one to keep his promise, such as an unexpected salary increase which amounted to the exact am o u n t pledged. If Pastor Hemphill doesn’t dun the Faith-promisers, he certainly d o es “ do” them. There is plenty of activity to keep interest high in the mission ary program. The last Sunday of each month, from the first grade through college, there is a missionary speaker. Once each quarter the adult classes are required to have a missionary speaker. In the younger groups, the speaker is part of the worship service, but in the adult groups he takes the entire teaching hour. If a teacher is sick, an effort is made to have a mis sionary as a substitute. All this is under the supervision of the Missionary Committee. It consists of s^ven members, including the pas tor, his secretary, a treasurer, the pres ident of Women’s Missionary Guild, and one person whose sole responsi bility is getting the monthly mission ary speakers for the Sunday school. The program is reinforced in sev eral ways. Each member receives a box of prayer cards with a picture on one side and information about the mis sionary on the other side. New cards are added to the box each year. Once each month air letter forms, addressed to different missionaries, are passed out. The ushers walk up and down the aisles, giving out the forms to anyone who holds up his hand. Each week there is a missionary column in the church bulletin, print ing either a letter from one mission ary or news from several missionaries. The women’s missionary society backs the program. They take orders for clothes and make them too, so the missionaries won’t have to buy clothes while on furlough. These women also have their own personal projects. There is a Friday morning men’s prayer meeting, held at six a.m. in the pastor’s study. It averages twelve men but has had as high as eighteen. They pray for about an hour, or an hour and a half. Some slip in late, others slip out early. Afterwards, those who can, go to breakfast to gether. This strong missionary emphasis was begun in 1957. The Reverend Mr. Hemphill has been connected with the church since 1949, but seven years ago he became pastor. He was con cerned about missions. He knew that it took 6,000 members of one denomi nation to keep one missionary on the field. Ninety per cent of the church’s *Mrs. Haskin’s writings are provided by World Vision as a service to missions.
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A New Missionary Zeal
C. Haskin*
by Dorothy
I t is just a pleasant church in San Gabriel Valley . . . of thousands in Southern California. It has average members, an average number of serv ices and a better-than-average Sunday school. In many ways you couldn’t tell it from other churches across the United States. But in one special way, it is different. Out of a membership of 1,000 in 1962-63, it gave $65,000 to missions. The 1963-64 goal is $83,000. The key to its giving is the yearly missionary conference held the first week of March each year. Missionary speakers, slides or films are arranged for all three services on both the open ing and closing Sunday, and during the week there are speakers at 7 in the morning and 7:40 each evening. One reason the church is able to have a variety of speakers is its prox imity to Los Angeles. A number of missions h a v e their headquarters there, and other missionaries make it a “must” stop going to or coming
from the Orient. San Gabriel Union Church invites speakers in whom they invest a portion of the support, or those recognized by the Interdenomi national Foreign Missionaiy Associa tion or the Evangelical Foreign Mis sions Association. The morning service of the confer ence’s closing Sunday is Faith Prom ise Sunday. Pastor W. Joseph Hemp hill feels that this is the heart of the missionary conference. Each member, or friend of the church, is asked to make a faith promise to give a certain amount during the year. It is not a pledge or a tithe. It is a promise to God to help spread the Gospel. No letters are sent to members to tell them if they are behind in their giving, i f someone cannot keep his commitment and tries to talk to Pastor Hemphill about it, he is told, “ Don’t tell me/ tell the Lord.” Time after time he has been told about the un expected ways the Lord enabled some
Dr. Hemphill meets with some of his young people who are attending Biola College. They are from left to right (first row): Carol Vickery, Donna Roberts, Pastor Hemphill, Janet and Dave Wood; (second row): David Yingling, Larry Collins, Ernest Angell, Richard Shorter.
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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