Chapter 4
REVIVALS AND THE MID-CENTURY CRUSADE
"And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach
and preach Jesus Christ." -- Acts 5:42
There is across this land a deepening and unmistakable conviction that
evangelism, as we have known it, is at the crossroads. We do know that
evangelism in the Church of the Nazarene is in crisis. And since our
whole church program is geared to the evangelistic emphasis, the present
crisis and challenge affect every layman and every preacher -- in every
area of responsibility.
Our world today is in flux and ferment -- not only politically and
socially and economically, but religiously as well. And the Church of the
Nazarene, in its thinking and re-evaluation of emphasis, has not escaped
the disturbing tides of our times. The attitudes we take today and the
decisions and choices we make in the immediate future will, if Jesus tarries,
determine the future effectiveness of the church for many, many years
to come.
In our attempts to rethink evangelism in the light of present conditions,
regardless of how hard we try, we cannot divorce revival effort from any
sustained evangelistic emphasis, at least in the Church of the Nazarene
today or in the foreseeable future. It is true, of course, that there
have been great denomination-wide spiritual crusades promoted by some
churches in the past which did not include the revival method. But the
total impact of those crusades invariably resulted in the dissipation
of the spiritual and physical capital, with the whole crusade degenerating
into just another campaign for church members. And if the Mid-Century
Crusade in the Church of the Nazarene degenerates into that, the church
would be better off had the campaign never been launched. Sheer weight
is never the determining factor in effectiveness. The determining factor
in the success of any cause is intensity of devotion -- and faith!
Many churches today face a real crisis in their evangelism because
they have neglected, or in some cases, repudiated altogether, the revival
method. Could it be that we in the Church of the Nazarene face our crisis
because we have depended too exclusively upon the revival to meet all
our evangelistic needs?
The true solution for effective evangelism today must lie between those
two extremes. And that is why the challenge and program of the Mid-Century
Crusade are so thrilling -- it reaffirms the necessity of revival, while
at the same time emphatically points to the need of enlisting the whole
church in the actual winning of men and women to Jesus Christ. That is
not to say that revival is any less important; rather, it is to say that
other methods of evangelism are vastly more important than we have sometimes
thought.
There are those, of course, who blame any decrease in evangelistic
effectiveness upon ineffective revivals and revivalists. It is so easy
-- and human -- to lay blame. But when we are really honest with ourselves
we know, and admit, that all of us -- pastors, evangelists, superintendents,
and laity -- share in the blame, remembering that revival, in this sense,
is merely the outgrowth of the evangelistic attitude and spirit.
There are those who apparently can afford that easy cynicism which
says, "Yes, the church was born in a revival, and unless we are careful
it will also die in one. And so, believing that we have really outgrown
the revival, the cynics are ready to relegate the revival to some marginal
activity of the church, thus enabling them to throw the full weight of
their enlightened and progressive genius to some other method. Fortunately,
that attitude is not widespread.
Whatever our attitude might be toward the revival method, with all
its limitations, the Church of the Nazarene is committed to it -- not exclusively,
of course, but as a central part of its evangelistic effort, in the Mid-Century
Crusade and beyond.
Believing then that revivals have been, are today, and must in the
future be a central part of our evangelistic effort, let us discuss ways
in which revivals might be more fruitful within the general framework
of the Mid-Century Crusade.
We are spending today in the Church of the Nazarene almost two million
dollars per year in special revival effort. Each church is giving on the
average from four to eight weeks per year to special evangelistic campaigns.
There are approximately three hundred men and women in the
Church of the Nazarene giving their full time to the field of evangelism.
Of course, that number varies from week to week -- as pastors are constrained
to enter the evangelistic field, and as evangelists are constrained
to enter the pastorate.
But the question comes: Are we getting value received from our program
of evangelism? Do our revivals actually justify the unprecedented expenditure,
the unparalleled promotion, and the untiring energies we are pouring
out upon them today? In this crucial, challenging hour, are the results
of our revivals as fruitful and as constructive and as abiding as they should
be? And if they are not, then why not?
Some, of course, lay the blame for our evangelistic ills on the inflationary
costs of religious work today. It is true that the per capita cost of
conversions is steadily rising -- and in the Church of the Nazarene the
cost has been rising steadily since 1935. Yet that is neither an adequate
excuse nor an ample explanation.
