XIII CONGREGATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES (Continued)

I promise you in the beginning that I do not mean to discuss all of this outline (See pages 196-198) at this time. It covers in a general way the entire program of work that God wants His church to do. The scope of this work is so broad that we have to break it down in order to study it practically and effectively. Those who are directing the work of the church need to study it in its separate parts as well as in its entirety. This main list of objectives—evangelistic, devotional, instructional, looking after members individually, practical training, beneficent work, and incidentals—covers the field entirely. Every Scriptural function of the church is included in at least one of these general headings. I do not mean that the lists of activities under the main headings are complete. They are not necessarily so. In most instances they are incomplete. They are suggestive rather than exhaustive.

I Use of Outline

I would like for you to take this outline home with you and study it with two or three questions in mind. 215 First, what can you do to help advance the work of the church? Look over this list of activities and write into this outline any others which, in your judgment, would be scriptural in nature and help to make the work of the church more effective. These objectives are Scriptural, therefore, we want to do everything in our power to reach them. In order for the church to attain these objectives, it must have the co-operation of every member. There is something in this general program that you can do! Perhaps you’ll find many places where you can be of service, and you know it is your duty to render whatever service you can to make the Lord’s work as successful as possible.

These objectives being Scriptural, this outline may help the overseers in their work of edifying the church. Please remember that we are engaged in the greatest work in all the world—the work of saving souls! We are undertaking to accomplish a divine task, one which has been assigned to us by the God of heaven. In His work we ought to do our very best, remembering that one soul is worth more than all the material wealth in the world. We should leave nothing undone that will contribute toward our success.

Some constructive work was done in our business meeting this afternoon. A committee was appointed to plan the missionary program of the church for the year. This committee is to give some very careful study to the selection of the most appropriate fields and the amount that should be invested in each. The 216 results of their study, including the program they recommend for the next fiscal year, will be announced at the next meeting of the overseers. This is a very practical step. It is a definite step in the right direction. It pertains to Item No. 2 under our evangelistic objectives as shown on the outline.

Another committee was appointed to study our Sunday morning Bible school program and to make recommendations for improving it. That’s Item No. 2 under our instructional objective. So that makes two items on this list that will be given very careful study by committees that have been appointed for that purpose. We know that our Thursday evening meeting has been very much improved by giving a little more thought to planning the program. I believe that that meeting can be even further improved, and I am also convinced that similar improvements may be brought about in every other phase of the church’s work if the proper study and careful planning is devoted to it. I am hoping that every item in this outline will be given thoughtful consideration by those who are responsible for the work at Chapel Avenue for the sake of improving every phase of our work and worship.

We are told to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. God would not be pleased with a secondary place in our lives, and that means, among other things, that our program of work in the church should be given our best thought, our most careful consideration, and our most diligent support.

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II Sending Messages

I want to say a few things tonight under Item No. 2 of our evangelistic program. God tells us to go into all the world and preach the gospel unto every creature. We discussed some methods this morning that might be used in carrying out that responsibility in our own neighborhood. Now, the question arises, “What can we do about preaching in communities that are too far away to receive any direct benefit from our local program of services and personal work?”

One method which we have been using recently is that of distributing tracts. We have published 70,000 tracts for free distributions. Bro. Shacklett reported this afternoon in the business meeting that the most of this supply has already been distributed. He probably has enough calls on his desk now to more than exhaust the remainder. If it is not too optimistic to assume that each one of those tracts has been read by at least one person, that’s the equivalent of preaching a sermon to 70,000 people, which certainly is no small consideration!

And I happen to know that those who are selling tracts on a commercial basis, at least some of them best known to me, are making from 100 to 200 per cent profit. The tracts that cost us less than 1 cent each, are being sold by those who are in it for the money at 2½ cents each. That means that by spending less than one penny we can give to these missionary 218 fields a service that would cost them on the market 2½ cents. Therefore, from a financial point of view, by giving away tracts instead of giving the money with which to buy tracts, we are making a great saving.

