin, no real peace and joy. And there can be little or no desire to win others for Christ.
Now, preaching and teaching are not the only ways of winning souls. Comparatively few possess the qualifications and can effectively perform this office. Our lives, our daily conduct and conversation, the love expressed by words of sympathy and deeds of kindness, touch hearts and prepare them for the Gospel message. Actions speak louder than words. The exercise of Christian love is the part and privilege of all believers. If we believe in the priesthood of believers, we must also practice it.
Jesus Himself, the Head of the church, in the days of His visible presence on earth, preached and wrought deeds of mercy. And, He says: “Be merciful, even as your Father in heaven is merciful.” “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people” (Matt. 9:35). With His deeds of love and mercy He paved the way for the message of salvation. He also gave His disciples power and instruction to do likewise. He said: “As ye go and preach saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils” (Matt. 10:7-8).
The first Christian congregation exercised the two God- given hands of the ministry of the Word and the ministry of mercy. Spirit-filled laymen and also women engaged in caring for the sick and poor. We read that “Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people” (Acts 6:10). Both men and women were engaged in this everyday ministry of mercy in the early church (Rom. 16:1). But the church has sadly neglected the exercise of the left hand. The Second Pentecost of the church, the Reformation, gave back to the church the ministry of the Word, but the ministry of mercy has not been brought back to function in the manner it did in the mother-church. The church to a great extent has lost the power of her left hand. What you don’t use, you lose. This means that much dead, fruitless faith has resulted; a condition of spiritual indifference, lukewarmness, and laxity. This again has meant a great loss and leakage in membership, as the church has lost much of her power to hold her members and win others. And as a result, the state has to a great extent taken over the care of the sick, poor, destitute, wayward, and neglected. But state institutions and humanitarian social service can at the best care only for the needs of the body. It is therefore a hopeful sign of late that there is an awakening realization of this defect in our church life.
If the Christian Church shall not lose her opportunity, she must call into use the much neglected hand of the ministry of mercy, develop and exercise it to the fullest extent in works of personal and practical Christian service, flowing from the consecrated believing hearts in her membership. Like the priest and Levite in the parable, altogether too often have pastor and parishioners gone up to the temple as orthodox religionists to preach, pray, and worship, and gone back into the everyday life of the world, passing neglectfully by the unfortunate and helpless brothers and sisters that have fallen by the wayside. We need the compassionate heart, the observing eye, the open ear, the willing feet, the helping hand, the cheerful gift of the Good Samaritan—the ministry of mercy.
What a wonderful mission in its possibilities! Think of the unchurched masses—a condition largely resulting from the failure of the church to function properly in going to the unsaved, unfortunate, wayward, and lost, and ministering to their wants, both physically and spiritually, in the spirit of sympathy and love. Preaching and teaching are not the only ways of bringing cheer and hope to the discouraged and hopeless. Nor are these always the first. You can bring Jesus to a sinner by your example of life as well as by your word of testimony. And with these neglected and unchurched, who are often found to be prejudiced against church and Christianity, the testimony of deed must go before the testimony of the Word. The ministry of mercy must remove prejudice and pave the way for the saving truth. When people see Christ in our life they will listen with confidence to our testimony.
During the war, a chaplain passing over the fields saw a wounded soldier lying on the ground. He stooped down and said to him, “Would you like for me to read you something from the Bible?” The wounded boy said, “I am so thirsty, I would rather have a drink of water.” The chaplain hurried off as quickly as possible and brought water. After the soldier drank the water, he said, “Could you lift my head and put something under it?” The chaplain took off his own overcoat, rolled it up, and tenderly lifting him, put it as a pillow for his tired head to rest upon. “Now,” said the soldier, “if I only had something over me. I am cold.” There was only one thing to do. The chaplain took his coat off and covered him. As he did this the wounded soldier looked up into his face and said, “If there is anything in that book that makes a man do for another what you have done for me, let me hear it.” The application is evident. There are multitudes in our day who will never see Jesus unless they first see Him in our lives and in our unselfish ministry.
Jesus, by His own example and in His teachings, has emphasized this personal work in soul-winning. He says, “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, the maimed, and the halt, and the blind!” And again, as if to press home the urgency of persevering work, He continues, “Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”
The ways in which we can come into personal touch with these many unsaved, are varied and numerous. The constraining Christian love is inventive and will find ways and means by which the Lost Coin is found, the Lost Sheep is reclaimed, and the helpless stranger by the wayside rescued and relieved. By establishing missions and downtown churches in the neglected centers of our cities and employing Spirit-filled men and women who will do personal work among the many, who can thus he reached. By conducting institutions of charity, such as rescue homes, emigrant missions, children’s homes, home-finding societies, kindergartens, day nurseries, boarding homes for men and women, and mission hotels. Through these institutions, with well-trained and consecrated workers in charge, much effective preventive, relief, and rescue work can be done to reach, regain, and retain the weak and way. ward. To these inns of mercy along the Jericho road of life, the Good Samaritans can bring those who are rescued or restrained from evil and dangerous ways.
Much can be done by the city congregations to reach out and regain the unchurched masses, by employing well-trained and consecrated parish workers to assist the pastor and parishioners in this ministry of mercy. The pastor cannot begin to do it alone, and very few of our lay church members are practicing the duties of the priesthood of believers. They leave it to the pastor, and for a busy city pastor it is a physical impossibility to do this urgent personal work. I hope the time will soon be here when every self-supporting city congregation will have a parish sister, and that the Home Mission Board will place such sisters of mercy in every important home mission city field. I am convinced that it will result in numerical growth, salvation of souls, and rich blessings to the congregations themselves. May the Lord of the harvest open the eyes of our city congregations and Home Mission Boards to this ministry of mercy as an effective way of winning the unchurched back to Christ. And may He call many consecrated young women to prepare themselves for these various departments of inner mission work in the ministry of mercy.
Love, true compassion is the motive of service. Love for Jesus must be the prime condition. Before Peter was told to feed the sheep and care for the lambs, he was asked three times: “Lovest thou me?”
But if there is love for Jesus, there will be love for souls. There will be the appreciation of the value of a soul, as well as of the salvation of a soul. Being saved ourselves, there will and must be a desire to save others. Our heart will go out to the unfortunate, wayward, and lost, regardless of condition, race, or nationality. This love will mean more than sympathy and words. It spells service — unselfish, sacrificing service. Like the Good Samaritan, you cannot pass by. In willing obedience constrained by love you must say with the Master Himself: “I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work” (John 9:4). This is the road to true greatness. Jesus says: “Whosoever will be great among you let him be your minister, and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant” (Matt. 20:26-27). What a worthwhile ministry! It strengthens, ennobles, preserves, enriches, and blesses our own spiritual life. Think of the satisfaction and joy in seeing sinners saved from sin and shame and for the Master’s use. And then the supreme joy of knowing that you are serving the Lord in serving others. Jesus says: “Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward” (Matt. 10:42).
For this ministry of mercy, women are eminently fitted. The church has not made sufficient use of consecrated women in this practical, personal work of ministering to the needy and neglected. With her compassionate, tender heart, her gentle ways and her loving patience, the Christian woman can most successfully approach and favorably impress the unchurched families and neglected individuals. As a big sister, an angel of mercy, she can tactfully and effectively bring the love, light, and cheer of practical and genuine Christianity into sin-darkened homes and unhappy hearts.
The need of the church is a spiritual awakening, a Pentecost outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of our Christians. Our churches are full of nominal Christians. They do not realize their personal responsibility in soul-winning. How can they, if they are unsaved themselves? There can be no response to the call of saving others. A woman stood for a long time and talked to a wooden Indian in front of a cigar store. People laughed at her, but she replied, “I’d rather talk to a wooden man than to be a wooden Christian and not talk to anybody.”
