A ll of the directives and commands are for the church to go out into the highways and hedges and to persuade them to come in. In the New Testament there are a number of different kinds of contacts pictured. Let me call attention to two of them. First, we find the accident type. There are no accidents as far as God is concerned, but we know what we mean when we use the term. Consider the time when Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well. From a human point of view we would agree that this meeting seemed accidental. Our Lord capitalized on an opportun ity to speak to the Samaritan woman and to reveal His Messiahship to her. Each new day is filled with opportunities. We do not know all of those we are going to meet. We do not know who will come to our door. We do not know who may come to our place of business or even whom we may meet on the street. Perhaps it is someone we have never met before or someone we may know but have failed to witness to or invite to come to our church and our Sunday school. Perhaps he does not even know where to go to Sunday school. Here is an opportunity. We must make the most of our accidental contacts. But we hasten to say that even though every church member made the most of his accidental contacts that would not be enough. Planned contacts are also neces sary. There are areas in your community that you would never enter unless you specifically planned to go there. A scriptural illustration of a premeditated contact is the one where Andrew brings his brother Peter to Jesus. That was a planned contact that paid great dividends. If we are going to do the job that God has for us to do in our community, we must make the most of planned contacts. This will mean an organized visita tion program for the church and the Sunday school with leaders, those who will give assignments; with those who will keep records; with those who will follow up. Every teacher should be expected to keep in constant contact with the pupils of his class. That is one advant age of having classes that are small. The teacher can know the whereabouts of every pupil every single week. It was my privilege some time ago to serve as a judge for the National Sunday School Attendance Con test sponsored by Christian Life magazine. One thing about that contest stood out in particular. As judges we commented upon it while going over the books and dis covered that no matter how many different ideas or gadgets a Sunday school used, none brought results like visitation. Not that the other methods, rightly used, do not bring results but with or without them, visitation meant the most for success. The more people making contacts, the more contacts that were made, the greater were the results, almost without an exception. Vitamin D Is Dependability, the greatest ability that any man can have. Where that trait is lacking, it makes little difference what other abilities a man may possess. It does not make much difference how well one can teach or sing or speak or usher or anything else if he is not on the job when the job needs to be done. God is looking for men and women today with vita min D, men who are there on the job week in, week out, long after glamour has worn off. God is looking for men and women with vitamin D in the summer. He is looking for such men and women in hunting season. A person who thinks more of a fish, a deer or an elk than he thinks of the soul of a boy or girl has no busi ness teaching a Sunday school class. We must have vitamin D—Dependability. There are many men and women of great talent who have been laid on the shelf because God could not count
on them. It is required of a steward that he be found faithful. Dependability and faithfulness are vital for the success of any program. Vitamin E Is Efficiency. Oh, how we need it in the Church of Jesus Christ today. It grieves my heart to see the carelessness, on the Lord’s Day of people who are meticulous in carrying out the secular duties of the week. How often we see those who would not think of being late to work on Monday morning coming late to Sunday school even when they have responsibilities. How often we see those who would not stay home from work on Monday because of a slight headache or company use such excuses for absenting themselves from their place of responsibility on the Lord’s Day. Do you know what an excuse is? It’s “ the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.” That is what many people hand God for their carelessness in carrying out their duties for God. Two Scripture verses are especially applicable here. One is found in Jeremiah 48:10 which says, “ Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord negligently.” Jere miah was not talking to the wicked, but to the people of God. He said there is a curse upon the people of God that are careless and negligent in the way they do the work of the Lord. The other is Romans 12:11 “Not sloth ful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.” There are five “ keys” of efficiency. The first key of efficiency for the Christian is prayer. The second key is planning. We must plan. To plan means to think. We must learn to think in two different ways: alone and with others. Many have learned to do one but not to do both. Third is program. We must have a program. What are we planning to do as a Sunday school this year? What are our long-range plans? What are the details? Who is going to work them out? The fourth key of efficiency is promotion. We may have the best program in the world, but we have to be sure that it has hands and feet. Every leader should find out that if a program is to be a success someone has to push. How are we going to push? With publicity. Here is our last key of efficiency. We must let people know we are in business, where our church is, when our program starts, what is taking place. Nobody ever goes to a store unless he knows there is a store there. Nobody ever goes to a Sunday school un less he knows there is one there. It is our job to let people know that there is one there and that we are operating. We promote with publicity in many ways— through announcements in meetings, through the mail, through radio, through the newspaper. The best publicity of all is a satisfied customer. So we must be certain that we are taking care of those who come to us—by being friend ly, by introducing them to others, by giving them that which is a help to them in their spiritual life. Vitamin F Is “ First Things First.” In Matthew 6:33 the Lord says, “ But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” If we will put first things first, all of these other vitamins will be taken care of. Our great need is not a lot of new methods but renewed men to do the things that they already know ought to be done. Basically, most of our problems are spiritual. I trust that we shall use the vitamins we need in our own life, in our town Sunday school, and in our own church in order that our community may see the dif ference in our Sunday school.
FEBRUARY, 1961
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