The response that has been received from this work is very encouraging. If we had time, we would like to read some of the letters that have been received. In addition to the tracts distributed by Chapel Avenue, the church at Madison has made a very wide distribution of one of the same tracts, and is now contemplating publishing 100,000 with which to answer the calls they are receiving. That seems to be one good means of carrying the gospel to those of other communities who have not heard it. And, remember, it is our duty to use every legitimate means at our disposal.

The next item on your outline is radio preaching. There has been some talk of a national radio program, and no doubt that would do a great deal of good. There is some question as to whether the money that such a program would cost might not accomplish more good if spent in some other way. That’s a question which I, personally, would not know how to decide. But we do know that the radio is being used very extensively on a local basis in various missionary fields of our country, and those who are engaged in that work are pleased with the results.

However, trying to whip the devil by using the radio is somewhat like trying to whip the Germans 219 by fighting them from the air. A great deal can be accomplished but the battle cannot be completely won until we go in person. Radio work, to be as effective and fruitful as it ought to be, must be followed up by personal contact. Those who become interested by means of radio preaching ought to be contacted and encouraged to render complete obedience to the commandments of the gospel.

III Sending Money

A third way in which we can help to attain this objective of preaching the gospel to the entire world is by sending financial support to missionary fields and to preachers working in those fields. In that respect the church at Chapel Avenue has been very active and no doubt will continue to be. In fact, we have just about gone as far as we can go with the present means at our disposal, and I think it would not be out of order to tell you that in the business meeting this evening another man was put on the payroll at $200 per month, on a temporary basis, hoping that when the congregation learns about it, they will increase their contribution enough to cover this cost. Those who are managing the financial affairs believe that the present income is not sufficient to warrant this additional expense, but they have acted upon their faith in you, upon their confidence in you, that your knowledge of this increased need 220 will bring about an increased response. I do not believe that you will betray that confidence!

The man added to the payroll has a family of six children and recently resigned a job paying him several hundred dollars per month as district manager for an insurance company in order to devote his entire time to preaching the gospel. With a charter membership of about ten souls, twenty-four people were present for the initial meeting last Lord’s Day. This man seems to be well qualified for the task which he has undertaken, and we believe he will accomplish great results.

There are certain items listed in your outline which we believe should characterize our work of supporting missionaries. It is my conviction that regular and complete reports should be received from those who are being supported. Brother Estevez made a fine talk along that line here last Sunday afternoon. Brother Gregory gave us a splendid report of his work this morning. I believe that one reason the Chapel Avenue church has continued to be so vitally interested in the work at Kingsport is that one of our elders is on the job there and keeps the congregation here acquainted with what is being done.

Furthermore, the workers to be used in these fields should be selected very carefully. You ought to be just as careful about selecting some man to preach for you in North Carolina as you are about selecting some one to preach for you here. It seems to me that the two cases are exactly parallel in that respect. We ought to be just as much concerned about who 221 preaches for us over there as we are about who preaches for us here. If such a policy were followed by all the churches it would bring about a distinct improvement and prevent considerable embarrassment.

In addition, the man selected should be well supported. It’s worth just as much to preach in Kingsport or North Carolina or Louisiana or some other place as it is to preach in Nashville, and when the men have equal responsibility and equal qualifications, it seems to me that they ought to be equally well supported. Certainly the man in the field ought to be supported well enough that he will not be cramped in his work or distracted by concern about how he will meet the next month’s grocery bill.

Remember that it is our work when we send a man out to a field like that, and it would be inconsistency and folly on our part to send one without supplying him with the resources necessary for the success of his work. Something in addition to his bare living ought to be provided. He should have funds with which to operate. Think about how much it costs to carry on a program of work here, by way of advertising, maintaining a meeting place and supporting a radio program and all that sort of thing. In some ways it is more expensive in those fields than it is here. For instance, we have fifty other congregations in Nashville to help us advertise the cause of Christ in this city. In those fields the little mission church has to take all this responsibility by itself. It has to bear all the cost of supporting a radio program, 222 publishing articles in the daily paper, and of carrying on all of these varied activities that are listed under our local program of evangelism.