When the men in the pulpit and the people in the pews are Spirit-filled and Spirit-led, there will be an earnest, prayerful, successful, and united effort by all believers to strengthen the weak and bring back the wayward and straying to the fold of the church. Not until the church collectively rouses herself shall we see men flocking into the kingdom. Souls are not only saved by preaching of the Word by the pastor but by the Word lived and spoken by the parishioners. Andrew does not preach to his brother; he simply talks to him. He does not argue. He simply tells his experience with Jesus.
Dear Christian friend, neglect not your sacred obligation to the many unsaved. Do not plead inability or advance other excuses for not doing your duty as your brother’s keeper. Just a word prompted by the Spirit and earnestly and lovingly spoken will do more to touch some unsaved heart than a sermon.
There was once an infidel blacksmith with whom no one could deal. One day the pastor sent an elder of the church, a clever, pious man, to see him. He argued but could not convince him. There was an old farmer who had prayed many years for this infidel. Early one morning he took his horse and rode to see this man ‘who greeted him thus, “Well, what brings you here at this early hour?” The old farmer stammered badly, and when thus addressed could not utter a word. The infidel laughed. This made matters worse. At last the old man burst into tears and stammered out, “I’m so anxious about your soul,” and hurried away. These words and the earnestness of the farmer won the blacksmith to Christ. How true are the words of Richard Cecil: “The warm blundering man can do more than the cold correct man.”
Paul says: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.” Hearts that know and love Jesus and have a passion for souls can be used by the Holy Spirit in impressing other hearts.
At a testimonial dinner there were present among others a great actor and an old minister. The toastmaster called on the actor, who responded by reciting very dramatically the Twenty-Third Psalm, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” It was so effectively done that the room rang with applause. Later, the old minister was asked to say a few words. To the surprise of all he, too, recited the Twenty-Third Psalm. When he had finished there was no sound of applause, but every eye was filled with tears. The actor leaned over to the minister and said, “I know the psalm, but you know the Shepherd.” Worship is not knowing the liturgical service, it is fellowship with God in Christ Jesus. And that is the secret of soul winning.
I have seen two pictures representing salvation. The scene in both cases is a shipwreck on the stormy sea. A woman is represented clinging with both hands to a cross firmly fixed in a rock rising over the turbulent sea. She is saved. The other picture represents the woman clinging to the cross with one hand and reaching out the other hand to help a sister out of the deep to the place of safety. She is saved to serve. She is saved by faith that worketh by love. With the hand of faith she clings to the cross, while she extends the hand of love to her sinking sister. The first picture represents the attitude of many Christians, so called. The second sets forth Christianity applied: “Salvation and Service.” Where this is not the case I fear there is not the right hold on the cross of Christ.
With the hand of FAITH I cling
To the Cross on Calvary,
For my gracious Savior-King
On the Cross did die for me;
When the waves roll strong and high
On His mercy I rely!
With the hand of LOVE I try
To reclaim and save the lost
Who are sinking soon to die,
I must help at any cost;
Clinging to the Cross, I live,
And my service gladly give!
What a source of joy it must have been to Andrew in after years, when his brother Peter had become one of the most brilliant and successful soul-winners in that age, to recall that it was his hand and word that had led him to Jesus.
A deep drain was being dug in one of our large cities. Some of the shoring gave way and tons of
earth fell on several men at work. There was much excitement. A man stood on the brink watching the men digging out the earth. Presently a woman came up, put her hand on his shoulders and exclaimed, “Bill, your brother is in there!” Oh, the sudden change! He threw off his coat, sprang into the trench and worked as if he had the strength of ten men. 0 friends, these many unsaved people around us, many that we meet frequently, are our brothers and sisters. They are worse than buried alive. They are dead in trespasses and sins, lost for time and eternity. Why then this indifferent, neglectful attitude on the part of those who call themselves Christians? Christian mother, is your son, your daughter a stranger to Jesus? Christian wife, is your husband going to ruin? Christian father, is your boy perishing? Are your relatives, friends, associates unsaved? Don’t leave this work to some one else. God holds you responsible. He counts on you to go and bring them to Jesus.
Come now, fellow-believers, pray for a passion for souls. Time is short and fleeting. Precious souls are dying. May we all by the grace of God, work while it is day in winning others for Christ and His Kingdom.
Jesus Christ, who rescued me,
Strengthen Thou my faith and love,
Help me win some souls for Thee,
Ere I reign with Thee above;
On the Rock, in faith I stand,
As I lend a helping hand!
Friday, February 25, 2011
Chapter 2, Personal Consecration
PERSONAL CONSECRATION
THE importance of personal Christian consecration must be pressed home to everyone. To those who today can say by the grace of God that they are living in fellowship with Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, the consideration of this theme should urge an earnest and honest searching of hearts and a thorough review of the past, that there may be a re-consecration for a closer walk with God and a more faithful service in the vineyard. And to those, who either may have backslidden or have lived as nominal Christians up to this time, may this message reveal to them the supreme and present need of a conversion, a new birth, that they, too, may consecrate themselves to a life in faith and fellowship with Jesus, as Savior and Lord.
What is meant by consecration? It means to be set apart for a specific use and purpose. And Christian consecration means to be set apart for the Lord and Master’s ownership and service. As true Christians we are not our own. “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s (I Cor. 6:19-20). We have all learned Luther’s explanation of the Second Article, where he states the purpose of Christ’s redemption, that He has redeemed us “in order that we might be His own and live under Him in His kingdom.”
And this consecration is a personal experience. We can do business by proxy, but we cannot be consecrated by proxy. It does not make us Christians because our parents were devout and God-fearing folks. Nor does God deal with us en masse and save us in groups, by families or congregations. He deals with each one personally. The invitation is extended to each individual with all that is necessary for our salvation; but the choice is ours. The responsibility for our own salvation rests upon us, not upon God.
We shall try to make plain what personal consecration in our Christian life implies.
In the first place it implies surrender to the Lord with soul and body, talent and time, position and possessions. When the Lord says: “My son, give me thine heart,” it means that we yield ourselves to Him, let Him take full possession of our heart. He cleanses it from sin and the guilt of sin and makes it the temple of the Holy Spirit. A new life with power over sin and temptation is created and preserved in the heart. We are now no longer “slaves to sin.” “Sin shall have no dominion over us.” Being emancipated from sin, we have become “bond—servants to God.” We are now in position to live the victorious life. When the heart, out of which are the issues of life, is surrendered to Christ, then Christ abides there, and through Him we are “dead to sin,” and His will must be our will. And as we thus belong to Him, we gladly surrender all else, what we are and have, to Him. Having yielded ourselves to Christ, how safe and secure we are against the tempter! The simple story of Mary, who was examined on having applied for membership into the church, beautifully illustrates the assurance of victory, which the consecrated Christian has in Christ. She was asked, “Are you a Christian?” “Yes.” “Does it make any difference in your life that you are a Christian?” “Oh, yes, very much.” “Well, what difference?” “Suppose you are tempted to sin, what would you do?” She replied: “When I hear Satan knocking at my heart’s door, I just turn to Jesus and say: ‘Lord Jesus, won’t you go to the door?’ He goes and opens the door, and when Satan sees Jesus, he says: ‘Excuse me; I have come to the wrong place,’ and he goes away.” If you will surrender fully to the victorious Christ, you shall be assured of victory and safety against the powers of evil.