Lack of Member-Participation
The real reason for the decline in evangelistic effectiveness is an
alarming and tragic lack of member-participation in the actual work of
winning men and women to Jesus Christ. And that, of course, implies that
deeper lack of a vigorous and positive spirituality.
It is said that fifty thousand Nazarenes could die tonight and their
passing would not visibly affect the church in its first task of winning
souls to Christ. What is the condition in your local church? Could you
lose one-fourth of your total membership without any appreciable decrease
in evangelistic effectiveness?
The fact remains that whenever there are in any church more souls needing
to be won than soul winners, that church is a field rather than a force
for evangelism! And I submit that God does not intend His Church to be
just a field for evangelism, but that God does intend His Church to be
a force -- a mighty and militant spiritual force -- for the evangelization
of the world!
There are, of course, great numbers of church members who are good,
decent, respectable people, most of whom consider themselves real workers
in the church. They can recite a stereotyped testimony. They are able
to pronounce all the religious shibboleths. They long ago learned the
holiness vocabulary -- even though some of them have long since lost the
experience -- content of that vocabulary. They are even willing to serve
on committees and boards or teach a class. They are very loyal and very
devoted and very faithful -- to the marginal and the secondary. But
the actual participation in the church's first task, that of winning men
and women to Christ, is much too demanding and much too hard work for
their soft and flabby souls.
All of us are thankful to God for those members who are spiritually
alert and who are not only morally decent but spiritually dynamic --
who not only pray to win souls, but win souls because they pray. Who
are not concerned chiefly with contacts, but are glad and willing to pay
the steep price for conversions. Who are not only glad to deal with souls,
but are willing to hold on until they win souls. May the emphasis of
the Mid-Century Crusade be so stirring and so challenging that this
small class of the concerned shall be increased -- by the thousands!
This type of burden and interest and passion for souls never comes
easy -- and it can never be promoted nor organized nor advertised into
the hearts of our people! This sincere burden and passion for souls comes
as a by-product of deep devotion and consecration and an ever-increasing
awareness of the glorious truths and claims of the gospel of Christ!
One thing we are learning, thank God! -- and not any too soon either
-- is that artificial zeal, regardless of how loud or how sparkling or
how persistent, can never take the place of genuine spiritual power!
A Deepening Spirituality
There is one truth that all of us should rediscover and have the courage
to face, and that is that evangelism is not the cause but the result of
a spiritual church! On the Day of Pentecost was it the revival, the winning
of three thousand souls to Christ, that made the disciples spiritually
dynamic, or was it the new spiritual power that made the revival possible
and inevitable? True, the spiritual tone of the church is far better
after a genuine revival, but that is because revival is but the completion
and renewal of the evangelistic process.
Evangelism, then, is really the outflow and the overflow of a spiritually
vigorous church. Evangelism is the glow of an inner warmth, the go of
an inner compulsion.
That is why a church can never be propped up indefinitely by periodic
meetings. That is why no evangelist, no matter how good or how famous
or how eccentric, can ever really produce a genuine revival; he can
only "exploit" a spiritual condition! That is why a church that is making
little or no impact should not ask, "What is wrong with our program of
evangelism?" but should rather ask, "What is lacking in the spiritual
equipment of our people?" And that is why Dr. E. Stanley Jones is so
urgently right when he says, "Before we can go further we must first go
deeper!"
Without that deepening spirituality which issues in passionate, all-out
service, all of our visitation and advertising and methods -- the effectiveness
of all our plans and programs and promotions will be reduced to a final
and futile spiritual zero. As someone has so challengingly said: "Revival
is not going down the street with a great big drum; revival is going back
to Calvary with a great big sob!"
The slogan of the Mid-Century Crusade catches that same spirit: "Begin
on your knees -- then go to the task!" And if we tarry on our knees long
enough, we will go to the task -- we'll have to!
If our revivals are to justify the place given to them in the program
of the church, and if they are to make the spiritual impact they should
in this great Crusade, two changes are desperately necessary.
First, our revivals must become more God-centered and less man-centered!