No business concern would send a man to some field to represent it and work for it without furnishing him with the support necessary for success in his work. I am convinced that it would be wiser and better in the long run to have a few men in the field fully supported than to have several that are but half supported, and therefore handicapped and unable to accomplish what should be accomplished.

It is also my conviction that the church which furnishes the money is also obligated to supervise the use of that money. I do not suggest that we dictate to churches at other places, for there is no one who believes more firmly in congregational autonomy than do I. Every congregation must be entirely independent. But, surely, if you have a man preaching for you in the state of North Carolina, or some other place, it is your duty to know what he is doing, what he is accomplishing, and whether it would be well for him to continue there or to move to some other community.

I know of one man who was supposed to be preaching in a missionary field, not supported by Chapel Avenue incidentally, concerning whom I have received a report that the only thing he did was to teach a Bible class on Wednesday night. Over a period of several months he received a good income from churches throughout the country who were gullible enough to answer a call without knowing the 223 condition of the field and the kind of work that was being done by the one who made the call; while being paid to preach he was working at a secular job, receiving a living wage therefor, and putting the money he received from the churches in the bank in his own name. This illustrates what I mean by saying that it is necessary that we keep a line on those who are being supported. Those who are worthy will welcome investigation and those who are not worthy certainly ought to be investigated.

I believe that I am, at least to some extent, qualified to speak here for I have worked at both ends of the line. As you know, I spent five years at Richmond, Virginia, in the missionary field, receiving support from you and others back home. I’ve also worked at this end of the line, and I think I know a little about how such work ought to be done. Surely regular and complete reports ought to be received, and careful supervision should be exercised by those who furnish the money. It is my conviction that, when God places resources in the hands of an individual or a congregation, they are responsible for seeing that those resources are properly used.

That’s the reason I am reluctant to tell a rich man how to give away his money. If he had sense enough to make it, he probably has more sense about how to spend it than someone who could never make any. Of course one should teach the principles that are revealed in the Bible concerning the use of money, but I believe that the responsibility of spending one’s money rests primarily upon the one to whom God 224 has entrusted the money, and that will apply to a congregation as well as to individuals.

IV A Three-Cornered Affair

Now arranging a program of missionary work is a three-cornered affair. There is first of all the missionary field in which the work is to be done, and next, there is the preacher who is to do the preaching and third the church to do the financing. By some means or other these three must be brought to an agreement upon a plan of procedure. That means that somebody must take the initiative in getting the work started.

Sometimes a few members who live in the missionary field take the initiative, and undertake to find a preacher and someone to support him. They contact a preacher and ask him to come and work for them. They contact some church or churches and ask them to support the man while he works for them. Whenever there is enough leadership in the mission field to take such initiative, that’s all right. But that is presupposing a goodly degree of leadership in a mission field! There are many mission fields which do not possess such leadership. Sometimes the few members who live in these mission fields are relatively indifferent. They are not always so. Sometimes they are the finest people on the earth, but often they are not. And maybe the reason it’s still a mission field in many instances is because they are not as 225 wide awake and zealous as they should be. So if a great many fields are ever reached, some of them not having any members at all, someone else must take the initiative.

In other instances, the preacher takes the initiative. He selects a field to which he would like to go and then he gets some churches to support him while he does so. That’s the plan I used in going to Richmond. It sometimes works all right and sometimes it doesn’t. For very often a preacher who undertakes to do such work is comparatively inexperienced, and is not nearly as well qualified to plan the program of work as some congregation that helps support him would be. When I went to Richmond, twelve years ago, one had to do it that way, because at that time, so far as I know, no one congregation considered itself able to assume full responsibility for the support of a missionary. But I do not believe that this is the most satisfactory method.