But personal consecration also implies separation from the world and the ways of the world. How necessary it is that this be emphasized to our church members in our day. There is a lowering of standards and a compromise with the world in many of our congregations to the extent that there seems to be no difference between the pursuits, pleasures and interests of the worldly-minded and the members of the church. We hear frequently of congregations resorting to worldly means of raising money and questionable ways of providing entertainment for the young people with plays, pageants, and bridge and bunco parties. The church becomes a house of entertainment and the congregation becomes a social club. Church members are seen to mingle with the theater-going and dance-crazy masses and feel at home in their social atmosphere. It is surprising frequently to meet prominent church members, leaders in the congregations, defending indulgence in these pleasures of the world, asserting that it is narrow to condemn these pursuits and pleasures. Where is the testimony for truth, right and purity, when you cannot see any difference in the example and the attitude between the man of the world and the man of the church? The salt has lost its savor, the light has become darkness, and how great is then the darkness!
Possibly we have one-sidedly emphasized justification by faith in our teaching and preaching and neglected to stress with scriptural clearness and urgency the importance of sanctification, as the essential result of justification, that living faith must bear the fruits of good works in a surrendered and separated Christian life. Faith without works is dead. In our effort to escape the work-righteousness of the Catholic Church and the superficial religion of the Reformed Church by preaching that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ without works, we have failed at the same time to stress duly the demands that God places upon a believer, that he must hate sin, forsake the world, take up the cross of self-denial and follow in the footsteps of Jesus; he must walk the narrow way and leave worldliness behind. Too many of our church members comfort themselves with the fact that they are once baptized, later confirmed and are members of a church, paying their dues to the church, attending worship more or less regularly and perhaps taking communion once or twice a year. We have so many baptized unbelievers in our congregations. We need to preach revival sermons to our Sunday morning congregations that those who sleep so soundly and securely on the pillow of a dead historic faith, may be awakened to realize their awful self-deception before it is eternally too late.
The well-balanced Christian has yielded himself to Christ and dedicated his life to Him in an inseparable union, as the bride to the bridegroom. The believer is married to Christ, has received His name and nature, shares His triumphs, His life, His glory. What a gracious and glorious relationship! But the bride of Christ must be loyal and true to Him, and can not, and will not compromise with the world, but keep “unspotted from the world.” Let us not neglect to stress uncompromisingly the separation, which Scriptures so emphatically enjoin upon the believer. In II Cor. 6:14-17 we read: “Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said: I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people, wherefore come ye out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you.” And in Romans 12:2 we read: “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable will of God.”
How weak and faint are the evidences of this separation from the world among us! No wonder that the spiritual life pulsates feebly and the demarcation between the out-and-out
worldly respectables and many church members is hard to discover. If some have the Christian courage consistently to show their colors and take exception to and separate themselves from the ways, pursuits and practices that are tolerated in many church circles, they are regarded as narrow, intolerant, fanatical and queer.
We do not mean to say that this separation from the world implies that we are not to associate with the worldly and unsaved, nor that we are justified in leaving a congregation because of persecution and opposition from the worldly element in it. We are to be in the world, but not of the world, and that applies where the world has the controlling power in the congregation. The light is needed in darkness. Christ calls His followers to be His witnesses against wrong and falsehood, to be a savory salt and a shining light in the world, whether it be in the congregation or outside.
Conformity to the world on the part of many church members degrades the church, dishonors Christ and hinders the soul-winning work among us. Oh, for a closer walk with God! But if our walk with God is to be close, it must be a separation from the ways of the world. We must have the courage of our convictions; we must dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone, ever assured that we are on God’s side. Then we know He is on our side, and God and one consecrated believer is a majority. Luther stood alone with God and won the victory. Hans Nielsen Hauge had the church and state against him, but God was with him and gave him victory. If God be for us who can be against us? If our separation from the world does not mean a separation unto Christ, then we are sure to go down to defeat. We must not only forsake sin but follow Jesus. We must not only let go the world, but cling to God. Without Him we can do nothing. Separated unto Christ we can say with Paul: “Now I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.”
In the third place personal consecration means service. We are saved to serve the Lord. There are others to be saved; and Christ counts on us, who are saved to win others for Him. The Gospel has a go in it, not only for the pastors but for every parishioner, who is saved. If you have accepted His “Come unto me,” He says to you: “Go work in my vineyard!” “Go ye into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in.” “Go home and tell how great things the Lord hath done for thee.” The love of Christ constrains us to serve Him out of gratitude for what He has done for us and out of compassion for our unsaved fellow men. The consecrated Christian has two hands, that he has received from God: the hand of faith and the hand of love. Both must be used, or we lose them. Faith worketh by love.
Even as Christ forgot Himself in serving us, so shall we serve unselfishly in winning others for
Him. He has set us free, but free to serve Him. Paul says in Romans 6:16: “Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are, whom ye obey,” and in v. 18 we read: “Being then made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness.”
It was Christ’s consuming passion to minister, not to be ministered unto. He says: “I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done unto you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord.” There are unsaved people all around us, who wait for our ministry. There are relatives and friends and strangers that are lost in sin here at home, there are the benighted millions in the far-off heathen lands, and there are the scattered sheep of the house of Israel the world over. Truly the fields are white unto harvest. We need the uplifted eyes to see the fields, the compassionate and loving heart to compel us to enter into the neglected fields, and work while it is day to “rescue the perishing, care for the dying, snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; weep o’er the erring ones, lift up the fallen, tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.”
But to serve the Lord means to serve Him with body and soul, heart and hand, self and substance, time and talent. Like the Good Samaritan our ear must hear the cry and our eye must see the helplessness of the one that has fallen by the Jericho road of life. Our hands must be extended to help him, and our tongue must be ready to plead his cause as we bring him to the place of rescue and refuge. And our pocketbook must be open to help in making possible and complete his care until he can join the willing workers in rescuing others. If we have the mind of Christ, the love for others, we will not like the priest and the Levite pass him by.
If we are faithful servants of Christ we will never be ashamed or afraid to confess Him. We will gladly recommend and introduce Him to others. It is strange that there shall be so much silence in that respect among us. As if it were possible to be a Christian without confessing your Savior. So many know how to quote Paul, when he says: “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness” (Rom. 10:10), but they do not seem to stress what he says in that same verse, that “with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” A courageous testimony and a consistent life must tell the world where we stand in relation to Christ. Jesus says: “Whosoever will confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever will deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father, which is in heaven” (Matt. 10:32-33).
“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16).
“I beseech you brethren, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1). The motive of consecrated service is gratitude to God and love for others; the purpose of service is the good of others and the goal is to glorify God. Whatever we can do in serving the Lord is not to our credit, but only to the glory of God.
As we have seen, personal consecration implies a full surrender to Christ, a consistent separation from the world unto Christ and a self-sacrificing service rendered Him in winning others to the glory of God. The best and briefest definition of consecration that I have ever come across, is that given by a devout Christian woman. She held up a blank sheet of paper and said: “It is to sign your name at the bottom of this blank sheet of paper and let God fill it in as He will.” A young Christian girl prayed: “Lord, fill me to overflowing. I can not hold much, but I can overflow a great deal.” She had the right understanding of a Spirit-filled life. The Christian life must have an outlet. So many Christians seem to think that the Christian life consists only in taking in and not giving out. It is a sickly religious life that only receives, enjoys selfishly the good things of the kingdom, worships regularly by singing hymns, offering prayers and listening to sermons, and running to all kinds of religious meetings, but fails to serve, sacrifice and work to bring others into the kingdom. The reservoir that has an inlet and no outlet will soon have dead water, stagnant and useless. The purpose and nature of the stream or river is to flow on. This is what Jesus means when He says in John 7:38: “He that believeth on me as the Scriptures bath said, out of his life shall flow rivers of living water.” No sooner had Simon found Jesus, when he went to find his brother Andrew and brought him to Jesus. Philip finds Nathanael. The Samaritan woman, as soon as she had met Jesus at the well and believed in Him as the Messiah, she returned to her townsfolk in Sychar, aroused the whole town, told them that she had found the Messiah and brought them out to meet Jesus. The result of this woman’s testimony was the conversion of many. Jesus tarried with them two days, there was a revival among them and many of the Samaritans of that city “believed on Him for the saying of the woman, which testified” (John 4:39). The Christian life must seek an outlet in loving service and practical ministry to others.
