September, 1941
330
T H E K I N O ’ S B U S I N E S S
Surprising Results from Simple Concentration
By K. OWEN WHITE* Atlanta, Georgia
W HAT WILL lead to the salva tion of souls, will unify a con gregation, and will stimulate fying answer to this question came ■ to our church through an experience which was begun as an experiment, and which concluded with the manifestation of a gracious spirit of revival. The suggestion came to us: Why not concentrate study for a time on one particular book of the Bible? Acting on this suggestion, we chose the book of Luke, since the International Lesson Committee had allotted six months for the study of Luke’s Gospel in 1940 and 1941. The Program as a Whole Believing that church-wide emphasis upon the study of one book presented wonderful possibilities, I urged my peo ple to cooperate in this effort. They responded with such unanimity that it was easy to see that the idea appealed to them strongly. While holding firmly to the acceptance of the whole Word of God, the members of the' congregation have come to feel a special sense of satisfaction in the thorough considera tion of the portion assigned. This was the program, in the main: 1. The study of the Gospel of Luke throughout the Sunday-school, following the International lessons. 2. Sermons based on the Gospel of Luke every Sunday for six months. 3. A series of evangelistic services to be held early in October (the first month of the special studies), with every mes sage from the Gospel of Luke. *Pastor, Kirkwood Baptist Church. Dr. White , who obtained the degree of Doctor of Philos ophy from the Baptist Theological Seminary in 1933, was graduated from the Bible In stitute of Los Angeles in the Class of 1922.
Juniors and Intermediates were encour aged to take notes on the sermon out lines. Many of them did so. A great many children and young people at tended all the services, including prayer meetings. The number of Sunday-school pupils staying for the eleven o’clock service was materially increased. In the Sunday morning services of the church, I sought to preach on passages which had not been discussed in the Sunday-school lessons. T h i s arrange ment made possible a fairly thorough study of the whole Gospel for those who attended both church and Sunday-school. It was found that these messages pro vided naturally for an application’s be ing made to important current events. Moreover, practically every phase of life was touched as this portion of the Scripture was considered expositionally, and several pressing problems of mem bers of the congregation w e r e ap proached easily, and the Scripture made its own appeal. Results o f the Study There can be no question that the church has been greatly strengthened by its consistent, continued consideration of one particular portion of Holy Writ. Throughout the entire period of the study, scarcely one Sunday passed with out there being conversions and addi tions to the church. At Christmas time, the organizations of the church demon strated a spiritual fervor never before seen in their observance of that season. The attendance at all services on Christ mas Sunday was the. best in the history of the church. The offerings of the peo ple were far above the previous average. \ There was a different spirit in it all. A series of evangelistic services was planned to be held immediately follow-
4. All prayer meeting .messages for six months to deal with the doctrine of prayer as it is taught in the Gospel of Luke. 5. A preliminary w e e k - d a y study course lasting for one week, for the entire Sunday-school before the six- months’ course began. 6. Distribution of paper-bound copies of the Gospel of Luke to every member of the church and Sunday-school, with the challenge to read the book through once each month. Carrying Out the Program A month or six weeks were spent in seeking to create interest in and en thusiasm for the project. This effort was necessary, for it is always hard to im plant new ideas in the minds of a large group of people. The study of Luke’s Gospel was to begin in October. In Sep tember, we distributed 1,800 copies of the Gospel to our people. Late in Sep tember, we held our week of preliminary study, having classes graded for all ages. The results were beyond our expecta tion. There were 533 persons enrolled! The State Secretary said it was the largest Study Course ever held in a local Baptist church in Georgia. (The membership of the church is 2,420, with about 1,800 of this number resident in the community.) About the middle of October, we en gaged in a week of revival services, with the pastor preaching each night from Luke’s Gospel. These services re sulted in several professions of faith and a great awakening of interest on the part of the members. The young people were asked to make large posters featuring the study of Luke. Their work was original, unique, stimulating, and thought-provoking. The
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