We don't really need more high-powered personality behind the pulpit;
but we do urgently need more of the personality and power of the Holy
Spirit upon the whole church.
Secondly, we must get the spectators out of the gallery and into the
witness chair! There are far too many "onlookers" in our churches. There
are far too many professing Christians and church members who are on
the side lines. In this great task of winning men, no one can be effective
as an "onlooker." No one can participate from the side lines. Soul winning
is everybody's job!
Oh, that every Nazarene would make the slogan, "Begin on your knees
-- then go to the task," more than a slogan, but an actual heart and
life experience! Our revivals -- and every phase of the work -- would
be more God-centered. Our "spectator" members would begin to participate
in the soul-winning task, and our churches would receive that spiritual
impetus that is so desperately and so urgently needed.
Revivals and the Crusade
Of course, before the revival ever starts, the pastor will be working
the plan of the Mid-Century Crusade -- not just in its initial phases
but in the fourth phase, that of definitely talking to and praying with
men and women with the one aim of winning them to Christ. And in the
remaining months of the Crusade, intensive working of that plan before each
revival will tie in the whole emphasis of the Crusade into one constructive
evangelistic effort It will be impossible, of course, to keep sustained
interest at that intensity so necessary for real effectiveness in all the
phases of the Crusade; but if the fourth phase is worked immediately preceding
each revival the results of the revivals should prove constructive and
abiding.
But that personal work must not stop when the revival begins! The fact
cannot be too strongly emphasized. How often it has been true that, regardless
of the preparation for the revival, just as soon as the evangelist arrived
and the revival started the people sat back and said by their actions,
"All right, here we are; let's see you put it on" -- thinking that they
could "hire" their evangelistic work done for them, and that their responsibility
was somehow suspended for the duration of the meeting. Is it any wonder
that many of our revivals lack depth and constructive results? And by
"constructive" results, I mean that residual work -- that you have left
when all the shouting dies away.
Constructive and abiding results in any revival require more than horn-playing
or special singing or recitation of poems or jokes or even unique sermons.
Really constructive and abiding results stem from the deep moving of
the Holy Spirit and the participation of the whole church in the whole
task.
We simply cannot afford to let the plan of the Crusade in any of its
phases stop when the meeting begins! Then, of all times, it is so urgently
necessary to have our people trying to change some of their contacts
into conversions.
A Suggested Plan
The following plan is one that has been used for a number of months
in an attempt to enlist more active participation in the actual winning
of souls to Christ. It is not presented as the only plan, certainly,
nor even the best plan; but I believe it does point in the right direction.
In order to continue the emphasis of the Mid-Century Crusade during
the revival, all of those members who have signed up or expressed their
willingness to do personal work and visitation are asked to meet after
one of the early services of the meeting, there to discuss homes that
can be entered and worked, and loved ones and friends who need definite
spiritual help. Then the workers decide among themselves which homes
they care to work and the size of the group to go -- usually two and
not more than three persons to a group. Then throughout that night and
next day they can pray for those into whose homes they will go the following
evening.
Everyone, of course, comes to service the next evening; but during
the song service, or about thirty minutes after the service has begun,
those who are going out to do personal work come to the altar and prayer
is offered for them in the specific task before them. Then while others
in the congregation stand with bowed heads, the personal workers arise
from the altar and go out of the church and into their cars and to the
homes to be worked. They report back to the church after their visitation
and prayer to report any conversions that might have taken place or the
response of the people to their dealing and prayer. Of course the service
continues at the church while the personal workers are out. This plan
is carried out one or two nights of the first week of the meeting, and
perhaps one night of the second or last week.
When the workers are met at the door by the prospect or prospects,
the workers simply say, "We have left our revival service to come and talk
with you and pray with you." Very seldom are the workers refused entrance
into the home. If there are visitors in the home, the conversation is, of
course, very general; the scripture is read and prayer is offered, and
the workers leave the home with a strong invitation for the people to
attend the revival services.
However, if the situation is "right," if the prospects are there alone,
after the rather general conversation (and the prospect or prospects will
usually see to it that it is kept general!), the small talk can be ended
by saying, "We would like to read a scripture while we are here." And after
the scripture, the workers can make the dealing very pointed and plain
-- working toward a definite decision: excuses answered, and reasons
given why the prospects should settle it right then and there. Finally
the prospects are asked to kneel, and while all are kneeling the workers
can all pray -- for that definite decision! The prospect or prospects can
then be dealt with exactly as though they were kneeling at the altar
in church.