Consecration is not the experience of a moment merely, as justification or regeneration. The moment a sinner believes he is justified before God. The moment the Holy Spirit through baptism in the infant or through the Word in the case of the adult enters the sinner’s heart, he is regenerated, born again to new life. But consecration is a life-long process, and it implies progress, growth. The Christian life is a growth in grace. There is no stand-still. As believers, we must either go forward or back-slide. It means more consecration, a fuller surrender, a more complete separation from the world, and a more faithful and efficient service.
How may we become more consecrated, more fit for the Master’s use and service? How does the child grow and develop in strength and health physically? You have a ready answer: by taking wholesome and sufficient nourishment, living in a pure atmosphere and exercising properly. Our spiritual life needs the same care, if it shall grow and increase in usefulness.
Right here we find the fatal neglect among us, the reason why so many (who became babes in Christ in baptism or later were converted) have lost their spiritual life or whose spiritual life is in a sickly and dying condition. Their life has been starved. It has not received nourishment, not been given the proper environments, nor been given helpful exercise in service. God has provided us with bountiful provisions for the sustenance of our spiritual life, that we may live a vigorous, consecrated life. In His Word and Sacrament He gives us the Bread of Life and the Water of Life. We have the open Bible, the full Gospel and the unaltered Sacrament. How are we using these blessed means of grace?
Is the Bible prayerfully read in your home by you and your family? Do the young people come together in Bible classes on the Lord’s Day to study the Word? Do our men and women bring their Bibles to Sunday school to study God’s Word in Bible classes? Is the Family Altar maintained in your home? If not, how can you expect to live the Christian life? What would happen to your body if you quit taking nourishment?
Then your Christian life needs to live in an atmosphere of prayer. Prayer is the breath of spiritual life. Where there is no prayer, the spiritual life is dead. What is the condition of the prayer life in your home? In your congregation? Is the power of the prayer of faith felt in your home and in your church?
And as we have already emphasized, the spiritual life needs exercise in service, in order to develop, grow and be preserved. There can be no growth in your personal consecration without exercising your spiritual gifts, using your God-given talents. What you do not use, you lose.
It becomes a personal and heart-searching question: Are you leading a consecrated Christian life? And if so, do you realize that you have suffered from neglects and omissions, and feel the need of re-consecrating yourself for a closer walk with God, a more self-sacrificing service, a more diligent use of God’s Word and the Lord’s Supper, more exercise of your faith in prayer and testimony, and more passion for the soulwinning ministry?
Let us rather halt right here and ask a few questions with reference to your past life. Have you been a witness for Christ? Or is your voice never heard in your home, or in the congregation in prayer or in testifying for Christ? What about your daily prayer-life? What have you done for your nearest and dearest ones to lead them to Christ? What impression do people have of you at home as well as away from home? Can they give you the testimony as they meet you: There goes a real Christian? What kind of an epistle are you? What does the world read out of your life? What are you sacrificing for the cause of Christ? Are you a liberal and cheerful giver toward missions, charities and Christian education? A conscientious answer to these and similar questions will help you to see to what extent you are consecrated and what are your spiritual needs. Maybe such an examination will humble you, as you realize your shortcomings, and will serve to bring you to God in a sincere confession of your sins and a re-dedication of self.
But what are you going to do, who have been nominal Christians, members of the church, but unsaved? Is it possible to be a prodigal son and daughter and still take part in church activities? There is much churchianity, but very little vital Christianity. Should you be one, whose name is on the membership roll of a congregation and not have your name written in the Book of Life in heaven, what are you going to do about it? Will you not turn to the Lord, confess your sins, and yield yourself to Him, who has tenderly been calling you and patiently waiting for you to come? May the Lord help you to say: “Lord, I come, take me as I am. I surrender all to Thee.”
May Francis Havergal’s consecration hymn be our prayer:
Take my life and let it be
Consecrated Lord, to Thee;
Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee;
Take my voice, and let me sing
Always, only for my King.
Take my silver and my gold,
Not a mite will I withhold;
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my will and make it Thine,
I shall be no longer mine;
Take my heart, it is Thine own
It shall be Thy royal throne.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Scriptural Evangelism- Chapter one
PART I---PROSE
SCRIPTURAL EVANGELISM
THERE is no more vital subject for the Christian Church to consider prayerfully and seriously than evangelism. The supreme mission of the Church is to evangelize the world, to bring the Evangel, the Gospel, the Glad Tidings of salvation to every sinner. Evangelism, scriptural evangelism, implies the bringing of the message and the means of salvation to men that souls may be led out of spiritual darkness and death in sin into the life and light of God’s saving and keeping grace in Christ Jesus. This the Lord accomplishes through His disciples, as His instruments. The work of winning souls is God’s work of grace. But He does the soul-winning through the lives and lips of His consecrated servants, who bring the efficacious and Spirit-fraught means of grace to the hearts of the unsaved. We are saved to serve in saving others. As soon as a sinner is converted, born again, the love of Christ will constrain him to share his blessings with others. Like Andrew and Philip, having found the Savior, the believer will have a desire to bring others to Him. This passion for souls is an expression of the new life. It becomes not only every Christian’s privilege to engage in soul-winning, but a sacred duty. And if he willfully refuses or neglects to let his light shine before men, he will suffer seriously and run the risk of losing his own spiritual life.
Soul-winning is accomplished in two general ways, either by the public preaching of the Gospel or by doing personal work with the individual. The public preaching must be followed up by personal evangelism. And it is in this very necessary soul-winning ministry that we are weak. There is not enough personal approach by the pastors; and by our parishioners very little of that is done.
It is not enough to be evangelical; we must be evangelistic. There is considerable in what one has said: “The evangelical church is a reservoir of pure water without a pipe running anywhere. If you will take the trouble and climb the embankment, you will get a good drink. The evangelistic church is a reservoir of pure water with a pipe to every heart in the Community, and to every nation in the world. The pipes are the servants of God, clergy and laity, the priesthood of believers. Evangelical may mean truth on ice; evangelistic means truth on fire. The need of the church is not so much evangelicalism as a thing to fight for; but evangelism, as a force to fight with.”
This comparison may be putting it strongly, but there is much truth in it. We very well know that the Gospel preached or read is the efficacious means of salvation, and that the Holy Spirit through the Word finds His way into the hearts to convict of sin and convert to Christ. And yet we are safe in saying that many more, who are under the influence of the Word, and are honestly seeking souls, would find peace and come to a blessed assurance, if there were more personal follow-up work done by the pastor and other mature Christians. Repeatedly have I heard in dealing with seeking souls: “How I have wished for a long time that someone would Speak to me about spiritual matters.” Many seeking souls would have been led to the joy and peace that come from the assurance of faith earlier in life, if someone had approached them tactfully and understandingly in a personal heart-to-heart conversation. Much precious time and many precious opportunities for valuable service were lost to them by remaining for years in this uncertainty. One cannot do spiritual service, until he has the assurance of his own salvation.
