HOW TO MAKE THE WORK PERMANENT – REV. E. P. GOODWIN, D.D.

All ministers and Christian workers who have to do with evangelistic efforts find great difficulty in secur­ing permanent results. I desire to name two or three methods, tested by much experience, which have proved of great value. Take first the common experi­ence in nearly all revival meetings. People come from everywhere. If the meetings are marked with unusual power and are continued for some length of time, there is sure to be a considerable class of persons interested not identified with any church and not under the eye or personal care of any pastor. Then, espe­cially in the great meetings conducted by noted revival leaders, multitudes of such are sure to be gathered in. In Mr. Moody’s meetings, it was no uncommon thing to find scores of persons night after night in an inquiry ­room, and that in my own church, not one of whom had I ever seen, and most of whom were never met again after the meetings ceased. But more or less the same is true of all revival services in our city missions and in all such Christian work. Therefore, the name and address of everyone rising for prayer or dealt with in the inquiry-room should be secured. Every such person should then be visited at his home or place of business as soon as possible, and again and again, until fully established.

In all dealing with souls, every Christian worker will find it, I am sure, of prime importance that there should be secured in some way a following up of the work by systematic Scripture teaching. People need something more than impressions to hold them fast. Not everyone is brought down by a single arrow shot at a venture. Some people have to be shot full of arrows before they surrender. Impressions, impulses, half-formed choices and purposes often fade and lose their grip after the music and prayers are over. Men need the Master of the assembly with His nails to fasten things and make them stay. And this is what regular meetings for instruction do. Then, besides, there are difficulties to be met, doubts to be removed, truths and duties to be emphasized and pressed home, and all this takes time. Few people see and grasp truth clearly and fully at a single glance, or in an hour. Certainly if people are to be rooted and grounded so as to stand fast, there must be time. The gourd that shoots up in a day is like to wither in a night. Most converts—yes, and most believers as well—need line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, to make them able to give a reason for the hope that is in them. It is a great thing to be established and stand fast in the faith; and, in order to do this, nothing, it is safe to say, is so essential as the organizing of young converts into classes for stated and continuous instruction in the Word. It is not too much to say that, without this, it is impossible to secure satisfactory results in evangel­istic work, or growth and power in Christian life. In my judgment, the chief reason for the failure of most whom I have known who have dropped away from their professions and fallen back into the world, lies in their having no subsequent systematic training. They accepted the truth, had good impulses, sincere purposes, and meant to be true followers of Christ; but they were chiefly ruled by impulses (had little knowledge of truth, had no sufficient instruction as to the meaning of the life they had accepted, no adequate knowledge of the temptations of the world, the wiles of the adversary, the deceitfulness of the heart or the secret of success in standing fast), and so, having no root, they withered away. If all such sincere inquir­ers after salvation could be organized into classes for Bible study, even for a few weeks, I believe but very few would abandon their hope. The very agreeing to meet for such instruction sifts out those who are only transiently impressed. I should say unhesitatingly that where such systematic teaching is secured, permanency of Christian life is almost certain, while, where it fails, permanency rarely results. I have in mind one series of revival meetings, with which I had personally to do, where there was a very large number of professed acceptances of Christ. Very little thorough inquiry work was done, and, so far as my knowledge goes, no organized effort at instruction was attempted. Out of nearly three thousand cards signed by those expressing a purpose to lead a Christian life, I doubt if a hundred ever took any step further. In two of the most ear­nestly engaged churches but one person ever came forward upon profession of faith. For myself I long since ceased to expect results of any value except in connection with such training.

I do not mean to discredit all such decisions reached in inquiry-meetings or elsewhere, as ephemeral. Let us hope that many are truly turned then and there from darkness into light, and from the power of Satan unto God. But commonly only a small percentage of such prove effective in the Master’s service. Our churches are full of those who are like Gideon’s army: —only a handful are in dead earnest and to be counted on when the battle is joined. Bible-trained workers, inspired with the Master’s love and equipped with knowledge as well as zeal, are pitifully few in all our churches; but wherever one finds even a few such, they are worth a host of others, for with them victory is sure.

What has been said implies another condition of great importance in making evangelistic work per­manent. I mean the importance of making public confession of faith and becoming members of the visi­ble church of Jesus Christ. Observe, I do not say that believers, those who truly accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, are to join this or that particular church organization, but the church which the Holy Spirit meant when under His guidance and control the church of Christ was organized, and believers were by the Lord daily added thereto. What I say now is this: that it is not possible to fully meet the Lord’s wish and realize the larger measure of grace which He desires to bestow, whether in the development of indi­vidual Christian life or in power to witness and work in His behalf, without public and continuous church membership. I do not say that such persons cannot be true believers. Unquestionably they can be. The test of salvation is not the test of visible church mem­bership. He that truly believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is unquestionably saved. The Scripture plainly declares that the thief on the cross was saved that way, without any baptism and without joining the church. So was the woman at the well, and so of the multitudes of others. But that is not the question. The ques­tion is this: Is such a standing aloof from the visible church, as so many do, while yet in a way performing Christian duty, meeting the wish of the Lord Jesus and doing the work He wants believers to do in the world? I say no, it is not. If anything is plain in connection with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit, it is that our Lord established his church, a body of believers united to Him by the Holy Ghost and made thereby His Body, the body of which He is to be everlastingly the head, and in whom and with whom all true believers are to be finally associated with Him in glory.