In the third place, the congregation itself very often takes the initiative, selects a field, selects a preacher, and sends him there to work. Bro. Gregory gave us an example of that this morning. He told of a congregation which made thorough investigation of the places needing a preacher in East Tennessee and finally concluded that Kingsport would be the most advisable place for them to help. They’ve been following that plan for many years. Bro. Charles King has been on their payroll for quite a long time. Several years ago they sent a committee to East Tennessee, at an expense of $150, to select the best place 226 for him to preach. At that time they decided in favor of Harriman, where there is now, I understand, a strong congregation.

In this case, you see, the church took the initiative; the church selected the field after proper investigation; the church selected a preacher and paid him a salary and supported him while he represented them in that field. Where this can be done, it seems to me to be a very fine plan. Hence, one way for an established congregation to contribute to the success of evangelizing the world is to take the initiative not only in planning, but also in supervising the work. With such an arrangement the work will be promoted according to the judgment of a seasoned and experienced group of elders rather than according to the judgment of some young, inexperienced fellow who gets the idea that he wants to be a missionary.

A few objections to this plan have come from preachers on the field. It has been said, “I’d rather have twenty churches supporting me than to have just one. For that one might get discouraged at my pessimistic report and cut me off.” The answer to that is that there should be a more definite agreement on the part of the preacher and the church as to how long he is to be supported. The man on the missionary field should not expect a guarantee of a lifetime job. And, furthermore, if his reports were too pessimistic, it may be that his support should be discontinued. Or perhaps he ought to be advised to discontinue his activities in that field and to move to some other. It would not have been well for Paul to 227 have remained indefinitely in the city of Athens. According to the inspiration guiding him, it was better for him to move on.

I would have welcomed counsel and advice from those supporting me when I was working in Richmond. There were about twenty different churches supporting me—too many for me to confer with each of them to get advice on questions that arose; and consequently in most instances I relied only on my own judgment, which meant that the work was being directed by the judgment of one young preacher rather than by the combined judgment of some experienced group of elders. And nothing would have given me greater encouragement than for a committee of elders of some church that was supporting me to have spent a few days in Richmond studying the situation and advising me on the problems which arose. There were times when I wondered if the results being accomplished justified the money being spent.

Of course, the money was well spent. For growing out of that work which I entered twelve years ago there are now two self-supporting congregations. One of them has a building completely paid for and supports a full-time preacher. The other has a part-time preacher. Coming from one of these congregations, a young man graduated from David Lipscomb last spring and has gone back to Virginia to preach the gospel in his native state. Another young man from one of these congregations is now at Lipscomb preparing himself to preach the riches of Christ. On the 228 side, some work and encouragement were given at Norfolk, Virginia, where there is now a growing and prosperous congregation. These developments have come about in only twelve years. But I couldn’t see it then. Oftentimes I became discouraged. If some one congregation had been supplying all the necessary support and supervising the work, it would have been very helpful to me.

But after all, friends, when you contribute only five or ten dollars per month to a place, you are not likely to have a vital interest in the work. To give you a concrete example, an elder and treasurer of a church in Middle Tennessee which sent ten dollars each month to Richmond, year after year, spent several days in Richmond on a social visit and didn’t even come around to see what was being done. Well, they only had $10 per month invested there and so they were not particularly interested. But if they’d been spending $200 a month, paying the full salary of the man on the job, then an elder who spent the week end in town would have looked into the situation! Where a man’s treasure is, there will his heart be also!

In fact, I have said, and I’m about to say again, that to contribute just $5 a month here and there and elsewhere for mission work is somewhat like giving a nickel to a beggar on the street. Do you know why you give that nickel? Not because you are interested in the beggar and not because you are concerned about what he is doing, but to ease your own conscience. You are seeking to purchase ease of conscience 229 with expenditure of a mere nickel! If the beggar is worthy, he ought to have more than a nickel; if he isn’t worthy, he doesn’t deserve even a nickel. And so when a congregation merely contributes five dollars to each of a few places, to soothe their conscience, they can say, “Yes, we are doing some mission work,” but certainly they are following the line of least resistance. They may have purchased ease of an untrained and misinformed conscience at a minimum cost, but this does not mean that they have done their duty in meeting the responsibility that God has placed on them!