Is there not something lacking in the soul-winning ministry in the church of today? We have the Word of God in its truth and purity, and we preach our message on Sunday morning and evening. And if it is a soul-searching message in its application, we often see that there are some present who are deeply impressed. They may be seeking souls, who for a longer or shorter time, have been convicted of sin but have not found the way to peace with God. Perhaps some secret sin stands in the way, or possibly they have a mistaken idea of what is required to find peace with God. Often people are striving seriously but in vain to prepare themselves by doing this, that, or the other thing, before they feel they can come to the Lord and accept His forgiveness. It is surprising how many there are who, in various ways are laboring and groping in serious and honest, but mistaken ways, to be saved. I wonder if there should not be given an invitation and an opportunity at the close of services occasionally to meet the pastor in the sacristy for consultation and prayer. Is it not strange and to be deeply regretted that there are so few, who come to see the pastor in his office to seek advice in spiritual difficulties? And this is not because these vital and personal matters of their souls’ salvation are clear to them. When we are called to their death-bed, we often find that they never really understood or had found the way of salvation. How sad that so many of our otherwise faithful church members shall live a life in uncertainty in this respect! Should we not as pastors do more than we do to encourage our parishioners to come to a definite decision in regard to their relation to God? Is it not deplorable that the greater majority of our church members never make use of their pastor as a spiritual adviser until they are so sick that they do not expect to recover? This is a most inopportune time to settle life’s greatest question for many reasons. Having lived a life away from the Lord, possibly all of one’s lifetime, and having been either spiritually deceived or lived in worldliness and neglect, the hour of physical weakness and mental disturbance, as death is approaching, is the most inopportune and unfavorable time for a conversion. And even if the soul is saved in the
eleventh hour, there lies behind a lifetime lost in sin that cannot be redeemed, though forgiven.
The purpose of the Gospel is not merely to save our souls from hell, but to save our lives from sin that they may be dedicated to the service of the Lord. So many take their religion seriously only at the end of this brief life. When a person takes his religion so seriously in days of health that he weeps over his sins and cries for mercy, there are those who are ready to call it emotionalism and fanaticism. But when a sinner awakens to see his real condition and the Holy Spirit reveals to him his helplessness, there will be and must be an earnest cry to God for mercy, whether he is physically well and strong, or he lies at the door of death.
But this personal evangelism is not only the pastor’s duty. As we have already stated, it is according to the Word of God, the privilege and duty of every true Christian. Here again we must admit that we are weak in our Lutheran Church. In many congregations the pastor is the only one who does personal soul-winning work. When the preaching is more than a mere objective discourse and comes with a personal “thou-art-the-man” application and the heart-searching appeal by such a Spirit-filled message, delivered by a servant of God on fire with a passion for souls, sinners will be reached, awakened and brought face to face with their needs. Every believer in the congregation should then be glad and ready at the given opportunity to encourage such seeking souls. But not in the presence of others. The personal worker must ask God’s guidance to lead him to the one whom he should approach, and then tactfully deal with him, preferably in private.
We need revivalistic sermons and seasons of prayer for a spiritual awakening, and prayer on the part of the Christians for grace and love to do personal work. One has well said: “Evangelistic preaching is fishing with a big net. Personal evangelism is fishing with a hook.” Both are necessary. After all, we are not saved en masse, by groups and congregations. The Christian religion emphasizes personality. Man must be dealt with individually. Personal evangelism is the most fruitful soul-winning ministry. And this is scriptural. Jesus in His teaching as well as in His practice clearly emphasized the importance of personal and individual approach. He won most, if not all, of His followers by the personal touch. He called Matthew at the seat of custom, Peter, James and John while engaged in fishing on the sea of Galilee, the Samaritan woman at the well, Zaccheus at the sycamore tree, Nicodemus in the stillness of the night and Bartimeus on the highway. In His teaching He emphasized the testimony of life and lip in private as in public. He calls the believers “the salt of the earth,” “the light of the world,” “His witnesses,” “the fruit-bearing branches.” In the first chapter of the Gospel of John, called the “Personal Work” chapter, the same lesson is stressed.
Scripturally there is no distinction between clergy and laity as far as soul-winning ministry is concerned. Every follower of Christ is called to go and use his gift as a servant of God. Personal evangelism is clearly set forth in the Book of Acts and practiced by the early Christians. When the persecutions scattered them abroad throughout Judea and Samaria, “except the Apostles,” we read that “they went everywhere preaching the Word” (Acts 8:1 and 4). We read about Stephen, the deacon, “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit,” who spoke so that his hearers “were not able to withstand the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke.” Philip, the deacon, did effective personal work with the eunuch, who had the Word and read it, but did not understand it. Had not Philip done the work of an evangelist and guided him, the eunuch would not have been saved and baptized.
There are many such seekers among us who do not understand, and need to be dealt with individually. The church at Colosse was begun, not by a great revival under Paul’s
preaching, but as a result of the faithful personal work of Epaphras. A certain great divine has said: “If I had the assurance of living only ten years and as a condition I had to win a thousand souls for Christ, and was given the choice between preaching sermons or doing personal evangelism, I would choose the latter method every time.”
Prof. Edward Pfeiffer, D.D. of the Lutheran Seminary at Columbus, Ohio, who has written a most helpful little handbook for workers on the subject of “Evangelism,” has this to say: “In modern times this work of personal evangelism has come to be regarded almost exclusively as the privilege and duty of the ministers, while church members are allowed to be silent and are not encouraged to develop and exercise the gift and privilege of witnessing for Christ. It is well that we are beginning to lay more emphasis on personal evangelism and every-member evangelism.”
The apostles emphasized the Universal Priesthood of Believers. Congregational evangelism is the scriptural ideal. The congregation is not only a field to be cultivated, but a force to be enlisted in the service. The Bible stresses believing and confessing, privilege and responsibility. “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10:10).
The doctrine of the Priesthood of Believers was one of the cardinal doctrines emphasized by Luther in the Reformation. But today we have it pretty much on paper only. As the late Dr. Gerberding says in his booklet on the “Spiritual Priesthood of Believers”: “It has gone to sleep.” So many take the “Am I my brother’s keeper’s” attitude. We need to restate and duly emphasize this scriptural claim, that it is the birthright and privilege of every true Christian to have the joy of leading others to Christ. After but one hour’s fellowship with Christ, Philip went to win Nathanael. The Samaritan woman drank in the glad message of the Lord and then hastened to tell her neighbors. This is the kind of personal evangelism the world is waiting for, and no other kind will reach “the lost man, the least man and the last man.”
In our teaching and preaching we must place the personal responsibility for souls upon the believers, young and old, men and women. Our people lack this sense of responsibility, because they lack vision, appreciation of spiritual values and a passion for souls; and this mainly because the laity has been left to think that soul-saving work is the business of the minister.
We seem to have forgotten that Christ’s “Go ye!” concerns every Christian. It does not only refer to going with the Gospel to the foreign fields, but just as emphatically to the evangelizing and winning of the many nominal Christians here at home, who have fallen away from the Lord, and are found within our congregations as well as outside. The lay- membership have delegated this vital work to the clergy and think they have done their duty when they call and support a substitute. We cannot fulfill our obligations by proxy. The Lord counts on each one of His followers to do this soul- winning and soul-shepherding ministry. The Bridegroom sends His friends to win for Him a Bride. “Go ye!” includes all believers, clergy and laity, men and women. It was a little servant girl, a slave, who called the attention of Naaman’s wife to the prophet of the Lord in Israel. It was an untrained fisherman, Andrew, who told his brother Simon, about the Messiah.