The Lord Jesus was obviously not using words lightly when He commanded His disciples to observe the Last Supper, nor when, by the light of the Spirit He organized the church and sent out His disciples to be His witnesses and go everywhere preaching His Gospel and calling upon men to believe and be bap­tized. The Lord’s ideal of the believer, in other words, was of a believer led by the Spirit and seeking always and with earnest and absorbing purpose to carry out his Lord’s wish and do His will. In the very nature of the case, therefore, all who desire to honor Him and secure the fullest measure of His favor and power will do as His disciples did—openly and gladly identify themselves with His church. In no other way can they secure the closest union with their Lord, and in no other way secure the fullest measure of the energy of the Holy Spirit. He cannot so fully impart Himself to believers who stand aloof from what Jesus Christ Himself appointed. There are objections and so-called reasons for holding other views, but in my judgment they are without Scripture warrant. One Scripture truth runs through all these teachings of the book of Acts and the Epistles—records and teachings which are divinely and infallibly inspired— viz., one body of believers united by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ, and that one body manifesting Him before all the world, witnessing His Gospel and seeking to win men to believe on Him unto salvation. So far as these Scriptures go, there is, in my judgment, no scrap of authority or permission to stand aloof from public avowal of Jesus Christ and meanwhile claim to be doing His will as much as in him lies.

What, then, it may be asked, as to those who, like Mohammedans, may incur the penalty of death by being baptized? It is enough to say that the Lord made no exceptions, and that so far as we know the Apostles made none. Nor in general have true believ­ers ever shrunk from open avowals of their faith, as the massacres of Christians all through the centuries, and these so striking examples of believers in China just now, show. The Lord has always put high honor upon those who have stood fast in the faith, and have counted it a joy to bear a witness that cost even life itself.

But, in our country, none are called to endure such a test, and no such reasons can be alleged for not mak­ing open confession. I give it as my deliberate judg­ment that all such standing aloof is nothing other than a subtle device of the great adversary. Largely the reasons given when thoroughly analyzed prove to be excuses for worldly aims and practices, beliefs, habits or fellowship condemned by the Word of God. I have never known such a case where I could not detect in my own mind either a plain worldly reason, or an unscriptural belief, as the underlying cause of refusal to make open confession of faith. And I go further. It is a somewhat popular idea that there are those who can accomplish more in serving the Master by staying outside the church, and sometimes examples are pointed out of those who are shining illustrations of what Christian life can be without church profession or obligation. By all means let us recognize and rejoice in all true believing in Jesus Christ, whenever it can be found, and let us not deny that there are such genuine disciples whose names are not upon any roll of the church. But, admitting this, I deny that such are helping the Master whose names they refuse pub­licly to own or to wear. His own word is decisive: “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.” He organized His church for all believers, and gave His Holy Spirit to dwell in that church as His publicly owned and recognized body. Into that fellowship He calls all true believers to come and ally themselves by being baptized and by participating in the Lord’s Supper. Whoever fails to do either, fails therefore to fulfill to the letter our Lord’s own appointment. He may nevertheless be a sharer in salvation, as has been already shown, but he cannot be an example of what Jesus Christ wants a believer both to be and to do, for he has never met and is not meet­ing, day by day, Christ’s plain requirements. More than that, so long as he stands aloof from the church, he is dishonoring the very name of Him to whom he looks for salvation, and, practically, invites others to disobey His commands. Such an example of disobedi­ence to the Lord and to the Holy Spirit would be a poor way to win men to the Master’s service.

More than that, as a matter of fact, there is no greater hindrance in persuading people to rank them­selves upon the Lord’s side than this very attitude of non-professing believers. Those cherishing secret hopes naturally say: “If such non-churchmembers are sure of salvation and are examples of Christian living, we are as sure of salvation as they, and there is no need of our joining the church.” Every pastor in his work has this argument to meet.

Then, besides this, such non-churchmembers almost universally stand away from all the activity of the churches. They take no part in prayer-meetings, rarely engage in Sunday School work, and never, of course, attempt to reach and bring in the unconverted or in anywise bring them to decisions for Christ. In the nature of the case, they can have no ardor for revivals, no longing for souls. As a matter of fact, they are hindrances instead of helps to all aggressive Christian work. A community of such non-confessing believers would never see a revival, and I doubt very much whether it would ever win a soul. Jesus Christ wants His sheep brought into the fold. That is the only place where they can find safety and go in and out and find pasture, and this fold is His church. To stay out is to be puny and stunted and dwarfed.

Another thing that needs to be mentioned and emphasized as a condition of securing permanency in evangelistic work, is the necessity of setting young con­verts at work and keeping them at it. Indeed, that is an absolute necessity for all Christians, old and young, if they are to thrive and grow. Weeds will flourish of themselves, but not flowers. They must have care and painstaking, and this must be followed up.