After prayer the workers rise and rejoice with those who have prayed
through -- or if such is not the case, promise the prospects that they
will continue to pray for them, and urge them to attend the revival services;
then thank them for the privilege of prayer in their home, and courteously
and graciously leave.
"Sounds all right," you say, "but will it work?" Yes, thank God, it
has passed that test! Not every needy prospect prays through in that
type of home-evangelism. But, does every needy person go to the altar
and pray through in the regular or revival services? There are at least
four important advantages to this plan of evangelism -- or any other plan
with the same objective.
Reaches Souls Not Attending Church
1. It makes possible the reaching and winning of men and women who
never attend church -- much less kneel at an altar if they did come. In
sober truth, great numbers of men and women living in our communities
will die and go to hell if we wait for them to come to church and pray
through. If they are ever won to Christ, it will be through personal dealing
and prayer in their own homes.
A man past sixty years of age was not attending church -- and had not
attended for years. He was hard and cynical. The members of the Church
of the Nazarene in that California town had invited him to church many,
many times, but he wouldn't come. His wife invited him constantly, but
he wouldn't come. Finally, four men of the church went out to see him.
His wife came to the door; and when the man saw the four men from the
church there, he started out the back door. But they at last persuaded
him to sit down, and they began to talk to him about his soul and about
Christ and His wonderful love and mercy. The usual objections and excuses
were given. Finally, the four Christian men and the man's wife knelt
to pray. The man not only wouldn't kneel, but he sat with head unbowed,
stony and resistant.
At last the wife went over and knelt in front of her husband and cried
and prayed that he would get on his knees and accept Christ. "Watching"
and praying, the men saw a tear trickle down the man's cheek; then all
at once he was on his knees praying and crying and pouring out his heart
to God. It wasn't long until the man prayed through and was on his feet
saying, "Thank God for saving me! I have held out a long time, but I'm
so glad that I have at last accepted Christ." Yes, the man was in the
very next service of the revival -- and testified that Christ had saved
him! Does it pay? Does it work? You answer that!
A mother of seven children was not attending church. She lived just
outside the city limits of a Texas city, and with the children and transportation
problems she easily justified herself in not attending church. Two personal
workers went out to her home to talk to her and to pray with her. She
continued ironing while the workers talked and witnessed. The woman was
not hard nor resistant; she simply had not been able to find time to get
everything else done and then get to church.
Finally, the workers asked the woman to get on her knees for prayer.
She did so, and even while one of the workers prayed this woman broke
out in sobbing -- crying to God for salvation. She had never been a
Christian, and as she poured out her heart in prayer she told God that
she was so sorry she had just neglected Him so long and that she really
wanted to be a Christian mother and to set a good example before her
children. God, of course, heard and answered that mother's earnest prayer.
And that woman stood with tears streaming down her face, praising the
Lord, saying, "Thank You, Jesus, for saving me! Thank You, Jesus, for coming
into my heart. Now I know that I'll be able to meet my precious boy who
is in heaven." Oh, how happy she was! How thrilled she was! A mother
of seven children, a woman forty-five years of age, and a Christian for
the first time in her life! Yes, she was in the next service of the revival
and testified that Christ had saved her; and then, in the closing service
of the revival, s he, with others, stood and united with the Church of
the Nazarene.
Oh, the vast thousands of men and women and young people who never
attend church services or revivals and who will be lost in hell unless
someone prays with them in their own homes and wins them to Christ! With
the ... attractions that keep men and women out of churches, this plan
of home-evangelism will be increasingly important -- and necessary! But,
the early Christians witnessed and won -- in homes!
Increases Dependence on God
2. This plan of visitation and home-evangelism during the revival increases
the sense of dependence on God. It doesn't take a great amount of spiritual
fervor to sit and listen through a revival service. But it does take
real burden and a sense of utter dependence upon God to go out into
a home and witness and win for Christ. Church members can come to revival
services and even participate to a certain extent in those services --
without God's help. But no one can go into a home and pray and win a
lost soul to Christ without God's help!