“If you cannot cross the ocean
And the heathen lands explore,
You can find the heathen nearer;
You can help them at your door.”
But the pastor should teach, train and direct his parishioners in personal evangelism. The reason why there is so little every-member evangelism in our congregations, is not only because there are so few true Christians, but because our pastors do not call them out, encourage them and put them to work. They are inexperienced and timid, but willing, if trained and guided by the pastor. As soon as a person is saved, he should be made to feel his responsibility for others, who are either unsaved, or fellow-Christians, who may need encouragement. But a certain amount of instruction and advice is necessary as to the how, the when and the where of personal work. The pastor should gather those, who may volunteer, into a training class, where they meet to receive some helpful suggestions, as to how to approach people, how to use the Bible, and how to exercise tact and patience in dealing with souls. A course of study in evangelism should be given to prepare the willing workers to do intelligent, tactful and prayerful soul-winning work. By house visitations, by personal interviews, by distribution of tracts, by letter-writing, and various other ways, as they are led, they will soon find occasion for personal approach and heart-to-heart conversation on spiritual matters. This group of workers should meet regularly with the pastor to report their experiences, discuss their problems, successes and failures, and pray together for the guidance and blessing of God. “We must learn to expect great things from God, and then be willing to attempt great things for God,” as the great missionary Carey said. To win souls and to lead and establish them in the faith is the greatest achievement in the world. “He that converteth a sinner from the error of his way, shall save his own soul from death and shall cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:20).
The pastor must not only regard his congregation as his field, but as his working force. His success in soul-winning will greatly depend upon his success in securing the consecrated co-operation of his parishioners in personal evangelism. The pastor is the leader, the keyman, in encouraging, enlisting and developing congregational evangelism. By preaching, teaching and personal conversation he must cultivate the missionary spirit, and a sense of responsibility in stewardship, not only as to the right use of their material means, but as to the faithful use of the God-given spiritual gifts and talents. Fortunately no Christian, however insignificant he may feel himself to be, however limited his talents, is excluded from the blessed opportunity and the sacred obligation of soul-winning.
Aquila and Priscilla and many others mentioned in the Book of Acts and the Epistles are illustrations of the opportunities afforded every individual Christian to exercise his spiritual gifts in the service of the Lord.
Our commission is not only to preach, but to “make disciples,” to win them by the Gospel for Christ. What a crushing responsibility, if it were not for the assurance we have, that He, who gave this command, is with us always and has given us the Holy Spirit. But we must be faithful ambassadors and stewards. Let us beware of losing ourselves in externalism, in busy-bodiness with non-essentials, with membership campaigns, moneymaking schemes, and aiming to build up a congregation that can outwardly make a show. That seems to be the criterion of success that the world puts upon a congregation and its pastor. Even among us there is a danger to consider that pastor a success, who can raise the largest sum of money, gather in the largest number of members into his church, build the biggest church building and attract the largest crowds. And a pastor may so readily fall before such standards of success, and lose sight of the real success, that of building up a congregation of consecrated men and women, who with their pastor, are reaching out to win souls for Christ.
Worldliness is making disheartening inroads into the church. Indifference and lukewarmness are paralyzing Christian activities. We have our regular hours of Sunday worship. The pastors preach the pure Gospel. But our prayer-groups are fewer and are attended by a decreasingly small group. What is the crying need of our church today? Not primarily more men and means, not primarily more churches and members. We need a baptismal unction of the Holy Spirit upon the pastor in the pulpit and the parishioners in the pew. We need many more men and women, who Spirit-filled and Spirit-led will do personal evangelism. When our pastors and our church members have caught more of the soul-saving spirit, the church will be a power to attract the many who have drifted away from the church and interest those who are indifferent within the church.
SCRIPTURAL EVANGELISM
THERE is no more vital subject for the Christian Church to consider prayerfully and seriously than evangelism. The supreme mission of the Church is to evangelize the world, to bring the Evangel, the Gospel, the Glad Tidings of salvation to every sinner. Evangelism, scriptural evangelism, implies the bringing of the message and the means of salvation to men that souls may be led out of spiritual darkness and death in sin into the life and light of God’s saving and keeping grace in Christ Jesus. This the Lord accomplishes through His disciples, as His instruments. The work of winning souls is God’s work of grace. But He does the soul-winning through the lives and lips of His consecrated servants, who bring the efficacious and Spirit-fraught means of grace to the hearts of the unsaved. We are saved to serve in saving others. As soon as a sinner is converted, born again, the love of Christ will constrain him to share his blessings with others. Like Andrew and Philip, having found the Savior, the believer will have a desire to bring others to Him. This passion for souls is an expression of the new life. It becomes not only every Christian’s privilege to engage in soul-winning, but a sacred duty. And if he willfully refuses or neglects to let his light shine before men, he will suffer seriously and run the risk of losing his own spiritual life.
Soul-winning is accomplished in two general ways, either by the public preaching of the Gospel or by doing personal work with the individual. The public preaching must be followed up by personal evangelism. And it is in this very necessary soul-winning ministry that we are weak. There is not enough personal approach by the pastors; and by our parishioners very little of that is done.
It is not enough to be evangelical; we must be evangelistic. There is considerable in what one has said: “The evangelical church is a reservoir of pure water without a pipe running anywhere. If you will take the trouble and climb the embankment, you will get a good drink. The evangelistic church is a reservoir of pure water with a pipe to every heart in the Community, and to every nation in the world. The pipes are the servants of God, clergy and laity, the priesthood of believers. Evangelical may mean truth on ice; evangelistic means truth on fire. The need of the church is not so much evangelicalism as a thing to fight for; but evangelism, as a force to fight with.”
This comparison may be putting it strongly, but there is much truth in it. We very well know that the Gospel preached or read is the efficacious means of salvation, and that the Holy Spirit through the Word finds His way into the hearts to convict of sin and convert to Christ. And yet we are safe in saying that many more, who are under the influence of the Word, and are honestly seeking souls, would find peace and come to a blessed assurance, if there were more personal follow-up work done by the pastor and other mature Christians. Repeatedly have I heard in dealing with seeking souls: “How I have wished for a long time that someone would Speak to me about spiritual matters.” Many seeking souls would have been led to the joy and peace that come from the assurance of faith earlier in life, if someone had approached them tactfully and understandingly in a personal heart-to-heart conversation. Much precious time and many precious opportunities for valuable service were lost to them by remaining for years in this uncertainty. One cannot do spiritual service, until he has the assurance of his own salvation.
Is there not something lacking in the soul-winning ministry in the church of today? We have the Word of God in its truth and purity, and we preach our message on Sunday morning and evening. And if it is a soul-searching message in its application, we often see that there are some present who are deeply impressed. They may be seeking souls, who for a longer or shorter time, have been convicted of sin but have not found the way to peace with God. Perhaps some secret sin stands in the way, or possibly they have a mistaken idea of what is required to find peace with God. Often people are striving seriously but in vain to prepare themselves by doing this, that, or the other thing, before they feel they can come to the Lord and accept His forgiveness. It is surprising how many there are who, in various ways are laboring and groping in serious and honest, but mistaken ways, to be saved. I wonder if there should not be given an invitation and an opportunity at the close of services occasionally to meet the pastor in the sacristy for consultation and prayer. Is it not strange and to be deeply regretted that there are so few, who come to see the pastor in his office to seek advice in spiritual difficulties? And this is not because these vital and personal matters of their souls’ salvation are clear to them. When we are called to their death-bed, we often find that they never really understood or had found the way of salvation. How sad that so many of our otherwise faithful church members shall live a life in uncertainty in this respect! Should we not as pastors do more than we do to encourage our parishioners to come to a definite decision in regard to their relation to God? Is it not deplorable that the greater majority of our church members never make use of their pastor as a spiritual adviser until they are so sick that they do not expect to recover? This is a most inopportune time to settle life’s greatest question for many reasons. Having lived a life away from the Lord, possibly all of one’s lifetime, and having been either spiritually deceived or lived in worldliness and neglect, the hour of physical weakness and mental disturbance, as death is approaching, is the most inopportune and unfavorable time for a conversion. And even if the soul is saved in the
eleventh hour, there lies behind a lifetime lost in sin that cannot be redeemed, though forgiven.
