God Hath Spoken

by Harris J. Dark

One congregation has used very effectively the method of community Bible classes. When the members could not get people to come to their meeting-house, they carried Bible classes to the communities where the people lived. Some good Christian who had the respect of his neighbors invited those neighbors to his home for Bible study and had the preacher there to help with the teaching. At Richmond, Virginia, most of the additions which they have had during the last six months have come from just such a source. If this little method were put in effect in the city of Nashville by all the congregations, it would revolutionize this town in just a few months.

VII
The Case of Mary Doe

The thing I’m trying to impress upon your minds is that we have not been using all the means or methods which God has placed at our disposal. Let me make the point just as concrete and effective as possible by using a definite example. (Maybe it’s indefinite in some respects.) Suppose that we have a young lady brought up here in our own community, maybe not living more than two or three blocks from our church building. We will call her Mary Doe. What are the chances that she will learn the truth from our program of evangelism? We’ll say that she has been reared by parents who go regularly to a denominational church. They’ve been taking her there ever since she was a tiny baby. They’ve taught her to believe in their particular denomination. They have built up within her a denominational pride and a sense of loyalty to the church of her parents.

At that church, she never hears the complete plan of salvation. She hears some nice, moral lectures. She goes to the Bible classes and discusses current events and general social problems. If she’s like many such young people, she does not read the Bible very systematically herself. She may read it occasionally, but not consistently and understandingly. The chances are that Mary Doe will never learn the proper division of the word. She might live in such an environment for fifty years and never learn the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant.

Perhaps she and her mother ride by our building sometime and she says, “Mother, what church is that?” The mother replies, “Oh, that’s the church of Christ” or maybe she’ll say, “The Campbellite church. They think baptism alone saves you.” Well, Mary Doe believes that, even though it isn’t true. Consequently she’ll probably never come to one of our meetings. Very likely she’ll never read any of our literature. How shall we reach Mary Doe?

Probably her best chance to learn the truth is through her contact with our own children in the public schools. That is a common meeting place, and I suspect Mary will be more likely to have an intimate contact with a member of the church at school than at any other place. Had you ever thought about that as an opportunity for evangelizing East Nashville? I wonder if our boys and girls in school are taking advantage of their opportunity. Have you realized what a wonderful opportunity it is, and are you behaving yourself in such a way as to demand respect from your fellow students that you may be able to teach them the truth? Or do you so misbehave that you would be a little bit embarrassed to undertake to show them the difference between truth and error? There is a golden opportunity for personal evangelism that might be used even by a school boy or girl in leading many people unto the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. Personal evangelism then may be carried out through personal contact at school, through personal contact at work, and through personal contact at play or in our social relationships.

VIII
House To House Calls

And, finally, my friends, it might be possible that before we could reach Mary Doe and the several thousand people whom she represents, we would have to start down the street and go from house to house and call upon every home. It could be possible that Mary would not be thrown with any member of the church, even in her association at school. Do you believe we can claim to have fully and completely met our responsibility, in preaching the gospel to the people of East Nashville, until we have gone from house to house as the apostle Paul did, and as some denominations are doing today, and taken the message to them? That is almost an unused opportunity and method of preaching the gospel to those who have not yet heard it, and yet it is a very practical and a very effective one.

IX
Prayer

I would like to climax all of this by saying that prayer should be used in our effort to carry out the great commission. If you have faithfully and diligently engaged in all of these activities mentioned, and any others of like nature that could be mentioned, then you can consistently pray to God to help you in accomplishing your purpose. That’s the reason I put prayer at the end of the list. For prayer should not be used without being accompanied by every possible effort on our part. Neither of these methods, nor any other that might be named, should be used exclusively. They should all be used, working together to help us fulfill our obligation to preach the gospel to our neighbors.