Brother Howard Schlottman has concluded his series of articles which have been appearing in The Tidings in the past few issues and we are deeply indebted to him for his helpful information which has been presented in such a way that any ecclesia who desires to further their own work of preaching may benefit from the ideas and methods which he has outlined for us.
There is another new preaching tool now available to us thanks to the computer age in which we live. It is an electronic computer that will actually phone 30 numbers per hour and carry on a two-way conversation with the one who answers.
In a 30 day period, this machine has called 7,833 homes and received requests from 407 of these homes. On an average day we have called 261 homes and received 13 positive responses.
Paul Used Every Means at His Disposal
We are sowing the seeds, it is God that gives the increase. Paul in his day used every means at his disposal to tell others even by quoting from their own poets and pointing his finger at their signs admitting there was a God they knew nothing about.
Some will no doubt ask the question, do we have the right to intrude into people’s homes by way of the telephone to bring them a message that could lead them to salvation ? We once asked a fireman what he would do if he responded to our neighbor’s call that our home was on fire. If he arrived at our front door in the middle of the night to find it locked and our roof on fire, what would he do? His answer was that he would chop down my front door and come into my bedroom and drag me from my flaming home. He would not wait to be invited, his mission would be to save my life and he would do this even over my sleepy protests if I should awake and order him out. After all, he replied, “I am trying to save your life.” Are we not trying to save the lives of all those we can interest in the Truth? Is it asking too much to ring their phone and offer to help them ? They have not been injured by our call and they are free to hang up but if they listen and respond, God may have been using this method of calling another sinful son of Adam to Christ.
It is the Lord’s Work we are Doing
This electronic computer costs over $6000.00 but that is nothing, in comparison to the number of people it can reach. It is the Lord’s work we are doing, and our money is really the Lord’s money. If we can use it to bring a message of salvation to a perishing world, then who could say that it is too expensive?
Let us use every means available to us to further our preaching efforts. “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.”
Let us Pray that God will Give the Increase
As our Lord told us, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest.” This machine can reach more people in one day than some ecclesias reach in a year. It will not teach them the truth, that is again the task of the laborers but it certainly can find the people who want to be taught the truth. Let us pray that God will give the increase in this a new and exciting way of taking God’s message of salvation to a perishing world.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One