Another way in which Chapel Avenue can and is contributing to the attainment of this objective, is by furnishing leadership for rural churches in reach of Nashville. Bro. Clark, Bro. Shacklett, Bro. Autry, and others who have been going out, know that there are many congregations within driving distance of Nashville which are almost totally lacking in leadership. They need someone to be there on Lord’s Day to conduct the worship and to teach and encourage them. And we have an opportunity to do a lot of good along that line.

V Practical Suggestions

Now these are just scattering thoughts and remarks on what we can do and, therefore, what we ought to do to attain the God given objective of preaching the gospel unto the whole world. I advise you again that 230 this list of activities is not exhaustive but suggestive. The same kind of treatment given this particular objective could be applied to the others in this outline as well. We don’t have time to do so tonight, but I want you to study it for yourself and consider how you, individually and personally, can do something to help us reach these scriptural objectives. And further, consider how the church itself may improve its efforts along this line.

If you think of some change that ought to be made in this outline, or some items that ought to be added to it, I would certainly be glad to receive your suggestions. Friends, remember that we are engaged in the Lord’s work, the greatest work in all the world! If there is any body of people on earth who ought to be enthusiastic, it is the church of Christ! We are working in the Lord’s kingdom, and we know that our labor will not be in vain. If so much can be accomplished by the little that has been done, I want you to think about what could be accomplished if we were all doing our best! It yet remains to be demonstrated what can be accomplished by a congregation which is wholly and completely dedicated unto the work of the Lord. I recommend that you give a practical and careful study then to each item on this list.

Consider our devotional program and how it may be improved. It can be improved! To claim that there is no room for improvement would be to claim perfection which none of us would like to do. Bro. Murphy has been making some fine suggestions in 231 our Thursday evening work. Those of you who have missed them have been missing an opportunity to improve the effectiveness of your own service in the kingdom of God. He’s made some practical suggestions. You may think some of them are not good, but certainly every suggestion he has made should be given very careful consideration by those who are supervising and taking part in the work here.

Perhaps our greatest sin is our failure to put into use the knowledge which we receive, to make practical use of suggestions offered. It would be easy just to let Dr. Murphy’s advice pass by and go unheeded. If we do that, it will mean that the church will be very little better off after this eight weeks of training than it was before. But, if his suggestions are promptly and faithfully heeded, the church will be a great deal further along toward the accomplishment of its scriptural objectives than it was before.

You will notice that the Wednesday evening meeting appears three or four times in this outline and might appropriately appear at even some other place. For instance, the Wednesday evening meeting may be used for devotional purposes. It may be used for instructional purposes and will be for the next eight weeks. It may also be used for the purpose of giving practical training to those who would be workers in the kingdom of God. If we’ll think about it like that, you see, it will give purpose to our mid-week meetings.

Here are scriptural goals. God is holding us responsible to do everything we can to attain these objectives 232 promptly and effectively. Our mid-week program can be made to serve a very important purpose in the attainment of these ends. And, therefore, along with every other scriptural phase of the work, should receive the wholehearted co-operation and support of every member.

I’m looking forward to much greater things for the church at Chapel Avenue in the weeks, months, and years ahead. Don’t you want to have a part in it? If there are some here tonight who live in our community and would like to work and worship with the church here, we invite you to make that known by coming forward tonight. If there are those who have backslidden, you are invited to follow the Bible plan of repenting, confessing your faults, and praying for forgiveness, that God may save your soul. And, of course, you who have not been baptized, if you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, if you will repent of your sins and confess your faith and obey the commandment to be baptized for remission of sins (Acts 2:38) God promises that your sins will be forgiven, washed away by the blood of Christ, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit! Christ invites you to come to him and let him save you! Will you accept that invitation while together we stand and sing?

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