How many times have workers come back from the homes saying that they
felt so inadequate as they pulled up in front of the home to be visited
and worked, that they tarried in the car for a few minutes to ask God's
special blessing and help! As one woman, who had been a professing Christian
and a church member for years, put it, "As I rang the doorbell I was shaking
all over with fright, but I asked God to help me; and by the time the people
got to the door, my fear was gone and God wonderfully helped me throughout
the evening." A Sunday-school superintendent said when he returned from
praying with friends in their home, "I don't know just how much good
it did them, but I know this: I'll never be the same!" If this plan did
nothing more than to increase that sense of dependence upon God it would
be gloriously worth while -- to every church member and to every church.
Our work, in all of its phases, must be more God-centered.
Increases Sense of Personal Responsibility
3. This plan increases the awareness of personal responsibility in
the task of soul winning and gives Christians, during the revival, an avenue
of actual witnessing. Church members become not mere spectators in the
task of winning souls, but participators, proclaimers, evangels in their
own right, which is, of course, God's plan and purpose for every Christian.
To the same degree that we have detached soul winning from the responsibilities
and duties and privileges of the individual Christian, and placed that
responsibility upon some "hired" evangelist, to that same degree have
we departed from God's plan for winning men. Jesus said, "If you follow
Me, I will make you a fisher of men." According to Jesus, every true Christian
is to be a soul winner!
As workers go into the homes to pray and win, they feel in their hearts
that it is their responsibility and duty and privilege -- just as much
as it is the duty and privilege of their pastor or the "hired" evangelist.
As a church board member put it, "I have known all along that this is
what I ought to do, but somehow I just never got started until tonight."
Or, as a Sunday-school teacher expressed it: "I have heard preachers talk
about this all my life, but I never felt that I could do it, even though
I knew I should. But I'm so glad that I have finally got started."
All of us know that this is God's plan -- every Christian witnessing
and winning. All of us know that we should do it. All of us know that
there are thousands of men and women who will go to hell unless they
are prayed with and won right in their own homes. But getting started!
That's the difficulty! As someone has said, "The best way to start is to
start!" And if we will start, God will go with us!
Conserves Results
4. This plan worked during the revival will help to conserve the results
of the revival. If one has had a personal interest and part in the winning
of a soul to Christ, that one will also be more vitally concerned about
that soul staying true to God -- thus providing the only atmosphere
for the successful conservation of results.
When we are honest with ourselves, we know that the results of any
revival are never really conserved by any number of church socials or suppers
or showers. If we spent half the time in spiritual concern for our new
converts that we do entertaining them, we would see more of our converts
actually hungering for holiness and more of those converts permanently
won to the church. The results of any revival are never really conserved
by merely adding names to the church roll. To accept into membership those
who know nothing of the church or its doctrines is to lay the groundwork
for future misunderstandings and trouble.
It requires the same spirituality -- the same intensity of prayer and
passion and personal concern -- to conserve souls that it does to win
them. No amount of organization or promotion or entertainment can ever
take the place of that!
Is it any wonder that when our revivals are so man-centered -- when
so much of the soul-winning responsibility is relegated to the evangelist
-- is it any wonder that, when the evangelist is gone and there is no
reservoir of spiritual concern or personal interest, so many of the
results of the revival "evaporate." It takes personal concern plus the help
of God to win souls -- and it takes personal concern plus the help of
God to conserve souls!
Reveille or Taps
This great spiritual offensive known as the Mid-Century Crusade for
Souls can mean either reveille or taps for the church. And remember,
both of those can be blown on the same bugle -- by the same person!
It will mean the beginning of the end if, in these days of terrific challenge,
we dissipate our spiritual energies in that feverish activity which degenerates
a crusade into a "campaign" for members and organizations, while high-sounding
reports and imposing and flashy statistics continue to pile up, blinding
us to the awful and tragic fact that our God-given mission of holiness
evangelism is passing into other hands and hearts.
Oh, that God will make this Crusade a stirring reveille, awakening
us to the need and to our responsibility, and summoning us to rise and
meet the challenge of a world in crisis with a holiness evangelism which
is at once the dynamic of the church and the only adequate answer to a confused
and chaotic world!
The End