The purpose of the Gospel is not merely to save our souls from hell, but to save our lives from sin that they may be dedicated to the service of the Lord. So many take their religion seriously only at the end of this brief life. When a person takes his religion so seriously in days of health that he weeps over his sins and cries for mercy, there are those who are ready to call it emotionalism and fanaticism. But when a sinner awakens to see his real condition and the Holy Spirit reveals to him his helplessness, there will be and must be an earnest cry to God for mercy, whether he is physically well and strong, or he lies at the door of death.
But this personal evangelism is not only the pastor’s duty. As we have already stated, it is according to the Word of God, the privilege and duty of every true Christian. Here again we must admit that we are weak in our Lutheran Church. In many congregations the pastor is the only one who does personal soul-winning work. When the preaching is more than a mere objective discourse and comes with a personal “thou-art-the-man” application and the heart-searching appeal by such a Spirit-filled message, delivered by a servant of God on fire with a passion for souls, sinners will be reached, awakened and brought face to face with their needs. Every believer in the congregation should then be glad and ready at the given opportunity to encourage such seeking souls. But not in the presence of others. The personal worker must ask God’s guidance to lead him to the one whom he should approach, and then tactfully deal with him, preferably in private.
We need revivalistic sermons and seasons of prayer for a spiritual awakening, and prayer on the part of the Christians for grace and love to do personal work. One has well said: “Evangelistic preaching is fishing with a big net. Personal evangelism is fishing with a hook.” Both are necessary. After all, we are not saved en masse, by groups and congregations. The Christian religion emphasizes personality. Man must be dealt with individually. Personal evangelism is the most fruitful soul-winning ministry. And this is scriptural. Jesus in His teaching as well as in His practice clearly emphasized the importance of personal and individual approach. He won most, if not all, of His followers by the personal touch. He called Matthew at the seat of custom, Peter, James and John while engaged in fishing on the sea of Galilee, the Samaritan woman at the well, Zaccheus at the sycamore tree, Nicodemus in the stillness of the night and Bartimeus on the highway. In His teaching He emphasized the testimony of life and lip in private as in public. He calls the believers “the salt of the earth,” “the light of the world,” “His witnesses,” “the fruit-bearing branches.” In the first chapter of the Gospel of John, called the “Personal Work” chapter, the same lesson is stressed.
Scripturally there is no distinction between clergy and laity as far as soul-winning ministry is concerned. Every follower of Christ is called to go and use his gift as a servant of God. Personal evangelism is clearly set forth in the Book of Acts and practiced by the early Christians. When the persecutions scattered them abroad throughout Judea and Samaria, “except the Apostles,” we read that “they went everywhere preaching the Word” (Acts 8:1 and 4). We read about Stephen, the deacon, “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit,” who spoke so that his hearers “were not able to withstand the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke.” Philip, the deacon, did effective personal work with the eunuch, who had the Word and read it, but did not understand it. Had not Philip done the work of an evangelist and guided him, the eunuch would not have been saved and baptized.
There are many such seekers among us who do not understand, and need to be dealt with individually. The church at Colosse was begun, not by a great revival under Paul’s
preaching, but as a result of the faithful personal work of Epaphras. A certain great divine has said: “If I had the assurance of living only ten years and as a condition I had to win a thousand souls for Christ, and was given the choice between preaching sermons or doing personal evangelism, I would choose the latter method every time.”
Prof. Edward Pfeiffer, D.D. of the Lutheran Seminary at Columbus, Ohio, who has written a most helpful little handbook for workers on the subject of “Evangelism,” has this to say: “In modern times this work of personal evangelism has come to be regarded almost exclusively as the privilege and duty of the ministers, while church members are allowed to be silent and are not encouraged to develop and exercise the gift and privilege of witnessing for Christ. It is well that we are beginning to lay more emphasis on personal evangelism and every-member evangelism.”
The apostles emphasized the Universal Priesthood of Believers. Congregational evangelism is the scriptural ideal. The congregation is not only a field to be cultivated, but a force to be enlisted in the service. The Bible stresses believing and confessing, privilege and responsibility. “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10:10).
The doctrine of the Priesthood of Believers was one of the cardinal doctrines emphasized by Luther in the Reformation. But today we have it pretty much on paper only. As the late Dr. Gerberding says in his booklet on the “Spiritual Priesthood of Believers”: “It has gone to sleep.” So many take the “Am I my brother’s keeper’s” attitude. We need to restate and duly emphasize this scriptural claim, that it is the birthright and privilege of every true Christian to have the joy of leading others to Christ. After but one hour’s fellowship with Christ, Philip went to win Nathanael. The Samaritan woman drank in the glad message of the Lord and then hastened to tell her neighbors. This is the kind of personal evangelism the world is waiting for, and no other kind will reach “the lost man, the least man and the last man.”
In our teaching and preaching we must place the personal responsibility for souls upon the believers, young and old, men and women. Our people lack this sense of responsibility, because they lack vision, appreciation of spiritual values and a passion for souls; and this mainly because the laity has been left to think that soul-saving work is the business of the minister.
We seem to have forgotten that Christ’s “Go ye!” concerns every Christian. It does not only refer to going with the Gospel to the foreign fields, but just as emphatically to the evangelizing and winning of the many nominal Christians here at home, who have fallen away from the Lord, and are found within our congregations as well as outside. The lay- membership have delegated this vital work to the clergy and think they have done their duty when they call and support a substitute. We cannot fulfill our obligations by proxy. The Lord counts on each one of His followers to do this soul- winning and soul-shepherding ministry. The Bridegroom sends His friends to win for Him a Bride. “Go ye!” includes all believers, clergy and laity, men and women. It was a little servant girl, a slave, who called the attention of Naaman’s wife to the prophet of the Lord in Israel. It was an untrained fisherman, Andrew, who told his brother Simon, about the Messiah.
“If you cannot cross the ocean
And the heathen lands explore,
You can find the heathen nearer;
You can help them at your door.”
But the pastor should teach, train and direct his parishioners in personal evangelism. The reason why there is so little every-member evangelism in our congregations, is not only because there are so few true Christians, but because our pastors do not call them out, encourage them and put them to work. They are inexperienced and timid, but willing, if trained and guided by the pastor. As soon as a person is saved, he should be made to feel his responsibility for others, who are either unsaved, or fellow-Christians, who may need encouragement. But a certain amount of instruction and advice is necessary as to the how, the when and the where of personal work. The pastor should gather those, who may volunteer, into a training class, where they meet to receive some helpful suggestions, as to how to approach people, how to use the Bible, and how to exercise tact and patience in dealing with souls. A course of study in evangelism should be given to prepare the willing workers to do intelligent, tactful and prayerful soul-winning work. By house visitations, by personal interviews, by distribution of tracts, by letter-writing, and various other ways, as they are led, they will soon find occasion for personal approach and heart-to-heart conversation on spiritual matters. This group of workers should meet regularly with the pastor to report their experiences, discuss their problems, successes and failures, and pray together for the guidance and blessing of God. “We must learn to expect great things from God, and then be willing to attempt great things for God,” as the great missionary Carey said. To win souls and to lead and establish them in the faith is the greatest achievement in the world. “He that converteth a sinner from the error of his way, shall save his own soul from death and shall cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:20).