We seem often to forget that in dealing with new­born souls we are dealing with children. Too often, after such have reached a decision, they are left to care for themselves. Sometimes they are regarded as too weak and immature to be leaders of others. It is of course possible that such may be overzealous and unwise; but, on the whole, there is no better way of developing young Christians than to set them at work reaching and bringing in others. The early disciples may have made mistakes in going forth as witnesses after Pentecost; but, if they did, we have no record of it. The Holy Spirit, who took possession of that whole company of believers, doubtless qualified them for their work, and those whom the Lord added daily were worthy of being received. No doubt there is need of wisdom and judgment in seeking souls, but where harm is done by one who is overzealous and injudi­cious, it is quite safe to say that far more harm results from keeping the arms folded and the lips shut. A fervent “Amen” or a “Glory to God,” or “Hallelujah” from a new-born soul would not hurt a prayer-meet­ing, nor would a misapplication of Scripture, or a prayer full of bad grammar. When a devout brother with a remarkable history thanked the Lord in my prayer-meeting one night, that “He and I had put up a big job on him in getting him converted,” there were some smiles, but many hearts beat warmer and many “Amens” followed the prayer. We have little need to fear an excess of zeal in most churches. If four-fifths of our church members could be sent out and kept out doing some form of Christian work a part of every week, they would grow faster and become more aggressive and stable and efficient as believers than they now are, and our weekly meetings would be less like refrigerators than they often are. The best school for training Chris­tians is trying to help others by telling them what Christ has done for us. Paul kept repeating the story of his own conversion, and that won others and helped him. There is nothing safer or wiser for a new con­vert than the telling others how he found salvation. The less he tries to explain, philosophically, how men are saved, how the Spirit moves upon the heart, how a divine will gets a human will to decide and sur­render, and the more he just sticks to what the Word says and what he has found there, the better. I believe that was what our Lord meant to have His dis­ciples do when He said they were to go forth to the ends of the earth as His “witnesses.” They were not to argue, or make speeches, or persuade men by their eloquence, or logic, or learning. They were only to be witnesses, and tell to men everywhere what Jesus Christ had done for them. And to-day this is, above everything else, what the world needs.

Then, as the new converts go forth, they will of course find many forms of Christian activity in which they are needed, and can be made most helpful. So, some may become Sunday School teachers, Bible-class teachers, visitors among the sick and poor and unfor­tunate, workers in missions and helpers in many other ways. Such work is self-developing and potential. The Holy Spirit delights to find such pupils and very quickly turns them into helpers. He opens the truth to others, clears their minds of misapprehensions, strengthens their faith, reinforces their zeal with knowledge, gives them fervency and power in prayer, and in every way increases their ability and efficiency. This is clearly the way the early disciples were devel­oped. Their School of Training, which for example Paul so lovingly and gratefully commends in the last chapter of Romans, was the school of Christian work in which they had been mainly self-taught; or, more strictly, Paul was head master, and Phoebe and Pris­cilla and Aquila his chief helpers. They and their beloved associates, observe, were all pronounced and active church members, and as such they all gave themselves to individual Christian work in winning and then helping to build up believers. What is the ideal way of developing the church? Our Lord described Himself as a man taking a far journey, giv­ing authority to his servants, and “to every man his work.” There was to be no one to be left idle, or without some specific duty assigned. Paul says the same thing when, in describing the gift of the Spirit, which, it is to be remembered, was a gift intended, as at Pentecost, for all, he says: But all these [divine operations] worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally [individually] as He will.” No one is left out; or, in other words, no one who is a true believer is to be without work. Only get all true converts, and all true church members engaged in such a fellowship with the Holy Spirit interpenetrating, energizing, empowering all, and the mystery of revivals and adding daily to the church and hastening the Kingdom, will be solved.

Every new convert should be set immediately at the daily study of the Bible. He should be given instruc­tions in how to study the Bible. Perhaps the best book in the Bible for a young convert to begin with is the Gospel of John. It is true that this is one of the most profound books in the Bible. But John says that he wrote it “that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in His name.” Now, this is just what the beginner needs. The Gospel of John may well be fol­lowed by the Acts of the Apostles. Then let the young convert study the Epistle to the Romans, and then Ephesians. Each of these books should be read again and again. Topical study is also good for the young convert, taking up such great subjects as Sin, Grace, the Blood, Justification, Prayer, the Holy Spirit, etc. The New Topical Text Book (F. H. Revell) is inexpensive and useful for this purpose.

While the young convert should study chiefly the Bible, there are other books that are very helpful— the writings of D. L. Moody, Andrew Murray, F. B. Meyer, G. Campbell Morgan, G. H. C. MacGregor and R. A. Torrey being specially commended. Many of these books are issued in inexpensive form, and cata­logues may be obtained from the publishers of this volume.

In the pages immediately following is reprinted “How to Make a Success of the Christian Life,’’ which fittingly concludes “How to Make the Work Permanent.’’ These pages are published separately as a tract for circulation among new converts.