The pastor must not only regard his congregation as his field, but as his working force. His success in soul-winning will greatly depend upon his success in securing the consecrated co-operation of his parishioners in personal evangelism. The pastor is the leader, the keyman, in encouraging, enlisting and developing congregational evangelism. By preaching, teaching and personal conversation he must cultivate the missionary spirit, and a sense of responsibility in stewardship, not only as to the right use of their material means, but as to the faithful use of the God-given spiritual gifts and talents. Fortunately no Christian, however insignificant he may feel himself to be, however limited his talents, is excluded from the blessed opportunity and the sacred obligation of soul-winning.
Aquila and Priscilla and many others mentioned in the Book of Acts and the Epistles are illustrations of the opportunities afforded every individual Christian to exercise his spiritual gifts in the service of the Lord.
Our commission is not only to preach, but to “make disciples,” to win them by the Gospel for Christ. What a crushing responsibility, if it were not for the assurance we have, that He, who gave this command, is with us always and has given us the Holy Spirit. But we must be faithful ambassadors and stewards. Let us beware of losing ourselves in externalism, in busy-bodiness with non-essentials, with membership campaigns, moneymaking schemes, and aiming to build up a congregation that can outwardly make a show. That seems to be the criterion of success that the world puts upon a congregation and its pastor. Even among us there is a danger to consider that pastor a success, who can raise the largest sum of money, gather in the largest number of members into his church, build the biggest church building and attract the largest crowds. And a pastor may so readily fall before such standards of success, and lose sight of the real success, that of building up a congregation of consecrated men and women, who with their pastor, are reaching out to win souls for Christ.
Worldliness is making disheartening inroads into the church. Indifference and lukewarmness are paralyzing Christian activities. We have our regular hours of Sunday worship. The pastors preach the pure Gospel. But our prayer-groups are fewer and are attended by a decreasingly small group. What is the crying need of our church today? Not primarily more men and means, not primarily more churches and members. We need a baptismal unction of the Holy Spirit upon the pastor in the pulpit and the parishioners in the pew. We need many more men and women, who Spirit-filled and Spirit-led will do personal evangelism. When our pastors and our church members have caught more of the soul-saving spirit, the church will be a power to attract the many who have drifted away from the church and interest those who are indifferent within the church.
Scriptural Evangelism - Forward- C.K. Solberg
Pastor Householder had a blog post last year, "Why Lutheran can't Evangelize?" His post has had over 72,000 views and over 130 comments. So it's obviously gotten alot of attention. I think he got the question wrong. The question should be, "Why won't Lutherans Evangelize?"
Fifty years ago we didn't have such confussion in the Lutheran church. I grew up in a church where everyone understood that as a Christian you were called to share your faith with the lost.
I found an interesting book by C.K. Solberg written in 1935. He was Pastor of St. Pauls Lutheran Church in Minneapolis at the time. the book is titled "Scriptural Evangelism" or "Saved To Serve" in Prose and Verse.
FOREWORD
IT IS not only true that we are saved by grace; but it is equally true that we are saved to bear the fruits of faith in an obedient life of service. We are not only justified by faith in Jesus Christ, but we are set apart for a life in sanctification to grow in grace in a humble and useful life. We are not only to cling to the Cross with the right hand of faith, but with the left hand of love we are to seek to rescue the perishing and help them to reach the same safe place that we have found at the foot of the Cross of the Crucified One. We are not to be so one-sidedly objective in stressing what Christ has done for us that we neglect the subjective and experiential side of Christianity, what Christ will do in us and through us. In our teaching and preaching we must stress the practical as well as the doctrinal phase of Christian faith. Christianity is real, vital, fruitfull. Faith without works is dead, says James.
We thank God for the uncompromising doctrinal stand of our Lutheran Church in these days of modernism. But we need emphatically to re-state and put into practice the doctrine of the “Priesthood of Believers” in all its practical implications. We need to emphasize individual responsibility in personal soul-winning work, and the stewardship of time, talent and money. It is not enough to stress the teaching and training of children and youth, that they may be soundly indoctrinated and helped to remain faithful and loyal to the Lutheran Church and to Christ. Evangelistic preaching in our pulpits and personal work on the part of all believers must be urged to win back the many unsaved without and within our congregations.
The great need of the church today is a God-sent, Spirit filled revival to awaken the many lukewarm and neglectful Christians to a personal responsibility in soul-winning, and to
revive and win back the large number of worldly-minded and unsaved, who have either drifted away from the church or are still members of our congregations.
It is my purpose in publishing the contents of this book to call attention to the important phase of Christian life and activity, known as “Scriptural Evangelism.” My prayer is that these plain testimonies in prose and verse may be blest upon the heart of the reader and serve to increase the sense of personal responsibility in the soul-winning mission, that we are saved to serve in winning others for Christ.
Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1935.
—C. K. SOLBERG.
Fifty years ago we didn't have such confussion in the Lutheran church. I grew up in a church where everyone understood that as a Christian you were called to share your faith with the lost.
I found an interesting book by C.K. Solberg written in 1935. He was Pastor of St. Pauls Lutheran Church in Minneapolis at the time. the book is titled "Scriptural Evangelism" or "Saved To Serve" in Prose and Verse.
FOREWORD
IT IS not only true that we are saved by grace; but it is equally true that we are saved to bear the fruits of faith in an obedient life of service. We are not only justified by faith in Jesus Christ, but we are set apart for a life in sanctification to grow in grace in a humble and useful life. We are not only to cling to the Cross with the right hand of faith, but with the left hand of love we are to seek to rescue the perishing and help them to reach the same safe place that we have found at the foot of the Cross of the Crucified One. We are not to be so one-sidedly objective in stressing what Christ has done for us that we neglect the subjective and experiential side of Christianity, what Christ will do in us and through us. In our teaching and preaching we must stress the practical as well as the doctrinal phase of Christian faith. Christianity is real, vital, fruitfull. Faith without works is dead, says James.
We thank God for the uncompromising doctrinal stand of our Lutheran Church in these days of modernism. But we need emphatically to re-state and put into practice the doctrine of the “Priesthood of Believers” in all its practical implications. We need to emphasize individual responsibility in personal soul-winning work, and the stewardship of time, talent and money. It is not enough to stress the teaching and training of children and youth, that they may be soundly indoctrinated and helped to remain faithful and loyal to the Lutheran Church and to Christ. Evangelistic preaching in our pulpits and personal work on the part of all believers must be urged to win back the many unsaved without and within our congregations.
The great need of the church today is a God-sent, Spirit filled revival to awaken the many lukewarm and neglectful Christians to a personal responsibility in soul-winning, and to
revive and win back the large number of worldly-minded and unsaved, who have either drifted away from the church or are still members of our congregations.
It is my purpose in publishing the contents of this book to call attention to the important phase of Christian life and activity, known as “Scriptural Evangelism.” My prayer is that these plain testimonies in prose and verse may be blest upon the heart of the reader and serve to increase the sense of personal responsibility in the soul-winning mission, that we are saved to serve in winning others for Christ.
Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1935.
—C. K. SOLBERG.
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